Doctor Column

‘Magnesium’ and the “Sleepy Girl Mocktail”

In 2020, 14.5% of adults in the United states had difficulty falling asleep, and 17.8% of adults had trouble staying asleep. More people are considering “natural” alternatives to sleeping pills to get a good night’s sleep. Valerian root has been use in Rome, and ancient Greece since the second century A. D. to treat insomnia. Melatonin, and tryptophan are other natural products that have experienced increase popularity as a sleep aid.

Gluten Intolerance: “What You Need To Know”

Over the past three decades, the gluten-free diet (GFD), and products have gained increasing popularity, particularly in the U. S. and Europe. The interest in GFD has been associated with a remarkable growth in the sales of gluten-free products. The sales of such products were estimated to be 3.88 billion dollars in 2016, and more than 6 billion dollars in 2023. What is gluten?

Boost Your Immunity! CDC Recommends Updated COVID-19 and Flu Vaccines for the Coming Respiratory Virus Season.

Diane is a 57 year old housewife who has been treated for hypertension and elevated cholesterol for many years. She complained of a runny nose, nasal congestion, and a slight headache for a few days, and thought it was just a “common cold.” But her condition quickly deteriorated when she experienced extreme fatigue, loss of the sense of smell, and shortness of breath.

What’s the Problem with RFK Jr.’s Voice? “Spasmodic Dysphonia”

I think it’s “problematical for people to listen to me. I cannot listen to myself on TV. … I feel sorry for you guys having to listen to me,” said the presidential 2024 candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. in his raspy voice in News Nation’s Town Hall meeting in Chicago on June 28, 2023. He acknowledged the challenge people have paying attention to a person’s halting, choking speech, struggling to finish a sentence. Kennedy said his raspy voice was due to “Spasmodic Dysphonia.”

Choline and Pregnancy. How Does Choline Boost Fetal Brain Development?

“The risk of mental illness in a child is about one in 10. The risk of spinal bifida in a child is about one in 1000. Yet, every woman takes folic acid to avoid spina bifida risk. We ought to think about every woman taking choline to avoid that mental illness risk which is one in 10. If we could make sure that a baby builds a better brain before it was born perhaps we could prevent it from ever becoming mentally ill,” according to Robert Freeman, MD.

BOTOX: An Accidental Discovery .. From Deadly Poison to Smooth Wrinkles — Cosmetic and Medical Uses

At times, medical breakthroughs happen by sheer accident, and keen observation. Such accidental discoveries have changed the course of medicine. Consider the accidental discovery of penicillin. “In 1928 Dr. Alexander Fleming returned from a holiday to find mold growing on a Petri dish of Staphylococcus bacteria. He noticed the mold seemed to be preventing the bacteria around it from growing. He named the chemical that could kill bacteria, Penicillin. Before antibiotics, Science Museum continues, “Everything from paper cuts to childbirth had the potential to kill through bacterial infection.”