Monday, November 9, 2009

Winter Health

The one week plus COUGH
over the past months I have seen a lot of patients and friends get the
flu bug and suffer for 4-7 days and then recover EXCEPT for one thing:
A lingering pestering cough that will not seem to go away. It
sometimes will stay and aggravate the person for MONTHS! how can you
get rid of this nagging cough? 1- colloidal silver spray (I prefer the
one that does not have tee tree oil added) 2- stream room / or hot
long shower because the heat is the enemy of the virus that is
surviving in the cool cilia(hair) of the throat. Good luck and good
health! - Dr. JW

Thursday, November 5, 2009

Save over $2 when eating out & be healthier too


My wife and baby and I like to go out to eat once in a while, but findit VERY Expensive (25$ plus). Here is a way to improve your health, lose weight, and Save 2-4$ each meal. ----> try ordering hot water and lemon instead of coke/etc. Why? It's zero cost and you will increase your digestive capability! Lemon cleanses the body and promotes full digestion of food. Further, hot drinks are recommended by Chinese medicine over cold ones because they improve energy. So, save $$$$$ and try elimination of all the caffeine and sugar/asparatame (known to cause. Alzheimers)!! Good luck and good health - Dr. JW

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Children's Health


My little 3 month old boy had a cough recently and I gave him some vit c and children's ibuprofen . It actually made him worse. My deduction was it was all the sugar added to those childrens products that fueled the reproduction of the virus/bacteria/bug that was in his throat. What helped him? A dropper of Colloidal Silver (1/4 of a dropper) and liquid vitamin C (no sugar) found at drug emporium Longview TX. The conclusion: use non sugar filled products to help with coughs and colds with the little ones/big ones(adults) too!

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Light Therapy for Winter Depression

If you suffer from seasonal affective disorder, you don’t need to wait for longer days to get some relief.
Most of us welcome the sun’s effect on our mood, especially after a stretch of gray days. But for some people, reduced daylight during fall and winter can bring on full-blown depression. Seasonal Affective Disorder, or SAD, is a form of depression that follows a seasonal pattern, almost always worsening during the darker winter months and returning every year at roughly the same time. It is also known as “winter depression” or “winter blues.”
The condition accounts for about 10% of all cases of major depression and occurs mostly in women. SAD makes you feel unhappy, anxious, tired and irritable. Interestingly, people with winter depression are often happy and productive the rest of the year. SAD usually begins in a woman’s late teens or early 20’s and often disappears after menopause. While no one know what causes winter blues, there’s some evidence implicating melatonin, a hormone produced in the brain.
Many physiological functions are rhythmic, that is, they cycle in 24-hour intervals – including sleeping and waking, the release of certain hormones, and body temperature. This circadian rhythm is essentially under the control of our genes, but it can adjust to environmental cues, such as changes in the light/dark cycle. Cells in the retina of the eye respond to the varying levels of light, signaling a pacemaker-like structure in the brain called the suprachiasmatic nucleus, which controls some of the body’s rhythms. One of the cycles this brain area regulates is the production of the hormone melatonin. Melatonin levels rise in the evening helping to induce sleep, and fall in response to morning light.
According to one theory the body clocks of people with SAD don’t adjust to winter’s later dawns and earlier sunsets. Melatonin thus remains elevated during their waking hours. It’s also possible that people with SAD are hypersensitive to melatonin or over-produce the hormone in response to longer period of darkness.
The influence of light doesn’t completely explain SAD. Nonetheless, light therapy is uniquely (though not universally) effective in treating winter depression.
The most common light therapy device is a box containing fluorescent lights mounted on a metal reflector. The box is fitted with a plastic screen to filter out damaging ultraviolet frequencies. The screen also diffuses the emitted light, reducing glare. The important thing is the intensity, not the spectrum of light.
There are several light box models. Some are portable and others can sit on a tabletop or desk. They can also be adjustable to height and light intensity. Light boxes work best when the user sits nearby at a prescribed distance and height, keeping her eyes open and looking ahead or slightly downward. Looking directly at the box is not advisable.
Using a standard measure of brightness, experts usually recommend about 10,000 lux, which is more or less equivalent to early morning sunlight. In the changing daylight of autumn, 15 minutes of 10,000 lux once a day, right after waking, may suffice. Light exposure can then be increased to 30-45 minute sessions. Severe SAD may require longer exposure, perhaps up to two sessions. If symptoms don’t improve after two weeks, the use of light therapy should be re-evaluated and other measures considered.
Light therapy has few side effects – mainly headache, fatigue, irritability and eyestrain. These usually subside with lowering the dose with either shorter sessions or increasing distance from the light source. The course of treatment is around $150 to $300 and is usually covered by insurance.
Treating depression should being with a diagnostic consultation. If the diagnosis is winter depression, then light therapy may work. If not, then usually antidepressant drugs, chiefly selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitors, such as Prozac and Celexa, have been found effective for seasonal blues in controlled trials. People with seasonal mood changes may also benefit from psychotherapy.
For milder seasonal mood changes, adding more regular lamps to the house, sitting near windows, or spending more time outdoors may help. One study found that walking for an hour in the winter sunlight was as effective as 2 ½ hours of artificial light. (Summarized from Harvard Women’s Health Watch, Feb. 2005, Vol. 12, No. 6, pp 6-7. Copyright© 2005 Harvard Women’s Health Watch. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services. February 2005.

Sunday, May 17, 2009

TREAT THE BODY HEAL THE MIND

As every psychiatrist knows, miracle drugs don’t always lead to miracle cures. Sometimes the inevitable side effects of psychiatric drugs – ranging from chronically dry mouth to panic attacks- become too much for a patient.
One practitioner, James S. Gordon, has a radical new approach to depression. Gordon is certainly well-acquainted with the nuances of depression. But for the past 15 years, as founder of the Center for Mind-Body Medicine, Gordon has helped patients replace their drug prescriptions with a program of alternative therapies. He’s convinced that holistic medicine can be as effective as antidepressants. Most people with chronic depression, he believes, don’t need drugs to feel good.
Gordon’s approach is quite controversial in psychiatry, where the ability of antidepressants to correct abnormal brain chemistry isn’t questioned, and the idea of asking seriously depressed patients to gamble on unproven alternatives is viewed with alarm. Yet, Gordon has had many successes. Jim Norman, an epidemiologist at the National Institutes of Health suffered from depression. He tried for years to stabilize himself with tranquilizers, and then he tried Gordon’s recommended therapies. Five years later, Norman finally feels he can control his moods without drugs. “The ups and downs still exist,” he says, “but they’ve leveled out.”
Should you try mind-body medicine? Depression is not an illness to fool with. If you are depressed and haven’t consulted a psychiatrist or psychologist, go see one. But if your depression is mild, or if you’re already being treated for it, but find you have other ailments, you can consider the approach of James Gordon. But, be discriminating. Two alternative practitioners rarely have the same training or philosophy, let alone the same track record.
Following are some of the alternative therapies to consider:
Acupuncture – Employs the use of needles inserted at certain points in the body. Some experiments suggest needle treatment spur higher levels of serotonin and endorphins in the brain. These chemicals may be involved in improving mood and lessening pain. However, there’s little evidence that acupuncture mental anguish.

Herbal Remedies – Need to be suited to one’s needs by someone trained in Chinese or botanical remedies. Few herbs have been studied as antidepressants, but a review of research in Germany involving the use of St. John’s Wort showed that it worked against moderate depression as well as synthetic drugs. However, herbal remedies are unregulated in this country, and must be used under the supervision of a physician or pharmacist who has studied herbs.

Exercise – By focusing mind and body on a rhythmic activity, exercise lessens anxiety and other negative emotions. Seriously depressed people, though, have a hard time making the effort to exercise on their own.

Meditation – Regularly taking ten to 20 minutes to focus thoughts on a single phrase or image can lower blood pressure, decrease pain and reduce anxiety. However, there’s no direct evidence that meditating helps seriously depressed people. Yet, it does induce a “relaxation response”, a calm state that turns off the “fight or flight” reaction that is part of many anxious and depressed patients.

Nutrition – Gordon and other alternative medicine physicians believe that certain foods, particularly caffeine and sugar, strain the endocrine system and promote depression. No one should fast without a doctor’s supervision; some people are too run down to stop eating. For most people, the best food therapy may come down to good nutrition.

(Summarized from HEALTH Jan. / Feb. 1997 pp 72-78. Article by: Peter Carlin, Reprinted from HEALTH, Copyright © 1997.)

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Unusual and Promising Approaches to Allergy Prevention and Treatment

As strange as it may seem, early exposure to pets, peanuts, and intestinal worms might actually be good for you. Evidence to support this view has been mounting for more than a decade. But now, for the first time, researchers are beginning to test remedies based on these theories in patients. Other doctors are trying to make use of novel approaches to retrain the immune system once it’s too late and allergies set in.

“What we’ve learned is that it may, in fact, be important to be exposed early on to a sufficient quantity of allergy-causing substances to train the immune system that they are not a threat,” says Andy Saxton of the University of California – Los Angeles. “And in people who already have allergies, we see for the first time where the problems lie, and we have new opportunities to tweak the system.”

If the new approaches work, millions might benefit. More than 50 million people have allergic diseases, which are the sixth-leading cause of chronic illness in the United States, according to the National Intitute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID). In fact, allergies cost the health system $18 billion a year.

If educating the immune system is tough, re-educating it after allergies set in appears to be tougher. Allergy shots work, but they’re costly and often must be continued for years. Then the protection fades over time. There are two new strategies being developed that may improve treatment.

One strategy, pioneered by researchers at Dynavax Technologies in Berkeley California, involves disguising a key ragweed protein with DNA from a bacterium. The goal is to create a short course of allergy shots that tricks the immune system into permanently thinking that ragweed is a bacterium, so it will attack it like a germ and not mount an allergic response. The approach has appeared to work in early trials at John Hopkins University.

A second strategy, now being developed by Saxon and his colleagues at UCLA and licensed to the biotech firm Biogen Idec, involves fusing a cat allergen with a snippet of a powerful antibody call IgG. This IgG snippet turns off cells that make histamine, the chemical that produces allergic symptoms. Researchers hope the combo will turn off histamine-producing cells, and in time, retrain the immune system to accept that cats are harmless.

The new approach to allergy prevention and treatment arises from a paradox. Known as the “hygiene hypothesis,” it suggests that growing up in cities and suburbs, away from fields and animals, leaves people more susceptible to a host of immune disorders, including allergies and asthma.

It has been shown through a study by Dennis Ownby of the Medical College of Georgia that children exposed early in a home with two or more cats or dog, are 45% less likely to test positive for allergies than other kids. The study appeared in the August 28, 2002 Journal of the American Medical Association. One possible explanation is that dogs and cats shed a substance called endotoxin from bacteria. A related study by Andy Liu of National Jewish Medical and Research Center in Denver reported in 2002 that infants with the most endotoxin exposure were the least likely to have allergies.

Researchers have also found that worms also have potential as allergy-busters. Weinstock, and his collaborator, David Elliott of the University of Iowa found that worm infections appear to regulate the immune system so that it functions normally. Robert Coffman, vice president of the biotech firm Dynavax Technologies says that the immune system developed two sets of responses: one for bacteria and viruses, and one for worms. Called Th1 for germs and Th2 for worms, they work in opposition. When Th1 is active, Th2 takes a break, and vice versa. All of the symptoms people link with allergy are part of the Th2 response.

Weinstock, Elliott, and other researchers believe that a low-grade infection with intestinal worms – pig whipworms because they cannot reproduce in humans - can restore the immune system. In fact, a small-scale study proved that of 29 people with Crohn’s disease who drank a brew of Gatorade and whipworm eggs, 23 responded to the treatment and 21 of those 23 had complete remission.

Whether it is endotoxin or worms, scientists continue to investigate all of the factors that can confer protection against allergy and other immune diseases.

(Summarized from: USA TODAY, March 19, 2006, article by: Steve Sternberg; Copyright© 2006 USA TODAY. Distributed by Knight-Ridder/Tribune Information Services. March 19, 2006.)

Saturday, May 2, 2009

Studying the Benefits of Massage

As a healing aid, hands-on therapy is being studied to win over skeptics to understand its healing benefits
Longmont United Hospital in Colorado has a massage therapist on staff around the clock for patients who need or request it. At Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York, 11 massage therapists are on a staff team and work with hundreds of patients. Yet, those who advocate massage therapy say that some hospital administrators are wary of introducing such a “touchy-feely” element to clinical practice.
“Clearly there are medical benefits to massage,” said Dr. Gregory P. Fontana, a cardiothoracic surgeon at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. In a study of heart patients measuring the effectiveness of nontraditional therapies, such as massage, in helping speed recovery after surgery, ninety-five percent of the 50 massage patients reported that massage was a “very important” part of their recovery, according to Fontana.
However, many doctors remain skeptical of the research suggesting a medical benefit to massage, saying more rigorous studies are needed. There are several new studies underway. Some are being funded by NIH’s National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine. Tiffany Field, director of the Touch Research Institute at the University of Miami School of Medicine, is working on two NIH-funded studies: one measuring the effect of massage on premature babies; the other measuring the effect of massage on pregnant mothers who are depressed. Currently, Memorial Sloan Kettering researchers are undergoing studies that measure how effective massage can be in alleviating the pain of cancer patients.
Advocates of massage therapy hope that the scientific and medical research will continue to support the benefits, safety, and cost-effectiveness of massage treatments. (Summarized from Los Angeles Times, Nov. 22, 2004, pp. F1+; Copyright © 2004 Los Angeles Times, Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services.