Everyone experiences pain in their lives, whether it’s bumping a toe to a broken bone. And everyone has a favorite pain medicine they take. I just wanted people to know a couple pearls; first, there’s no need to not take your pain medicines before you see the doctor! Taking a pain medicine is not going …

I see a lot of teens for the usual visits — colds, stomach problems — and often notice that they have some acne. After talking to them about their acne, I realize that a lot of them are trying home remedies or simple diet changes that simply aren’t working well. And all too often, I’ve …

There are so many complementary treatments out there, it’s simply impossible to keep up. As an allopathic, Western-trained doctor, I have enough trouble keeping on top of my family medicine literature, so I have even less time to learn about other types of medicine. So, I’ve developed my own screening techniques to weed out good …

During our horribly long winter, I posted many articles on vitamin D and its growing evidence of multiple health effects. Here’s another well designed study (Vitamin D3 Supplements in Winter May Help Protect Against Influenza A) which had two groups of schoolkids and gave one group vitamin D3 and the other group nothing extra. The …

Do you feel chronically tired, or get up in the morning and still feel not rested? Assuming that you’re trying to get your needed 8 hours of sleep, perhaps you have what doctors call obstructive sleep apnea. This is a relatively common issue especially in very overweight people, where a part of your throat gets …

Congrats to Beijing Healthcare Forum cofounders Jared and Ray for getting a nice writeup in Global Times a couple weeks ago (Global Times – Health concerns): “We just wanted a relaxed, informal place where people could discuss a wide range of issues,” said Jared Glanz-Berger, an American expat who came to China in 2008 and …

Since this is a wellness blog, I feel a constant urge to get readers more enthusiastic about one of life’s pleasures — exercise. Here’s yet another article from the New York Times (Personal Health – Studies Show Further Health Benefits of Exercise) which details the latest medical literature regarding exercise’s many benefits for: Cancer Heart …

The next Beijing Healthcare Forum meets this Wednesday night, the 19th, at their usual spot at Gingko restaurant. The presenter this time is JAYASHREE WATAL, from the WTO, discussing “Implications of the Doha Declaration on the TRIPS Agreement and Public Health: Decisions at the WTO on implementing compulsory licences for exports.” Here’s the blurb from their website …

Many people take glucosamine supplements for arthritis, but how well does it really work? Unfortunately, the best evidence is less than overwhelming. What does seem clear is that, out of the many types of glucosamine pills, only glucosamine sulfate may work. There seems to be no good evidence for the other types of glucosamine — …

Beijing parents should feel lucky that there are two free magazines that cater to them. The monthly Beijingkids is consistently solid, and Cityweekend Parents and Kids has been recently revamped and increased to 6 issues a year and is also equally useful. Both are available at the usual expat hangouts. One example of their good …

After many years of practicing medicine, I must admit that weight loss is one of the hardest goals for anyone to achieve, and that doctors have very little to offer in terms of prevention and really effective treatments. The main advice is always diet and exercise, but many people report that they do a lot …

I’m very pleased to report that I will be a regular contributor to Beijing Kids magazine, which is widely available in the usual expat mag venues. Each monthly column is in the Health section; in the brand new May issue, I discuss hayfever and simple ways to treat it.