It wouldn’t surprise me if you didn’t know much about naturopathy. There aren’t many naturopaths in the US and the 5,000 or so we do have are mostly located along the east and west coasts, seriously outnumbered by 800,000 MDs and 100,000 DOs (osteopaths). Just to remind you: these are difficult days for health care […]
Category: Men’s Health
Men’s health medicine can include treatment specific to men’s health concerns to optimization and anti-aging. These may include infusion therapy, nutritional counseling, hormone replacement, and more.
Health Screening Offers: Should You Bother?
Like most people, you’ve received one of those brochures in the mail with a headline screaming something like “Health Screening Can Save Your Life!” They’re filled with photos of happy, healthy people on golf courses or with their grandchildren and are liberally sprinkled with quotes like, “Dan’s alive today because an ultrasound revealed his aneurysm.”
My Doctor Is A Chiropractic Physician
I’m not setting out to intentionally antagonize my fellow MDs and DOs who read these Health Tips. No acrimonious outrage, please, before I explain. Then feel free to splutter. I’m not writing this for the medical profession. This is for the rest of you, living in a country that spends 17% of its GNP on […]
Disappointments With Testosterone
For 80 (!) years physicians have prescribed testosterone to men without being certain if it actually had any effect other than raising testosterone levels. The only FDA-approved indication for testosterone is pathological hypogonadism, in which there’s an actual disorder of the male reproductive system that results in the body not producing enough testosterone. Examples are […]
Nutritional Supplement Shotgun Therapy
I once had a new patient arrive with her forms completed, a stack of medical records under her arm, and a large bulging gym bag in tow, saying “I brought all the supplements I’m taking. I’m hoping you can suggest a few I might not need.” One by one, she placed bottles and jars of […]
Treacherous Times In Healthcare
Two related ideas come together in this Health Tip and I want to convey why this is all happening. First, a large part of our day at WholeHealth Chicago is spent dealing with insurance companies denying you benefits. Second, many patients have been telling me about the wave of anxiety they feel every time a […]
Testosterone Replacement For Men: Probably A Good Idea
It’s an interesting phenomenon that more women ask about testosterone therapy for the men in their lives than men ask for themselves. And when a man does ask, the question is usually couched with hesitations, “Uh, my…wife wanted me to…uh…ask about…you know…testosterone.” There are good reasons for hesitation. For men, the symptoms of age-related testosterone […]
Two More Orgasms Per Month? Why Not?
I was at dinner with an old physician colleague of mine who happens to be French. Despite living in the Midwest for decades, he continues his lifetime subscription to Le Monde and preserves–no, cultivates–his accent so efficiently that I miss about ten percent of what he’s saying. Given we were both well into our second […]
Testosterone Replacement For Men: Probably A Good Idea
It’s an interesting phenomenon that more women ask about testosterone therapy for the men in their lives than men ask for themselves. And when a man does ask, the question is usually couched with hesitations, “Uh, my…wife wanted me to…uh…ask about…you know…testosterone.” There are good reasons for hesitation. For men, the symptoms of age-related testosterone […]
Progress On Prostate Cancer
Please forward this to all the MEN on your contact list. Having an aging prostate gland myself, I do follow the trends in preventing, diagnosing, and treating prostate cancer, an extremely common but fortunately not highly lethal disease. It’s been said, for example, that every man, if he lives long enough, will eventually develop prostate […]
Reversing the Potbelly of Male Menopause
This health tip begins with a mildly off-color story. If you’re offended by such things, please skip to paragraph three. During the 1920s and 30s the epicenter of New York City’s intellect and wit was the café at the Algonquin Hotel, with the famed Algonquin Round Table hosting luminaries Dorothy Parker, Alexander Woollcott, and Robert […]
Male Menopause–Is It Real?
Short answer: Yes, but don’t hope for any quick fixes—that’s so-o-o pharmaceutical industry think.
Another way to view male menopause: Sure, a ball will bounce, only less and less.
I get asked about male menopause all the time, almost always by women (admittedly they represent the majority of my patients), but only rarely by my male patients who, for the most part, don’t seem to sense much of a problem. Could men be viewing male menopause the way they view weight gain? While women buy diet books and serially starve themselves/gain everything back, men buy larger pants with elastic belts.
Women, Baseball Bats, Men, and Serotonin
One morning a couple weeks ago, I opened the Chicago Sun-Times to see photos of two accomplished young women who’d been beaten unconscious by a man with an aluminum baseball bat. They’d both been admitted to an intensive care unit. The perps were tracked down when they used one of the victim’s credit cards to buy gas.
Saw Palmetto
From the olive-sized berries of the saw palmetto tree comes a remedy for benign enlargement of the prostate gland. While harmless, this common condition (BPH, or benign prostatic hyperplasia) can interfere with the urine’s exit from the bladder, causing frequent urination, nighttime awakenings, and other uncomfortable urinary symptoms. It’s not clear what causes BPH. But as the millions of men who suffer from it can attest–more than half of men over 60 are affected–relief is welcome indeed.
Pygeum Africanum
What Is It? In traditional African medicine, a tea made from the powdered bark of a tall evergreen tree (Pygeum africanum)is sipped to control urinary disorders in men. Today, pygeum is a popular herbal supplement in several parts of the world for benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH), an enlargement of the prostate gland that can cause […]
Pumpkin (cucurbita) Seed
Numerous species of the Cucurbita genus are native to North America. Their fruits (mostly squash) have long been used for food, and their seeds for healing. Well-known Cucurbita species include autumn squash, butternut squash, China squash, crookneck squash, summer squash, and the famous Halloween squash and adornment: the pumpkin (C. pepo).
Lycopene
Lycopene provides the red color to tomato products and is one of the major carotenoids in the diet of North Americans and Europeans. Lycopene is a prominent member of the carotenoid family. In plants, lycopene is similar to other carotenoids, serving as a light-absorbing pigment during photosynthesis and protecting cells against photosensitization. Interest is growing in lycopene because of the many recent epidemiological studies implicating lycopene in the prevention of cancer and cardiovascular disease. A diet rich in foods containing carotenoids is associated with several health benefits. Lycopene has unique structural and chemical features that may contribute to its biological actions in humans.
Prostate Problems
I’ve had many male patients over age 40 who are not only inconvenienced by an enlarged prostate (usually in the form of a more frequent need to urinate), but who are also concerned that they either have cancer of the prostate or that cancer is right around the corner. I’m happy to report that most of their symptoms turned out to be related to a condition known as benign prostatic hyperplasia, or BPH. And it is indeed benign: “Hyperplasia” simply means an overgrowth of cells.
Infertility, Male
Infertility issues, which seemed so rare 20 years ago, are quite common these days. The most significant factor seems to be the desire couples have to start their families when they’re a little older, after they’ve established themselves in their careers. Clearly this affects a woman’s chances of reproducing, since fertility in women declines after age 35. And conception after age 45 is rather rare. Aside from trying to reproduce earlier in her life, there are some surprisingly simple steps a woman can take to increase her likelihood of becoming pregnant. It amazes me (although perhaps it should not) how little emphasis is placed on lifestyle issues and good nutrition by either gynecologists or infertility specialists. In all parts of the world, “wise women” have been using herbs for centuries to help their infertile daughters.
Impotence
The politically correct term for impotence these days is “erectile dysfunction,” or ED. Whatever you call it, the lesson we doctors were taught in medical school–that most cases of failure to get or maintain an erection are emotional–turned out to be dead wrong. We now know that ED has a physical cause about 85% of the time. Usually the problem is poor circulation and reduced blood flow to the penis, so that an erection cannot occur. Undeniably, the new prescription drug Viagra works well for many men. But it’s expensive, can have side effects, and may not be right for everyone. Over the years, several supplements and herbs have been used with good results. (In fact, one of these, yohimbine, can be so effective that it’s available only by prescription.) Let’s see how some of our WholeHealth Chicago recommendations can help.