(The following is a first article from a new contributor, Dr. David Zhang. David is an American Chiropractic and Chinese medicine doctor at my clinic, the International Medical Center in Beijing) Christmas is over – the children have returned to school. Vacations are taken,  travel is done.  Moms breathe easier and Dads return to work and …

Air pollution continues to be the most popular subject on this website. Now, there’s a great new review as well as a patient handout to explain the basics. It’s from my specialty’s Journal of the American Family Physician. They just published a great review (Outdoor Air Pollutants and Patient Health) which describes the main culprits …

I’m always pushing preventive medicine: people can take strong lifestyle measures to literally stave off many diseases, including the biggies of heart disease and cancers. Now, the American Heart Association is seriously pushing prevention in a new campaign focusing on seven good habits. This is a nice shift from the typical emphasis on medicines and surgeries. …

The newish Beijing Healthcare Forum announces their next meeting, tomorrow night the 28th at Luce. This next meeting’s speaker will be Prof. William (Bill) Valentino, a recognized expert on sustainability and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). Here’s the lowdown: Our next Beijing Healthcare Forum will be Thursday, January 28th.  It will continue to be at Luce Restaurant. 今晚(1月07号)会议的地点是Luce餐馆, 从鼓楼大街地铁站往南走300米, which …

I find it fascinating that over 50% of men in China are smokers, while only about 5% of women are. Why such a huge discrepancy? These are massive questions for China’s public health teams: why do so many Chinese men smoke? Or you could ask the reverse questions; why do so few Chinese women smoke, …

Vitamin D has become very trendy and popular in both popular and medical literature over the last couple years. In fact, there’s growing evidence that indeed this is one vitamin that almost everyone may benefit from. I haven’t taken extra supplements of this before, but after reviewing the latest papers I’m seriously considering taking a …

I had a recent post about how challenging your mind can keep your brain healthy as you age. Well, I’ve taken it to heart, and I’ve started a brain exercise category to this website which will feature non-medical topics that are fascinating to read. For my first piece, I wanted to share a post on …

(This is part 3 of new contributor Dr Alan Mease‘s series on Integrative Holistic Medicine. Part 1 and part 2 are here) Integrative holistic medicine is the emerging medicine of the future. Its values are significantly different and are best described by The Declaration for a New Medicine from the Bravewell Collaborative. Declaration for A NEW MEDICINE …

Here’s a quick link to an interesting article from the New York Time’s fun Really? series; how long do viruses last on surfaces, and which is hardier: a flu or a cold virus? The answer may surprise you. But it’s a good teaching moment that these viruses are very contagious and definitely can last on doorknobs, …

There’s an interesting new blog about China healthcare…called, easily enough, China Healthcare Blog. It’s a spinoff of their previous Asia Health Care blog. They have a good group of writers who write original and in-depth articles. One article that caught my eye this week was their mention and ongoing video discussion of a disturbing paper …

I’ve frequently mentioned the very useful US Embassy pollution monitor here in Beijing, which used to be only on Twitter but is now easier to access. First there was the non-blocked website, which I strongly recommend; now I’m happy to report that someone has designed an iPhone/iPod Touch app! Now it’ll be even easier for parents, …

I’m still in a new year’s “top 10 list” mood, so I’ve made a list of my top 10 favorite posts from 2009. These are the ones I feel can have the most impact on expat’s lives, and are not necessarily the most popular. My faves revolve around preventive measures and are not so much …