Michael Carlston, M.D. – Family Practice & Complementary Medicine
homeopathy . nutrition . herbs . sports medicine
Most of us are social creatures. Other people are very important to our enjoyment of our daily lives. This has important impacts on our health. Most of the time we think about this because of the difficulties social influences can present. A person who is working to overcome drug or alcohol addiction usually faces pressure […]
It is always smart to avoid overusing medication. Two recent studies are convincing reminders of this wisdom. In one study, 2 million Britons using statin drugs were found to have unexpectedly increased risks of cataracts and kidney failure. While other problems like liver and muscle damage, are well-known, these links were a surprise. Also surprising […]
It seems that warmer weather might actually be peeking shyly and belatedly around the corner. The odd weather has not been unique to Sonoma County. I attended an excellent meeting on the treatment of cancer with nutrition and alternative therapies near San Diego, and it was even cooler than here. Honestly, even it were snowing […]
I like being a doctor, I really do. I love my profession and am proud of my colleagues’ sincere dedication to helping the suffering but then again we can be really, really stupid…. Every one knows that probiotics are good for us. Humans have eaten fermented foods for health and taste as long as we […]
Forgive me for rattling on about vitamin D, but it is VERY important. The latest news is even more important than usual, and it is notable for at least three reasons, maybe four, if we count the fact that Mother’s Day is fast approaching. The most meaningful studies are designed as interventional trials, where people […]
Health advocate Gary Null has provided an unintentional educational lesson for those of us using dietary supplements. Taking one of his own products, he developed vitamin D toxicity. As there have been only a few cases of vitamin D toxicity ever reported, there is an inevitably interesting story behind this announcement. The story is that […]
You may have noticed that there is a campaign underway to get Americans to drop their salt intake. This has included discussion of measures as radical as creating a legal limit on salt (sodium) in processed food. Although there is a lot that is good about this, it can also create confusion. I have had […]
Although we have lots of evidence showing that vitamin D lowers the risk of many diseases, the lingering concern is that vitamin D levels might simply tell us who was healthier to begin with. In other words, healthy people go outside more often because they are healthy not the other way around. With the passage […]
A new study discovered some very unexpected and consequently extremely interesting findings. Examining the hearts of runners who had completed 25 or more marathons in the past 25 years, investigators found that the marathon runners’ coronary arteries were much more calcified than other people. This was the opposite of what was expected. Also, the people […]
The testing results used on the fish oil lawsuit I mentioned are posted on fishoilsaety.com. Interestingly, the oils they tested are not the usual fish oils. One problematic oil was, as I anticipated, a salmon oil. Shark liver oil was a problem and several cod liver oils were also a problem. My apologies to those […]