Preventing Dementia Many people are scared of death, but often tell me they’re more frightened of dementia. “I can’t face that,” one patient told me, “I can’t do that to my family.” So how to stop it? One Swedish study shows a way. It includes a follow up of 44 years. Persistence can pay off. In […]
Are Prescription Drugs Truly Safe?
Are prescription drugs truly safe? Depends on how well and how long you look. When I was discovered on endoscopy to have gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD,) my gastroenterologist told me I should immediately go on proton pump inhibitors, known as PPIs. They were extremely efficacious. “And they’re safe. I’ve been on one for 16 years. […]
Is Art Collecting Healthy?
Art and the quest for beauty can leave you sleepless. A patient recently came to me with an unusual complaint – art collecting induced insomnia. He could not stop thinking about modern and contemporary prints, what he possessed and more possessively what he further wished to have. A universe of potential desire awaited him each night. […]
How Much Booze is Best?
Is moderate drinking good for you? Does consistent imbibing of a glass a day prevent Alzheimer’s? Heart disease and stroke? Or is drinking booze more akin to radiation, where there is not yet a clear “safe” dose? Recent research has begun moving against the consensus of decades. Booze on the Brain For example, take a recent study in […]
Will an Old Drug End Alzheimer’s?
A Strange History Is one of the oldest, cheapest drugs in the international pharmacopeia soon to become the medication that will block Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and MS? Work by Giovanna Mallucci’s laboratory at Britain’s Medical Research Council has shown – in mice – that trazodone and DBM, an anti-cancer drug, appear to stop a common neurodegenerative process which […]