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I’m Taking So Many Meds! What Can I Stop? Part One: Antidepressants

Although many new patients arrive at WholeHealth Chicago with chronic symptoms and a history of no help elsewhere (“You’re my 12th doctor.”). Others pour out a bagful of medications with a mournful, “I’ve got to get off of some of these!”. Going off a bevy of psych meds is a popular request, especially when the […]

Reversing Cognitive Decline and Preventing Alzheimer’s

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 error. You’re mixing up words and forgetting too […]

Colon Cancer, Dementia Prevention, and Your Socks

Sometime in your mid forties, you start thinking of words like “prevention” and “screening”, the “serious stuff” beyond what you thought was reasonable, like getting your teeth cleaned, your eyes examined and, if you have one, having your cervix checked. Also in your forties and female, you enter Mammogram land, no walk in the park […]

Time-Crunched, Inattentive Physicians Working In Silos

Back in 2011, I wrote a Health Tip entitled, “Physicians as Morons”, whose title over the years I have come to regret, the unpleasantness of name-calling and all. You can read about this case here, but it’s just easier if I summarize it. A young woman had contacted me for help with the unusual diagnosis […]

Slow Aging and Track Your Results

Most people figure they must be getting older based on how they feel and look. We wince at our first grey hair, deepening wrinkles, and shifting body fat. We huff and puff climbing the stairs, forget names, and occasionally leak fluids. We relate to the line from a Leonard Cohen song, “I ache in the […]

LONGEVITY MEDICINE: Chronic Inflammation and Cytokines

Did you ever wonder why some obese people, after decades of being badgered by their families and physicians to lose weight, out-live all of them and are healthy for decades? Or how someone of normal weight falls over dead in his fifties from a massive heart attack the week after his check-up which included a […]

Longevity Medicine: Take A Family Inventory

If every one of your parents/grandparents/great-grandparents made it well into their 90’s, and passed away with their bodies and minds basically intact, you can probably skip this Health Tip. Something like, “Dad was 94 and had finished chopping logs. Sat on a stump, closed his eyes and just died.” Or, “Meemaw (Grandmom was clearly from […]

Longevity Medicine: Your Gums And Your Lifespan

Last week, we chatted about how your microbiome affects your longevity. Now let’s meander to the other end of your 30-foot-long alimentary canal, up to your mouth, specifically your gums. WholeHealth Chicago patients know we do a check on the health status of their mouths during the physical exam, asking about their dental visits or […]

Longevity Medicine: Your Intestinal Microbiome As A Predictor Of Longevity

Seriously folks, I really don’t believe conventional medicine knows much about your intestinal microbiome except, “Too many antibiotics cause diarrhea” and “C. difficle is really dangerous.” (Note: both conditions are iatrogenic, i.e., caused by doctors themselves). That’s the limit of what I was taught in medical school and residency and things haven’t progressed when I […]

Longevity Medicine: How Your Herd Of Specialists And Their Fragmented Care Can Shorten Your Life

“Silo medicine”. It’s an odd way to express it, “silo medicine”, but there have been articles written using just this phrase to express one of the most serious flaws in the health care system. Picture an open field somewhere in the Midwest with a couple of dozen silos. “Cardiology”, “Rheumatology”, “General Surgery”, “Psychiatry”, and so […]

Longevity Medicine: How Much Exercise Really Makes A Difference?

People being people, they are always on the lookout for the easiest route to anything fun and worthwhile and most would rather add years to their lives by doing something simple, like taking nutritional supplements. Add healthful eating, reducing alcohol, stopping tobacco altogether, and the road to longevity gets more challenging. Start recommending regular exercise […]

Longevity Medicine: First, Know Your Telomeres!

Most people figure they must be getting older based on how they feel and look. We wince at our first grey hair, deepening wrinkles, and shifting body fat. We huff and puff climbing the stairs, forget names, and occasionally leak fluids. We relate to the line from a Leonard Cohen song, “I ache in the […]

How To Slow Aging and Track Your Results

Most people figure they must be getting older based on how they feel and look. We wince at our first grey hair, deepening wrinkles, and shifting body fat. We huff and puff climbing the stairs, forget names, and occasionally leak fluids. We relate to the line from a Leonard Cohen song, “I ache in the […]

Enzymes for Health and Longevity

Until we got our plumbing overhauled, we’d been experiencing some real problems at WholeHealth Chicago, including clogged toilet drains that had bested some of Chicago’s top plumbers. After power rodding and chemicals, followed by actual pipe replacement, in the end we got everything working and didn’t have to send patients to the carwash next door […]

Toxic Metals, Heart Disease, and Chelation Therapy

In last week’s Health Tip I reviewed the well-researched health dangers of environmental toxic metals (also called heavy metals). They’ve always been a serious health risk, but with the Trump Administration’s recent rollbacks of clean air and water regulations we can expect even more trouble ahead. Statisticians predict an astonishing 160,000 unnecessary deaths over the […]

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 […]

Are Lifestyle Changes Impossible?

Many years ago, I became exhausted dealing with a friend who ignored my advice on living a healthy lifestyle. His attitude toward exercise was similar to Oscar Wilde’s “I often take exercise. Why only yesterday I had breakfast in bed.” His attitude toward food, especially restaurant food, was that he didn’t care much about quality […]

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 […]