Several years ago, the herbal antidepressant St. John’s Wort (SJW), best known for its excellent combination of effectiveness and absence of side effects, was dealt a serious and unfair blow by the US pharmaceutical industry. But there’s a hopeful end to this tip, so read on. In an example of how the industry’s greed will […]
Category: S
Our Governor the Sociopath
Click here for the Health Tip link. For many amateur and professional psychologists, Rod Blagojevich’s diagnosis was a snap. I myself muttered it aloud as the indignant US Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald related what he had overheard in those fateful wiretaps. A day or so later, in a New York Times op-ed piece, former TV talk […]
Flu Shot: Do I Need One?
Posted 09/23/2008 The quick answer is, probably yes. Influenza (Italian: influence, a reference to the fact that the disease has always occurred in recognizable epidemics) makes its appearance virtually every winter and may last as long as spring. The biggest believers in flu immunization are those who’ve been through one bad flu episode. No one […]
Stress Less: T’ai Chi
Click here for the Health Tip link. Probably like a lot of Americans, the first time I actually saw someone doing t’ai chi was during the Bill Moyers special on alternative medicine that ran on public television in the early 1990s. He was filming in China, in a city park where hundreds of Chinese start […]
Travel Snacks
If you travel at all, you don’t need me to describe the dismal food options at most airports. Yes, there are occasionally some decent choices, but what to do in the face of cinnamon buns, cold white-bread lunchmeat sandwiches, and mini-pizzas?
Stress Less: Meditation
Meditation is the simplest relaxation technique to explain and by far the hardest to master.
Like acupuncture, yoga, sushi bars, and Thai restaurants, meditation comes to us from the East, from religious practice that required quiet contemplation in order to induce a state of tranquility.
Breathe Out Stress
Click here for the original post. This breathing-out-stress exercise can be done when you’re all alone, with eyes closed in a quiet place, or when chaos seems to surround you, such as rush hour traffic (but with your eyes open and hands on the wheel). Sit quietly in a straight-backed chair with your eyes closed, […]
Fast Food Favorites: Salmon in a Pouch
Click here for the original post. Here’s a fast-food favorite that’s new to us: skinless, boneless Alaskan salmon in a pouch. No liquid to drain and no cans to open, making it an utterly convenient lunch or snack food. It makes an easy dinner too. Several brands offer this presentation. One we see here in […]
Sinus Infections
Click here for the original post. One of the most common wintertime phone calls/office visits/e-mails I receive from my patients is the desperate need for something (namely, an antibiotic) for self-diagnosed sinus infection. Most people are quite good at making this diagnosis. Typical sinusitis develops a week after a cold that almost seemed to go […]
Staying Smart
Click here for the original post. Readers of this newsletter age 40 and up have, to a person, one perpetually lurking fear: that they will they get dumber with each passing decade. You suddenly go blank trying to locate the right word or match a name with a familiar face. Or you walk into your […]
Stress Less: Acupuncture
Click here for the original post. It’s pitch dark in your living room. You bang your shin hard against the edge of a coffee table, and momentarily you actually see stars. You reach down and rub the sore spot; within seconds you actually feel a little better. Although you may not be aware of it, […]
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.
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.
The Most Important Supplement
It’s magnesium. In fact, if you wake up one morning and say, “I’m not taking another supplement in my life” (not that I’m recommending this), don’t toss your magnesium.
SICKO Part Five: Fixing the System
First, let me explain why doctors might be so impotent when it comes to doing anything about a health care system many of them clearly see is wrong. I read a research paper some years ago by a psychologist trying to analyze why physicians allowed themselves to be manipulated into situations that were patently against everyone’s best interests, including their own.
Q&A: A Question About SICKO
Q I’ve been reading your series on Michael Moore’s movie SiCKO and was wondering: is Medicare the same as national health insurance? My mother and father are covered under Medicare and they seem to get good care from their doctor.
SICKO Part Four
Michael Moore’s SiCKO explores a seamy underside to the American health care system: the self-serving collusion between the US federal government and the immense powers within medical care.
SiCKO Part Three: More on Michael Moore’s Important Documentary
When I was in China this summer, I began a conversation with our group and our Chinese guide. We compared health care in China with that of the US. Most of my fellow travelers were Canadians, Brits, and Australians, with a few Scandinavians tossed in for good measure.
SICKO Part Two
This continues my urging for you to see (and act upon) Michael Moore’s movie SiCKO, his devastating critique of our health care crisis.
Our current health care mess really began in 1971 when President Nixon signed a law that ended further debate about government-funded universal health care. Until that point, doctors had been making good money in the now historical fee-for-service system (the only remaining fee-for-service physicians today are cosmetic surgeons). Doctors were fearful to the point of paranoia about so-called socialized medicine, and very worried about what was being created up in Canada.