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

Not eating enough potassium appears to be related to high blood pressure—independent of how much salt you eat—reported Dr. Susan Hedayati at the American Society of Nephrology annual meeting.  (Dr. Hedayati works at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, where I trained, since it is affiliated with Parkland Hospital.)

I look forward to the published study.  If you read my blog often, your next question should be …

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

The older we get, the more we start to worry about dementia. … What was I saying?  Oh, yeah, dementia, a decline in our memory, thinking, figuring things out.  Declining cognition.  Alzheimer’s is a type of dementia.

Actually, it is nothing to laugh about. The increasing elderly population makes certain it will become a big and bigger public health hazard.  Our ignorance of how to prevent or treat it, or even knowing the causes for certain, makes it fair game for people to want to try anything they’ve heard might help.

Ginkgo biloba falls into that category of hope.

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

The FDA has put out a primer called FDA 101: Dietary Supplements. There is nothing new but loads of information you need to know. Supplements are defined as vitamin, mineral, herbal, botanical or amino acid products, or enzyme supplements. The thing is they are not regulated in the same way as medications

Some take-home messages from the report are:

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