The Surprising Cause of Heartburn
Heartburn is one of the most common complaints I see in clinic. Enjoy this animation I did with the TED company on why we can often get that burning feeling….
19 Natural Cures for IBS They Don’t Want You to Know About!
“There’s a popular saying among doctors: There’s no such thing as alternative medicine; if it works, it’s just called medicine.” ― Ed Yong “No medicine can compensate for un-healthy living.” ― Renu Chaudhary Read time: 20 minutes TL;DR Key Points Avoid catchy headlines that overpromise and under-deliver Alternative health approaches may help but they have been…
Just Tell Me WTF to Eat! Aka The Reasons for Nutritional Schizophrenia
If you truly get in touch with a piece of carrot, you get in touch with the soil, the rain, the sunshine. You get in touch with Mother Earth and eating in such a way, you feel in touch with true life, your roots, and that is meditation. If we chew every morsel of our…
Transparency in Healthcare
Who is a good doctor? How do you know if you receive quality care? Unfortunately, patients by themselves can’t make that determination. Of course, we all want respectful and convenient care by an empathetic provider. What about the more technical questions? Since most people are not well versed in how their bodies work, it can…
Drop the Acid: Thoughts about Heartburn
“I look out the window and I see the lights and the skyline and the people on the street rushing around looking for action, love, and the world’s greatest chocolate chip cookie, and my heart does a little dance.” … - Heartburn by Nora Ephron Read time: 15 minutes TL;DR Key…
The End of Expertise: Medicine without Doctors
Read time: 14 minutes Job security is one of the reasons people enter medicine to become a doctor. “People will always be sick,” is a common boilerplate in the profession, as if that attitude is something to be proud of. Even as a medical student, I found this notion to be naïve. Increasingly, I feel…
Is it Time to Revisit the Chief Complaint?
Read time: 10 minutes It’s the essence of every medical encounter and the basis for doctoring itself – the chief complaint. Patients tell us their primary symptoms and we then proceed to the HPI or History of Present Illness. This dialogue between the sick and the healer is at the core of what we do…
Why Am I So D@#$ Bloated all the Time?
A heart can be no more forced to love than a stomach can be forced to digest food by persuasion. - Alfred Nobel Read time: 15 minutes TL;DR Key Points: Bloating is the uncomfortable perception of gas. Bloating is primarily an issue of gas handling by the gut and less often of excessive…
Gut Help: Treatment Strategies for IBS
The wound is the place where the Light enters you. - Attributed to Rumi Read time: 15 minutes TL;DR Key Points: There are two predominant approaches to managing IBS. A similar strategy is useful for related functional bowel disorders This paradigm is based on the current understanding of the brain-gut axis A bio psycho-social…
Doctors are burning out and trite ‘wellness’ measures aren’t helping
“I’m already beat. The trick is to not let the caring get to you.” These were the words recently uttered by one of my physician colleagues, referring to the stresses of caring for patients in the world of modern health care. The weariness was clear over the phone. Without missing a step, I responded, “I…