Archive Year 2007 month 6

Question:
Dear Ben,

Congratulations on your recent accomplishment. I wish you all the best.

My health question is the following. My 34 year old husband has been fighting a loosing battle with allergic contact dermatitis. We think that he may have contacted it 3 weeks ago while sitting on the grass at the school play ground near our house.

At first we thought it was flea bites and he started to scratch profusely on both the front of his legs and on the "fish belly" of his right arm. However, the next two days it started to spread up his arm and on his abdomen at which point it was bright red and swollen. needless to say, we ended up in urgent care on our vacation where he was given a steroid shot and a 6 day dose of oral steroids as well as antibiotics for fear of the skin becoming infected.

Although the steroids worked for the amount of time they were prescribed,

As a father, I get concerned when my boys complain of 'tummy aches'

As a physician, I am trained to think of the worst case scenario and then rule it out.

This mix as a parent can be unsettling at times.

For parents out there who wonder what some of the common 'tummy aches' are - read on.

Early morning stomach pain:
Feed the rascals. They've been up all night and their stomach is crying for food. It is common that they won't want to eat but find something for them to get in. A protein powder, energy bar, almond butter on celery, bite of some whole fruit - something.

Tell them: "Do you want your tummy ache to go away?" Wait for an answer. Once you get confirmation, tell them how eating something will make it go away.

Random stomach pain:
Think - when was the last time they went #2?

Children think few

Yesterday was the graduation for the Naturopathic Physicians Class of 2007 from Bastyr University.

After 5 years of studying, not sleeping and loads of work, I put up my right hand and agreed to the Naturopathic Oath.

With my bounding heart about to pop out frontwards, the Dean of Clinical Education called me up to the stage, "Dr Benjamin Lynch." Then I walked over to the Dean of Naturopathic Students and he placed the doctoral hood around my gown.

I was honored to shake the hand (and hug) Dr Jocelyn Elders, MD, the former Surgeon General for Clinton. She gave an outstanding speech.

Now to cram for clinical board exams.

Thank you all for your support, readership and kind words.

Respectfully,

Dr Benjamin Lynch, ND
(damn that looks good!) :)

A middle-aged man came into the clinic today with complaints of fatigue and over-worked. He loves his job as a prison mental health counselor yet it is 40 hours of intense work. He no longer can exercise on weekends, too tired to hang out with his buds and his Saturday is wasted as he can only lay on the couch. He drinks about 1 gallon of water a day, loves his chocolate and sugar but overall eats a healthy diet with a ton of veggies included.

He went to a MD last week as he wanted to address why he was so thirsty all the time. The doc ran a lab test and said he is not sick in any way. He asked to check him for diabetes due to his thirst - and that too was fine.

Frustrated he came to see us and wanted to know if we could do something for him. The visit was only a brief as he wanted to only meet us and scope out the clinic.

Well, we don't do anything for anyone really. What a good physician does is facilitate one's health and guides patients.

A 14 yr old honor student came to our clinic with him mom and dad. He has been ill for over 6 years and recently has been missing school for over a month due to pain and too-frequent bowel movements.

He reports worsening intense stomach pain waking him up at night. His rightfully-concerned mom, who is a registered nurse (RN), tried everything under the sun to no avail. It seemed as we were his mom's last hope.

His current treatment was Prilosec as he had really intense acid burning in his stomach area. It was not working and in fact was making it worse.

I began taking his history from as far back as he could remember.

8 years ago, he went to Mexico with his parents. There he got bad diarrhea which resolved with antiobiotics and flagyl.

2 years after that incident, he began having severe food allergies and couldn't eat much of anything without reacting.

The food allergies only became worse allowing him only

Many folks know that there are common causes of frequent urination.

Common causes of urinary frequency:

• Diabetes
  
• Urinary Tract Infection
• Drinking too much water, caffeine, etc
• Benign Prostatic Hypertrophy aka BPH
• Alcohol
  

• Do you tend to pee more at night? No - the same as during the day
• Do you have difficulty starting to pee? Nope - I really gotta go and I go no problem
• Do you notice that your stream of urine is not as forceful as it used to be? Nope - it's fine.
• Do you feel that you have urine left over in your bladder after you pee? Nope
• Do'
  
  
  
  
  
  

All you Morning People out there kill me - I've always wondered how you do it.

Now I know.

I was a Night Owl through and through. After a few months of changing habits and supporting my adrenals, I've shifted to a Morning Person. Well - almost.

Morning People have their cortisol secreted in large amounts in morning. It is cortisol which wakes you up in the morning. If one is healthy and their adrenal glands are functioning properly, they can get out of bed in the morning without a hitch.

However, if you're stressed, working too much, no vacation and high anxiety, then your adrenal glands are getting depleted and cannot produce the cortisol in high enough amounts in the morning time. Thus, you have to literally drag yourself out of bed and into the shower.

Night Owl people have cortisol spiking in the evening which lets them go and go. This is great if you have a night shift or need to study late. Many medical students or'