Berkson’s Blogs

This is the third large study in the last year to suggest potential eye disease from regular aspirin use.  It’s a small risk. Aspirin does protect against heart attack, stroke, and dementia, and when used for over 5 years, it protects against many types of cancer. But if you are part of the 1% who gets this serious eye disease, then statistics mean nothing. But the conclusions are still not set in stone, and a soon-to-be published study may even reflect opposite results. So, right now, aspirin use is a conundrum. Bottom line: Try to avoid it for pain control and [...]

Hearing loss accelerates decline of cognitive functions such as thinking and remembering. (Journal of American Medical Association on Line 2013). So using hearing aids, if hearing loss is occurring, is not just hearing protective, but also brain protective. But instead of relying only on hearing aids, look into aldosterone hormone testing and replacement, shown to be helpful in some adult cases of hearing loss. There is hearing-help in them there hormones!

Higher blood  levels of a plasticizer, called phthalates, have been linked  with women going through menopause two to 15 years earlier, which puts them at risk of all kinds of health woes from heart disease and diabetes to plain not feeling good or enjoying sex. Strive to purchase plastic-free cosmetics. Menopause 2012

Those exposed to cleaning products—farmers, hairdressers, and printing workers— were found to have increased risk of getting asthma. Besides cleaning products, flour, enzymes, metals, and textile exposure at the workplace are also linked to higher rates of asthma. Occupational asthma holds a message for us all. Use green products and ventilate when you clean, especially if you have young children who spend lots of time on the floor and put most things in their mouths. (Thorax 2013)

Honey given at bedtime (three different extracts all worked) was more effective than placebo in reducing the frequency and severity of nighttime cough. Authors tell parents that honey could be used as a safe and effective cough suppressant for children one year of age and older. Pediatrics 2012

We are what our parents ate. And what they thought. And how they lived. Children do not just inherit money, they inherit EPI-genes. The surrounding proteins that morph genes. How we live, think, hide, move and eat, all influence our genes more than our genes themselves. Our kids receive these messages in the dynamic womb. I wrote about this in Hormone Deception, and its day has come. A call for GREEN PREGNANCIES, where both to-be parents make a conscious decision about commitment and family. They choose a mate. They plan a date. They detox together, eat better, create a physiologic womb [...]