medicine

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In 1987 I started my psychiatry residency. Since then, they have changed the Diagnostic and Statistic Manual three times and it still does not seem to be keeping up with how fast the world is changing around me.

I one saw lots of “lethargic” depressions. Slow and sleepy “ain’t got no energy” depressions. “I feel like a human blob” kind of depressions.

Now most of them turn out to be Type II (“adult onset”) sugar diabetes or the thyroid just stopped working for some creative reason. Read more on Then and Now…

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There is paranoia about the coronavirus. Patients come into my office for other reasons and we have often ended up talking about it.

There are a variety of classifications of paranoid thoughts in the latest (fifth) edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of psychiatry. Even though I have to hang a moniker from it on my work in order to get paid by any insurance for my services, there have been plenty of research articles published by responsible people tho show that it is pretty much useless. Read more on The State Of The Coronavirus…

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All over the internet, many people have come up with diagrams know as “histomaps.” These are long longitudinal diagrams that show the relative strength and power of different countries of the globe.

I am not linking to any of them because the print is too small and everyone wants to sell hard copies.

But I do have a vivid memory of the one on the wall of my sixth grade classroom. Read more on Coronavirus Testing Urgently Needed…

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I tend to obsess about my patients.

Especially the ones who have chosen prescription psychiatric drugs over natural alternative substances. I always give a choice when it is possible. it often is.

Of course, I must often rely on research that has been done in other countries. I have gotten used to doing this. I can’t say it bothers me terribly much. Read more on Death By Psych Meds…

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I have vivid memories of the Countway Library of Medicine at Harvard, where they let me hang around when I was still in high school but trying to learn some very fascinating things about medicine and science.

There was a hall lined on both sides with pictures of famous doctors who had made great contributions,

One of my favorites was Sir William Osler, a pioneer in Medical Education who spoke several wonderful aphorisms that were supposed to condense medical knowledge into some sort of easy to swallow bits. Read more on How To Increase STEM…

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My preceptor in Kansas taught me — while I was finishing my training and in my psychopharmacology fellowship — how to do “ECT”, which stands for “Electroconvulsive therapy.”

AKA: Electroshock therapy Read more on Yes They Can Still Force Electroshock Therapy…

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There are a certain number of patients who come to me suffering from autoimmune disease. Yes, more than one.

Sometimes Lupus or Celiac disease or rheumatoid arthritis or such.

Often they get through life dragging along with them unidentified articular pains, which are themselves probably an unidentified autoimmune illness. Read more on Depression As Auto-immune Disease…

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Sometimes a good psychosis or delusion, is less harmful than medication — especially in a person who has previously been compromised by illness.

The first I saw was a veteran many years ago. Curiously enough, he was the kind of “old salt” you see plenty in San Diego street clinics but I saw him back at the Wichita V.A.

Then as now I enjoy the older veterans, The kind of folks who, although they were members of a nameless hoard of uniformed youth, have assimilated the serviceman’s identity into their own. Read more on When A Doctor Decides Not To Treat The Hallucinations…

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I do not know this person, Nina Teicholz.

I do know that she is a very-well informed journalist and does her scientific research. She has done something very wonderful. She is spreading the correct information about the ketogenic diet.

So have I, actually. I promote it in my private practice and I practice what I preach.

I have been on some variant of the low carbohydrate/ketogenic diet for several years.

I was not terribly obsessive about collecting my own clinical data while on the diet. I have lost about 200 lbs. and basically reversed my own Type II Diabetes since I have been on this diet.

I say “basically” and not “totally” because I have not “cured” it.

Just gotten myself down to normal blood sugar range. If I ate a bread-and-pasta type meal, it might result in anything from a mildly raised glucometer reading to diabetic coma.

I absolutely do not want to find out.

I think I picked up some of the common complications of diabetes during the dozen or so years since my hospitalization (and initial diagnosis) of type II diabetes (with blood sugars around 600) which caused the docs to tell my husband I could snuff it during my intensive care hospital stay (at age 46).

I am still here.

I walk with a cane mostly, because of nerve damage in my feet. With meganutrition and exercise it has improved somewhat.

This despite the women in my family who did not have diabetes and yet managed to walk poorly (with canes) with weak and tingly feet. It may be a familial peripheral neuropathy.

At least it does not keep me from (my own brand of) dancing.

My visual acuity is down a bit because of retinal damage. All I can do now is watch my diet and monitor my blood sugar.

I did not decide how to manage my life and infirmity by anything other than … reading science. I have been doing that for a very long time. For all of my ups and downs, I have used applying science to resolve all the seemingly impossible problems of my life.

Loneliness. (See my book on “How to locate and marry your lifetime love.”)

Obesity/Type II Diabetes. (See “This is Not a Diet Book.”)

The real problem, is the finding of scientific truth.

Although academics, professors at universities and such, are pressured individuals in a painful distillate of scientific achievement, I trust the process of academic achievement more than the processes of government or insurance.

The processes of the latter seem to be more profit-motivated than anything else.

Read more on Keto Saves The Day — And My Life…

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Research in psychology abounds, but “naturalistic” research does not.

I am impressed by these nice female medical doctors on the faculty of the University of California School of Medicine in San Francisco for the work they have done. Read more on Medical Student Evaluations…

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