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
Category Archives: Nutrition
6 Herbals To Help the Common Cold
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
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
Don’t Skip Breakfast! Here’s Why.
Did you know that the U.S. Center for Disease Control predicts that one third of all Americans will have diabetes by the year 2050? This scary statistic is not just an American phenomenon; many Western countries’ modernized diets have led to a diabetes epidemic.… Read the rest
UHT Milk: Is It Safe — and Nutritious?
When I moved to China eight years ago, I was quite shocked at seeing milk in small boxes piled high on store shelves — at room temperature! With expiration dates longer than six months! How could this be safe — and nutritious?… Read the rest
My TEDx Talk: Yes, You Can Live Healthy in China
“Ideas worth spreading.” That’s the slogan of the amazing TED collection of talks, and when I was invited last October to give a lecture at TEDx at UIBE, I came up with a topic that I hoped could be challenging and inspiring: living in China can be a healthy, positive experience.… Read the rest