I grew up in a cigarette experiment, or so it seemed.  My parents appeared to be exploring the question, How many cigarettes could be smoked in a five hour period, say between 6 and 11 p.m.?  New records were set on a regular basis.  Every night, the living room of our house looked like a card […]

A Rising Epidemic Tells Us Much About Ourselves, And Offers Clues to Effective Treatment

There is an old Sufi story about a man who loses his keys in his house and decides to look for them under a street lamp on a nearby corner. When a neighbor passes by and asks his friend what he might be […]

It’s allergy season again and many people are suffering with sneezing, runny noses, watery eyes, headaches, and various other aches and pains that accompany this annoying and frustrating condition.  Until the frost hits in late October or early November, a plethora of allergens will be floating in the air, triggering immune and histamine reactions that afflict […]

In mid-July, The New York Times ran a series of articles on Alzheimer’s disease, which, among other things, touted the new pharmaceutical approaches to this devastating disorder.  Researchers are attempting to develop new drugs that will block plaques, or scar tissue, from forming in the brain and destroying whole swaths of brain tissue. These amyloid plaques […]

When the fall and winter months arrive, we naturally crave more warming foods, which means we tend to increase our consumption of animal foods.  People eat much more fish, but many also consume more fowl — especially chicken, turkey, and eggs – as well as beef, pork, and wild game. 

These foods warm us, to be sure, […]

The first snow came to Amherst, Massachusetts this month, and with it the first signs of kidney season.  Winter is the Water phase of the year, the Chinese sages tell us.  The energies that drive the season now dive deeply into the body, spiraling and taking root in the kidneys and bladder.  With the increase in […]