Likely because German-Americans have been so completely absorbed into American culture, we’re often surprised to learn that more Americans (17% plus, in fact) trace their family origins to Germany than to any other country. The huge wave of German immigration occurred in the 19th century, when eight million arrived in New York, virtually all passing […]
Dentist Anxieties? Fear of Flying?
Posted 01/23/2012 One of my favorite books has always been the 1964 classic The Myth of Mental Illness, by Thomas Szasz, MD. A psychiatrist and still writing at the ripe age of 91, Szasz castigated his fellow professionals for labeling too many people with relatively mild emotional symptoms “mentally ill,” especially when it came to […]
The Anxiety in Your Gut
Posted 01/17/2012 “That gut feeling.” We’ve all experienced it, but we may have difficulty describing the sensation. We sense or “know” something internally, feeling butterflies in our stomach, almost as if our entire intestinal tract were a second brain, low on reflective skills but high on intuitive ones. During the past decade an incredible amount […]
WholeHealth Chicago and Kids?
Posted 1/09/2012 The short answer is “We welcome kids”. The longer answer is we’re here if your child has a problem and you want to see if an integrative approach will help. None of us is a pediatrician and we really would prefer that your child have a primary care pediatrician or family practitioner for […]
Bowen Technique
What Is It? An extremely gentle form of bodywork, the Bowen Technique was developed in Geelong, Australia, soon after World War II by Tom Bowen (1916-1982), a self-taught masseur. Over the course of many years, Bowen developed a precise sequence of delicate moves across muscles, tendons, and connective tissues, which are performed with great precision […]
Prostate Cancer Screening: The New PSA Controversy
Posted 1/2/2012 Nobody wants to deal with cancer, but unfortunately as we all get older we enter the realm of increased cancer risk. Around age 30, when we finally shed the delusion that we’re not immortal, we start taking better care of ourselves. We stop smoking, eat healthier, exercise a bit, abandon skydiving as a […]
Important News About Hormone Therapy
It was almost 20 years ago that I first learned about bioidentical hormone therapy from a talk given by Christiane Northrup, MD, (author of Women’s Bodies, Women’s Wisdom and The Wisdom of Menopause) at the first meeting I ever attended of the American Holistic Medical Association. By the way, the line-up of speakers included not […]
A Newly Discovered Cause of Women’s Fatigue
Posted 12/12/2011 Given the number of women who walk around feeling tired all the time, it’s truly unfortunate that the important piece of research we’re discussing today didn’t generate more publicity. Tucked away in the small-circulation medical journal Thyroid, whose readership is probably limited to endocrinologists specializing in thyroid disorders, there appeared an article about […]
Medical Sexism and Fibromyalgia
My new book, Healing Fibromyalgia, was published last week and I’ll venture that sales are soaring into the high single digits. The e-book is available here and a pre-publication discount is available on the paperback. The total number of fibromyalgia patients worldwide is jaw-dropping and the situation is much worsened by the medical profession’s failure […]
Physician’s Guide to Fibromyalgia
This short guide accompanies my patient-directed book Healing Fibromyalgia, which is based on my experience treating more than 1,600 fibro patients. Because of the nature of this condition, and the frequent necessity of prescription drugs, I wasn’t quite sure how to get the reader’s primary care physician involved. Virtually all fibro patients need professional expertise […]
Fibromyalgia Quiz
From Healing Fibromyalgia, by David Edelberg, MD How Do I Know If I Have Fibro? Take the Quiz Even if you’ve already been diagnosed with fibromyalgia, take the quiz to gain a better understanding of fibro’s underpinnings. Because fibro is not a disease per se and offers your doctor no positive test results on which […]
Nicole’s Story and the Epic Tale of Fibro Explained
The following is an excerpt from Dr. Edelberg’s book, Healing Fibromyalgia. In the “How Can We Help?” section of our WholeHealth Chicago Patient Questionnaire, Nicole had written “I’m in constant pain as long as I can remember and I’m so tired I can’t even think straight.” Even as I welcomed her to our center, I […]
Fibromyalgia is Real
Fibromyalgia is real. The pain you awaken with is not “in your head.” You’re not even remotely a hypochondriac. If anyone–doctor, chiropractor, physical therapist, well- meaning loved one–ever tries to convince you otherwise, tune them out. They are wrong. Likewise, if anyone ever tells you fibro is incurable and you’ll just have to learn to […]
The WholeHealth Healing Cave
The office lease describes our place as “lower level,” which any Chicagoan knows is a euphemism for basement. Some cities call these locations garden apartments, which generally means ground level, your apartment fair game for ants and burglars. We at WholeHealth Chicago are well below ground level. My partner Dr. Paul Rubin and I knew […]
Arrogant Doctors
I’ve been curious for some time about the arrogance and rudeness in my profession. When a new patient starts to relate her health history and interrupts herself with a comment like, “The so-and-so doctor was awful” (or really unpleasant or disrespectful), I inquire “Oh? What happened?” And she’s truly glad to tell someone, especially a […]
A Disgusting Taste in Her Mouth
Here’s another persistent patient story, a woman who endured years of symptoms and no definite answers. Then, six months ago, when her symptoms went into high gear, she knew she had to do something. I first met Claudia, a bright, healthy looking woman, just a few weeks ago. She told me her longstanding digestive symptoms […]
Health Consequences of Harassment
I’ve been tracking the health consequences of the recession among my patients. The first group of victims is obvious: those suffering the anxiety and depression that follows job loss, protracted unemployment, living on savings, cutting expenses, downsizing where they live, and, of course, losing health insurance. At the very moment these folks could benefit from […]
“Medical” Marijuana
As I recall, coming of age in the 1960s meant, among other things, social roles being more clearly defined then than now. For example, if you wanted weed, you met someone at an L stop named Bobby. For the reasonable price of $5 you felt a grass-filled baggie slide into your pocket and by the […]
Medicine’s Latest Step Backwards
Posted 10/17/2011 “Vitamins linked to higher odds of early death in older women,” the headlines screamed last week. I finished an anxious call from my 88-year-old Aunt Hildy. Once peacefully ensconced in her Florida condo, now, after seeing a TV news report that vitamins were dangerous when used by women over 62, Hildy was eyeing […]
A Bubble About To Burst
Posted 10/03/2011 In ancient literature, the Romans went to the ageless Cumaean Sybil for prophetic advice and apparently she had a good track record. My friends consider me the antithesis of the Cumaean Sybil. My stock predictions doom a company. Oscar-wise, Ebert beats me to a pulp every year, and sporting events and elections fare […]