Iceland’s Genetic Secrets
Inbreeding is supposed to be a bad thing. That’s why researchers were startled to discover the extent of inbreeding evident among residents of the orderly and not-exactly-lascivious Island nation of Iceland.
Why Menopause Happens: The Real Purpose of Menopause in Women’s Health
My thinking on hormone replacement is that if a woman is having uncomfortable hot flashes and can’t sleep, then hormones are likely to help and should be used (preferably natural hormones). Hormones are not a “life extension” tool.
Four-Year-Olds Choose Friends Based on Looks
Some sociologists and psychologists say we favor attractive people based on advertising and our image-saturated world, while others say it’s biology and these preferences exist to hep us select the most genetically fit mates.
New Insights Into Alzheimer’s
If you have Alzheimer’s or even a family history of Alzheimer’s, your best bet is to treat your brain to a healthy, inflammation-fighting diet.
Is a Nature Deficit Depressing kids?
Worried you child may be depressed? Want to help them? Take them to a beautiful place outside. Nature heals.
Are Calcium Supplements Safe?
Calcium supplements have been found to cause heart attacks. If you have osteoporosis, you may wonder: What should I be doing for my bones?
Osteoporosis Treatment Without Drugs: The Missing Link to Superior Bone Health
Collagen is an overlooked factor in bone health, and a missing food group from the American diet.
Early Puberty: What does it mean for tomorrow’s women?
Abnormal sexual development from unclear cause, environmental changes suspected. According to a new study published in the journal Pediatrics, 1 in 10 girls in second and third grade, of Caucasian descent, showed stage 2 breast development (small mounds of tissue under the nipple area), which is considered the first sign of sexual maturation. This is an increase of two hundred percent since the 1980s. For African American girls, the increase is even more alarming, with nearly one in four 7 and 8 year-olds showing the early breast signs. The causes are unclear, but suspects include: Pthallates, compounds that make their…
Lose Belly Flab in Three Weeks!! (It can be done, and here’s why you should)
Big bellies bulge when a person’s diet is particularly bad. Belly flab is an important external sign of metabolic inflammation. According to new research, even thin people with a little bit of belly flab are looking at problems down the road. A study published this week in the Archives of Internal Medicine suggests that relatively normal weight people who add bulk in the bellies, as opposed to other places, are at nearly the same risk of dying from respiratory diseases (like asthma and pnumonia), cardiovascular diseases (like heart attack and stroke), and cancers as people who are morbidly obese. “Even…
Can Creepy People Make Good Doctors?
Have you ever had the experience of meeting the doctor who is going to perform your surgery only to discover that this surgeon had all the charm and charisma of a villain out of a Stephen King novel? Guys, have you ever, during an initial consultation for, say, a vasectomy, noticed something strange about the way a doctor was speaking to you? Maybe he refuses to look you in the eyes for the entirety of your visit, fixating on your Adam’s apple as if it were talking directly to him. Ladies, what if you were about to get a hysterectomy,…
Is Raw Milk Good for You? The Real Benefits of Fresh, Unprocessed Milk
If you’re lucky enough to live in a state where raw milk is available in stores and you don’t buy it, you are passing up a huge opportunity to improve your health immediately.
How starting a low-cholesterol diet leads to weight gain
The advice to cut cholesterol almost always leads to eating more carbs, which increases triglyceride and often LDL levels, which leads to being placed on cholesterol pills, which can cause diabetes.
New Hope for Alzheimer’s?
According to a leading researcher of Alzheimer’s disease clinical trials, Dr. Paul Aisen (photo), our drugs don’t work because doctor’s like me are not prescribing them early enough. But I think doctors should not promote extended use of drugs without proven benefit.
One more vital food source down the drain: The health effects of the BP oil spill
When I first saw those helicopter shots of red oil plumes staining the ocean, my only thought was: How could any animal survive in that? As a person who loves animals, this tragedy is too awful to think about. But as a doctor concerned with the prevention of human illness, I can’t help thinking about it. I can’t help but wonder: If the entire Gulf ecosystem is trashed, how will that affect us? It’s impossible to measure, let alone predict, the long-term human health effects that emerge from a major environmental catastrophe like the one we are now witnessing in…
No more free lunch for doctors
I don’t actually know anyone who sees drug reps anymore. The programming by we are influenced these days is much harder for our patients to see—even reporters seem not to know to write about it. It’s called “Pay for Performance,” or P4P.
Do you want your doctor to think for herself?
If you are the kind of person who wants to see an independently minded physician who treats you as an individual rather than a disease state to be fitted into a predetermined algorithm, you might not like the direction medicine will be headed if people like Dr. Pearson have their way.
Papillary Thyroid Cancer: More Common Than You Think
If you’re wondering if cancer can go away by itself, you may be very interested to learn that some cancers seem to do that MOST of the time.
If diabetes medications make you tired, read this:
If you have diabetes, fatigue may be a sign that your medication dosages may bee too high and you are at risk of dying from fatal arrhythmia. If your medications make you tired, schedule an urgent visit with your doctor and bring the reference I cite at the bottom of the article so they are up to date.
