Chelation and Heart Disease: Deceptive NYTimes title
NYTimes article reads “Chelation Therapy Shows Slight Benefit for Heart Disease.” I was amazed at that and read on, only to find that the study showed no such thing. The results were not statistically significant and there were so many confounding factors in the $30 MILLION study that it was pretty much worthless. How many…
Read MoreTime Magazine Alternative Medicine Issue: Anti Aging II
The longevity advice here seems basic, but for thoroughness sake here goes. 1. Stop smoking. Duh. 2. Reduce stress. Meditation, yoga, Acupuncture (of course.) A 2005 study shows participants who meditated over a long period had thicker cerebral cortices. A recent study showed even 4 weeks of meditation improved white matter 3. Stay trim. The…
Read MoreAnti-Aging Tips from Time Magazine Alternative Medicine Issue
“Hidden deep inside the body’s cells, they’re called telomeres, and they are so important to every cell’s aging process that the team that discovered their existence was awarded the Nobel Prize in medicine in 2009… An enzyme called telomerase can restore some length to the chromosome, thus prolonging cell life.” Unhealthy habits–smoking, overeating have…
Read MoreAllergy Remedies from Time Magazine Alternative Health Issue
Will just summarize some of the tips from the Time Magazine chapter on Allergies 1. Global warming is making it harder on the 40% of Americans who suffer from seasonal allergies. 2. Americans spend $30 billion a year on allergy and asthma care. 3. One out of four turn to alternative medicine options 4.Butterbur…
Read MoreBacteria Friend or Foe? Part II
Discussion of the first part of the New Yorker article here. The rest of the article discusses the future of using select bacteria combinations to actually treat illness. They discuss that probiotics, to date, are nonspecific and somewhat crude. Two prominent examples where this could be helpful are in children who develop pediatric antibiotic-associated diarrhea…
Read MoreBacteria: More friend than foe? Part I
File under “First Do No Harm” and the hazards of antibiotics, I will try to summarize the fascinating article in the October 22nd issue of the New Yorker Magazine about the importance of bacteria in our bodies for everything from Vitamin production, to mood, to suppression of disease, to digestion, to forming and bolstering our…
Read MoreTime Magazine Alternative Medicine Issue
I’m making my way through the Time Magazine Alternative Medicine issue so you don’t have to. So far I’ve learned that 1. Cleanses are of no particular value except in what you’re NOT putting into your body for a few days. 2. Vitamins and Nutraceuticals are of no particular value as a product, and…
Read MoreThe Perils of Sitting
We discussed this in a previous posts with links to information about tweaking the workplace. This article looks at the hazards of sitting at home, in particular the risks to your health of TV watching. If you throw in the many hours a day most of us have to sit at our jobs, let…
Read MoreBerlin Medical History Museum
Scant posting this last week and this is why. I took a quick trip to Berlin and among the many sights I visited was the Medical History Museum there. Berlin is very grand, even the Medical History Museum has these incredible banners embelishing the facade. Items viewed inside were things such as “blood letting bowls”,…
Read MoreUse Willpower Wisely
I have seen “Willpower:Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength,” by Baumeister and Tierney referenced in the media repeatedly. I am drawing from Wired (wired.com) magazine here. The main point is that Willpower is a finite source. It actually is taxing to use it, so you need to focus on one resolution instead of many. So don’t…
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