Top Stories:
Keeping Kids Healthy And Sane In A Digital World
Smartphones, tablets and video consoles can be addictive. They interfere with sleep. They draw kids into an alternate universe, often distracting them from more productive — and healthier — real-world activities. And they are linked to anxiety and depression, learning disabilities and obesity. That’s according to a growing body of research emphasizing the physical and psychological dangers of heavy screen use…
Read at KHN
The 'Strange Science' Behind The Big Business Of Exercise Recovery
From sports drinks to protein powders, from compression therapy to cupping — there’s a whole industry of products and services designed to help us adapt to and recover from exercise. But does any of it work? That’s the question… Listen at NPR
Why Food Could Be the Best Medicine of All
When Tom Shicowich’s toe started feeling numb in 2010, he brushed it off as a temporary ache. At the time, he didn’t have health insurance, so he put off going to the doctor. The toe became infected, and he got so sick that he stayed in bed for two days with what he assumed was the flu. When he finally saw a doctor, the physician immediately sent Shicowich to the emergency room. Several days later, surgeons amputated his toe… Read at Time
Oliver Sacks: The Healing Power of Gardens
This is an excerpt from “Everything in Its Place,” a posthumous collection of writings by Dr. Sacks.
As a writer, I find gardens essential to the creative process; as a physician, I take my patients to gardens whenever possible. All of us have had the experience of wandering through a lush garden or a timeless desert, walking by a river or an ocean, or climbing a mountain and finding ourselves simultaneously calmed and reinvigorated, engaged in mind, refreshed in body and spirit. The importance of these physiological states… Read at NYTimes
The Troubled History of Psychiatry
Modern medicine can be seen as a quest to understand pathogenesis, the biological cause of an illness. Once pathogenesis—the word comes from the Greek pathos (suffering) and genesis (origin)—has been established by scientific experiment, accurate diagnoses can be made, and targeted therapies developed. In the early years of the aids epidemic, there were all kinds of theories about what was causing it…
Read at The New Yorker
How Employers Are Fixing Health Care
Walmart has embraced a new approach to improve the quality of care and lower costs. The results have been dramatic. A 56-year-old man who works at Walmart — we’ll call him Bill — had been suffering from mild neck pain for years. Recently the pain had worsened, and his wife noticed a subtle tremor… Read at HBR
Keeping Kids Healthy And Sane In A Digital World
Smartphones, tablets and video consoles can be addictive. They interfere with sleep. They draw kids into an alternate universe, often distracting them from more productive — and healthier — real-world activities. And they are linked to anxiety and depression, learning disabilities and obesity. That’s according to a growing body of research emphasizing the physical and psychological dangers of heavy screen use…
Read at KHN
Oliver Sacks: The Healing Power of Gardens
This is an excerpt from “Everything in Its Place,” a posthumous collection of writings by Dr. Sacks.
As a writer, I find gardens essential to the creative process; as a physician, I take my patients to gardens whenever possible. All of us have had the experience of wandering through a lush garden or a timeless desert, walking by a river or an ocean, or climbing a mountain and finding ourselves simultaneously calmed and reinvigorated, engaged in mind, refreshed in body and spirit. The importance of these physiological states… Read at NYTimes
PerspectivesPractitioners Speak
Stress
Escaping STRESS is like trying to escape death and taxes. Bottom line: No one escapes stress in life. Stress is an inevitability. What I find interesting is how little we address it despite Google’s 1.32 Billion search results.
The questions I kick around are: What happens in me when I have it? Why is it different for each of us? Does it happen to me or do I do it to myself? What do I do about it? To be honest, my list of questions is much longer but this is a stressful enough start.
Stress is a big deal because there comes a point…
read moreBook + Product Reviews
Sit/Stand Desks: A Review And Critique
Both my patients and non-patients ask me about sit/stand desks. They are all the rage. Many of the workplaces I visit are open-plan and stocked with various versions of these up/down desks, which enable computer workers and others who rely on monitors to change positions throughout the day.
The popularity of the sit/stand desk has given rise to a burgeoning market. There are lots of choices at a variety of price points. There are several things that determine the best choice for an individual or a company: They include space, look, ease of use and budget. I’d like to describe the pros and cons of some of the top models in the marketplace.
read moreRicky’s Riffs: A blog about health and healing and a world that needs care.
The War on Health Care
Our health care system is in crisis. Everyone feels it. Premiums and deductibles keep rising, provider networks are narrowing, and the bite out of the average American paycheck gets bigger and bigger. Health care has taken center stage in the run-up to the 2020 election.
The Democrat arguments swing from elimination of the private health insurance industry and Medicare-For-All to a public option to buy into the Medicare system. The Republicans have no plan, beyond destroying the ACA (Obamacare) and crying “socialism!”
read moreHealth GroovesA Podcast
On Medical Anthropology and the Integrative Health Project with Walter Anderson, PhD (e12)
Dr. Walter Randolph Adams is a bicultural evolutionary ecological, biocultural (analyzing the nexus of biology and culture), medical anthropologist, whose primary research focused on the nutritional factors underlying alcohol abuse and domestic violence. He served as co-director of an anthropological field school for 13 years in the highlands of Guatemala, resulting in three books published by the University of Oklahoma Press, all of which highlighted the contributions of the undergraduate participants. In this interview, Walter discusses his anthropological work, the state of health care in Guatemala and the role of the IHP in that health care system.
Events, Activities, Healing
Optavia
At OPTAVIA, we help you realize Lifelong Transformation, One Healthy Habit at a TimeTM. Our approach to health is radically different. We believe Optimal Health and Wellbeing is about what’s added to your life, not what’s subtracted from the scale. These habits add to your quality of life by getting your mind and body working together to work for you.
For most, it starts with achieving a healthy weight. This is the catalyst for changes. When you achieve your healthy weight, you may increase your health, confidence, and vitality. You create space for the life you want.
It’s not about a smaller you. It’s about a healthier you, living your best life. The life you want is waiting. All you have to do is take the first step.
Discover More
Events, Activities, Healing
Optavia
At OPTAVIA, we help you realize Lifelong Transformation, One Healthy Habit at a TimeTM. Our approach to health is radically different. We believe Optimal Health and Wellbeing is about what’s added to your life, not what’s subtracted from the scale. These habits add to your quality of life by getting your mind and body working together to work for you.
For most, it starts with achieving a healthy weight. This is the catalyst for changes. When you achieve your healthy weight, you may increase your health, confidence, and vitality. You create space for the life you want.
It’s not about a smaller you. It’s about a healthier you, living your best life. The life you want is waiting. All you have to do is take the first step.
Discover More
Ricky FishmanChiropractor, Advocate,Content Curator
Ricky Fishman has been a Doctor of Chiropractic since 1986. As a leader in the field of integral healing, he has brought together and assimilated the work of chiropractors, medical doctors, acupuncturists, nurse practitioners, psychologists, physical therapists and others. Complementing his clinical work, Ricky has taught both graduate and undergraduate coursework in the history and philosophy of science and medicine. In addition to the treatment of back pain and other musculoskeletal injuries, he works as a consultant in the field of health and wellness with companies dedicated to re-visioning health care for the 21st century. “Condition” is the culmination of his many years in health care; of practice, teaching and research. For more information about his work, visit www.rickyfishman.com
PerspectivesPractitioners Speak
Stress
Escaping STRESS is like trying to escape death and taxes. Bottom line: No one escapes stress in life. Stress is an inevitability. What I find interesting is how little we address it despite Google’s 1.32 Billion search results.
The questions I kick around are: What happens in me when I have it? Why is it different for each of us? Does it happen to me or do I do it to myself? What do I do about it? To be honest, my list of questions is much longer but this is a stressful enough start.
Stress is a big deal because there comes a point…
read moreRicky’s Riffs: A blog about health and healing and a world that needs care.
The War on Health Care
Our health care system is in crisis. Everyone feels it. Premiums and deductibles keep rising, provider networks are narrowing, and the bite out of the average American paycheck gets bigger and bigger. Health care has taken center stage in the run-up to the 2020 election.
The Democrat arguments swing from elimination of the private health insurance industry and Medicare-For-All to a public option to buy into the Medicare system. The Republicans have no plan, beyond destroying the ACA (Obamacare) and crying “socialism!”
read moreBook + Product Reviews
Sit/Stand Desks: A Review And Critique
Both my patients and non-patients ask me about sit/stand desks. They are all the rage. Many of the workplaces I visit are open-plan and stocked with various versions of these up/down desks, which enable computer workers and others who rely on monitors to change positions throughout the day.
The popularity of the sit/stand desk has given rise to a burgeoning market. There are lots of choices at a variety of price points. There are several things that determine the best choice for an individual or a company: They include space, look, ease of use and budget. I’d like to describe the pros and cons of some of the top models in the marketplace.
read more
Ricky FishmanChiropractor, Advocate,Content Curator
Ricky Fishman has been a Doctor of Chiropractic since 1986. As a leader in the field of integral healing, he has brought together and assimilated the work of chiropractors, medical doctors, acupuncturists, nurse practitioners, psychologists, physical therapists and others. Complementing his clinical work, Ricky has taught both graduate and undergraduate coursework in the history and philosophy of science and medicine. In addition to the treatment of back pain and other musculoskeletal injuries, he works as a consultant in the field of health and wellness with companies dedicated to re-visioning health care for the 21st century. “Condition” is the culmination of his many years in health care; of practice, teaching and research. For more information about his work, visit www.rickyfishman.com
