And among other symptoms, indeed she was. Julia, a bright 40-something, had written “fatigue,” “pain,” “bad digestion,” and “brain fog” on her WholeHealth Chicago intake paperwork. She’d been ill for years and brought with her two binders full of medical info on herself. The thicker of these contained accumulated medical records, lab tests, imaging studies, […]
“I’m Really Confused About Sun Exposure”
Julie was heading for an all-inclusive week in Cancun to loll on a vast expanse of beach, soaking up rays and having someone named Juan bring her endless pina coladas (she planned to get her money’s worth). Sounded pretty nice to me. After months of Chicago overcast/gray, it seemed like a perfect way to put […]
Here’s What You Should Know About Lyme Disease
In H.G. Wells’s novel (and Steven Spielberg’s movie) War of the Worlds, aliens invade Earth, fully intending to destroy it. Despite our best efforts to defend ourselves, we’re clearly losing until suddenly all the aliens start dying off. Scientists later discover the aliens had no immunity to Earth’s bacteria. The evil aliens were out of their […]
Welcome, Neeti Sharma, MD + A Functional Medicine Primer
I’m truly delighted to welcome our newest WholeHealth Chicago staff member, Neeti Sharma, MD, a board-certified internist (like me) who earned additional postgrad training in integrative medicine at Dr. Andrew Weil’s program at the University of Arizona Medical School. She also has a special interest in Functional Medicine. Any health-conscious patient with reasonable skepticism about […]
A Nasal Spray For Depression? Yes!
It began with a phone call from a patient. “Are you prescribing the new nasal spray for depression?” “Ah!” I thought. “The FDA finally released esketamine.” And then I saw two emails from patients asking the same question. I checked online and, yes indeed, Janssen Pharmaceuticals had completed all the clinical trials and received FDA […]
Meet Our New Integrative Nurse Practitioner Wendy Ploegstra
WholeHealth Chicago is extremely fortunate to welcome Advanced Nurse Practitioner Wendy Ploegstra into our group. Let’s take a look at her credentials. First, she starts in nursing, receiving her bachelor’s at Calvin College in Grand Rapids before moving to Chicago and enrolling at Rush University, where she receives her master’s as a nurse practitioner (with […]
A Good Schvitz: Alternative Medicine At Its Finest
Head west on Division from Ashland and in the 1900 block, on the north side of the street, you’ll see a building that looks like an old bank. While the neighborhood was once a bit risky, it’s now completely safe, upscale, and laden with the telltale sushi places, sports bars, and coffee houses of urban […]
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. […]
April Sale: 20% off Four Elements Organic Herbals Tea Blends
Celebrate the arrival of spring with 20% off Four Elements Organic Herbals tea blends. Based in central Wisconsin, Four Elements has been dedicated to organic growing for nearly three decades. These herbal tea blends are made with their hand-harvested organic herbs and packaged in oxygen-bleached paper. – After Dinner Fennel Mint Tea – to comfort and support healthy digestion – Joy, […]
Nutritional IV Therapy, Part One
You’ve probably, at some point in your life, had an intravenous (IV) line. You felt the tiny pinch of the needle, watched as an adept nurse’s hands taped the needle in place, and then stared, perhaps a bit apprehensively, as a bagful of fluid dangling above coursed through a plastic tube and into your body […]
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 […]
Taking Steps Toward Cancer Prevention
According to the latest epidemiologic data, half of you reading this Health Tip will, at some point, hear a variation of the phrase “You have cancer.” If you die (cancer is the second leading cause of death in the US), the type of cancer will appear on the cause-of-death line of your death certificate. It […]
Spring Equinox: Shamanic Healing Clinic
Wednesday, March 20, 2019, 5:45 – 7:30 PM With Healing Touch practitioner, Katie Oberlin, HTCP/1 $55 course fee As winter gives way to spring, it’s time to clear stagnant energy and expand into the new possibilities that this time of year represents. This workshop will include: -How to incorporate shamanism into contemporary life -Teachings about […]
My Sad-Happy Health Tip
Just about a year ago my business partner of 20 years, chiropractic physician Paul Rubin, began our private Monday morning meeting (This Week at WholeHealth Chicago) with an ominous “I think I should tell you something important.” Naturally, I froze. He’d never use that tone if it were simply a broken heating system or phones […]
Winter Wellbeing
It’s hard to overstate the degree (minus 11 F tomorrow here in Chicago) to which the Midwest has settled into the dead of winter. With the rush of the holidays behind us, two dark, cold months lie ahead. Snowstorms, sub-zero temps, and icy pavement prompt many of us to stay indoors when we’d rather be […]
Healing Adrenal Fatigue
In last week’s Health Tip I described the exhausted state of Patricia, dragging herself through the day and crashing completely in the afternoon. At first, Patricia was oddly supercharged in the evening, unable to relax or sleep. Later, this energy burst vanished and she simply couldn’t sleep. She was tired all the time. Before her visit with […]
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. […]
Functional Medicine: Your Wacky Hormones and Thyroid Gland
Let me start by saying that the majority of board-certified endocrinologists give me a pain. They’re internists, like me and our newest WholeHealth Chicago physician Neeti Sharma, MD, but they have additional training via endocrinology fellowships. Somewhere along the way, many of them become almost too academic, no longer actually listening to patients but rather […]
The Must-Have Digestive Tests of Functional Medicine
I hope you’ve been intrigued by the Health Tips on Functional Medicine we’ve written in the past month. It’s especially provocative that a growing number of physicians, as well as the Cleveland Clinic, are using functional medicine tests when challenged by a patient with longstanding, unexplained chronic symptoms whose conventional test results have been negative. […]
Understanding Functional Medicine
A couple of weeks ago, I touched briefly on the new field of Functional Medicine and remarked that while it’s far from accepted by the vast majority of conventional physicians, the prestigious Cleveland Clinic had opened their own Institute of Functional Medicine, headed by the popular physician-author Mark Hyman, MD. I added that we at […]