Well, that’s certainly an eye-catching title.
Recently in the journal Internal Medicine World Report, researchers reported progress on a very specific family of enzymes called sirtuins, which significantly extend life in such primitive organisms as yeast, worms, and flies. They believe that sirtuins may be able to control such age-related disorders as obesity and type 2 diabetes in humans.
Since someone, either in my office or by e-mail, asks me this question at least once a week, this might be a good opportunity to put the matter to rest.
Or maybe not.
Physicians, especially cardiologists, have been recommending daily aspirin to their patients for decades. The theory rested on the phenomenon that aspirin ever so slightly interfered with blood clot formation, and that small blood clots were responsible for heart attacks and strokes. You didn’t need to take much: a low-dose aspirin (81 mg–formerly called baby aspirin) would do just fine.
Here’s a thoughtful gift for you, your daughter, or anyone who dreads her period because of cramps.
Q: I have a friend who is a recovering alcoholic. She’s gone through detox and is doing well managing her disease, but she wants to know if there are supplements (like milk thistle?) to support the liver that she should take to help her body recover and stay healthy.
At least once a week, someone asks me about anti-aging therapies. People want to know if there are special supplements, hormones, or injections to keep them youthful. Is there something they’re missing? Will everyone be getting younger while, for them (and them alone) time will march inexorably on?
Q: Ever since you wrote about bromelain I’ve wanted to try it, as you suggested, instead of aspirin or ibuprofen. I’m managing my heel spur pain well with the help of my physical therapist, but she encourages me to take an anti-inflammatory when I have pain. Would you tell me what dose of bromelain I should use? Also, does it work for arthritis?
You may not have a problem with arthritis in your knees now, but if your mom or grandmother has knee pain–or you yourself do–you might want to read this.
I ask every new patient what prescription medications and supplements she takes. Occasionally, someone turns the tables and asks me what my daily supplement regimen consists of.
Readers of The Triple Whammy Cure know if they’re low on the stress-buffering brain chemical serotonin, they’re more vulnerable to stress. Normally our adrenals, two walnut-sized glands perched one each atop the two kidneys, response to a “stress message” by deliberately placing our bodies into temporary overdrive to help us cope. That’s all well and […]
Here’s a useful supplement that can ease the pain of arthritis: bromelain, an enzyme found in extracts of pineapple (the fruit and its stem). Bromelain has both anti-inflammatory and pain-killing properties, like aspirin.
Q: How can a single allergy medicine work to relieve runny nose and congestion…two opposite conditions?
I roll my eyes ceiling-ward when I come across a “major new finding” in a medical journal that “reveals” something we in alternative medicine have known for years. In this month’s Mayo Clinic Proceedings, researchers discovered that acupuncture really does work for fibromyalgia. It was a good study: starting with 50 fibro patients, half had […]
…and this year is a bad one. Patients have been contacting me with all sorts of the usual hay fever type symptoms: watery eyes, runny noses, sneezing, coughing. My own allergies progressed to asthma and I was compelled to rummage around for an inhaler to use for a few days this month. (It’s probably not the smartest move to use an old dust-covered asthma inhaler, but that old saying that doctors make terrible patients is often true.)
SAMe (pronounced “sammy”) is the abbreviation for a molecule already made by your body, S-adenosylmethionine. Some good clinical studies have shown that SAMe supplements are effective for three seemingly unrelated conditions: depression, arthritis, and liver disease.
