Your primary care concierge physicians at MD 2.0 in Jupiter, FL, often receive questions from our patients about the benefits or truth of one supposed miracle cure after another. Some of these so-called cures are hoaxes, some are hearsay, and some are possibly wishful thinking.
Your concierge medical doctors at MD 2.0 in Jupiter, FL, want you to know that nuts are not just for snacking on at parties. Several studies have shown that all types of nuts can help improve your general health. From weight control to heart health, and even lower cancer risk, those little tree fruits can make a real difference in your overall well-being.
February is American Heart Month, so your concierge medical doctors at MD 2.0 Jupiter, FL, want to remind you that heart disease is America’s number one killer, and as much as 70% of heart disease can be controlled.
When actress Carrie Fisher died in January, her mother, Debbie Reynolds, took it especially hard.
“I just want to be with Carrie,” Todd Fisher said were his mother’s last words. Reynolds, 84, died the day after her daughter’s death, reportedly of a stroke.
Was this just a sad coincidence, or can grief really kill a person? Actually, it can, either quickly, as in Reynolds’ case, or over a relatively brief period of time.
No one is sure when peanut allergies began to rise in children, nor can anyone say what causes them. Doctors, including the concierge physicians at MD 2.0 Jupiter, began to see a rise in the 1980s, which then soared into the 1990s and beyond.
Although New Year’s resolutions are sometimes seen as an exercise in futility, research shows that approximately 45% of those who make them are still sticking with them six months later.
There is nothing wrong with using the start of a brand-new year to turn the page on old health habits and create new ones. But while approximately 40% of adults say they make New Year’s resolutions, fewer focus on helping their children use this practice to initiate new health habits.
You’ve heard the old expression, “An apple a day keeps the doctor away.” Well, your concierge physicians at MD 2.0 Jupiter wouldn’t go that far; apples are definitely good for you, and are certainly part of the balanced diet you need to stay healthy. But if you really wish to reap a host of health benefits at low risk and even lower cost, consider taking an aspirin a day.
There’s no getting around it: It’s that time of year. Even here in South Florida, colds peak through the winter months. And of course you’ve heard the old saying: “They can put a man on the moon, but they can’t cure the common cold.” It’s true. We can’t. So the second-best alternative is to avoid them altogether.
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) says that adults average two or three colds per year, with even more in children. It also notes that most people contract their colds during winter and spring, but that colds are a year-round curse. They’re the main reason people miss school and work, according to the CDC.
Feeling kind of blah lately? Not as much energy as you had all summer? Not so willing to drag yourself to parties, or even out of bed? What about swimming? Tennis? Volleyball? Can’t think of even one good reason to chase a little white ball around with a stick when they couldn’t keep you off the course all spring and summer?
Maybe you’re depressed. Or maybe you’re just normal. We here at MD 2.0 Jupiter often begin to notice a subtle change in many of our clients around this time of year, even here in Florida, where we don’t have to face the extreme plunges in temperature. Nothing serious, just a little less enthusiasm, a bit less cheerfulness, a little less energy. Carb cravings and changes in sleep patterns are also a part of the syndrome. It doesn’t happen to everyone, but if you’re feeling something less than your usual perky self, rest assured there’s a scientific reason for it.
It has several names: “winter depression,” “seasonality,” “seasonal affective disorder (SAD),” but the fact is, researchers have determined that the shorter days in winter are the chief cause of winter blues. This likely has an ancient-survival connection, as humans learned to restrict activity when food sources were scarce. Of course, that’s not a problem today, but the tendency may still be hardwired into our biology, and people may experience symptoms on a sliding scale from barely noticeable to full-blown clinical depression.
Your body’s circadian clock, which triggers sleep and wake cycles among other bodily regulatory mechanisms, also decrees the output of serotonin, the so-called “mood” hormone. Studies have revealed that the circadian-related output of serotonin drops markedly with the decrease in light during the winter. This has led to fairly successful attempts to boost the winter mood of sufferers with light-box therapy, which employs specially built full-spectrum lamps to alleviate symptoms.
If you feel the “winter blues” are impacting your life, your concierge practitioners at MD 2.0 Jupiter can help you employ the correct light therapy, prescribe such antidepressants as generic Paxil at a low price and Prozac, or recommend cognitive behavioral therapy. Meanwhile, there are steps you can take to mitigate milder cases.
1. Stay active, preferably outdoors
Exposure to early morning light has been shown to be the most effective at reducing symptoms, as has vigorous exercise. An early morning walk or run might be all you need to boost your spirits.
2. Light up your life
If you can’t get outside, at least let the sunshine in as much as possible. Open blinds and drapes first thing in the morning, and keep them open all day.
3. Eat right
Yes, we’re still singing that same ole song, because it’s important. Simple carbs and sugars wreak havoc with your blood sugar, and hence, your mood. Lean meats, fruits, vegetables and complex carbohydrates are what your body needs to keep your brain in top shape.
Meanwhile, be sure to let us know if your low mood begins to interfere with your daily functioning. We can help.
Everyone forgets things from time to time, but with publicity these days so focused on Alzheimer’s, even middle-aged people can worry that forgetting their car keys or their mother’s phone number can signal the onset of dementia, of which Alzheimer’s disease is a subset.
Yet there are many other reasons—usually benign—why people have trouble remembering things. Let’s look at a few.
A top contender is side effects from medications. Sometimes the drugs themselves can include memory impairment as a side effect (statins for cholesterol control and some diabetes drugs, for example); other times it’s the combination of drugs that when taken alone are fine but when taken in combination produce unexpected side effects. The concierge physicians here at MD 2.0 Jupiter are prepared to discuss these concerns with any drug you are taking.
Another possible reason for memory impairment is sleep apnea. Along with many other negative effects, obstructive sleep apnea has been associated with spatial navigational memory, the kind that helps you find objects or addresses. ADHD and minor or “silent” strokes can also cause you to have difficulty remembering things. So can anxiety, depression, an underactive thyroid, and poor nutrition, especially low vitamin B12. As we age, it becomes harder to assimilate B12 from foods, which can lead to fuzzy thinking, confusion, even dementia. Please discuss all these possibilities with us.
Often, though, poor memory is simply attributable to the stress of ordinary, day-to-day life. It even happens to younger people. Look at the parents who leave their children in hot cars. Over 30 infants and children have died that way just this year. How could anybody forget their own child, we wonder. And yet, despite all the warnings, all the tricks to help parents prevent this tragedy, it happens over and over.
The answer is simple: information overload. Think of your brain as a large room. If that room has only five items in it, when asked to locate your keys in there, it’s a simple task. But if that room has 5,000 items, or 50,000 or 500,000, you’ll eventually find them, but it’ll take quite a bit longer. This is what happens to our brains as we age. When we’re children, we may have five items in our brains. But as we grow older, we’re now storing everything from our high school locker combinations to our Aunt Sally’s banana cake recipe, not to mention everything we learned in school, have read in books and newspapers, and seen on TV. And these days we’re probably also on the Internet, with its constant bombardment of information. We need to remember how to do math, the date of our niece’s baby shower, and user names and 10-digit passwords for all kinds of things. Is it any wonder our brains take a little longer to find and retrieve a single piece of information, even if we think it should be a simple thing?
The rule of thumb is, if you can’t find your keys, it’s probably nothing. If you forget what your keys are for, that’s a red flag. Either way, if you’re worried, please call us.
