Published January 22, 2010

What the Massachusetts election means to your health

I tend to stay out of non-medical politics in my writings. After all, you subscribed to get and stay healthy. But the recent win in Massachusetts of the long shot Republican is a most telling story, especially for Obamacare.

Senator Ted Kennedy was a stalwart champion of socialized medicine, and Big Brother sitting in between you and your doctor. He and Richard Nixon almost passed a medical bill that included the “public option” back in the 1970s. With due respect for him as a public servant, my thoughts on his health policies, I admit, were a bit jaded. He’s from a very wealthy family. And as a Senator, he was given some of the best health insurance in the country (by you and me, I might add)! So no matter what he foisted upon you, he would always have access to the best medical care available. Or at least the best conventional care available.  

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Published January 21, 2010

How men can increase their odds of surviving cancer

Cancer is the one disease I can't promise my patients they won't get. In my experience, heart disease, infectious diseases, autoimmune disease, type-2 diabetes, strokes – all of these – are 100% preventable. However, there seems to be no mercy with cancer.

While it’s impossible to completely prevent cancer, there are many things that you can do every day to minimize the risk. And the one I’m going to tell you about today is safe, easy, and free. Some people even enjoy it.

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Published January 20, 2010

Lower your blood pressure and
your cholesterol with one little seed

I’ve told you in the past about phytochemicals. These chemical compounds occur naturally in plants and are extremely important to your health. The more we learn about these compounds, the more we realize just how important they are. Now a new study shows that phytochemicals from seed can significantly lower your blood pressure.

In this study, researchers gave participants either 100 mg daily of the seed Nigella sativa, 200 mg daily, or a placebo. Nigella sativa’s common name is black cumin seed. Historians tell us people have used this seed for medical purposes as far back as the time of King Tutankhamen in Egypt.

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