I prefer the term ‘poisoning’ over ‘toxicity’ as there are no ‘acceptably safe’ levels of lead in the human body, just as there are no ‘acceptable levels’ of cyanide or strychnine. Low levels of lead won’t kill you with the swiftness of cyanide, but they sure can damage your health, and especially the health and […]
Category: P
Your Blue Poop: An Easy At-Home Test of Gut Health
Anyone who has ever visited a WholeHealth Chicago Functional Medicine practitioner knows that lots of questions focus on digestion. The reason for this goes all the way back to the ancient Greek physician Hippocrates, who is alleged to have said “All disease begins in the gut.” This concept is not at all taught in medical […]
Protecting Yourself From Overdiagnosis
Bill, a healthy looking guy in his mid-40s, came to WholeHealth Chicago because he wanted to get off Lipitor, the widely prescribed cholesterol-lowering drug. Bill had virtually no risks for heart disease and all four of his grandparents were still alive and quite independent, but a few years ago his cholesterol was on the high […]
Preparing for the Wuhan Coronavirus
Seems like only yesterday, though actually it was 2003, that a viral infection called SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) meandered around the world after starting at a live animal market China. For those affected, what first appeared to be an especially bad cold quickly became something ominous, progressing to a potentially fatal pneumonia. Ultimately there […]
Paying A Lot More At Walgreens (and Sometimes CVS Too)
At WholeHealth Chicago, we really do try to avoid prescribing prescription drugs whenever we can, opting instead for lifestyle changes that can keep you away from a chemical pill you might have to take for the rest of your incarnation. But sometimes…because we won’t play games with your health you’ll leave with instructions to pick […]
Protect Your Child From The Dangerous Anti-Vaccine Cult
Recently on NPR I heard an interview with a young man who has the unusual occupation of being a Facebook content moderator. For eight hours a day he reads the crazy stuff people post and deletes it. The conspiracy theories (as in 9/11 was perpetrated by Jews), the Holocaust deniers, you know what I mean. […]
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 […]
Pre-Diabetes: What It Is And What To Do
Most physicians, myself included, jot a personal comment on a patient’s lab tests. My favorite is “Everything’s excellent!” which can be typed quickly and concentrates good news into two words that I hope trigger a smile. According to this New York Times article, doctors are writing the sentence “Your tests show you’re now in the […]
Pigs At A Trough
I regularly revisit the 2013 Time Magazine Special Report “Why Medical Bills Are Killing Us” with the same conflicted feeling I had at about age six when I learned that something painful, like picking a scab or jiggling a loose tooth, also afforded a secret pleasure that could not be shared with friends. Time’s revelations […]
Pain Management Specialists Get A Reality Check
The front-and-center coverage of America’s opioid crisis is certainly affecting the two groups most involved: physicians and people in chronic pain. There are so many rules and restrictions on opioid prescribing that many physicians simply don’t bother any more, referring their chronic pain patients to pain management (PM) specialists. As well-intentioned as PM physicians may […]
Preparing for Less Daylight and Seasonal Depression (SAD)
My staff and I brace ourselves for the autumn day when clocks are set back an hour and the already dwindling sun-filled days diminish to darkness at 5 p.m. Add the overcast skies of winter and the “I’m NOT going outside” bitter cold, and we all may wonder why we’re not living in Santa Barbara. […]
Pain And How We Perceive It
Many people suffering chronic pain and fatigue hear far too often the dismissive “it’s all in your head.” Dr. Edelberg has written frequently on the destructive nature of this statement, which places all the blame on the patient and none on the physician to dig deeper into the causes. As Dr. E wrote in a […]
A Personal Experience With Side Effects
We’d prefer not to know that all drugs (all of them) are potentially poisonous. Check this out by reading the “overdose” section of the lengthy version of the package insert accompanying your prescription. We don’t set out to intentionally overdose ourselves on common pharmacologic selections–meds for blood pressure, diabetes, birth control, anxiety, sleep, and so […]
Pre-Diabetes: What It Is And What To Do
Most physicians, myself included, jot a personal comment on a patient’s lab tests. My favorite is “Everything’s excellent!” which can be typed quickly and concentrates good news into two words that I hope trigger a smile. According to a recent New York Times article, doctors are writing the sentence “Your tests show you’re now in […]
Physicians And Empathy
I recently read an essay by a woman who described her experiences being employed as a medical actor. She’d been hired, along with some retirees, local theater majors, and a few people who were just curious, to play the role of patient in a training program for a local medical school. To start, she was […]
Project Microbiome: Bacterial Happiness and Health
A short article tucked in the New York Times health blog “Well” reported on a Cornell University study published in Microbiome, an obscure medical journal whose circulation is likely in the upper two digits. To my mind, it’s an important piece of research and I’d guess that years from now as we understand more and […]
Physician Burnout + Medical Intuitive Skills
Two articles appeared in medical journals and were reported on Medscape over the past few weeks, one on the scary rise of professional burnout among physicians, the other warning about their declining intuitive skills. I’m sure reading them on the same day helped me appreciate how the two are connected. After a quick mull, I […]
Persistent Patient: Linda and the Thyroid-Gut Connection
Persistent Patient: Linda and the Thyroid-Gut Connection Linda, an accomplished woman in her late 30s, was not a happy camper. She arrived for the first time at WholeHealth Chicago certain, beyond any shadow of a doubt, that she had an underactive thyroid gland. Linda had read all the websites, especially Janie A. Bowthorpe’s Stop the […]
Time To Seriously Rethink Prescription Drugs
Over the past few months, you may have noticed a spate of new warnings about commonly used prescription drugs, and even non-prescription drugs. Just last week, the FDA issued urgent precautions about the serious risks of non-aspirin NSAIDs (non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs), which worldwide are probably the most overused medications of all. Go into any drugstore […]