Berkson’s Blogs

In medicine, the right hand often doesn’t know what the left hand is doing. You may be taking a drug to deal with an illness or a set of symptoms, but that drug may cause other issues and symptoms. If the link between the first medication and its adverse effects are not recognized, then the adverse effects may be treated as primary problems needing their own medications. You just keep getting more ill and being on more meds. And you end up walking around with a huge question mark over your head. What the heck is happening? The term iatrogenic means [...]

Today’s state of medicine should make cynics of us all, doctors included. I thought you should realize just how human medicine is and prone to murkiness, mistakes and greed. We should stop treating medicine like it’s the only profession on earth that doesn’t make errors, and as you will read below, sometimes intentionally. An article was published in Medscape called Five Recent Medical News Stories That Invite Cynicism. It’s by Dr. John Mandrola. Some of Dr. Mandrola’s illustrative examples of why we should all be cynical about what health care is delivering are summarized below. It’s my hope these examples help [...]

By Berkson There has been a steady trend in the last few decades in which children are developing issues historically seen in seniors. We see obesity, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, cancers and even anxiety in younger and younger children. And of course, cognitive issues are part of this nasty mix. There is an increasing incidence of attentional issues such as ADHD, Asperger’s Spectrum of Disease and other disorders like impulsivity control and inappropriate anger. Many of these get their start in the womb. This is exactly why planning a pregnancy and strategically detoxing prior to conception, for both parents, is [...]

Oxygen is essential for life. But it’s high maintenance. It comes at a cost. When we use oxygen during normal cellular functions to keep us alive and kicking, dangerous reactive oxygen species (ROS) also get produced. These cause aging and cancer. This mechanism happens right inside your skin. As you go outside to hike, bike, golf, or paddle board, your skin is exposed to the sun. There is a good news and bad news part of this story. The good news is that your skin then initiates the rather multi-stepped process of production of vitamin D. This helps you absorb nutrients, [...]