Several months go, I was reading the on-line bulletin of the Rush Medical Center here in Chicago when my eye caught an article about Rush psychiatrists enrolling patients into a trial of a non-medical therapy for depression and anxiety. They were especially seeking patients who were either medication-resistant or had experienced too many medication side effects.
Q&A: Increasing Your Energy
Q: I’m wondering if you could summarize all the ways I might go about increasing my energy level. I’ve had a lot of fatigue recently. Would you list supplements that could help, along with food and anything else? Thank you so much.
RESPeRATE for High Blood Pressure
It’s always nice to find therapies for chronic conditions that don’t require pill swallowing–there’s nothing glummer than a patient’s face when she says “Do you mean I have to take this pill every day for the rest of my life?” One of the challenges of a non-pill therapy is the health insurance industry, which basically […]
Nature’s Apothecary: Valerian for Calm and Better Sleep
Using the herb valerian medicinally goes back to ancient Greece. By the 19th century, valerian was regularly found in pharmacies as a medication for both anxiety and insomnia, essentially the Valium of those days.
December Stress
It’s December. Does the very mention of the holiday month bring you joy? Stress? A mixture of the two?
My patients often tell me that December is their worst month, with extra activities, lists, and entertaining high on the roster of stressors.
Cure PMS The Natural Way…Without Seeing a Doctor
I can’t imagine what PMS actually feels like, but having heard the litany of miserable symptoms from thousands of my patients, it sounds pretty dismal. But just because I happen to be a male physician doesn’t mean I can’t offer help.
Q&A: Complex Carbohydrates
Q: Would you review again why we should eat complex carbohydrates and define what they are? Thank you.
Gratitude
In the spirit of the holiday, consider starting a gratitude journal. Use a pretty notebook or a plain one–it doesn’t matter.
Title the first page something meaningful, such as “Good Things That Happened Today” or “What I’m Thankful For Today.”
Menopause Transition Rx
Okay, you’ve faced the fact. You’re entering the potential minefield of the euphemistically named menopause transition and you know your hormones are definitely out of whack.
Fast Food Favorites: Chickpeas
Chickpeas (also called garbanzo beans–read more about them here) are a potential meal in a can. Plus, they’re one of the truly good carbohydrates. Because they’re taken up slowly and steadily by your body, they have a stabilizing effect your blood sugar and your mood, keeping you energized and elevating your feel-good serotonin.
The Fine Art of Asking for Help
Your dinner guests are arriving in an hour and things are nowhere near ready. The table hasn’t been set, the guacamole not started, the wine unopened. And the dog hair on the couch?
But instead of signaling for back-up help from your family, you do it all yourself. Within moments, you feel your face muscles tense into that mean little frown you’ve seen in the mirror. And you’re completely frazzled by the time the doorbell rings.
Q&A: Nutritional Medicine
Q: In a recent newsletter you discussed new findings in nutritional medicine. I’ve never heard of nutritional medicine. Would you define it?
Wintertime Blues: 10 Steps to Turn Them Around
The wintertime blues, also known as Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), usually begin when the days get shorter and the sky clouds over into perpetual gray. Many people with SAD dread late autumn because the clocks move back an hour and, in a single day, autumn twilight becomes dark night.
Nutritional Medicine News
Each week I read well over 100 medical articles, summaries, and abstracts of studies sifted from the thousands that are published. Most have nothing to do with nutritional medicine, but there are always a few. Here are some recent highlights:
An Easier Way to Overcome Psychological Problems
Periodically, a new development in natural/holistic health really lives up to its hype. This is the case with energy psychology.
Myers’ Cocktail
A lot of my readers have read about this well-known gem of nutritional medicine in one alternative medicine magazine or another and may wonder if it could be useful for their particular health issue. In my own practice, many patients receive their Myers’ regularly, returning because of positive results.
Low Thyroid and Taking Your Body Temperature
If your basal temperature (armpit temperature, taken when you awaken in the morning) is below 97.6, you might benefit from a small dose of natural thyroid replacement, usually in the range of one half grain to 1 grain daily, available by prescription, to improve your energy.
Advances in Fibromyalgia: Part 3
For fibromyalgia, there’s quite a bit you can do on your own. Some of this is old material, described in more detail in my book, The Triple Whammy Cure.
Advances in Fibromyalgia: Part 2
Doctors like me who work with many fibromyalgia (and chronic fatigue) patients try a variety of alternative approaches. These make perfect sense physiologically because they address the root cause of fibro, rather than supplying yet another painkiller (like Lyrica).
Advances in Fibromyalgia
As readers of my book The Triple Whammy Cure know, fibromyalgia is essentially a response by your body to unchecked stress, generally occurring (or returning) when your stress level exceeds the protective effect of your serotonin. You suffer that stress and your muscles tighten up and stay that way, hurting more and more. That’s fibromyalgia