I usually tell friends and family living elsewhere that late February through March is the most beautiful time of year here but it somehow surprises me every year.  What gorgeous weather we've had this .. winter(?).  Enjoy it

Best, Michael Carlston, M.D.
www.carlstonmd.com

Many years ago I learned of an iron supplement called Hema-Plex from an enthusiastic patient.  As people tolerate this product much better than other iron supplements, I usually recommend it to those who need iron supplementation.  A few days ago I discovered that there is another product named Hemaplex (no hyphen and in a bottle not a yellow and green box).  This other product terrifies me.  It provides iron by using very high risk bovine organ tissues (raw liver, stomach, small intestine and bone marrow).  Small intestine carries nearly as much prion material (i.e. Mad Cow) as brain tissue.

Hema-Plex on the other hand is vegetarian.

Please do not confuse these two entirely different products.

Going to the doctor's office is a stressful (i.e. blood pressure raising) experience for many people.  A significant number of people are falsely diagnosed with high blood pressure based upon measurements in their doctors' offices.  A recent study published in the Journal of the American Medicial Association (JAMA) showed that home blood pressure readings predicted the risk of stroke and heart disease but office blood pressure readings did not.

Women are significantly more likely to become depressed than men.  This is true worldwide.  In addition to the more obvious explanations related to the status of women culturally (i.e., physical and sexual abuse, social bias etc) there appears to be other factors.  A genetic component exists (maybe 50% of the risk) but I always look for risks we can change.  That changeable risk has to do, in part, with habits of thought.  Research shows that women tend to obsess about problems and emotional injuries more than men.  This tendency to dwell on unpleasantness creates an ongoing mental/emotional habit that reinforces feelings of sadness.

This research is a reminder of the importance of working to keep things in perspective.  At the same time, I can also see the positive aspects of this pattern of thought.  People who tend to mull things over can be better prepared to manage future stresses, in part through becoming more sensitive to the quality of interpersonal interactions.  The problem seems to be a matter of degree.  A certain level of awareness can be enlightening and liberating but dwelling on problems and past grievances inevitably increases your pain.

This may or may not be true for women.  The same study did not find a correlation in women however that negative finding could be a consequence of the higher rate of heart disease in younger males.

It is reasonable to speculate though that volatility is not good for any of us.

In fact, the consumer group Public Citizen, has asked the US government to ban one statin following a death resulting from kidney damage cause by muscle tissue destruction from the statin Crestor (rosuvastatin).  One year after the drugs release for general use there have been an unusually large number of reports of patients hospitalized with life-threatening muscle damage.  Three years ago, another product in this class (Baycol) was banned due to this problem.