I’ve had many male patients over age 40 who are not only inconvenienced by an enlarged prostate (usually in the form of a more frequent need to urinate), but who are also concerned that they either have cancer of the prostate or that cancer is right around the corner. I’m happy to report that most of their symptoms turned out to be related to a condition known as benign prostatic hyperplasia, or BPH. And it is indeed benign: “Hyperplasia” simply means an overgrowth of cells.
PMS
After having heard the details of PMS (otherwise known as premenstrual syndrome) from hundreds of women over the years, I continue to be surprised about how most regard PMS as their lot in life and don’t seek any help for it. I guess most women believe there’s nothing they can do, and consequently they’re often amazed to learn that an integrated approach can really help. I am of the opinion, shared by many of my colleagues at WholeHealth Chicago, that getting PMS out of your life requires a strongly committed proactive “self-care” stance, something you can easily do without much reliance on your conventional physician. Generally the complexity of PMS–and there are numerous symptoms associated with it–takes a lot more time and attention than the standard 7-minute physician office visit can provide.
Perimenopause
As you’re probably aware, menopause is that phase of a woman’s life when her ovaries no longer produce the sex hormones estrogen and progesterone. Well before then, however, a woman’s hormones begin to fluctuate from month to month, often causing many unpleasant symptoms. This process may take from five to 10 years. This is perimenopause. During this time, even though periods are still occurring, symptoms associated with menopause, including hot flashes, mood swings, brain fog, and sleep disturbances begin. Yet with periods persisting, most doctors are reluctant to start prescription hormones that would stop these symptoms in days. Furthermore, since her hormonal status fluctuates, she may not need prescription hormones every month. So what’s a person to do?
Osteoporosis
A decade ago, most women had never heard of osteoporosis. Now, as the baby boomer generation approaches menopause and doctors have analyzed the statistics, articles about osteoporosis are appearing everywhere. Osteoporosis presents a health danger because as bones age they absorb less calcium. This leaves them thin and pitted, and more liable to fracture easily. With a third of all post-menopausal women suffering some degree of bone deterioration, this translates into a lot of hip, spine, and wrist fractures. Sadly, a third of all elderly women who suffer a hip fracture die within six months.
Muscle Aches and Pains
By and large, if we take reasonably good care of ourselves, most of the so-called degenerative illnesses–heart disease, cancer, diabetes–usually wait until we’re in our sixties or so. So just accept the following as a given: Before age 60, most medical problems will involve your musculoskeletal systems. Which I guess is why the waiting rooms of chiropractors and osteopaths are so crowded. If to stay healthy we keep active, and by active, I mean anything from taking a regular walk to winning bowling trophies, we will inevitably experience some muscle aches and pains.
Multiple Sclerosis
Multiple sclerosis can seem like the cruelest disease. We’ve all heard of cases where a young adult, once in the bloom of health, becomes disabled and confined to a wheelchair. And while it’s true that MS attacks healthy young people, fortunately very few cases lead to rapid disability. By far the common MS “story” is one of flare-ups followed by very long disease-free periods, so that disability, if it does occur at all, may not happen for decades. Although the cause of MS remains unknown, physicians believe it’s an autoimmune disease, where the immune system winds up attacking its own central nervous system. Doctors are far less helpless in the face of MS than they once were. Disease “modifiers” such as the interferon-based medications Betaseron or Avonex and the drug glatiramer acetate (Copaxone), all have been shown to reduce flare-up rates dramatically and delay the time to disability.
Migraine
Nearly every week, I get patients who assume that any time they have a really bad headache, it must be a migraine. Not true. In fact, migraines are a specific condition, with symptoms, causes, and treatments that differ from other headaches. To begin, what sets migraines apart is the throbbing pain–often on one side of the head–which can be intense and even incapacitating. At WholeHealth Chicago, we find a two-prong approach to migraines is often the most successful: Deal decisively with the pain of an attack (including using prescription medications, if necessary) and also find the best strategies to prevent these headaches from happening in the first place.
Menopause
Strictly speaking, menopause is your final menstrual period, but most doctors agree you need 12 straight months without a period before you can call that last period “final.” Gone along with your periods, however, are your “factory-installed” female hormones. These protect you against a host of conditions–heart disease and osteoporosis most prominently–and lack of them can lead to a variety of symptoms, known collectively by your mothers as “the change.” These may include hot flashes, night sweats, mood swings, sleep disturbances, vaginal dryness, weight changes and poor concentration.
Memory Loss/Impairment
Although all of us desire longevity, at the same time one of our greatest fears is any decline in our mental powers. One day, you might wander through your home, forgetting what you were looking for. Or you might finish a book and the next morning can barely remember the plot. You miss appointments unless you write them down. Friends and family members comment on your forgetfulness. With a chill of horror, you think, “Alzheimer’s disease!” Actually, this is very unlikely. You’ve just not been paying attention to your brain health. This has a name, “cognitive decline,” a description of what you’re experiencing, rather than an actual disease.
Macular Degeneration
It’s likely that many of the 6 million Americans with macular degeneration first hear about it during a visit to an eye doctor where they’ve come complaining about their declining vision. Most of them leave the office in a very discouraged state of mind, with the phrase “nothing can be done” ringing in their ears. The macula is a tiny spot in the center of the retina that enables you to distinguish the fine detail in the center of your visual field. In other words, all the truly important stuff of looking at things: reading, watching TV, threading a needle, driving a car.
Lupus
Lupus means “wolf,” maybe because wolves are sly and lupus is the slyest of the autoimmune diseases–conditions in which the trusty immune system, which normally tracks and destroys viruses, bacteria, and cancer cells, suddenly turns and attacks the body. Most of the autoimmune diseases are satisfied with seizing one organ (say, the thyroid or the liver) or the joints. But lupus has imperial ambitions. The skin, joints, muscles, brain, kidney, and all the connective tissue can become victims of the very system that once guarded their existenc
Kidney Stones
My guess is that there’s never been a human being in the history of mankind who ever answered “Yes, sure, okay!” to the question “Would you like to pass another kidney stone?” We’re not positive why some people get stones and others don’t, but stone formation does run in families, and has less to do with diet than we once thought. When the stone, which forms in the kidney, decides to move, it’s during the l-o-n-g passage down the ureter (the tube from the kidney to the bladder) that causes so much pain.
Irritable Bowel Syndrome
By far the most common reason patients visit gastroenterologists is for help with irritable bowel syndrome, or IBS, also known as spastic colon. Although the condition is not dangerous, nor does it lead to anything serious, IBS is a real challenge to treat effectively. In fact, conventional medical textbooks advise doctors to tell their patients that the condition is incurable, and many patients have come to believe that the best they can expect from conventional medicine is only limited relief. All doctors, including myself, hesitate to use the word “cure.” But at WholeHealth Chicago, we’ve found that a more integrated medical “toolbox” has dramatically improved our success rate.
Insomnia
Virtually all of us have experienced problems with sleep at some point in our lives. Sleep problems come in a variety of forms. Perhaps you’re unable to fall asleep, or maybe staying asleep is the problem, or perhaps you awaken unrefreshed two or three hours before you’d planned. The end result is that you’re tired the next day, or grouchy, or you can’t concentrate. And the next night arrives accompanied by that lurking fear: What if it happens again? Fortunately, most insomnia is transient, meaning that it clears up by itself.
Infertility, Male
Infertility issues, which seemed so rare 20 years ago, are quite common these days. The most significant factor seems to be the desire couples have to start their families when they’re a little older, after they’ve established themselves in their careers. Clearly this affects a woman’s chances of reproducing, since fertility in women declines after age 35. And conception after age 45 is rather rare. Aside from trying to reproduce earlier in her life, there are some surprisingly simple steps a woman can take to increase her likelihood of becoming pregnant. It amazes me (although perhaps it should not) how little emphasis is placed on lifestyle issues and good nutrition by either gynecologists or infertility specialists. In all parts of the world, “wise women” have been using herbs for centuries to help their infertile daughters.
Infertility, Female
Infertility issues, which seemed so rare 20 years ago, are quite common these days. The most significant factor seems to be the desire couples have to start their families when they’re a little older, after they’ve established themselves in their careers. Clearly this affects a woman’s chances of reproducing, since fertility in women declines after age 35. And conception after age 45 is rather rare. Aside from trying to reproduce earlier in her life, there are some surprisingly simple steps a woman can take to increase her likelihood of becoming pregnant. It amazes me (although perhaps it should not) how little emphasis is placed on lifestyle issues and good nutrition by either gynecologists or infertility specialists. In all parts of the world, “wise women” have been using herbs for centuries to help their infertile daughters.
Impotence
The politically correct term for impotence these days is “erectile dysfunction,” or ED. Whatever you call it, the lesson we doctors were taught in medical school–that most cases of failure to get or maintain an erection are emotional–turned out to be dead wrong. We now know that ED has a physical cause about 85% of the time. Usually the problem is poor circulation and reduced blood flow to the penis, so that an erection cannot occur. Undeniably, the new prescription drug Viagra works well for many men. But it’s expensive, can have side effects, and may not be right for everyone. Over the years, several supplements and herbs have been used with good results. (In fact, one of these, yohimbine, can be so effective that it’s available only by prescription.) Let’s see how some of our WholeHealth Chicago recommendations can help.
High Blood Pressure
We doctors know it’s difficult to get our patients enthused about taking blood pressure medicines. Our plea that “this will help you to prevent problems in the future” doesn’t compel most people just struggling to make it through the day. And of course, it’s hard to convince someone to take medicines that often have unpleasant side effects to control a condition that has no noticeable symptoms. A lot of doctors acknowledge that high blood pressure is probably overtreated. Mild-to-moderate pressure levels (140/90 to 160/100 mm Hg) can usually be reversed by lifestyle changes alone. Levels consistently above these numbers do require medical treatment. However, despite the American Heart Association’s statement that blood pressure medicine is a lifetime commitment, if successful lifestyle changes create a new and healthier you, there’s no reason why (with your doctor’s help) you can’t begin to trim down your morning load of prescription pills–maybe even to none.
Hemorrhoids
As unglamourous as they are (and you’ll never see a telethon for hemorrhoids), consider yourself very fortunate if hemorrhoids are your worst experience with ill health. Try as you might, you simply cannot die from hemorrhoids. They may swell and become quite painful. Or itch. Or bleed. But ‘rhoids will never do you in. As you might be aware, hemorrhoids are simply varicose veins that have developed in an unfortunate location. When they do bleed, it’s never very much actual blood. (But don’t ignore bleeding. Over time, you can actually get quite anemic.) The only serious complication (relatively speaking) is thrombosis, when a clot forms within the hemorrhoid, and that is indeed quite painful and usually needs a surgeon’s help.
Heartburn
Because conventional physicians are becoming more skilled at diagnosing and treating heartburn, a condition in which stomach acid splashes upward into the esophagus, this common problem is undergoing some name changes. Strictly speaking, when you used to feel as though Mount St. Helens was erupting beneath your breastbone, it was called “heartburn.” After doctors developed gastroscopes to actually see the irritated esophagus, your heartburn grew into the more respectable “reflux esophagitis,” or “reflux” for short.