This may be an emotionally difficult Health Tip for some of you. Imagine you’re a small child and for as long as you can remember, no one’s face has ever lit up with a smile when you walked into a room. In fact, to avoid being struck by a family member, you’ve learned a variety […]
Category: Naturopathic Medicine
Heal Your Gut…Now
Last week I discussed how naturopathic and functional medicine practitioners usually begin their healing process (and prevent future health troubles) with careful attention to that 30-foot food tube meandering through you from your lips to your anus. The essence of good gut health is essentially how well you’re digesting, absorbing, and using the food you […]
First, Heal Your Gut
About 25 years ago, when I was organizing what today is WholeHealth Chicago, I attempted to learn everything I could about all the fields of what was then called alternative medicine. Since naturopathic medicine, or naturopathy, didn’t really exist in Illinois (perpetually blocked by the Illinois State Medical Society), I flew to the west coast […]
Taking Steps Toward Cancer Prevention, Part 2
Last week we began a short series on preventing cancer. Obviously there are no guarantees when it comes to your health. You can do everything exactly right and still get cancer while the next guy lives a life on the edge and dies at 104 with a whisky in one hand and a cigar in […]
Functional Medicine: Your Wacky Hormones and Adrenal Glands
“Exhaustion is my reality. At four o’clock, I’m wiped, totally wiped. So tired I could sleep at my desk.” Patricia is 33, happily married as far as marriages go, one kid, steadily employed in the usual American lessthansatisfying corporate job, good eating habits, and, until recently, a health club goer a couple/three times a week. […]
Pushing Your Wellness Exam Into The 21st Century
Patients ask me, “What about those wellness exams my health insurance company says I’m entitled to every year at no cost?” Bad news. Let’s review one of life’s basic rules: you get what you pay for. What you receive during your short wellness visit (what many consider a sacrosanct ritual that boosts longevity) is little […]
Your Microbiome: Finally Legitimized By Mainstream Medicine
It’s not uncommon for medical groups like WholeHealth Chicago to have their patient charts audited by health insurance companies “for quality.” After all, insurers want to see how their money is being spent and since they’re for-profit businesses with egregiously overcompensated management teams, they do want doctors to keep costs as low as possible. Some […]
Controversial Diagnosis #3: Candida Overgrowth Syndrome
Patients come to WholeHealth Chicago regularly with this common refrain: “You’re the fourth (or seventh or tenth) doctor I’ve seen. I feel terrible but am always told that my tests are normal and there’s nothing wrong with me. Recently I read about Candida overgrowth and the symptoms seem to fit me exactly. But the doctors […]
Reversing Mental Decline and Preventing Alzheimer’s
Reversing Mental Decline and Preventing Alzheimer’s, Part 1 You saw a movie last week and in discussing it with friends simply can’t remember the important parts. Plus you just missed another appointment. Planning to drive to a north suburb, you instead got on the southbound expressway and after 15 minutes of Loop traffic realized your […]
Reversing Mental Decline Part 3: Tests For Alzheimer’s Prevention
Dale Bredesen, MD, author of The End of Alzheimer’s: The First Program To Prevent and Reverse Cognitive Decline, refers to the tests you should undergo if you’re concerned about brain health as a “cognoscopy,” sort of a colonoscopy for your brain. Perhaps thinking back on your own colonoscopy, it’s reasonable to ask, “Do I really […]
Reversing Mental Decline Part 3: Tests For Alzheimer’s Prevention
Dale Bredesen, MD, author of The End of Alzheimer’s: The First Program To Prevent and Reverse Cognitive Decline, refers to the tests you should undergo if you’re concerned about brain health as a “cognoscopy,” sort of a colonoscopy for your brain. Perhaps thinking back on your own colonoscopy, it’s reasonable to ask, “Do I really […]
Functional Medicine 101 + Introducing Dr. Alaina Gemelas
Functional Medicine is without a doubt the fastest growing medical specialty of the 21st century. Public interest in it and public acceptance of it continues to please me. Every day I hear the sentence, “I made this appointment because I wanted a functional approach.” When I ask patients how they learned about it, the answer […]
Your First Step For Any (Any!) Chronic Symptoms
Here’s an unfortunate trend: more and more young people (at my age, everyone under 50 is young) are troubled by chronic physical and emotional symptoms. Sometimes there’s a diagnosis: rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis, Crohn’s, fibromyalgia. But just as often there are plenty of symptoms and no diagnosis. I can’t count how many times patients have […]
Meet Our New Naturopathic Doctor: Caley Scott, ND
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 […]
Is Inflammation Behind (Almost) All Disease?
You can see your factory-installed inflammation system in action when you cut yourself or get a big zit on your chin. As annoying as the redness, swelling, and pus are, they’re a sign your inflammatory response is functioning well to ward off attackers and keep your body intact. In the grand scheme of things, inflammation […]
Using Glandular Therapies
Given the comments on our blog following last week’s post on glandular therapies, let me say first that if you’re a vegetarian or vegan, glandular therapies are definitely not for you. But if you’re a veggie or vegan needing digestive enzymes, there are plenty of plant-based products. You’ll also face no compromise if you need […]
Alternative Medicine and Cancer
Right up front, let me say if alternative medicine therapies could cure cancer they wouldn’t be alternative. Conspiracy theory alert: there is no plot on the part of oncologists, radiation therapists, pharmaceutical companies, et al. to keep lifesaving alternative therapies just beyond your reach so they can control your lives (and pocketbooks). If the mainstream […]
All Hail The Bean!
What a pleasant surprise to open this week’s Archives of Internal Medicine and find the results of a trial on the benefits of eating legumes–beans, lentils, and chickpeas. This was a real clinical trial, working with a group of people who had mild Type 2 diabetes. During the three-month study period, half the enrollees ate […]
Belly Health, Rosacea, and A Starring Role for Mites
You might want to wash your hands before reading this. Start by placing your fingertip to your cheek. Go ahead, really. Now slowly move it toward your lips and into your mouth, paying attention to the uninterrupted inward turn of skin as it changes from cheek to lip to mucous membrane. You probably never thought […]
Medicine’s Latest Step Backwards
Posted 10/17/2011 “Vitamins linked to higher odds of early death in older women,” the headlines screamed last week. I finished an anxious call from my 88-year-old Aunt Hildy. Once peacefully ensconced in her Florida condo, now, after seeing a TV news report that vitamins were dangerous when used by women over 62, Hildy was eyeing […]