Whole Health Chicago

WHC Health Tips

• November 15, 2011 - A Disgusting Taste in Her Mouth

  Here’s another persistent patient story, a woman who endured years of symptoms and no definite answers. Then, six months ago, when her symptoms went into high gear, she knew she had to do something. I first met Claudia, a bright, healthy looking woman, just a few weeks ago. She told me her longstanding digestive symptoms... » read more

• November 8, 2011 - Health Consequences of Harassment

  I’ve been tracking the health consequences of the recession among my patients. The first group of victims is obvious: those suffering the anxiety and depression that follows job loss, protracted unemployment, living on savings, cutting expenses, downsizing where they live, and, of course, losing health insurance. At the very moment these folks... » read more

• November 1, 2011 - “Medical” Marijuana

  As I recall, coming of age in the 1960s meant, among other things, social roles being more clearly defined then than now. For example, if you wanted weed, you met someone at an L stop named Bobby. For the reasonable price of $5 you felt a grass-filled baggie slide into your pocket and by the... » read more

• October 25, 2011 - Bake Sale for Health Care

  Posted 10/25/2011 Pretty much every weekend I head to my cabin in rural Illinois for some R&R. At some point, like any reasonable city person, I grow a tad bored with the clean air, wildlife, and all those trees and head into one of the many small towns in the area to compare main streets,... » read more

• October 17, 2011 - Medicine’s Latest Step Backwards

  “Vitamins linked to higher odds of early death in older women,” the headlines screamed last week. I finished an anxious call from my 88-year-old Aunt Hildy. Once peacefully ensconced in her Florida condo, now, after seeing a TV news report that vitamins were dangerous when used by women over 62, Hildy was eyeing with great... » read more

• October 11, 2011 - Picking At a Scab

  I’ve been carrying around an op-ed piece written by a physician entitled “Poverty is Not a Death Sentence.” It’s from Senator Rand Paul, the ophthalmologist Tea Party Republican Libertarian from Kentucky. His father, presidential candidate Congressman Ron Paul, is also a physician, an obstetrician-gynecologist. As I would glance at a... » read more

• October 3, 2011 - A Bubble About To Burst

  Posted 10/03/2011 In ancient literature, the Romans went to the ageless Cumaean Sybil for prophetic advice and apparently she had a good track record. My friends consider me the antithesis of the Cumaean Sybil. My stock predictions doom a company. Oscar-wise, Ebert beats me to a pulp every year, and sporting events and elections fare... » read more

• September 27, 2011 - Hey Doc, When Are You Going to Write Up My Case?

  I hear this question virtually every time I see Alan, an extremely healthy, energetic man in his forties who could easily pass for someone in his twenties. He comes to the office once a year for a check-up (he’s always just fine), but since we cross paths at our health club I’m reminded about his “case” fairly... » read more

• September 20, 2011 - I Think My Mind Is Going

  It’s fairly common, actually. You walk into a room suddenly befuddled, wracking your brain, desperate to remember just why you came to this room in the first place. Or you’re telling someone about a movie you just saw the night before, really enjoyed, and now you’re clawing at your cerebral cortex trying to extricate the title, the actor,... » read more

• September 13, 2011 - Welcome Casey Kelley, MD

  Finding Dr. Casey Kelley has been an 11-year project for me. That’s how long I’ve been scanning the horizon for the perfect holistically oriented MD associate. And believe me this project was no walk in the park. Overall, newly minted MDs avoid primary care specialties (family practice, internal medicine, pediatrics) because by choosing one... » read more