News

Confronting the Hidden Epidemic of Fatty Liver Disease

By Carrie Decker, ND, Contributing Writer

Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease (NAFLD) often goes undiagnosed because it may not be accompanied overt symptoms or by liver enzyme elevations. Clinicians who are not specifically looking for it, are not likely to detect it. But over the long term it can have devastating consequences. Fortunately, there are many botanical and nutraceutical interventions that can help.

Migrants at the Border: US Citizens Head South for Cheap Medical Care

By Erik Goldman

There are a lot of anxious, needy people eager to cross the line that separates the US from Mexico. Go to the border towns of Southern California and Arizona, and you’ll see them— US citizens heading south to Mexican clinics and farmacias, seeking lower cost surgeries and cheap meds.

Medical and pharmacy “tourism” to Mexico is a large and growing phenomenon, one that has received little attention amid the bitter political rancor over immigration policy and border control.

California Mandates Disclosure of Physician Sexual Misconduct

By Erik Goldman, Editor

As Dr. Christine Blasey Ford and Judge Brett Kavanaugh faced off in the Senate, the state of California quietly passed a major piece of legislation on sexual misconduct, one that could provide patients with far greater protection against predatory physicians. The Patient’s Right to Know Act will require any California physician placed on probation for sexual wrongdoings to disclose this fact to any and all patients before an appointment.

Gawande to Head Amazon Healthcare Initiative

By Erik Goldman

Amazon, together with Berkshire Hathaway and JPMorgan Chase, has named Atul Gawande as the CEO of its new joint venture in employee healthcare. Since December, when the three companies announced a plan to do “something” in healthcare, the medical world has been abuzz with speculation, adulation, and nay-saying about what this trinity of Fortune 500 […]

doTERRA, the Essential Oil Titan, Launches Healthcare System

By Erik Goldman, Editor

doTERRA, one of the world’s leading marketers of botanical essential oils for healthcare uses, is launching a healthcare system. Guided by a bold vision of transforming American healthcare, the company is planning a nationwide network of integrative medical clinics wholly owned and overseen by doTERRA, that would operate on a membership or concierge-style model, in […]

Feeding the “Multivore” Family

By Ellen Kanner, Contributing Writer

The New Year brings a post-holiday parade of patients streaming into your office resolving to eat healthier (maybe after a little urging from you). It’s among everyone’s top New Year’s resolutions. But by the early Spring, many grow discouraged as they find that they are unable to uphold their resolutions. The reality is that major […]

Honoring “Father Nature” Jim Duke

By Erik Goldman

In the world of botanical medicine, Jim Duke, PhD, stood like a mighty Redwood tree: bridging earth and sky, creating a vast ecosystem around him, and casting a long shadow. One of the nation’s foremost ethnobotanists, Duke has played a central and pioneering role in the establishment of modern herbal medicine as we know it […]