We’ll return to the Root Causes of Chronic Fatigue series next week, but today a change of pace. I feel I must write about this Wiki business because yet again a patient printed out some misinformation about alternative medicine and brought it in to me for review. “Oy vey!,” I thought. “If she only knew […]
Root Causes of Chronic Fatigue, Part 11: Your Sluggish Liver
Spread your left hand across your upper abdomen. Beneath it lies your liver, the largest organ in your body. Liver metabolism is so complex that the late medical essayist Lewis Thomas, MD, wrote “Nothing would save me and my liver if I were in charge…for I am considerably less intelligent than my liver.” And yet […]
Root Causes of Chronic Fatigue, Part 10: The Tick Bite You Don’t Remember
You’re 11 years old. Or 16. Or 30. Like most Chicagoans, you regard Wisconsin and Michigan as places that exist to rent us cabins for fishing, swimming, and hiking in the woods. But after a weekend breathing the fresh air, you return home and find yourself feeling sick: headache, fever, achy. Also, you’ve got a […]
Root Causes of Chronic Fatigue, Part 9: Mold-Related Illness
Mold-related illness was first described almost 50 years ago when it was labeled sick building syndrome. It was met with incredible hostility from the medical profession (because there were no positive test results to verify any diagnosis) and from employers and building owners (who thought affected people were seeking financial gain or special favors). What […]
Root Causes of Chronic Fatigue, Part 8: Prescription Drugs
When new or even long-established patients arrive at WholeHealth Chicago (in person or via telemedicine), our practitioners walk them through what we call the medication ritual. We ask, “What are you taking, both prescription meds and supplements?” These days, people often see a range of health care providers and take many supplements, so it’s important […]
NBC Nightly News: Multi Cancer Early Detection Test
When you cross over into your 50s and beyond, like it or not your risk for developing cancer increases. If you’re health-conscious, you try to schedule the recommended screening tests: mammogram, Pap smear, skin check, colonoscopy or Cologuard, and lung CT scan for smokers. However, a new blood test changes the odds. I’ve written about […]
Root Causes of Chronic Fatigue, Part 7: Sleep Disorders
The past few weeks we’ve been making our way through the overlooked causes of chronic fatigue, a symptom that can range from nagging to debilitating. If you’ve told doctor after doctor that you’re tired all the time and all you hear in response is that your tests are normal or “maybe you’re depressed,” click these […]
Root Causes of Chronic Fatigue, Part 6: Low Magnesium
George Lundberg, MD, former editor of JAMA and now editor-at-large of Medscape, refers to low levels of magnesium as “the emperor of all maladies.” Magnesium is largely ignored by doctors, despite the fact that having an insufficient amount of this mineral has been linked to: Heart arrhythmias and heart attacks High blood pressure Attention deficit […]
Root Causes of Chronic Fatigue, Part 5: Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
I’ve been working on this chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) series in large part because here at WholeHealth Chicago our practitioners see so many patients who say right up front, “I’ve been diagnosed with CFS and all my tests are normal.” If you’re one of those patients, you might add that you’ve been to X number […]
Root Causes of Chronic Fatigue, Part 4: Vitamin Deficiencies
You might be surprised how many of the health and medical facts we accept unquestioningly today are exactly the opposite of what my chosen profession recommended to the public back when I began my training. For example, most doctors (as well as the AMA) did not believe smoking caused lung cancer and the doctors lounge […]
Root Causes of Chronic Fatigue, Part 3: Your Adrenal Glands
Patricia is 33, happily married as far as marriages go, one daughter, steadily employed in a less-than-satisfying corporate job, good eating habits, and, until recently, a health club goer a couple/three times a week. Then the lockdown came and it’s been hard to restart her workouts. After a long day working at her computer, aerobics […]
Root Causes of Chronic Fatigue, Part 2: Minimally Underactive Thyroid
I went to medical school in London for a while and truly it was great fun. This was the 1960s–Beatles, Stones, Carnaby Street–and if you were going to be anywhere on the planet, central London was it. The newly released thriller “Last Night in Soho” really captures the atmosphere. Middlesex, my assigned hospital, was located […]
Root Causes of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Part 1: Chronic Mono/Epstein-Barr Infection
First, a bit of background into chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS). Regular Health Tip readers know I write a great deal about people who come to us with chronic fatigue, especially those who’ve been told “We can’t find anything wrong with you” or “There’s nothing we can do.” What we usually find is not all paths […]
Peripheral Neuropathies
Most neurologists and primary care doctors will tell you that one of the most frustrating groups of conditions to treat are the peripheral neuropathies. It’s estimated that somewhere on the order of 20 million people suffer from peripheral neuropathy and while diagnosis is fairly straightforward, treatment is definitely problematic. The available medications are generally given […]
You’re Only As Old As Your Arteries
I first heard this phrase in medical school, but physicians have been using the phrase “hardening of the arteries” to describe the slow decline and death of old people probably since they started dissecting bodies in Ancient Greece. If you’ve got a few spare hours and a yellow highlighter, you might want to print out […]
PCOS: Overlooked and Under-Treated
A recent report revealed that there are so many cases of polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) in the US that costs for diagnosis and lifetime treatments are estimated to be $8 billion a year. If you have PCOS, obviously you’re not alone. It’s estimated that PCOS affects one woman in seven (estimates go as high as […]
Weight Loss Surgery: A Health Tip For The Seriously Obese
I know most of you reading these Health Tips are health oriented, possibly a little overweight, some post-pregnancy and others due to Covid inactivity, nothing too serious. But if you happen to know someone who’s seriously obese, this Health Tip could change their lives. Consider finding a way to get this information to them. […]
The Ears Have It
I guess it’s because ears are basically such unattractive appendages, looking quite a lot like tree fungi attached to the sides of our heads, that we try not to think about them when it comes to our health and wellbeing. Some women learn early to cover their ears with their hair or to wear distracting […]
Chronic Fatigue/Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Fibro and Covid-19
Regular readers of British mystery novels from the 1930s and 1940s are familiar with the old trick where the detective actually turns out to be the murderer. Or where Character A, innocent and charming, is none other than Character B, the poisoner. In other words, the villain can be highly elusive, and every once in […]
Texas’ Near-Total Abortion Ban
In view of the godawful news last week out of Texas and the supreme court (lower case deliberate), today I’m revisiting my 2017 Health Tip on abortion. To get us started, take a look at this chilling one-minute political ad showing video clip of a woman and her daughter being stopped by police for…well, you’ll see. The insanely restrictive Texas […]