Several years ago when I attended the first medical conference on vitamin D designed for clinicians, the limited data we had were very exciting. There was also many reasons to be skeptical and many were. It all sounded too good to be true they thought. Maybe higher vitamin D levels just told us who was already healthy. Instead of being sick and house-bound, they spent more time outside. The high vitamin D was not the cause of being well, it was the result. More complicated, time-consuming and expensive studies would have to be done to...
read moreIt is summertime. I am filling out lots of summer camp and other “special experience” forms for the children in my practice. The kids who live in my neighborhood are engaged in different activities (no lemonade stands yet, though) and the school behind my house is now a summer camp. It has me thinking. As a child I totally loved summer camp. I was always nervous beforehand - the new kids, the new counselors, the new place, the new activities. New, new, new and new. The unsettling, potentially traumatizing experience of the...
read moreA new, very large, well-designed and important study linking specific prenatal maternal environmental exposures to later autism, conducted by researchers from Harvard and the MIND Institute in Davis, has just been published. http://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/1206187/ The study of 325 autistic individuals and over 22,000 healthy children, compared data about environmental levels of toxins possibly linked to impaired brain and nervous system development. They found a direct correlation between how high recorded toxin levels were at the date and...
read moreA controversial but prominent advocate of immunizations in the United States is now becoming a vocal critic of nutrition. In advance of his new book, which advertisements and reviews suggest is a diatribe against acupuncture, chiropractic, supplements, etc., he wrote an editorial for the New York Times espousing the harms of vitamin supplements. In the editorial he “cherry picks” studies to support his contention, leaving out others that contradict his view, and even neglecting to mention data in the studies he chose, which complicate the...
read moreI am fascinated by telomeres. Telomeres aren’t some sort of underwater television or talking mirrors. Telomeres are caps on the ends of your DNA, your genes. They shorten with age. Eventually they are gone and so are we. As they shorten we become more vulnerable to disease and generally poor health. With advancing age, our immune systems do not work as well. We do not really understand why that is. One newly discovered clue is that individuals with shorter telomeres are more vulnerable to infections. There is now basic sciences evidence...
read moreOne of the most popular antibiotics, azithromycin, has now been shown to cause fatal heart rhythms in some people. You might have heard of it as ZITHROMAX, or in a conveniently packaged series of doses called Z-PAK. Although rare, the severity certainly grabs our attention and warrants concern. This lethal adverse effect is not a new one. It is known to occur with many other common drugs taken by themselves, or most dangerously, when combined. On rare occasion a large number of antibiotics, decongestants, antidepressants, drugs for...
read moreNeeding to wear glasses has long been viewed as a mark of geekiness without any other real significance. “Just bad luck”, the medical experts said. “Your eyeball is just shaped wrong and there is nothing you can do about it”. Dissenting voices, especially from the fuzzier end of the alternative medical spectrum, promoted eye exercises to improve vision and health and full spectrum lights (like the ones in my office). We have learned that near-sightedness (aka myopia) makes a person more likely to develop glaucoma or retinal detachment....
read moreWe have become increasingly isolated and fearful, unconcerned about others in our community and often afraid of “them”. Or have we? Like everyone else, I have been thinking a lot about the Boston Marathon terrorist attack. We all have our own take on the event. Many of you know that part of my sports medicine work is as medical support for marathons. Security has increasingly become a concern. At the Olympic Trials in Houston last year, the dark early morning walk from my hotel to the finish line medical area was doubled and...
read moreSports-related concussions have been gaining attention lately. Far, far too late in my opinion. It is almost like our thinking about this issue has been as impaired as the post-concussion brains of the afflicted athletes. Our cavalier attitude, so entrenched for so many generations, is truly bizarre. Before I get too self-righteous I need to confess. Buried in my confession is some useful insight, assuming that my concussion addled brain is capable of insight. As a soccer player, I suffered a series of concussions. I learned from them...
read moreI am disturbed by a recent study of advanced breast cancer among young women. Published in the Journal of the American Medical Association February 27, the study tracked breast cancer rates from 1976 to 2009. Over those 34 years, the incidence of metastatic breast cancer increased by 1.37 cases in 100,000 women. That is a very small number. Because breast cancer, especially metastatic breast cancer, is so rare among young women, this could be a statistical quirk. However in 1976 the incidence of advanced breast cancer was only 2.9. That...
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