Year: 2013

New Cholesterol Guidelines

Homeopathy, Osteopathy / , , , , , /

Back in November 2013, the American Heart Association issued new cholesterol guidelines that immediately created confusion and controversy for both patients and physicians. The committee reviewed many randomized controlled clinical trials that lead to the development of a risk calculator. Factors such as sex, age, race, total cholesterol, HDL (“good cholesterol”), systolic blood pressure, treatment for elevated blood pressure, diabetes and smoking are used to generate a 10 year risk number. If that number is greater than 7.5%, then the use of a statin is recommended. This is regardless of the level of  your LDL cholesterol (“bad cholesterol”).  In the past, target levels of total cholesterol, HDL and LDL cholesterol were the major parameters used. The committee also announced that life style modification is the  first line of treatment but also stated that no other drugs, supplements or vitamins should be used, just a statin.

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Homeopathy and Influenza

Homeopathy, Osteopathy / , , , , , , , , , /

Flu vaccine efficacy has been estimated by various studies to be between 30 – 70%. The reason for the less than 100% efficacy is a phenomenon called “antigenic drift”, namely that the surface proteins on the virus change in nature from the time the strains are selected in the Spring and the vaccine is manufactured in the late summer. Your immune system is being primed with inactivated viral strains whose surface features have changed in the months since the vaccine was manufactured.

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A Dog’s Tale

Homeopathy / , /

Sandy was my soft coated wheaten terrier. Here’s a photo of him when he was about a year old. He was all terrier – a great companion and ready to defend the home turf against all intruders: horses, deer, foxes, skunks, squirrels, chipmunks, racoons, and even some bird species. He was affectionate, always jumping up to kiss or placing his chin on your lap. He had a sense of humor and was a trickster at heart.

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Affordable Healthcare

Health Insurance /

Today is the first day that Americans can go to their computers and check out their state health exchanges for health insurance under the Affordable Care Act (ObamaCare). Personally and professionally I do not know if this solves any of our problems but politics aside, I think people should check it out an see if it actually is affordable for them and their families. 

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Terrorism, the FBI and a Fish Tank

Homeopathy / , , , /

Sometime in the early 1990s, before the first attack on the World Trade Center, I was visited by a most anxious patient. It took only seconds to figure out what he did for a living when I saw his FBI badge and his Glock sidearm. He had been referred to me by a family friend who was a patient. Oscar was a member of the elite anti-terrorism unit based in New York. He came for treatment of an infection of his right arm. The persistent swollen lymph nodes throughout his arm and and armpit had not responded to antibiotic treatment. When the antibiotics failed to cure the infection, his doctor arranged to have one lymph node biopsied. The results revealed that Oscar had acquired an unusual infection. It was Mycobacterium marinum. 

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A Homeopath on Vacation

Homeopathy, Travel / , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , /

In the professional life of every homeopathic physician there comes a turning point.  With growing confidence, trust and skill in the homeopathic method the physician closes the door on allopathic thinking.  Taking homeopathy to heart, it is a point of no return, an existential turn.  Homeopathy then penetrates into other aspects of one’s life beyond the daily clinical practice.  The method of healing becomes a way of understanding the world.  The similimum is not only the patient’s constitutional prescription but also a metaphor for understanding spouse, children, family and friends.  The remedy as type brings to light possibilities of behavior, strengths and weaknesses.  The homeopathic appreciation of those around us fosters understanding and tolerance.

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Fishy Research

Family Medicine, Holistic Medicine / , , , , /

Last week, the mainstream press reported a study that linked consumption of fish oil to prostate cancer. A closer look at the study, however, calls the headline into question. The results were taken from a study that was designed to answer the association between selenium and vitamin C and cancer risk. The study was not initially designed to study the link between omega 3 oils and prostate cancer risk. The researchers included one (just one) measurement of blood levels of omega 3 oils. It is always dangerous to use a study designed for a specific purpose, such as selenium and vitamin C intake and cancer risk in general to answer a specific question about another factor such as fish oil consumption. One measurement in time gives no information about any subject’s daily intake in a disease that takes years to develop. The difference between the two groups, those with increased risk and the control was 4.66% vs. 4.48%.  This is at best a weak correlation and not causation. 

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Inflammatory Bowel Disease

Holistic Medicine, Homeopathy / , , /

Most patients who come for treatment of Inflammatory Bowel Disease (Crohn’s Disease, Ulcerative Colitis) are already on medication for the control of their symptoms. They know that the conventional medication is not a cure, rather it is a life long treatment. The goal is to try and keep the symptoms mild, to treat any flare-ups aggressively, to provide additional nutritional support and thus decrease the risk of intestinal obstruction, abscess, fistula, colon resection or colon cancer.  Endoscopy can be used to check the progress of treatment whether it is conventional or holistic. 

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Strange, Rare and Peculiar

Homeopathy / , , , /

Emma was 55 year old patient who was referred to me by another homeopathic doctor for a consultation. Thirty years earlier she walked into a closet and struck her head on a shelf. The pain was intense so she rubbed the top of her head vigorously to relieve the injury. From that point forward she continued to habitually rub her head. Soon, she began also rubbing her eyebrows to the point where she had rubbed off all of the hair on her eyebrows and the top part of her scalp. She had developed a condition known as trichotillomania. After 45 minutes of case taking I had only one reliable symptom that I could use: the sensation that her brain was rocking back and forth inside her skull.

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All In The Family

Family Medicine, Homeopathy, Osteopathy / , , , , /

These days with constantly shifting insurance coverage, its difficult to keep the same doctor from year to year let alone for a lifetime. So it is that we forget what the word “family” in family medicine can mean.  It means you treat families, generation to generation not just all members of one generation.  And so it is with little Maggie here. She’s weeks old and had a rather difficult birth.She underwent vacuum extraction just 2 weeks earlier that left her bruised and swollen. During her mom’s pregnancy it looked like an inflamed appendix was going to lead to surgery during pregnancy. Homeopathy to the rescue.

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