The weather is turning colder and flu season is ramping up. There is precious little that Western medicine can offer to fight off the common cold, so it’s good to review what natural medicines and foods actually help. I previously wrote about chicken soup and easy non-food prevention tips; now let’s discuss garlic. Many people swear …

The human body is truly a miracle, and every doctor should be humble enough to admit that there’s a lot we don’t know about how it all works, much less how best to cure disease. Cancer is one the last great scourges of our age, and the past decades have seen slow progress on many …

As a family and community medicine doctor using evidence-based medicine, I am a firm believer in vaccines. They have saved tens of millions of people, mostly children, from debility and death from once-common scourges such as polio, smallpox, rubella, measles and many others. And there is still a long way to go; just here in …

Beijing newbies may already be noticing that their lips are chapping more, or that they are scratching their suddenly very itchy dry skin on their legs. Welcome to Beijing! Soon your face will look like the photo on the right. (Well, maybe, under a microscope) Winters in general are drier than the humid summers, but …

Last week I presented a slide show at Luce to an interesting new group, the Beijing Healthcare Forum. Led by two Fulbright scholars, this new group of interested expats and local Chinese gets together every two weeks to discuss a variety of health care issues. Last week I discussed one of my pet projects — …

So typical of modern medicine: one day a study says “try this”, the next week a new study says, “no, try that!” I am now guilty of the same thing. A month ago I quoted a study that said regular surgical masks didn’t work well against viruses. Well…now, of course there’s a new study which …

As H1N1 season progresses, there is growing evidence that H1N1 is a darker creature than initially hoped. In the link below is discussed recent CDC data showing how the death rates for H1N1 are the reverse of a typical seasonal flu. Usually, the elderly are most at risk and account for 90% of mortality. However, …

Beijing has the best collection of doctors and hospitals in China; unfortunately for most expats, it’s next to impossible to find which ones are good. If you have any need for a good doctor or surgeon here in Beijing, the best way is usually to talk first with your expat doctors as they would have …

Diabetes can be a terrible disease for people; it’s a chronic disease that involves not just medicines but aggressive lifestyle changes as well as intrusive and painful glucose checks, not to mention the insulin injections. And the long term effects on your body can be devastating — nerve pain, foot infections and amputations, kidney failure, …

The H1N1 virus is full into its second wave all over the world. There has been a large increase over the last 2-3 weeks, including in China. There are some disturbing signs that this H1N1 virus is more dangerous to pregnant women and children than previously thought. With pregnant women, the risk of death from …

Every so often, I hear people mention the dangers of cell phones, and I usually dismissed that idea. But now there does seem to be growing evidence that long term use of cell phones may indeed increase the risk of some brain cancers, especially in children. The article below discusses this latest information, especially from …

Most people think it is common sense that cold weather causes more colds. And traditional Chinese medicine is even more emphatic about this, categorizing many respiratory illnesses as wind-borne or cold-borne. And who didn’t grow up hearing their mother tell them to “bundle up or you’ll catch a cold”? But really, there isn’t strong evidence …