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…
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…
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…
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…
“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…
Although the world is full of suffering, it is also full of the overcoming of it. - Helen Keller Read time: 12 minutes TL;DR Key Points: Stress is not your destiny. While it is part of modern life, it can be effectively addressed There are a variety of body, breath and mind techniques that…
All diseases begin in the gut. - Hippocrates Read time: 7 minutes TL;DR Key Points: Recovery is essential to everyday life, much like after a workout. The 24 hour adaptation cycle is key concept in this arena The brain-gut axis means that gut problems like IBS cannot be understood without addressing psychological factors Even…