A few decades ago, acupuncture was not a modality one expected US military healthcare to embrace. For most non-Asian Americans, it was more the stuff of myth than a reality of medical practice. Colonel Richard Charles Niemtzow, MD, PhD, MPH, did much to change that. Over his long and admirable career, he worked tirelessly to […]
It was right about this time, five years ago. I woke up one morning with a raunchy cough, a head full of mucus, and an aching body that felt like a sack of potatoes. “This is weird,” I thought. I seldom get sick, and when I do it’s usually in the November-to-December transition when temperatures […]
(Originally published by www.undark.org, Aug 5, 2024) In August, the US Food and Drug Administration decided not to approve the psychedelic drug MDMA (midomafetamine) for use in patients with post-traumatic stress disorder in conjunction with psychological intervention. The move signals the FDA’s desire to put the brakes on the psychedelics research, which has rapidly moved […]
Stress and sleep are two of the most important determinants of overall health. Many people have too much of the former, and not nearly enough of the latter. Add in poor diet and lack of exercise, and you’ve got an equation for chronic disease. People recognize that constant stress and poor sleep are inter-related, and […]
Use of marijuana during pregnancy, especially in the first trimester, significantly raises the risk of preterm birth, low birth weight, and perinatal complications that require neonatal intensive care. Those are the main conclusions of a massive metanalysis and systematic review of 57 studies looking at the impact of in utero cannabis exposure. Combined, the studies […]
Holistic Primary Care honors the memory and legacy of Roland Redmond Griffiths, PhD, a visionary neuroscientist and psychopharmacologist who was among the leaders of the recent renaissance of serious clinical research on psychedelics. Griffiths died at the age of 77 of metastatic colon cancer on October 16, 2023, at his home in Baltimore, MD. He […]
Usually I’m a voracious reader. I’ve always enjoyed reading and gobbling up books. But this year it seemed I couldn’t get past more than a couple of pages of anything at any time. “The Well-Lived Life” –a new book by Dr. Gladys McGarey–had been sitting on my desk collecting dust for months. Finally, I picked […]
Are contemporary allopathic medicine and Ayurveda mutually compatible? Is it possible to merge modern biomedical science with ancient healing principles defined millennia ago? Is there any relevance in today’s medical clinic for a paradigm centered substantially around pulse diagnosis, or for therapeutics focused on behavior modification, herbs, mind-body therapies, and detoxification? Most importantly, what purpose […]
Psychedelics have been hitting the headlines nonstop these days. The New York Times, and other major media, have run a slew of articles highlighting the promise of psychedelics for hard-to-treat clinical conditions like major depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, and addiction. Important discoveries are emerging from prestigious academic centers worldwide that have dedicated millions of dollars […]
A metanalysis of 12 clinical studies representing a total of 776 patients diagnosed with dementia shows that phototherapy interventions can significantly improve cognitive function as indicated by changes in Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) scores. Phototherapy did not, however, have measurable impact on depression, agitation, or sleep patterns. Researchers at the Institute of Geriatric Medicine, Chinese […]
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