Doctor what can I eat

One of the most important things for your health is what you put in your mouth. Everyone has heard the old adage "you are what you eat". I modify that and say you are what you digest, because you can eat the best food in the world, but if you do not digest it into the usable parts (vitamins, minerals, amino acids and fats), it does not matter what you eat. However, putting digestion aside, what are we suppose to eat. Well everyday a new diet is coming out. The most recent is whole 30. I contend ...
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Insomnia Drugs and Dementia

Many studies show about 50% of people over 50 do not sleep well. Many are taking sleep aids like Tylenol PM that have an antihistamine like Benadryl in them. The Benadryl makes you drowsy and the Tylenol helps with muscle and joint pain that can wake you. They are Band-Aids on your symptoms of insomnia and joint pain. They do not treat why you have insomnia or joint pain. Now a new study published in JAMA shows a connection to dementia and some over the counter sleep aids. Benadryl falls under t...
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Spring Cleaning Time

Spring is here and it is time to do some spring cleaning. Its spring and most of us do some sort of spring cleaning around the house. All that trash that blew into your yard and the branches that feel down, the things that accumulated in the garage and the house. All of that needs to be cleaned out. Well debris has collected in your body as well. Between all the goodies over the holidays and the weather impacting our exercise routine, we have accumulated a bit of junk in our body too. So it is ...
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Infrared Therapy, now at Journey to Wellness Clinic

Hippocrates, the father of medicine, once said "give me a fever and I can treat any disease." A fever is the body's way of naturally combating infections and viruses. The rise in body temperature is how our bodies activate our immune systems disease-fighting allies (including white blood cell and antibodies). These cells are produced at an increased rate and the vital processes and organs in the body work faster. The other common symptom that accompanies fevers, sweating, helps fight toxins and...
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Fever is our friend, acetaminophen is not

For those that have been with me for a while, you know that I am an advocate of letting yourself or your children have a fever. Remember the body does things for a reason. When we get an invader in the body, the body in its infinite wisdom raises our body temperature to a level that is inhospitable to the invader. The only danger is if the temperature goes too high, or in children it raises too fast. In the case of children where a fever comes on quickly they can have a seizure and the first thi...
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Do you have a Flex Spending account?

Do you have a Flex spending account (FSA)? FSA is one of a number of tax-advantaged financial accounts that can be set up through a cafeteria plan of an employer in the United States. An FSA allows an employee to set aside a portion of earnings to pay for various medical expenses. I write today because one of my patients came in the other day and said she still had $1200 left on her FSA. The down side is if you do not use it you lose it. The FSA is a great tool to help pay for complementary me...
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The aging brain in the News

The Aging Brain in the News We have all heard of Alzheimer's. It is a disease we all dread. The rate of Alzheimer's has risen significantly in the US to around 5.4 million. This number is projected to double by 2040, according to the Alzheimer's Association. We have been hearing for a long time that Alzheimer's disease is associated with blood sugar. In fact I have heard it coined as Type III diabetes. There was a large study conducted in Japan reported that people with diabetes are twice as l...
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drug shortages…..what can we do ?

So there is a lot in the news about the recent drug shortages. Of course as a patent for a drug expires it goes generic and other companies can now manufacture it, and the price drops significantly. OK that is business. These drug companies spend $200-300 million to run their studies so they need to recoup their costs. I am ok with that. What I am not ok with is new drugs that have one minor variation of the old drug so that they get a new patent and then reduce the supply of the old drug so y...
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Multiple vitamin study

I am sure some of you saw the multiple vitamin study in the news that said that taking a multiple vitamin might increase risk of death in women who take them. Well that got my attention until I read the study. A total of 38,772 older women were included in the analysis. Women were aged between 55 to 69 years, with an average of 61.6 years at the beginning of the study in 1986. This was Self-reported data on vitamin supplement use from 1986, 1997, and 2004. If you look at the study a couple of th...
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medicinal mushrooms and cancer

Medicinal mushrooms have some of the most potent remedial compounds found in nature, and they are starting to be recognized in Western society for their great wellness properties. Interestingly enough, humans are more closely related to fungi than to any other kingdom, including plants, protozoans, and bacteria, and we have developed similar defenses against mutual disease-causing enemies. The idea is that because fungi and animals suffer from many of the same diseases, fungal medicines are acti...
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