Throughout my earlier years as a physician, cancer was considered a diagnosis of the elderly. A person survived infectious diseases of childhood, heart and lung issues of middle age, and then, blind to the risks of smoking and having no access to colonoscopies or CAT scans, would develop cancer in her seventies or eighties and […]
“I’m Scared. So Many of My Relatives Have Alzheimer’s”
Jeanette, sitting across from me, was genuinely frightened about her future. Yes, she did have several elderly relatives with what she was calling “Alzheimer’s”, but I quickly pointed out that not all causes of dementia are due to Alzheimer’s Disease and much of dementia is both preventable and reversible. I asked what steps she had […]
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 […]
LONG COVID: Our Most Troubling Epidemic
You may not see anyone wearing masks anymore, but COVID is still out there. The real problem now is LONG COVID; that plethora of debilitating symptoms potentially lasting for weeks, months, and sometimes longer, following what on the surface may have been anywhere from a mild case to a devastatingly severe case of COVID. Furthermore, […]
Brain Degenerative Diseases Linked To Your Microbiome
The “Big Four” brain diseases frighten everybody, doctors included. Alzheimer’s Disease, Parkinson’s Disease (PD), Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS, a/k/a Lou Gehrig’s Disease), and Multiple Sclerosis (MS). Not one is curable, although we’re doing well these days in the treatment of multiple sclerosis. You might have read last week about a newly released drug for Alzheimer’s […]
LYME TIME…AGAIN!
In H.G. Wells’ novel (and Steven Spielberg’s movie), War of the Worlds, aliens from Mars invade earth, fully intending to destroy it. Earthlings are losing against the Martians until suddenly the Martians start dying off. Scientists later discover the aliens had no immunity against earth’s bacteria and paid the price with their lives. With the […]
Yes, Your Child (Or You) Is Miserable With Hair Loss But Be Wary Of Big Pharma’s Latest “Gift”
Alopecia areata, patches of baldness, starts as a small area and seems to enlarge. Then you see another, then another. Your hair stylist says, “Did you know there’s this large area in the back…?” Your teenager is despondent. Her social life is ruined. College, of course, is off the table for now. You go online […]
Updates On Anti-Aging Medicine And Dementia Prevention
Taurine. Never heard of it, right? It’s an amino acid, one of the building blocks of protein, and helps digestive, cardiovascular, musculoskeletal, and nervous system functions. However, we require more taurine than we can manufacture, so deficiencies are possible. Fortunately, plenty of taurine is found in protein foods: meat, poultry, dairy, seafood, and yes, vegans […]
Women and ADD: Part 2 of 2
In my last Health Tip, we discussed Claire, a woman in her thirties with attention deficit disorder (ADD), reviewing lifestyle and non-medication approaches. This week, I’ll go over the conventional medications used for this very common condition (estimated at 5% of the population). Let me start by saying that untreated ADD, in both children and […]
Women and ADD: Part 1
Already ten minutes late for her first appointment, Claire phoned from her car that she’d be in the office in five minutes. Fifteen minutes later, she arrived flustered and embarrassed, and “Oh, my gosh, I left all the forms on my kitchen table, but I did fill them out,” and “My insurance card? I’m sure I had it, I can call my husband, he has one, I think,” and “Could you please put money in the meter for me, I just realized I forgot and I have s-o-o-o many tickets…”
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 […]
How To Take Care Of Your Gut
I must admit being intrigued by a New York Times article earlier this month entitled, “How a Gastroenterologist Cares for Her Gut”, because, let’s face it, we do a lot of “gut rehab” work here at WholeHealth Chicago. I was curious about the conventional recommendations. In fact, all of us pretty much agree with the […]
Alternative Approaches For Your Depression, Anxiety, Insomnia, And Even A.D.D.
Maybe the increases in these diagnoses began with the COVID pandemic but more likely we just weren’t paying attention. We’ll not really know until a few years from now when statisticians look over the data, compare notes with each other, and can finally say, “Wow! Look at these numbers! More mood disorders, more anti-depressants and […]
This Health Tip Might Make You Anxious: Keep Reading
I scan all sorts of medical information sources to write these Health Tips. The usual ones that every doctor should be reading (JAMA, Medscape, etc.), but I don’t miss the New York Times and the Washington Post. I often find something I might have missed elsewhere. This article from the Times startled me, but it […]
High Dose Ozone Therapy: What It Is And How Doctors Use It
If you’ve been to either of our centers, I’m sure you’ve seen patients relaxing in large recliner chairs, dozing, or busy on their smartphone, tablet or reading a book and on the receiving end of an intravenous drip. If you happen to glance at what’s in the intravenous tubing, you might notice it’s red, and […]
Not One Nibble More Than 25 Grams Of Sugar A Day
Of course, everyone reading this already knows that sugar is “bad” for you. It’ll make you fat, you can get addicted to it, and it causes all sorts of health problems, like early heart disease, diabetes, depression, cancer susceptibility. But recently, a massive study out of China was able to determine how much sugar taken […]
A New Treatment For Chronic Anxiety
Far and away, the most common mental illness troubling the human animal is Generalized Anxiety Disorder, which can make life really miserable for almost 25% of women and 15% of men. When it’s not “chronic”, i.e., with you all the time, a little anxiety is actually useful. You feel a little anxious when you’re deciding […]
Prevention/Treatment Of All Chronic Illnesses
Here at WholeHealth Chicago we’re introducing a bevy of new treatments aimed at preventing and even treating virtually all chronic symptoms and disease illnesses, the ‘bad stuff’ life can throw you when you least expect it during the decades ahead. “Wait! Hold on!”, you splutter. “Do you actually mean ‘all’ diseases?”. “Yes, let me explain.” […]
Peptides For Longevity
Our WholeHealth Chicago patients are a different breed. Take a glance around our waiting room or apothecary to see what a patient population engaged in maintaining good health actually looks like. Even the beginners, perhaps overweight or out of shape, are working on self improvement. The office abounds with people turning over their new leaves. […]
Peptides As Aphrodisiacs (Big Pharma Rescues Your Sex Life)
It seems that men wanted to control female sexuality since the dawn of time. “Aphrodisiacs” (named after Aphrodite, Greek goddess of love and desire) appear in the medical writings of ancient Greece, and in Chinese medicine a combination of acupuncture and herbs apparently worked wonders. Ayurvedic practitioners may have suspected that spinal chiropractic manipulation was […]