Tag: Drugs

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Are We Medicalizing Normality?

In a commentary published in the October 20, 2011 issue of The Journal of Pediatrics, Dr. Eric Hassall cautions that medicine has turned normal function in infants into a disease complete with drug therapy and the resulting list of adverse events.

The problem lies in the fact that many doctors are viewing frequent spitting up, irritability and unexplained crying in infants under the age of one as a medical condition because the symptoms are distressing to parents. This has resulted in an increase in written prescriptions for acid-suppression medication over the last decade. Continue reading “Are We Medicalizing Normality?”

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How to Manage Asthma Naturally

Asthma is a chronic inflammation of the airways in your lungs, tiny pockets called alveoli where oxygen and carbon dioxide are exchanged as you breathe. An asthma attack occurs when the the lung tissue is inflamed to such a point that enough oxygen can’t enter the blood stream and carbon dioxide can’t be expelled.

Deepak Chopra’s take on asthma and allergies is dead on, he explains: Continue reading “How to Manage Asthma Naturally”

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How to Avoid Being Overtreated

In the field of medicine and health care, research continues to prove that when it comes to treatment – less is more. From a recent article in the NY Times:

More than 40 percent of 627 primary care doctors thought their own patients were overtreated; only 6 percent thought the patients received too little care, according to a survey published last week in Archives of Internal Medicine.

Why so many tests and referrals? Limited time to spend with patients, fear of being sued and financial incentives to do more were among the reasons cited by the physicians. Patients often worry about the cost of overtreatment but fail to recognize the potential harm of undergoing too many tests and procedures. Continue reading “How to Avoid Being Overtreated”

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What You Need to Know About the Flu Shot

As most of you probably know, influenza is a contagious viral respiratory infection.

Symptoms include:

  • Fever / Chills
  • Runny nose
  • Sore throat
  • Cough
  • Muscle aches
  • Fatigue
  • Decreased appetite

Typically, the condition will improve after two to three days of bed rest, although some symptoms may persist for about a week.

What many people do NOT know, however, is that death caused directly by the flu virus is very rare. The vast majority of so-called “flu deaths” are in fact due to bacterial pneumonia – a potential complication of the flu if your immune system is too weak. The elderly and people with other pre-existing medical conditions such as asthma, diabetes, or heart disease, are at higher risk of developing pneumonia after a bout of the flu.

The Flu Vaccine Does Not Prevent the Flu, nor Protect Against the Vast Majority of Flu-Related Deaths Continue reading “What You Need to Know About the Flu Shot”

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Why Whole Food Vitamins?

Are synthetic, isolated vitamins and non plant sourced minerals really that different from naturally occurring vitamins, plant sourced minerals, and other micronutrients? The answer is a resounding YES.

Here is what you need to know. Synthetic, isolated vitamins never grew in the ground, were never energized by the sun, and were never alive. They are chemicals; they are NOT food or nutrients. The tragedy is that under the current standards these chemicals can be marketed and studied as vitamins. They are also what are used to determine daily values and to study potential benefit and harm of supplementing your diet with vitamins. However, ingesting chemical synthetic vitamins does not represent vitamin supplementation; it represents the ingestion of chemicals or drugs. Continue reading “Why Whole Food Vitamins?”