In my sixteen years of family medicine, I think the most frustrating disease I treat is obesity. It’s frustrating because as a doctor I feel great compassion for these patients, trying so hard to lose weight, and yet I feel almost shameful that as a primary care physician I can’t offer much in terms of medicines to help.… Read the rest
All posts by Richard Saint Cyr MD
Combating the Common Cold: What Herbals Work?
Isn’t it humbling that we have no cure for the world’s most common illness? Yes, the common cold, globally the #1 cause of sick days and doctor visits, still stampedes across the world, blissfully immune to any Eastern or Western prescriptions.… Read the rest
Supplements for Arthritis Pain: A Review
I just turned 49 in March, which was no big deal. But when I realized that I’d turn 50 next year, I suddenly felt an anxious pang of — something. Mortality? Life winding down? Being put out to pasture? Fortunately, it was difficult to brood too long with two toddler boys running me around in circles (literally).… Read the rest
Alcoholism: A Family Scourge
I miss my father. He should be around to be granddad to my wonderful boys, helping me raise them to be good men. But he’s not around, dying far too early, from alcoholic cirrhosis of the liver. Only in his mid-60’s, he was a wonderfully warm-hearted man with a deep belly laugh, very much the average-guy Martin Crane to my Frasier Crane-like stuffiness.… Read the rest
Diabetes: Healthy Lifestyle Choices Are Key
I’ve been a family doctor for fifteen years, and one of the more dramatic changes I’ve noticed is a big spike in the incidence of prediabetes and diabetes, in all age groups. I had worked in China for ten years until last summer, and all us family doctors at my Beijing clinic weren’t surprised at all with the 2013 paper published in JAMA confirming the frightening reality in China: more than half of all adults in China now are prediabetic.… Read the rest
Not Sleeping Well? Here’s My Advice.
This week, March 6 – 13, is National Sleep Awareness Week, so it’s a good time to review healthy sleep habits. I see a lot of adults and teens in my clinic who are chronically tired and have troubles sleeping — both falling asleep and staying asleep.… Read the rest