The People's Pharmacy

Marvelous technology like CT and MRI imaging, genotyping and microbiome analysis have given health professionals more power than ever to learn what is going wrong with an individual. Special tools like robotic surgery can help doctors treat complex problems. Highly advanced prosthetics can help people recover from devastating accidents or radical operations. Problems with Technology: However, both...

Do your feet hurt? Foot problems can interfere with both work and leisure time activities. You won’t want to walk the dog or go dancing, not to mention stand at a cash register or move about a clinic with foot pain. What can you do about it? How Dangerous Could a Pedicure Be? A pedicure is supposed to be a relaxing treat, with the reward of beautifully polished toenails. But if tools are not prope...

Does medicine mean “drugs and surgery” to you? That is certainly how a lot of people see it. However, physical activity–exercise–has powerful abilities to help us heal. How can we use exercise as medicine? What does it mean to use exercise as medicine? The concept may seem a bit strange unless you have encountered cardiovascular rehabilitation after a heart attack. You may also be aware of the int...

You know your body needs food to fuel it. You’ve probably thought about whether you should be eating more fat or less, how much protein you might need and if you are getting enough vegetables and fruits. But have you thought about how you should eat to nourish your brain? Managing Your Mood: Millions of people take drugs to treat depression or anxiety. Probably few people plan their meals to reduc...

Are there toxins in your home? As it turns out, many houses hold furniture, electronics and other products that have been treated with toxic chemicals such as stain repellents and flame retardants. Some of these are there because of misguided legislation requiring them in the past. What are the consequences of chronic exposure to compounds like PFOA and PFOS? How about the bisphenol compounds foun...

Can you tell what your dog is thinking? Chances are, you have a good idea much of the time. And likewise, your dog pays close attention to your expressions and behaviors to decipher your mood. What are the health implications of our relationships with animals? Empathy Cements Our Relationships with Animals: The capacity for empathy is not limited to humans. It is, however, critical to our ability...

When a doctor is diagnosed with cancer, you can bet he will try to find the best possible treatments for the disease. Dr. Timothy McCall has long added yoga and Ayurvedic medicine to his standard medical toolkit. So when he was diagnosed with neck cancer and couldn’t schedule the first allopathic (Western medicine) treatment right away, he found it natural to visit his friends in India. How did he...

Have your summer evenings outside been spoiled by the whine of a mosquito coming in for a bite? How do you deal with the resulting itch? Mosquito bites usually itch for a while and then go away, but some people suffer excessively. Do you have skeeter syndrome ? Although it sounds fanciful, we actually found this term in a medical paper. Find out about the remedies people have used and share your o...

Diabetes has nearly become an epidemic, both in the US and around the world. This metabolic disorder interferes with the way the body processes energy and affects more than 30 million Americans. That’s approximately one person out of every ten. Type 1 and Type 2: Do you know the difference between type 1 diabetes (once called juvenile onset diabetes) and type 2 diabetes (once considered sole...

The distinction between pleasure and happiness might seem like a philosopher’s quibble. Fat Chance author Dr. Robert Lustig tells us why this difference is vitally important to our national wellbeing. Corporations are hacking the American mind because of our ignorance about the difference between them. Pleasure vs. Happiness: Dr. Lustig describes the neurochemical foundations behind the difference...

Antibiotics are crucial for treating serious infections, but the specter of bacterial resistance to antibiotics is scary. Many public health experts have called for more diligent antibiotic stewardship to protect the usefulness of these medication. How Might Antibiotics Affect Your Brain? Some physicians point to other, equally compelling reasons to use antibiotics more judiciously. They have pote...

The American health care system is a $3 trillion mess. Although it has significant technological sophistication, this big business doesn’t seem consistently able to get appropriate treatments to the patients who need them. Millions of people have no insurance, or the insurance they have doesn’t cover the care they need. Increasing premiums and unexpected bills can put families under great economic...

Diverticulitis can cause excruciating pain. What causes this problem, and how can you prevent it? As we grow older, many of us acquire little pouches, pockets or potholes in the large intestine. Doctors have a term for the presence of these diverticula: they call the condition diverticulosis. However, if food or feces get trapped in one of these potholes, the result can be infection and inflammati...

You may not be aware that the vast majority of medications Americans take are generic drugs. This helps hold down the costs that patients have to pay, especially if you are taking one of the medicines offered for an extra-low rate, like $4 a month, at a big-box store. That certainly sounds great, unless you consider quality. Are there problems with generic drugs? Should You Trust the Quality of Ge...

When you think about heart health, you may not think about any gender differences in symptoms or treatment. Most doctors don’t, so why would patients? However, women don’t always experience the classic symptoms of crushing chest pain that we expect from tales of men’s heart attacks. Sometimes, they may be bothered with back or jaw pain, fatigue or nausea. Occasionally a woman might attribute her d...

For some years, emergency doctors and allergists were puzzled by people who started having extremely serious allergic reactions in the middle of the night, a long time after they had eaten or drunk anything or had any contact with obvious allergens. Smart sleuthing from our guest and his colleagues determined that a tick bite can set a person up for an unusual hours-delayed allergic reaction to ea...

Do you sniffle through spring or feel crummy in the fall? Many people suffer with seasonal allergies, and trying to figure out which medicines make sense is no easy task. To start with, how do you know if you are sneezing from a cold or from hay fever? Why does the answer change the kind of treatment you might choose? When does it make sense to see an allergist? Pollen is a very common allergen, b...

We all prefer to interact with people who are friendly, supportive and helpful. But when it comes to health care providers, does “bedside manner” really make a difference? Or is a doctor’s positive attitude irrelevant to the medical outcome? Does Your Doctor’s Positive Attitude Affect Your Health? We talk with a scientist who has looked into this question and concluded that “having a doctor who is...

Dr. Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin in 1928, after observing horrific lethal infections on the battlefields of the first World War. It was the first antibiotic to defeat a wide range of terrifying diseases. Today, however, there are frequently shortages of this critical medication. In addition, penicillin and related antibiotics may not kill emerging superbugs. Less than a century after th...

Do you use mail order for your prescription drugs to get a better price? Many insurance companies strongly encourage people to order online from preferred sources so they can control how much they have to pay. Most of us like to save money. However, are there any downsides to getting your medicines mailed instead of picking them up at the pharmacy? Too Hot or Too Cold? The FDA and the drug makers...

The thyroid gland on your neck is not very big, but it is super important. It secretes hormones that control the activity of every cell in your body. Consequently, the thyroid regulates your metabolism, your heart beats, your bowels and even your thinking. What happens when the thyroid doesn’t work as it should? How do doctors treat the most common thyroid problems? Autoimmune conditions cre...

For decades, public health experts have been admonishing Americans to cut the salt in our diets. In fact, the American Heart Association recommends that we limit ourselves to 2,300 mg of sodium daily. That’s about one teaspoon. Ideally, the AHA says, we would get less than 1,500 mg of this crucial mineral every day.  Should You Be Cutting Salt? Why is salt such a problem? People who consume l...

You may have read or heard that adequate sleep is a pillar of good health, like exercise and a healthy diet. Sleep affects blood pressure and heart disease, metabolism and obesity, the immune system, cognitive function and mood. But if you can’t get enough sleep, that information is more frustrating than helpful. What is interfering with your sleep, and how can you find the best sleep solution? Ho...

The past few months have produced some fascinating science stories from international sources. We interviewed two scientists in far-flung places to learn more about unexpected ways that microbes interact with us and affect our health. One researcher has developed some unique ways to study the microbiome of our digestive tract. Another is examining whether the herpes viruses that cause cold sores b...

Over the last several decades, our environment has changed enormously. Comparing a playground in 1962 to the same playground in 2019 gives some sense of how thoroughly we have surrounded ourselves and our children with chemicals that may have profound impacts on the hormones in our bodies. As just one example, bisphenol A found in hard clear plastics and the linings of cans can mimic estrogen to s...