I must now confess to everyone that I am addicted. Yes, people, my body craves for my daily fix. And when I take it, my body feels healthier. What is my burden? Vinegar! This is definitely one of the stranger habits I’ve picked up in China, but somewhere along these three years I started to …

Two weeks ago, the open-invite  Beijing Healthcare Forum had its most successful night yet, as over 40 people enjoyed the Q&A session by United Family Hospital CEO Roberta Lipson. The BHF’s next meeting is this Tuesday, December 1, in honor of World AIDS day. 我们的下一次会议将给世界艾滋病日以荣誉. World AIDS day is dedicated to raising awareness of the …

I have a more casual section on this website focused on weekend activities and ways to recover from your stressful weeks and reconnect both with yourself and your loved ones. Now that winter is (quickly) here, I wanted to share with people a little-known local hot springs that my wife and I heartily recommend. It’s …

I’m very pleased to report that today’s China Daily has an interview and article about my website. It’s in the Metro section, lead article, part of a review of the air quality and automobile situation in Beijing. Here is the website link to the article.

We’ve had a series of unhealthy air days this week, and I’ve been trying to raise awareness among the schools to have a good action plan. I was just emailed a nice example of what one local school is doing with each cutoff. I think the actions are reasonable and a good start for other schools …

I plan for this website to focus more on alternative medicines and overall wellness; this will include Chinese as well as more “Western” complementary medicines. So, let’s talk about the very popular home remedies involving urinary tract issues. Many women with bladder infections (“cystitis”, UTIs) use cranberry juice, and many men swear that saw palmetto …

There is a lot of press these days about the messy state of health care in the US. One issue less apparent now but a major issue in the future is the shrinking percentage of medical school graduates entering primary care (family medicine, pediatrics, internal medicine). One reason is the massive debt load that medical …

Today is Thanksgiving in the US. It’s my favorite holiday, as all my relatives will gather in my mother’s house and feast for hours. It truly is a nice way to think about the previous 12 months and realize what indeed you are thankful for. Here in Beijing, I’m thankful that I found the wonderful …

It’s been a very, very interesting few weeks in the US regarding cancer screening. As I mentioned before, there were revisions from the highest-level agency Task Force that mammograms should be done less often for certain groups. I also mentioned how PSA tests are under a lot of scrutiny as well. Now, last week were …

It’s 9am now; for the last 12 hours the pollution levels (taken hourly at the US Embassy, you can follow at http://iphone.bjair.info) are at EMERGENCY LEVELS. Anything over 300 is considered a public health emergency; right now it is over 500! What this means is that most countries’ public health agencies would be putting out …

By now, everyone in Beijing is either: 1. recovered from having H1N1; 2. tired of hearing about H1N1; or 3. recovered and tired of hearing about it. But one common theme in discussions remains the uncertainty around the vaccine. Well, finally, there is a lot of real data last week that I wanted to share …

I posted a couple weeks ago how serious the air can get around here, and how young children are the most vulnerable. Since then, I received notice of a wonderful new website at iphone.bjair.info. This website collects the hourly Air Quality Index from the US Embassy’s particle monitor. It’s a perfect little website, and I …