It is officially here – flu season. I have had a few people here and they’re showing up with the occasional flu bug. But the real flu season begins about two weeks before Halloween with the first four bags of Halloween candy that you picked up at the store. After all, the bags have been […]
Everyone is familiar with the pain blocking ability of morphine, codeine, oxycodone, and the rest of the opiate-based pain medications. As a group, they are the most widely abused drugs in America today. But without them patients can be stuck with unbearable levels of pain. I know when I was passing a kidney stone several […]
As you may have noticed, if you have been reading this newsletter for any length of time, I have an obsession with maintaining mental and physical functionality as I age. Why am I obsessed? I obsess because it is my story. I work diligently to maintain my mental and physical functionality as I age. I […]
Mayonnaise defies the natural order, much like life itself. Normally oil and water do not mix, but mayonnaise forms an emulsion that keeps the oil dispersed in the water for a long time. It does this through the magic of bipolar molecules – Little molecules with one end that loves oil and the other end […]
When you ask the average person what single food will give them the best nutrition, a majority will say a nice big glass of milk. The nutritional properties of milk have been carefully promoted for decades. The milk advisory board’s advertising campaigns have been some of the most successful in history. Who doesn’t love the […]
Last week I wrote about how so much of the pain I see in patients is not the result of anything they have done to injure themselves, but rather the consequence of little lifestyle choices that gradually start creating negative consequences like pain. We focused on the lower half of the body last time, looking […]
I see a lot of people in pain. The first thing they usually want to know is what they did to cause the pain in the first place so they can avoid it in the future. A few of them know what they did, like lifting something too heavy or being in some sort of […]
I know the title statement sounds silly, but I am being tricky. GAS stands for General Adaptation Syndrome – part of the theory of stress proposed by Hans Selye many years ago. This newsletter is going to be a synthesis of my knowledge and experience to date regarding weight gain/obesity, so I may make connections […]
Starches are problematic for the majority of people, but they are still the major food source for those same people. This planet could not sustain its current population if we were to all turn Paleo and eat a diet based primarily on meat. While this may be a good health choice for some people, it […]
Starchy foods have been a mainstay of the human diet for thousands of years. For many people starchy foods provide their primary source of affordable calories each day. While starches are a bad idea for a sizable portion of the population, they are very usable for the larger percentage of folks. Remember, we are all […]