About six weeks ago, I was in the Loop just leaving the international Lyme disease conference, briefcase in one hand, shopping bag filled with I-don’t-remember-what in the other, when my foot caught an irregular sidewalk crack and down I went, hard, landing full force on my left shoulder. (Permission to cringe.) I was immediately helped […]
Making Sense of “Controversial” Diagnoses
I’m warning you in advance. You’re entering a minefield here, with explosive views among seemingly conservative health care professionals. At least wear a helmet. Protective eyewear wouldn’t hurt either. You wouldn’t think a slew of conditions you’ve heard about (including chronic Lyme disease, chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia, chronic Epstein-Barr, toxic mold syndrome, food sensitivities, intestinal […]
Getting Tough With Your Immune System
No reasonable physician (I modestly include myself here) can refrain from crowing delightedly when a clinical study confirms the value of a treatment he or she had been using for years, even if that treatment had contradicted prevailing standards. Ever since I learned something about natural medicine, I’ve been reluctant to prescribe antibiotics for respiratory tract infections, […]
For A Longer Life…Stand Up Now!
By far the most common answer to my question, “Exercising these days?” is “Not enough.” This is usually accompanied by the briefest flicker of melancholy regret, as if by such a confession my patient has permanently abandoned the hopes and dreams of both a svelte body and enviable longevity. “Don’t worry,” I say, “It’s just […]
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 You also may have heard that two of the most popular ARBs (valsartan and irbesartan) were abruptly withdrawn […]
How To Get Off Statins
Getting off statins is easy. Stop swallowing the pill. If you’re not in a potentially high-risk group (as described below) and your doc prescribed a statin to get your cholesterol down a bit, you won’t have a heart attack or a stroke that day or week or probably that decade.
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 […]
Fruitcake, Genes, and Exercise: A Spooky Holiday Story
Starting around Thanksgiving and generally ending on January 2, we’re surrounded by too much food. Many of us who spent the year really (really!) trying to lose weight and eat healthfully dread the havoc these dark days can wreak on our bodies. It’s agonizingly easy to add some pounds. Then, come January, we despair at […]
The Aching Man And The Sweaty Woman
New patient Phil told me he’d been suffering muscle pain every single day for more than eight years. He’d seen neurologists and rheumatologists, had had an MRI of his spine, was told he had spinal stenosis (narrowing), had cortisone shots, and recently had been scheduled for neurosurgery. Then a friend told him to stop taking […]
The Neurochemistry of the Blasey Ford-Kavanaugh Hearings
Over the years here at WholeHealth Chicago, we’ve treated thousands of patients, mainly women, for chronic physical and emotional symptoms that produce no positive test results. Our patients have been told by multiple doctors that nothing can be found wrong with them, but as we explore their biographies we find that many problems have roots […]
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 […]
TV and Me
More than 30 years ago, I read a book that managed to influence my entire life. Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television (go ahead and click on it—it’s still available at amazon and a surprising number of reviews are from recent years) was a best-seller in its day and despite the reductionism of its […]
Overcoming Worry
Ask a group of doctors about the conditions they treat most frequently and they’ll likely place stress among the top ten. The factors triggering all this stress seem endless: pressures having to do with work, home, money, relationships, and even how we respond to a daily commute. It’s important to acknowledge that some life circumstances […]
Exiting The Rut
We’ve all been stuck in personal ruts. Trapped on our treadmills. You wake up one morning realizing you’ve somehow gotten yourself stuck. Certain aspects of your life aren’t moving forward anymore. Maybe you’re trapped in the same job, browning over the hot coals instead of actually burning out, but reluctant to make that crucial move […]
Medical Flip-Flopping
I don’t know how you all keep from going slightly bonkers over the endless reversal of opinion from the “experts” in the world of medicine. Over the last few years, medical journals/websites (and the newspapers nobody subscribes to anymore) have reported policy changes on issues that I personally was just beginning to wrap my head […]
Porochista Khakpour’s Ongoing Battle With Lyme
In novelist Porochista Khakpour’s memoir Sick she describes her struggle with chronic Lyme disease and her uphill battle with the US healthcare system. Likely she had been bitten as a child by a long-forgotten tick, which is quite the usual case, the average age of acquiring Lyme disease being about 11. As a result of […]
The Stealth Bug From Hell: Chronic Lyme Disease
Last week we discussed the stealthy nature of Lyme and other infectious organisms, like chickenpox. To start, this week I’ll say by now everyone should be familiar with the basics of avoiding acute Lyme disease. When you’re in the woods or tall grass wear long pants tucked into socks and a long-sleeved shirt, spray DEET […]
Chronic Lyme, Stealth Organisms, And You
Over the past several months I’ve been reading memoirs of patients with chronic Lyme disease. When the victim is a celebrity (Ally Hilfiger, Kelly Osbourne), she’ll land a contract and a book tour with a mainstream publisher. When the victim just lives down the block but believes she has something important to say, she’ll self-publish […]
Osteopenia and Osteoporosis, Part 2
Last week in Part 1 we wrote an overview of osteoporosis and osteopenia. I couldn’t help but note that most US physicians can date their knowledge of both diagnosis and treatment to the saturation marketing of Big Pharma’s variety of osteoporosis medications, most notably the bisphosphonates (Fosamax, Boniva, Reclast). As we all get older, our […]