Every week JAMA has an article written by physicians expressing their experiences in life. This last week article, written by Thomas Edes, MD, I thought was unusually good. It relates the story of Bonnie, a woman with cancer who initially approached it with aggressive chemotherapy and radiation. She endured the countless prolonged visits to clinics, …
Researchers at Harvard University conducted long-term studies on nearly 6,000 men and found that those who supplemented daily with 50mg of beta-carotene (which the body converts to vitamin A) had significantly better memory, cognitive function, and verbal recognition than those who took a placebo. Vitamin A may accomplish this by slowing the buildup of plaque …
Recently there has been some publicity over a study that showed that Glucosamine Chondroitin had little if any benefit in reducing the pain of Osteoarthritis. Personally, I would question the quality of the Glucosamine Chondroitin that was used in the trial as over 50% of my patients that take this do experience less pain. There …
This winter for the first time that I can remember I came across what the Chinese refer to as the “100 day cough”. In the western world it is known as whooping cough. The cases that I saw were either adults or teenagers. What was unique about the cough other than its longevity was the …
The idea that the exposure to germs and toxins can prevent cancer is a relatively new one. What most people don’t realize is that over a 100 years ago a doctor was curing cancer with vaccines made from killed bacterial preparations. William Coley in the 1890’s found that his crude vaccine was effective in many …
Sunshine is regularly blamed for causing fatal skin cancers, but it may help save your life if you develop a different cancer. It seems that sunlight has an overall protective effect as it stimulates the body’s production of vitamin D, which helps to combat internal cancers including those of the colon and prostate. “A little …
Because of heart disease a 78-year-old man was unable to do most of his chores around the house. His wife of 56 years had taken over most of his former household chores. One day, she mowed the lawn and placed the mower in its usual spot when she was finished. While his wife went to …
A half century ago, doctors from Europe and North America who spent time in central Africa were struck by the absence of multiple sclerosis there. Indeed, the farther from the equator people lived, the more prevalent multiple sclerosis (MS) seemed to become thus arose the “latitude hypothesis” of MS, suggesting that a lack of direct …
It seems like a week does not go by without an article appearing in the lay press about the benefits of taking the statin medications like Lipitor. This drug alone accounts for 2 billion dollars in sales yearly. For many physicians, it is quicker to write out a script for a cholesterol-lowering medication than it …
In the early 1990’s there were several studies done that evaluated the effects of Lithium in drinking water in Texas. There are areas in Texas where lithium is not found naturally in drinking water and other areas where it exists in concentrations of 70-170 part per million. What these studies found was that in those …