Category: columns

We live in a society that measures and medicates. All the tools and technology and medicines deployed to maintain heart health are a help — yet heart disease remains the No. 1 killer in America. And high blood pressure, or hypertension, is a major contributor. Even so, heart disease is largely preventable, and much of that prevention… Continue reading 7 Ways to Reduce Salt Intake and Lower Your Blood Pressure

What’s even more humiliating and socially unacceptable than the remains of a spinach salad speckled across a toothy grin? Yes, it’s bad breath. Halitosis. A foul odor emanating from the mouth. It’s not a medical emergency, of course, but some 25 to 30 percent of the world’s population suffer with this distressing problem. The origins… Continue reading 11 Remedies for Bad Breath

A friend once expressed frustration that her mother would no longer sit or stand erect. She attributed her mom's slouch to laziness, but in truth osteoporosis had caused compression fractures that collapsed the front of her mom's vertebrae. When osteoporosis weakens the vertebrae, they gradually become wedge-shaped, creating the pronounced curve in the upper back that's… Continue reading 3 Natural Ways to Build Bones and Prevent Osteoporosis

Ouch! Your finger brushed a pan of brownies just out of the 350-degree oven. Will those brownies taste good enough to make up for that angry red spot glowing on your finger? You’ve probably got yourself a first-degree burn, the kind that affects only the epidermis, the outermost layer of skin. In a couple of… Continue reading Ouch! You've Burned Your Hand on a Pan of Brownies: Now What?

We've all experienced unrelenting nausea at some point or another. At these times, you're first instinct may be to turn to over the counter medications; however, ginger works as a simple, effective antidote. For thousands of years, Arabic, Indian, and Asian healers prized ginger as food and medicine. This tropical plant, in the same bo­tanical family as… Continue reading 7 Health Benefits of Ginger

Not long after I began writing the Life With Multiple Sclerosis column, I was fortunate enough to have a meeting with the head of research for the National MS Society. He spoke of a cure for multiple sclerosis (MS) being in three parts: stopping the disease where it is, reversing damage done, and stopping MS… Continue reading Would an EBV Vaccine End MS?

There are times when living with multiple sclerosis (MS) is, well … there are just times. There are times like when we wake up with expectations for the day or week ahead only to have their potential blown away like a path in the sand, or when you know the night before to rake the… Continue reading With MS, There Are Times

“A guy walks into a room … and forgets why he’s there.” Classic setup for a joke. The punchline, however, is more nose laugh than guffaw, as well as being more nod your head in understanding than roll on the floor laughing. Life with MS mayn’t be a very good joke, but if I didn’t… Continue reading With MS, Aging Happens at a Faster Pace

I was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 2001. That was after more than 15 years of ignored, explained-away, misdiagnosed, and worked-around symptoms. When I was told that I had MS, I knew of only one other person — the mother of a friend of my wife — who had the disease (and I didn’t really… Continue reading Why Is Orange the Color of MS?

On a recent trip to visit my retired parents — in one of those warm U.S. states where people, you know, retire — I noted something about older people that reminded me of myself and my chronic illness community. We often focus on what we might consider our “better days.” The number of flags, bumper… Continue reading Why I Focus on Today, Not Yesterday