Click here for the Health Tip link. This letter appeared in the Chicago Sun Times July 31, 2008. I hope readers appreciate the irony behind the news that Viagra may help women suffering low libido because they’re taking antidepressants. Here’s a drug with significant side effects itself to treat side effects for a drug they […]
Category: M
Your Brain: Could an Undiagnosed Medical Problem Be to Blame?
We’ve been talking about the causes of brain fog, forgetfulness, and lack of focus these past weeks. My final suggestion isn’t likely, but it’s worth including.
An undiagnosed medical problem, such as high blood pressure or kidney or liver disease, could compromise your ability to think clearly.
Does Meditation Work?
Meditation is embraced by conventional medicine today as a perfectly acceptable means of lowering blood pressure, reducing pain, helping migraines, easing menstrual cramps, and, most importantly, reducing stress and anxiety.
Stress Less: Meditation
Meditation is the simplest relaxation technique to explain and by far the hardest to master.
Like acupuncture, yoga, sushi bars, and Thai restaurants, meditation comes to us from the East, from religious practice that required quiet contemplation in order to induce a state of tranquility.
Melatonin for Mild Cognitive Impairment
I doubt the subscription list of the Journal of Pineal Research is significantly beyond the high two digits, but it did contain the following nugget.
Menopause Transition Rx
Okay, you’ve faced the fact. You’re entering the potential minefield of the euphemistically named menopause transition and you know your hormones are definitely out of whack.
Myers’ Cocktail
A lot of my readers have read about this well-known gem of nutritional medicine in one alternative medicine magazine or another and may wonder if it could be useful for their particular health issue. In my own practice, many patients receive their Myers’ regularly, returning because of positive results.
Toxic Metals and Disease
Here’s an issue doctors have been arguing for decades: determining whether or not levels of certain metals (like lead and mercury) actually cause problems and then establishing scientific protocols to detoxify people.
The Most Important Supplement
It’s magnesium. In fact, if you wake up one morning and say, “I’m not taking another supplement in my life” (not that I’m recommending this), don’t toss your magnesium.
Measuring Hormone Levels
First let’s discuss a strategy to get your health insurance to pay for as much of this testing as your policy allows. Good hormone testing is pricey.
(Those $30 kits that test all your hormones are only moderately accurate, especially when it comes to estrogen and progesterone. If you’re having periods, levels of these hormones change virtually every day, and trying to get an accurate picture with a single day’s result is a waste of your money.)
Pre-Menopause Anxiety
One of the most common symptoms my patients tell me about during their pre-menopause years is a pervasive sense of mild depression and anxiety. No particular reason for it, they report, just a sense that things aren’t going right, wanting to cry for no reason over little things that never bothered them.
Menopause and Bioidentical Hormones
Right now, thousands of women are having their first menopause-related hot flash. If you’re one of them you’re not alone: about 40 million US women will go through the menopause transition over the next 20 years, and virtually every one will experience a symptom of shifting hormones.
More Better Memory Tricks
Today I’m bringing you a handful more of my favorite tricks for improving your memory (you do remember we’ve been talking about memory improvement, don’t you?)…
Better Memory Tricks, Part 1
Do you have trouble remembering the names of people you’ve just been introduced to? Do you stand in the center of a room you’ve just entered, muttering aloud, “Why did I come in here?” When you ask your family why they look bored, do they respond “Because you’ve told this story before”?
Q&A: Muscle Strength and Your Immune System
Click here for the original post. Q: When we strengthen our muscles, is our immune system strengthened too? A: The answer has to do with what else you’re doing for your immune system. If you’re building your muscles with regular exercise, you likely rehydrate well with pure water, eat a healthful diet, sleep well, have […]
Metabolic Syndrome
You may have heard about metabolic syndrome, but may not remember the details.
To keep it simple, metabolic syndrome is a list of risk factors for heart disease and diabetes. If you can trim away the risk factors and stave off these two common conditions, you can potentially add years to your life.
A Modest Medical Proposal
Here’s an idea that will probably cause some of my physician colleagues to get their knickers in a twist: it may not be a bad idea to find a good chiropractor to act as your primary care physician.
Q&A: Red Meat
Q: My fiance eats red meat once a week, and I feel it’s terrible for his body. Am I right that our bodies aren’t made to eat it that often, that it doesn’t break it down?
Organic Milk
Click here for the original post. Personally, if it weren’t for cheese pizza, I’m for dropping dairy from our lives altogether. Cow’s milk is for nourishing calves, period. We’ve been sold an amazing bill of goods from the National Dairy Council, variations of (remember this?) “you’ll never outgrow your need for milk.” I clearly recall […]
Aromatherapy and Menstrual Cramps
Here’s a thoughtful gift for you, your daughter, or anyone who dreads her period because of cramps.