We all know how we get when we don’t have enough sleep. We are cranky and we look terrible. Often, we are too tired to perform our normal daily tasks. But those are just the things we notice right away. Dig deeper and see how having an unhealthy sleep pattern can affect your brain much more severely than you may think. Take for example our ability to make quick and smart decisions, or to solve problems. All of those examples are hindered on even just one night of bad sleep. Imagine how a person with insomnia must feel.

Every doctor will stress the importance of good sleeping habits, but a doctor, practicing functional medicine, will get to the root of the problem, find out what it causing your bad sleep, and help you solve it. There could be many reasons why you are not sleeping well. Everything from stress, to what you eat can easily affect your sleep. (more…)

Fosamax, a biophosphonate, is very commonly used for osteoporosis. It works by slowing bone loss and increasing bone mass, and yet did you know that it can cause jaw necrosis?

fosamaxThe warning initially had been that cancer patients on the drug were more at risk, but now it seems that if you had recent dental work on infections, you are at a higher risk as well.

How can this FDA approved medication be associated with pain, swelling, infection and exposed bone in the jaw?
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Quinolones, basically synthetic, broad-spectrum antibiotics, are used to treat almost everything, from urinary tract infections to gynecological infections, STDs, skin infections, and respiratory infection like bronchitis, pneumonia and sinusitis.  And yet, a very well known side effect of quinolones is that it can cause tendon rupture.

This can become a huge problem. Quinolones can cause tendon rupture, and someone who is just on treadmill or running while on the medication can tear their Achilles tendon. The recommendation is usually that you don’t run or jog while on the medication.
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Crestor, a brand name medication, a statin to be exact, is now being touted by the Food and Drug Administration as a wonder-drug and the government agency has deemed it is safe even for healthy people to keep cholesterol down.

Do you see something wrong with this? Let us take a look.
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Drugs that give us a quick fix, medications from the drug companies, could be giving us more than we bargained for, as we are learning in the many examples where drug companies are not telling the truth:

http://blogs.wsj.com/health/2009/02/26/another-drug-company-accused-of-hiding-negative-study-results/?mod=djemHL

The Department of Justice’s complaint against the lab that markets Celexa and Lexapro has once again brought to the forefront that drug companies may be hiding bad results of their medications, while only releasing the better data. (more…)

Parkinson’s is an awful, debilitating and deadly disease and while it was once believed that there may be no way to lower your risk, we now see that there can be a way to help you protect yourself from getting it.

A new study now says that women’s fertility can actually keep them from getting Parkinson’s Disease. The longer than span from first menstruation to menopause can now help in the fight against Parkinsons in women. (more…)

It’s been a controversy for years. And yet, it’s also the butt of jokes, something you do in high school with your friends. You hold up your hand, fingers together. And depending on the length of your ring finger as compared to your index finger, it tells you if you are gay or not. And in high school it is then put aside as a joke.
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The debate about our exposure to sunlight and what it does in terms on skin cancer has gone back and forth. Recently, a Boston professor of dermatology has been asked to resign because he advocates moderate exposure to sunlight.
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Kyphosis, a curving of the spine, or popularly called a hunchback, is often associated in later years with osteoporosis.  Kyphosis leads to many health problems, however, besides osteoporosis. Among them, and perhaps the most serious is respiratory problems, and eventually possible heart failure.
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Right now, the health care debate, as far as breast cancer and mammograms is concerned, is centered around women worried that they will no longer be covered for mammograms between the ages of 40 and 50.
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