The pros and cons of medical marijuana
Marcy Duda, a former home health aide with four children and two granddaughters, never dreamed she’d be publicly touting the medical benefits of “pot.”
Cold comfort
Think you know how to avoid the sniffles? Maybe not.
If there’s any good news about the common cold, it might be this: You don’t have to stop kissing your sniffling loved one’s lips just to avoid catching their colds. But you probably will want to stop holding hands.
Comparing apples to organic apples
We’d like to think pesticide-free food is better for us, but scientific proof remains elusive.
With the recession breathing down our necks, you may be looking for ways to cut the household budget without seriously compromising family well-being. So here’s a suggestion: If you buy organic fruits and veggies, consider going for the less pricey nonorganic produce instead.
Time to cleanse? Think again
To read the Internet ads, you’d think that our bodies were awash in “toxins” – usually unspecified – and that we should therefore go to dramatic lengths, like “colon cleansing” and chelation to get rid of all this bad stuff.
The fading allure of vitamins
My love affair with vitamins and supplements is over: With a few exceptions — stay tuned — I’m tossing them out.
Favorite books on alternative medicine
One of the many perks of writing about health is that you end up with a terrific collection of books. A decade ago, most of the tomes on my groaning shelves were the traditional sort – biology textbooks, medical dictionaries, pharmaceutical references and the like.
Benefits from aromatherapy tough to prove
Aromatherapy — the use of plant oils to improve well-being — sounds lovely, doesn’t it? How wonderful if a whiff of lavender could make you feel drowsy, or a little dab of rosemary oil could relieve muscle pain.
Physical therapy arrives, popularity surges for varied reasons
So there I was, the quintessential battered athlete, standing in a silly, little “johnnie” so physical therapist Susan Lattanzi could put me through my paces.
For The Facts on ‘Natural’ Remedies, Go Online
We Americans now spend an estimated $20 billion a year on dietary supplements and so-called “natural” remedies, many of us blissfully — even willfully — ignorant of the actual medicinal value, or utter lack thereof, in of these products.
Meditation and the Brain ….?
For decades, open-minded Westerners – patients and doctors alike – have been touting the medical benefits of meditation, an ancient Eastern practice that comes in hundreds if not thousands of different flavors but consists basically of quieting the mind through moment-to-moment nonjudgmental awareness.