Aging to Perfection: Part 1 - Maintaining Functional Capacity
My patients often say to me “It’s hell getting old.” My reply is always the same, “It beats the alternative!” Growing old is not for the faint of heart. This is the first of a two part post called Aging to Perfection. Part 1 is about how to maintain functional capacity and Part 2 is about wisdom.
How to Control High Cholesterol
With so much written in the popular press about high cholesterol and so many TV commercials selling cholesterol lowering medications, I am always surprised by how little my patients know about it. Here’s a little primer on high cholesterol to put you in the know.
Improving Health with Balance or As the Pendulum Swings
If there is a seed from which all health and wellness grows it is balance. If there is root cause for most of the unhappiness and dis-ease we experience in our lives, it is lack of balance. A pendulum is a simple object possessing powerful forces of nature that you can use to bring your life into a more comfortable and healthy balance. Read on and I’ll explain how.
Checklist for Newly Diagnosed Diabetics
When you are diagnosed with diabetes for the first time, you get a whole lot of information pushed at you in a very short time. I strongly encourage you to attend formal diabetic education classes. If you are a newly diagnosed diabetic, here’s a checklist of things it’s important to learn about and understand. Once you know this stuff, you’ll find handling your diabetes isn’t such a big hairy deal after all. Everything will start to fall into place.
Bloating or Ovarian Cancer? Six Common Symptoms of an Uncommon Disease
The risk of having any form of cancer is scary but ovarian cancer is scarier than most. In June of 2007, the Gynecologic Cancer Foundation, the Society of Gynecologic Oncologists, National Ovarian Cancer Coalition (NOCC), and the American Cancer Society agreed on six symptoms that can help detect ovarian cancer early if women and their health providers both keep them in mind. Read about what they are and get some tips on how to avoid unnecessary worry.
Blood Pressure Meds Don’t Work - Unless You Take Them
High blood pressure is called the “silent killer” because it has no symptoms. I have patients who swear they know when their blood pressure is high, but I remain skeptical. More often than not when I take a BP that’s elevated, the person has no idea and “feels just fine”. I have seen patients in the emergency room with alarming, stroke-range BPs who hadn’t a clue their blood pressure was high. If you are on blood pressure medication - or wonder if you should be - please read this post.
Tim Russert and Metabolic Syndrome
Tim Russert’s sudden and untimely death should have been preventable. All the risks that contributed to his death were controllable, except his inherited risk. We will never know if he might have avoided his premature death had he taken better care of the controllable risks earlier. But it would have given him a better shot – and the same goes for you.
10 Ways to Tell If You Are a Normal Eater
Many of us aren’t sure what normal eating is anymore . So I asked an expert.
Val Stec is not only a registered dietitian (RD), she is also a licensed medical social worker (LMSW) and a practicing therapist. She is the owner of Mindful Health, a day treatment facility in Naples, Florida, which specializes in the treatment of eating disorders and substance abuse. I asked Val how she would answer this question, “What exactly is normal eating?” Here’s her answer.
Osteopenia and Osteoporosis: Keeping Your Scaffold Strong!
Are you confused about osteopenia and osteoporosis? Do you wonder whether you are at risk for a fracture? Do you want to know what steps you can take to prevent it? And whether you need medication?
Note: This post was updated with new information on November, 21 2008. After reading this, click here, for more information about medicaions and how long you should take them.
This is a picture of osteoporetic bone. See how thin and fragile it is? This bone would fracture easily if enough force were exerted, from a fall for example. But there are steps you can take to prevent this so read on.
Intelligence of Crows
There are rare moments when people and their ideas just rock my world. This 10 minute video, published on the TED website, did just that. Thank you, TED for doing what you are doing and for sharing your content so freely. And thank you, Joshua Klein, for showing us the intelligence of crows and asking, “Why not turn a longstanding rivalry between man and crow into something that profits both species?“ Check this out - it is fun!
