This is my first blog in a long time, the first in a series over the next few months.  While I have a plan for a number of subjects of interest, as is usual for me I’d like to start with something that serves as a reminder of principles that help keep everything in perspective. It’s a wry fact that many of those who have been most vocal about best health practices have suffered the indignity of a relatively early death of seemingly preventable causes, sometimes the very diseases they said you could prevent by following their approach. It’s an interesting study and a little spooky for the fact that we’re reminded that the matter of health is not so simple as eating a great diet, the best supplements, exercise, etc.   Health Gurus who had untimely deaths: https://www.mnn.com/food/healthy-eating/stories/7-diet-gurus-who-died-of-poor-health https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/09/opinion/sunday/longevity-pritikin-atkins.html https://www.healthline.com/health/food-nutrition/deaths-of-fitness-diet-gurus#gypsy-boots) George Ohsawa, the founder of macrobiotics died of a heart...

You may be surprised to learn that medicine is subject to prescribing fads. For example, I’ve been astonished at the dramatic increase of patients that are taking drugs that turn off the acid production in your stomach, a trend well evidenced in the medical literature.  These drugs are called “Proton Pump Inhibitors”. In fact, drugs with names such as Nexium, Tecta, Prilosec, Losec, Prevacid, Periot, are now prescribed for a wide range of stomach problems and related esophageal and throat symptoms, across a remarkable range of ages. I’ve seen several cases of children and teenagers on acid inhibiting medications. In fact, there has been an astonishing rise in the prescription of these medications for children under the age of one for gastric irritation and to prevent infant reflux. As of 2010, there were 114 million prescriptions of acid suppressing medications per year in the United States. Over the last ten years, the number...

Psoriasis is one of the most intractable conditions to treat for both conventional and alternative medicine.  However, recent research indicates that Pycnogenol® a standardized extract from French maritime pine tree bark, significantly improved some of the discomforting symptoms of of this condition including redness, flaking, and thickness of the total surface area of the affected skin patches.  Standard treatment protocols involve anti-inflammatory medications and sometimes drugs such as methotrexate or immune-suppressing agents, particularly in psoriatic arthritis, a condition where psoriasis and arthritis, particularly of the fingers, toes and lower spine, seem to run together..   While the present study focussed on the pine bark extracts, grape seed extracts contain essentially the same factors, known as PCO’s, a particular phytochemical from a family of compounds known as flavonoids.  Supplementation doses of 100 to 300 mg daily can be helpful for a wide variety of condition, with research showing benefits for:     Asthma...