by James Hubbard, M.D., M.P.H.

I’m starting to wonder if we’re on the right path with fibromyalgia. Is it truly the type of disorder we think it is? Here are some clues I’ve come up with. What do you think, Sherlocks?

I recently wrote about a JAMA study that showed how well the antidepressant amitriptyline worked for fibromyalgia symptoms, though we don’t know why. That got me to thinking. We also don’t know why another drug, Lyrica, helps.

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by Jill Weisenberger, M.S., R.D., C.D.E.

Wait too long to eat and your belly speaks louder than your good intentions. So says a report from the Economic Research Service of the USDA.

Americans know more about healthful diets and lifestyles, but waistlines keep growing and fruits and vegetables are rotting in the refrigerator anyway. So what gives? According to the report, long lapses between meals, eating out and long work hours overpower our health desires and lead us to temptation for some instant gratification.

By waiting five hours between meals instead of just four, the average person consumes an extra 52 calories. (more…)

by James Hubbard, M.D., M.P.H.

Everything old is new again.

Want to know the best fibromyalgia medicine?  Look back to the future.  Lyrica, Neurontin, Cymbalta?  Think cheaper.  It’s the one I’ve been prescribing for years for chronic pain. A recent study shows it works as well as, or better than, the newfangled ones.

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by James Hubbard, M.D., M.P.H.

The real question about one recent study may be, did these “volunteers” undergo torture as defined by the Geneva Convention?

Past studies have shown that poor sleep habits weaken your body’s natural immune function.  A new study in the Archives of Internal Medicine gets more specific.  In it, researchers directly exposed volunteers to a cold virus to see if sleep made a difference in fighting it off.

In an experiment that I thought only medical students would volunteer to undergo, the participants were quarantined for five days.  They got drops with a high concentration of rhinovirus up their nose and waited for the consequences.

No animals were harmed in this study.

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by James Hubbard, M.D., M.P.H.

Have you ever reached a plateau in your weight-loss quest?  You start off well, lose a few pounds (probably some of it water weight), think you’re doing so well … and then the scales just won’t move anymore.  It’s frustrating. I’ve heard so many say, “I’ve tried, and I just can’t lose weight.”  They just quit trying.

Don’t give up.  Here are a few suggestions to help you beat that weight-loss plateau and go on to success.

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I write on my top, must read, recent medical news stories about children at the Homemaker Barbi website.  They include:

1. Kawasaki disease
2. Vitamin D
3. Cough and cold medicines
4. Bisphenol A (BPA)
5. Influenza vaccines

by James Hubbard, M.D., M.P.H.

Like a lot of doctors, I have mixed feelings about narcotics.  They are great for severe, short-term pain and a must for some terminal cancer pain.   Some people abuse them for nothing more than the high they get.  And then there are all of the in-betweens.  We doctors are kind of caught in the middle, also.  We can lose our license if we prescribe too much or inappropriately.  We are told, by some groups, we prescribe too little to the patients that really need it.  But how do we know who really needs them?  If we are too gullible, we will be prescribing to a bunch of abusers, too strict and we are doing a disservice to those in need.

It is the long-term, chronic use that concerns us the most.  Narcotics are habit forming. They alter your mental state. If you take them long enough, you will have a physical withdrawal trying to get off of them.  Most people will become tolerant needing more and more to get the same effect.

So what to do?

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by James Hubbard, M.D., M.P.H.

Let’s face it.  The conscience protection rule is all about abortion.  It could be called the abortion protection rule.

It’s a regulation the Bush administration issued that applies to employers who receive federal funds. It ensures that they respect employees’ right to refuse to participate in medical treatment that goes against their conscience.  In other words, they can’t be forced to do things they think are wrong.  They can’t be fired for refusing to go against their beliefs. They can’t be fired for not participating in abortions.

You can read the full 31 page pdf file at the Federal Register.  Depending on whom you ask, it’s a step backward or a step forward, too broad or too narrow.  Pro-life groups love it.  Pro-choice groups abhor it as much as the NRA hates gun regulations.

But what are the pros and cons of the conscience protection rule?  That partly depends on what you believe as fact or fiction.

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by  James Hubbard, M.D., M.P.H.

The headlines read, “Study shows virginity pledgers as sexually active as peers,” or, “Virginity pledges don’t work.”  OK, I thought, I’m not too keen on public pledges myself.  They were probably done in the emotion and peer pressure of the moment.  I wish all programs would undergo similar scrutiny.

But, then, I read an interview with the study’s author and found ”the rest of the story,” to quote Paul Harvey.  I didn’t take my own advice and believed a headline without reading the details.

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by James Hubbard, M.D., M.P.H.

Many people use nutritional supplements, herbs, vitamins to try to boost immunity and ward off colds.  It is only natural (pun intended) since we don’t have a cure for the annoying and frequent set of viruses that cause colds.

A few days back, I wrote about some general tried and true methods to increase your immunity that have good studies to back them up and don’t cost money.   They should be your base for protection.  Only implement other methods after you have put the base in place.

Good, reliable studies of herbs, vitamins and supplements that prove efficacy and safety are harder to find.  Although many people swear by their home remedy, the mainstream medical world has not taken these seriously, in the past.  We are now trying to catch up but have a long way to go.

The reason I reneged on my promise to post this information, on boosting your immune system with herbs, supplements and vitamins on yesterday, was I wanted to wait on access to the information at www.naturalstandard.com, where they utilize a group of medical experts and scientists to review all of the reliable data we have on alternative medicines.  Their mission is ”to provide objective, reliable information that aids clinicians, patients, and healthcare institutions to make more informed and safer therapeutic decisions.”

Here is what they say about specific supplements, herbs and vitamins fighting the common cold.

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