Food Allergies in Infants

photo fresh fruits and vegetables

Twenty to thirty years ago we witnessed a massive rise in asthma rates among children.  It came to be considered a public health emergency not only because asthma was becoming so very common, but more so due to the dramatic increases in hospitalization rates caused by asthma.  Asthma, an allergic disease, was not just increasingly […]

Vitamin D is Too Good Not to Be True

photo bright yellow sun

Several years ago when I attended the first medical conference on vitamin D designed for clinicians, the limited data we had were very exciting.  There was also many reasons to be skeptical and many were.  It all sounded too good to be true they thought. Maybe higher vitamin D levels just told us who was […]

Summer Camp, Summer Camp, Summer Camp

photo two people skydiving in tandem

It is summertime.  I am filling out lots of summer camp and other “special experience” forms for the children in my practice. The kids who live in my neighborhood are engaged in different activities (no lemonade stands yet, though) and the school behind my house is now a summer camp.  It has me thinking.  As […]

Autism and Environmental Toxins

photo industrial polution skyscape

A new, very large, well-designed and important study linking specific prenatal maternal environmental exposures to later autism, conducted by researchers from Harvard and the MIND Institute in Davis, has just been published. Here is the link to the article.  The study of 325 autistic individuals and over 22,000 healthy children, compared data about environmental levels of […]

Light on Vision

phto woman's eye

Needing to wear glasses has long been viewed as a mark of geekiness without any other real significance.  “Just bad luck”, the medical experts said.  “Your eyeball is just shaped wrong and there is nothing you can do about it”. Dissenting voices, especially from the fuzzier end of the alternative medical spectrum, promoted eye exercises […]

Vitamin D – Fat Loss and Autism

The results of a recent trial were disappointing to some but I think that disappointment is unwarranted.  Subjects were given 1000 iu of D3 daily.  This dose did not reduce their body weight.  That would have been nice for those wanting to lose weight.  However, the subjects did significantly lower body fat and abdominal fat, […]

Strength Training, Health, and Body Image

A large new study of adolescents in the Minneapolis area surprised and excited the study authors and a writer for the New York Times.  They found that many of the girls and over 1/3 of the boys were doing things (changing eating patterns, exercising, taking protein drinks or using steroids) to improve their body composition.  […]

Whooping Cough (Pertusis) Vaccination is Not Working

As you are probably aware, and I have written about previously, the US is in the midst of a whooping cough epidemic.  With a “business-as-usual” bias, a number of agencies, individuals within the medical community and representatives of major media outlets have blamed “ignorant and irresponsible” parents choosing not to vaccinate their children as the […]