Let’s get the depressing part over with…then we’ll get to the hopeful stuff! When it comes to diabetes, we know the stats; they aren’t great. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), over 34.2 million people in the United States have diabetes, and one in five don’t know they have it. Over… Read more »
2020 has been challenging. These months of sheltering in place, cessation of our normal social activities and extra worry have increased anxiety and stress. In addition, there is a sense of uncertainty along with an extra expenditure of effort to get things done. Whether you have been working harder than previously or isolated from your… Read more »
Suicide has surpassed car accidents as the number one cause of injury-related deaths in the United States, especially for cancer patients and teens.1,2 What if we could change that? Integrative medicine expert Deepak Chopra, MD and a collaboration of mental health experts and activists have launched the Never Alone Summit to bring awareness and solutions… Read more »
Sometimes it takes a personal struggle and a hero emerging from it, to teach the rest of us (doctors included) that we can and should do better when it comes to our health. Terry Wahls, MD, founder of the Wahls Protocol, did not seek to practice medicine in a way other than how she was… Read more »
Merely using a bioidentical hormone replacement therapy doesn’t guarantee lasting health benefits; it’s a lot more complex than that. Equally important is selecting the right delivery method—meaning the way in which the hormones enter the body and find their way to appropriate receptors to perform their work. Not all bioidentical hormone treatments can effectively achieve… Read more »
Sleep is important for many reasons. During sleep our brain is hard at work cleaning up and organizing all of the activity from the day. The ideal amount of sleep for longevity, decreased risk of cardiovascular and other chronic diseases like Parkinson’s and dementia is 7 to 9 hours. Many people struggle with sleep issues… Read more »
Chronic diseases are a recent part of human history. In the past, people only went to healers, physicians or hospitals when they became sick, generally due to infections, injuries or other maladies. Even cancer was very rare in the past as described by Mukherjee in The Emperor of All Maladies (2010). The concept of chronic… Read more »
How are you doing? During this time we’ve been thinking of you, dear readers, and eager to present this special issue inspiring health and hope from our local wellness community. There has never been a more important time to build and maintain a healthy immune system. But how do you focus on good health when… Read more »
Over the past month, I have seen a surge of patients presenting with anxiety and/or depression in my practice. “I am so scared, scared to go out, scared to be home alone, scared of how I am going to pay my bills, and scared that my family members and friends could die in the next… Read more »
Living through a pandemic raises our awareness of the importance of our immune system. In preventing illness, there are generally two main principles: Don’t get it in the first place; Have a strong defense system in place to fight the intruder and render it inactive. We have rapidly transitioned to behaviors that address the first… Read more »
Following an anti-inflammatory diet can be confusing. Where do I start? What are the most inflammatory foods? How can I personalize such a diet for the food intolerances I have? Will Cole, DC, a functional medicine expert in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, simplifies this topic in his new book, The Inflammation Spectrum (Avery, 2019). Dr. Cole does… Read more »
Terry Wahls could be considered a miracle. Bound to a reclining wheelchair with progressive multiple sclerosis, she reversed her condition and, today, enjoys an active lifestyle, returning to her medical practice and leading research to help others. However, her methods are far from miraculous; they are simply a change in nutrition and lifestyle that reduced… Read more »
Anticancer Living is authored by the husband and wife team of Lorenzo Cohen, PhD, and Alison Jefferies, MEd who lead the integrative medicine program at the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, TX. The scientific basis of all their information and recommendations is deep and sound. In many ways, this book is a sequel to… Read more »
The food we consume is made up of three nutrients: proteins, fat and carbohydrates. Of the carbohydrates, there are three types: sugar, starch and fiber. Sugars are the simplest form of carbohydrates and examples include sucrose (table sugar), glucose (our body’s source of energy) and fructose (found in fruits and certain vegetables). Table sugar is… Read more »
Our bodies are well designed to sort everything we encounter into a beneficial input to be absorbed and utilized or a useless or toxic input to be repelled or eliminated. From the food we eat and the air we breathe to organisms we encounter, these systems are robustly built to protect us and allow us… Read more »
In these uncertain times, we are seeing a vast increase in the number of people who constantly feel depressed, anxious and out of balance. Major depressive disorder affects more than 16 million Americans and 40 million adults (1 in 5 people) regularly suffer from anxiety and panic attacks, with irregular heartbeat, shallow breathing, heart attack… Read more »
Nine months after treatment and a year after starting an integrative cancer care protocol, today, I am cancer-free. In January 2019 I was diagnosed with early stage invasive ductal breast cancer and chose to have my tumor frozen versus a lumpectomy or mastectomy. “Cryoablation” as it’s called is much less invasive and my results are… Read more »
Despite the billions of dollars spent on cancer research and treatments, cancer rates continue to skyrocket. It is currently estimated that 1,735,350 new cases of cancer will be diagnosed this year and 609,640 people will die from cancer.1 Approximately 38.4 percent of men and women will be diagnosed with cancer at some point during their… Read more »
With 70 percent of Americans being overweight or obese, most people have excess body fat. Being lean means having low body fat, and many of us with this healthier state are often accused of being underweight. What makes us have excess fat? This is commonly misunderstood. Our genes play a role, but that is generally… Read more »
Editor’s note: The connection between Alzheimer’s and nutrition has been covered often in Desert Health, but as the topic is both new and important, we will continue to publish editorials by a variety of practitioners. Previous articles can be found at here. The statistics around Alzheimer’s disease are highly concerning. Alzheimer’s is the 6th leading… Read more »