Whole Health Chicago

WHC Health Tips

• May 21, 2012 - Six Commonly Missed Diagnoses: Vitamin D Deficiency

  Much of medical care is hampered by the black-and-white thinking of doctors. You either have a condition (symptoms confirmed by positive tests) or you don’t (symptoms, but no useful test results, and therefore “nothing’s wrong with you”). Doctors are uncomfortable with grey zones, like when test results seem normal but on closer inspection... » read more

• May 14, 2012 - Six Commonly Missed Diagnoses: B12 Deficiency

  You’re pretty sure you know your body and you tell your doctor you’re just not feeling right. You’re tired, maybe a little depressed, a bit achy. Maybe your digestion is “off.” The list of foods you can’t seem to enjoy is definitely longer. Your doctor’s empathic, not at all dismissive of your symptoms, but after... » read more

• May 6, 2012 - Behavior Modification for Doctors: How Insurance Companies Do It

  You don’t see those billboards anymore, the ones advertising health insurance companies (HICs) with some form of this message: We don’t tell your physician how to practice medicine—we let your doctor take care of you. I guess it was too cynical even for the HICs, an industry in much disfavor these days. Even they had... » read more

• April 30, 2012 - A Paradigm Shift

  Brace yourselves. Wear comfortable shoes. Like it or not, you’re about to participate in a paradigm shift in health care. A two-page article tucked into last week’s Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) reporting on the results of physician surveys about the Affordable Care Act reflects a genuine paradigm shift. First, let’s... » read more

• April 22, 2012 - The Frayed Doctor-Patient Relationship

  If you’re wearing a watch with a sweep-second hand, pause now and watch it click away 23 seconds. Researchers using hidden cameras and tape recorders in a number of primary care doctor’s offices demonstrated that this is the amount of time an average patient was allowed to describe her symptoms before she was interrupted by... » read more

• April 16, 2012 - Hospitals, Health Spas, and Feeling Great

  Here’s a good general rule for the rest of your life: all things considered, you’re better off avoiding hospitals and instead, every year or so, checking yourself into a resort/health spa for a few days. Personally, I don’t care much for hospitals. Whenever one of my patients ends up in one (fortunately a rare event)... » read more

• April 9, 2012 - Chinese Medicine Tackles Your Weight Concerns

  Despite all the hoopla about the “best” way to determine if we’re overweight–getting on a scale, BMI, waist-to-hip ratio, pants won’t button, body fat percentage–we ultimately rely on our intuition to let us know we feel fat. In other words, if you think you’re overweight or obese you probably are. Two-thirds of Americans are... » read more

• April 2, 2012 - Can I Be Tested for Nutritional Deficiencies?

  This is a fairly common question in our office and the short answer is yes. It’s easy to understand the curiosity. You’ve cleaned up your eating habits, buying all those fruits and veggies. Whole grains, even. And more fish (oh, those omegas!) than you ever dreamed of eating when you were a kid. On your... » read more

• April 1, 2012 - The Dragon’s Way

  The Dragon’s Way is a six-week weight loss and stress management program based on ancient energy practices to re-balance and revitalize the body. It’s easy, effective, educational, and enjoyable! Thousands of people have used the Dragon’s Way to discover how to restore their health and live more fulfilled lives. Based on ancient healing... » read more

• March 26, 2012 - Good News…And The Bad

  Posted 03/26/2012 I recently saw a documentary about comedienne Joan Rivers. At one point, she shows viewers her “joke room,” which contains an entire wall filled with her joke files. Among them is a drawer packed with good news/bad news jokes. Most of us feel anxiety when someone says, “I’ve got good news and bad... » read more