A common upper respiratory disease called Pertussis many often know as Whooping Cough. You may have even heard of it as the “100 day cough”? This is a lingering disease that starts off with cold-like symptoms such as runny nose, a mild fever, and maybe a cough. These mild symptoms last for almost 2 weeks and then, as the disease develops, you may notice a worsening rapid cough with high pitched “whoop” sound accompanied by fatigue and sometimes vomiting due to the extreme coughing.  This disease is extremely contagious by breathing in the bacteria that are present in droplets released when an infected person coughs or sneezes. The person who is infected is contagious for up to 3 weeks!  And the worst part is…they may not even know they have it.

Infants are at risk for most severe complications including pneumonia and seizures because their immune systems are underdeveloped.  But, since the disease starts off more like a cold, it is often not diagnosed right away until the more severe ...

At first glance a few key statistics related to water intake and composition are important to note: the human body contains roughly 11 gallons of water broken down into these fractional parts: blood is 85% water, muscle is 80% water, brain is 75% water and bones are 25% water.

With the value and percentage of water making up nearly 66% of the human body it plays a tremendously important role in normal physiological function(s).  This is largely why dehydration, when present, can lead to a number of critical problems including: migraines, constipation and even kidney stones.¹ Lack of water in the body can also take a toll on the health of your BRAIN, affecting mood and overall cognitive and emotional function.  When dehydrated a person may be more prone to feelings of fatigue, anxiety and irritability.

Dehydration Shrinks Your Brain

About three-quarters of your brain is water and when the body is dehydrated your brain volume actually decreases.  It is this shrinking process to whi...

“Overall, the results indicate that the medical profession is doing a poor job of appropriately prescribing opioid painkillers. Even though the rates have leveled off, we have a long way to go in improving medical care so these are not as overprescribed as they are currently … [T]here are a lot of leftover medications. In many cases, physicians could write smaller prescriptions, or avoid them completely for those who benefit from ibuprofen or acetaminophen.”

– Dr. Wilson Compton, Deputy Director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse ⁽¹⁾

Prescription opioids are medications that are typically prescribed by dentists, family doctors and hospitals as a response to acute pain.  The medication is only supposed to be used for a short period of time, but studies have found those who are prescribed opioids can take them from 2 weeks to 10 years or more. Opioids are chemically similar to endorphins, which is a substance our body makes naturally to relieve pain. Opioids can be made naturall...

Many health care professionals are recommending that their patients who are “baby boomers” get tested for Hepatitis C.  Did you know that 1 in 30 baby boomers are infected with Hepatitis C and don’t even know it?  In 2012, the CDC amended testing recommendations to include one-time Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) testing for all persons born between 1945-1965 regardless of other risk factors.¹ In fact, people in this age group are 5 times more likely than any other age groups that have HCV.²   But why? 

Let’s first discuss what Hepatitis C Virus is exactly.  Hepatitis C is a blood-borne disease which was only just discovered in 1989.  Much of the affected population carries no symptoms and therefore don’t even know they have it.  Hepatitis C affects the liver and can cause severe liver damage or cirrhosis.  Hepatitis C is transmitted by recreational drug use involving needles, recipient of a blood transfusion, sexual contact with a person who has the virus, and unsterilized needles or equipme...

The Cholesterol Theory:

THE MEETING OF SCIENCE AND POLITICAL INFLUENCE

For the better part of the last 50 years or more, we have been told to fear cholesterol and saturated fat as the cause of heart disease.1 Cholesterol is not the enemy and this newsletter will help to prove that fact.  The vast majority of the information regarding cholesterol (as public enemy #1) has been the result of political persuasiveness rather than solid scientific evidence.

“Cholesterol is the most decorated molecule in history, having contributed to 13 Nobel prizes.” It is generally accepted that Dr. Nikolai Anichkov, the Russian physiologist, was the first to induce atherosclerosis by feeding rabbits a diet laden with cholesterol.  He is therefore credited with originating the cholesterol hypothesis.  It is quite clear that the focus of preventative cardiology for the last half century has been lifestyle modification and cholesterol reduction.²  The research study above, ignores the fact that rabbits ...

“Stress is an ignorant state. It believes that everything is an emergency.” – Natalie Goldberg

Do you wake up in the morning feeling tired?  Does your boost of energy dwindle as the afternoon approaches; causing you to crave something sugary or even coffee?  Just to function at work or home do you need to be constantly stimulating your body with caffeine, sugar or food?  You may be experiencing what is known as Adrenal Fatigue.

How do we get Adrenal Fatigue?

Adrenal Fatigue is just a name for a long term problem that finally ends in additional stress or overload on the adrenal glands from multiple system failures. Simply stated: our body needs energy to function and also healthy organs and nervous system to manage everything.  Glucose is the first level of energy mostly regulated by the liver.  Thyroid function is also critical to maintaining good energy, repair and overall metabolism.

Foods that are stimulatory like caffeine and sugar adversely affect both of the primary energy ma...

Weight loss. one of the most talked about topics when it comes to women’s health.  Let’s face it, in today’s media driven society, we are putting ourselves on display more than ever and are even comparing ourselves to other women our ages all the time.  The weight may have creeped up over the years and now you feel stuck.  Or, your typical workout routines just aren’t enough anymore.  Women sometimes go to great lengths to try and discover the perfect weight loss product or program on the market.  And let’s be honest, there are way too many to choose from.  From fasting, to yo-yo dieting and detoxing, many of the weight loss programs out there now are too hard and too fast for the body to handle and, without proper guidance from a professional, you could end up causing more harm than good or even end up in the hospital!  Crash dieting has been known to cause heart palpitations, a drop in blood pressure, and even increase your risk for heart attacks.¹

The word diet should be used when ...

In preparation to write this newsletter, for your educational pleasure, I went to pubmed.com and simply typed into the search bar: B vitamins brain.  In less than 5 seconds I had 458 different research studies to peruse.

B vitamins in the vast majority of the forms help our bodies think properly, regulate mood, fight off neural degeneration and assist in stress modulation among many other less heralded functions.  Many of us that spend time reading and researching vitamin therapy probably already have heard that these common uses for B vitamins exist.  One use for B12 in particular that you may not have heard about is for protection against “air pollution”.

A small-scale human trial¹ found B vitamins may help protect against air pollution^2,3.

At high doses, which I will give you later, B vitamins were able to completely “offset” damage delivered by fine particulate matter.

According to a World Health Organization study released in 2016, 92% of the world population breathes air that...

“Let Food be thy medicine, and medicine be thy food” – Hippocrates

What is a Paleo Diet?

The Paleo Diet is one of the latest and hottest lifestyle trends to date. Celebrities endorse it some and restaurants are starting to serve Paleo style foods to keep their customers satisfied.

The Term “Paleo” is short for Paleolithic, an era that occurred at least 2.6 million years ago, and generally refers to the “caveman” lifestyle in regards to the popular diet. It is a nutritional approach that focuses only on foods that were available to humans during that period. Typically, these foods are high in nutrients, unprocessed and without artificial colors or additives.

The purpose of this lifestyle is to return our eating habits to a prehistoric state as it is hypothesized that our ancestors were unaffected by medical conditions experienced today. The foods they ate actually supplied the body with the right nutrients and allowed it to properly adapt to its environment.⁽³⁾There are multiple int...

Your baby finally has arrived and it is a time of pure bliss. The snuggles, the coos, the bonding…it has all become so real. But there is something inside of you that just isn’t right. You are emotionally and physically drained from the hours of labor. The sleep deprivation starts to kick in because your little one can’t tell the difference between night and day. If you are breastfeeding, the nipple pain you are experiencing hurts so bad that you may even shed some tears. The feedings and diaper changes are around the clock. Becoming a new mother can be hard at first. As many as 1 in 5 new mothers will suffer from severe depression or anxiety after giving birth, and a woman is significantly more likely to suffer from one of these conditions during her first year as a mother than at any other time in her life.¹

The Hormones

There are many factors that can contribute towards postpartum depression. First, the hormonal roller coaster after giving birth is one that no one can prepare you ...