A recent report revealed that there are so many cases of polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) in the US that costs for diagnosis and lifetime treatments are estimated to be $8 billion a year. If you have PCOS, obviously you’re not alone. It’s estimated that PCOS affects one woman in seven (estimates go as high as […]
Category: Weight Issues
THE REAL REASON YOU KEEP GAINING WEIGHT
There was an astonishing experiment described in “UltraProcessed People”, by Chris van Tulleken. It had been conducted in Brazil where they’re light years ahead of us in terms of food safety. They took a number of volunteers, and divided them into two equal groups, A and B. For two months, each group was allowed anything […]
OZEMPIC, TRULICITY, MOUNJARO, ZEPBOUND: THE SEMAGLUTIDES. YES! THEY WORK!
You’re tired of being overweight, and you’ve been a victim of the tyranny of the last ten, fifteen, or twenty pounds as long as you can remember. You’ve tried everything. You’ve been dieting as long as you can remember and nothing happens. You exercise to exhaustion, lose some pounds and gain them back. No matter […]
MORE ABOUT YOUR THYROID
As I explained last week, the thyroid hormone is virtually involved with everything your body does. All human cells have a “thyroid receptor site”, so when you have an insufficient amount of thyroid hormone, eventually you’ll get a signal that something is wrong. That “something” can be VERY subtle, and total reliance on a not-very-good […]
“Honey, It’s Your Thyroid!”
Patients, especially women, often possess an intuitive sense about their thyroid glands, whether through shared experiences, online research, or encounters with energy intuitives. Yet, they frequently encounter resistance from their healthcare providers who rely solely on TSH levels and dismiss a broader assessment of thyroid function. Thyroid health is a complex interplay of hormones affecting every aspect of well-being, from fatigue and weight gain to hair loss, mental fog, and mood swings. The key to accurate diagnosis and treatment lies in comprehensive testing and a deep understanding of individual thyroid needs, offering patients the chance to regain vitality and wellness often lost in the maze of traditional healthcare.
Weight Loss Surgery: A Health Tip For The Seriously Obese
I know most of you reading these Health Tips are health oriented, possibly a little overweight, some post-pregnancy and others due to Covid inactivity, nothing too serious. But if you happen to know someone who’s seriously obese, this Health Tip could change their lives. Consider finding a way to get this information to them. […]
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 […]
Should You Try a Ketogenic Diet and Intermittent Fasting?
Just about half the patients we see in our office classify themselves as overweight and wish they weren’t. Not many are in the obese range, likely because when you come to a place called WholeHealth Chicago you’ve got a running start in being interested in health, well-being, and longevity. Still, weight is an issue for […]
Introducing Our New WholeHealth Supplement Plans
If you’re a WholeHealth Chicago patient, you’ve likely noticed that we review your list of nutritional supplements during each appointment. Conventional doctors ask what prescription meds you’re taking (and of course we do too), but virtually never solicit a list of supplements. Since our area of expertise lies precisely there, it’s important for us to […]
Gut Restoration: Repairing Your Microbiome
At one time, conventional physicians simply did not believe in the concept of intestinal dysbiosis, in which the intestinal tract has an unhealthful mix of the 100 trillion bacteria thriving within it. This population of bacteria is called the microbiome, a word for years ignored in medical schools and barely recognized by gastroenterologists. It was […]
Is The Environment Making Us Fat(ter)?
Virtually every day, a patient offers a variation of this sentence: “I’m steadily gaining weight no matter what I do. I restrict my calories to good foods, I exercise regularly, and I get zero results. My thyroid tests are normal. What’s wrong with my body?” We know the US is a nation of the overweight […]
WholeHealth Chicago IV Therapies: Metabolic Boost (Skinny Shots)
It’s really a bummer to add weight gain to the stressors you’ve been experiencing in this difficult year of Covid-19, police brutality, and economic crashes. You’re the victim of a perfect storm: inactivity, anxiety, disrupted sleep, and eating too many of the wrong calories. I know comfort foods are comforting, but did you really need […]
Functional Telemedicine, Wherever You Are
All things considered, we’ve rather enjoyed our telemedicine interactions with patients. Doctoring this way also recently provided me with an Aha! moment. What I realized was that much of what we do as Functional Medicine specialists, both diagnosis and treatment, can be done online with you never leaving your home. Such a consultation would include […]
How To Not Gain Weight
Please note this Health Tip will not tell you how to lose weight. If you want to browse the offerings on that topic, go to amazon and search for diet books. Once our largest bookstore attempted to track the numbers, but when they surpassed 95,000 it apparently gave up and now tell us that the […]
Getting Off Blood Pressure Meds Forever, Contaminated Or Not
If you’re currently taking a blood pressure medication, the chances are pretty good that you’re on one of the ARBs (angiotensin receptor blockers). You can recognize these because they end in -sartan, as in losartan and valsartan. You also may have heard that two of the most popular ARBs (valsartan and irbesartan) were abruptly withdrawn […]
Revealed: Why Susan Can’t Lose Weight
Susan sat across from me and I could see her chin quivering as she tried to hold back the tears. “I am trying so hard to lose weight, doctor! Look at my diet diary. I’m at the gym almost every day. My thyroid numbers are perfect. And so what happens? This past month I actually […]
130/80: What The New High Blood Pressure Guidelines Mean For You
You might not have known it, but last Monday, November 13, 2017, you may have awakened with high blood pressure (hypertension). Don’t feel alone. A massive increase in the number of people with hypertension occurred overnight when the definition of high blood pressure was officially changed from 140/90 (and higher) to 130/80 (and higher). I’m […]
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 […]
Moving and Eating To Protect Your Heart
One of the great pleasures of Chicago is summer. We’re outdoors and moving around, whether jogging, swimming, biking, walking the dog, slamming a volleyball, or tossing a Frisbee. And because we’re all wearing fewer clothes, we can tell in a single furtive glance if we’re happy with our weight. “Oh, well,” you think, “I might […]
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 […]