BEST. BLOG. EVER!

 Many of you may know that my wife, Sonia, was pregnant with our first child.  For those that didn’t, now you do.  Due date was 3/21/15 with the gender TBD on arrival.  Sonia’s pregnancy was largely and fortunately uneventful.  Then she started labor on Friday, March 13^th, in the late afternoon (ironically the exact time she finished her last day of work).  After 11 weeks of 2.5 hour birthing classes, we expected and felt well prepped for a natural birth with a midwife in the hospital.  What a humbling experience…  After 27 hours of natural medication-free labor then an additional 9 hours of epidural induced relief (what a great invention!), we welcomed…

The best part is that both Sonia and Kalaya are healthy.  What a humbling experience – every part of it.  So thankful for my wife, great birthing teachers, an amazing birthing team, and of course my daughter!

THREE Times More Effective Than Flu Shot

What if there were a nutrient that was 3 times more effective than the flu vaccine?  

Turns out there is.  Colostrum.  Colostrum is the first substance to come out of the nipple after a baby is born.  It comes out in very small volumes but is packed with all the right nutrients to protect the brand new baby from potentially harmful germs.  Over the first few days, the colostrum turns to milk but the newest colostrum doesn’t actually contain milk.  Colostrum supercharges the baby’s immune system and is much much better than the flu shot at protecting against the flu.  This was demonstrated in a recent study.  You can read the well done study for yourself, but without getting into all the details, there were 4 groups. 1^st group didn’t receive any treatment (placebo), 2^nd group took colostrum, 3^rd group took flu shot, 4^th group took both colostrum + flu shot.  Treatments lasted 2 months then all 4 groups were monitored for an additional 3 months to see who got the flu.  Here are the results of how many cases of the flu occurred in each group:

1^st group (placebo): 57

2^nd group (colostrum): 13

3^rd group (vaccination): 41

4^th group (colostrum + vaccination): 14

Good news in this study is that the flu vaccine was actually a little helpful.  The exciting news is that colostrum demostrates a 4-fold improvement over placebo and shows a 3-fold improvement of colostrum over the vaccination!!!

The second part of the study did it in high-risk heart disease patients who are typically far more likely to die from the flu than healthier counterparts.  Similar results were obtained. 

The researchers concluded that “Colostrum, both in healthy subjects and high-risk cardiovascular patients, is at least three times more effective than vaccination to prevent flu and is very cost-effective.”  That’s powerful stuff!  

Good news, you can actually buy colostrum as a supplement!

Guess what my new kid is gonna get this March… COLOSTRUM.  And guess what I’ll probably give my kid next flu season too?!

Medical Disclaimer: Information provided in this email is for informational purposes only. The information is a result of years of practice and experience by Yoshi Rahm, DO. However, this information is NOT intended as a substitute for the advice provided by your physician or other healthcare professional, or any information contained on or in any product label or packaging. 

Do not use the information provided in this email for diagnosing or treating a health problem or disease, or prescribing medication or other treatment. Always speak with your physician or other healthcare professional before taking any medication or nutritional, herbal or homeopathic supplement, or using any treatment for a health problem. If you have or suspect that you have a medical problem, contact your health care provider promptly. Do not disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking professional advice because of something you have read in this email.


Information provided in this email and the use of any products or services related to this email by you DOES NOT create a doctor-patient relationship between you and Yoshi Rahm, DO. or any other physician featured in this email. Information and statements regarding dietary supplements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration and are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.

Placebo & Nocebo

Did you know that the placebo effect also occurs in dogs?

Since the placebo effect was first noted in the 1700’s the placebo effect has become more powerful over time.

Where you live & your culture changes the effectiveness of placebos.

Placebos work even if you know you’re being given a placebo.

Size, shape and color of a placebo pill changes the placebo’s effectiveness.  Yellow placebo pills are most effective at treating depression.  Red pills cause more alertness.  Green pills best help ease anxiety.  White pills sooth stomach issues best.

Obviously the body holds innate healing mechanisms.  Part of this healing power is in the simple belief we have in our healing abilities or rather the belief we have in external forces healing us.  The more tangible the placebo is, the more effective. 

There’s also something called the “nocebo” effect where the expectations of undesirable side effects actually occur.  That’s a crappy deal.

Check out this YouTube video entitled “Is there scientific proof we can heal ourselves?  Lissa Rankin, MD at TEDxAmericanRiviera”.  In Dr. Rankin’s Ted Talk, you’ll learn about placebo and nocebo along with what you can do to live longer…. by a lot. 

Cure loneliness. 

Spirituality matters. 

Professional life and stress matter.

Attitude.

We have minds that have an explosive and healing power!  Believe it!

Medical Disclaimer: Information provided in this email is for informational purposes only. The information is a result of years of practice and experience by Yoshi Rahm, DO. However, this information is NOT intended as a substitute for the advice provided by your physician or other healthcare professional, or any information contained on or in any product label or packaging. 

Do not use the information provided in this email for diagnosing or treating a health problem or disease, or prescribing medication or other treatment. Always speak with your physician or other healthcare professional before taking any medication or nutritional, herbal or homeopathic supplement, or using any treatment for a health problem. If you have or suspect that you have a medical problem, contact your health care provider promptly. Do not disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking professional advice because of something you have read in this email.


Information provided in this email and the use of any products or services related to this email by you DOES NOT create a doctor-patient relationship between you and Yoshi Rahm, DO. or any other physician featured in this email. Information and statements regarding dietary supplements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration and are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.

Double Dipping Doctors & A Hilarious Video

Marketing to doctors.

We all know that the pharmaceutical industry is a financial behemoth.  One can barely watch a set of commercials without watching a commercial for a drug that might cause a myriad of side effects.

John Oliver’s show does a 17 minute segment on Marketing to Doctors. Check out his segment here.

I encourage you to watch at least the last 2 minutes of the clip starting at 15:20.  I thought it was hilarious because I can relate.  That’s because I remember being a medical student and then a resident and being encouraged to attend many drug sponsored dinner talks at some rather luxurious restaurants.  The featured physician speakers, who were my mentors at the time, later shared that they usually received somewhere between $1,000 and $5,000 for each 40 minute talk.  All to push some drug.  The drug reps were quite eager to have a budding young doctor (me back then) learn to push whatever drug sales through the roof too.

Quite biased and quite sad.  While John Oliver’s clip certainly exaggerates the situation, the video still rings quite true for many physicians out there.

Now to be fair and ridicule the natural supplement industry, John Oliver also did a clip on Dr Oz and natural weight loss supplements.  While not nearly as bad as the pharmaceutical industry, the natural supplement industry is pretty fraudulent in my opinion also. Here’s the clip on Dr. Oz and Nutritional Supplements.

A couple other interesting facts:

Did you know that some doctors are paid to advise and promote the drugs that they research?  A ProPublica analysis shows that more than 1,300 practitioners nationwide received more than $90 million in research grants while at the same time receiving nearly $13 million for speaking engagements and another $4 million for consulting.

Major conflict of interest!


Medical Disclaimer: Information provided in this email is for informational purposes only. The information is a result of years of practice and experience by Yoshi Rahm, DO. However, this information is NOT intended as a substitute for the advice provided by your physician or other healthcare professional, or any information contained on or in any product label or packaging. 

Do not use the information provided in this email for diagnosing or treating a health problem or disease, or prescribing medication or other treatment. Always speak with your physician or other healthcare professional before taking any medication or nutritional, herbal or homeopathic supplement, or using any treatment for a health problem. If you have or suspect that you have a medical problem, contact your health care provider promptly. Do not disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking professional advice because of something you have read in this email.


Information provided in this email and the use of any products or services related to this email by you DOES NOT create a doctor-patient relationship between you and Yoshi Rahm, DO. or any other physician featured in this email. Information and statements regarding dietary supplements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration and are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.

A Hamburger Tale

Back in 2003, as a coach of a girls youth soccer team, I used to take the kids to a hamburger stand after each game.  The owner always greeted me warmly.  “Hey doc, how many burgers today?”

“Ten,” I said one day.

The owner looked distressed.  “Hmm.  I might not have that many.”

“I have 10 hungry kids,” I interjected.  “They’ll be disappointed if they don’t each get a burger.  This was our last game, you know.”

“I’ll check again,” he replied.  Soon he returned with 10 burgers.  “Got lucky.  Sorry about the scare.”

“No problem.  That’s why I come here.  I always get what I want.”

The next day a player’s mom called to say her daughter had diarrhea and was vomiting.  “Could it be food poisoning?” she asked.

I told her I would find out.

I called the hamburger stand owner and told him that one of the kids was sick, and asked if the burgers could be responsible.  To my surprise, he said “Yes.”

“Remember, I didn’t think I had enough burgers, then came back with 10?” he said, without a hint of distress.  “Well, I only had 9 that I knew were good.  The 10^th burger had been sitting around for a few hours.  I thought it might be bad, but decided to take the chance.”

“You what?” I asked, incredulous.

“You know I always try to keep my customers happy.  What’s the fuss?  Only one kid got sick, and all she got was diarrhea.”

Needless to say, I was flabbergasted.  How much irresponsibility did he think was acceptable in the name of satisfaction?

Whenever I tell this story, the response is typically an incredulous look and a recommendation that usually is somewhat along the lines of opinion that the owner of the stand should be boiled in oil.

Then I tell the truth:  This incident never happened.  It’s a parable I like to tell residents or medical students when we discuss the unnecessary use of antibiotics.  You see, if you replace the word “hamburger” with “antibiotic,” and replace “stand owner” with “family doctor,” the story is virtually the same.

When a doctor gives a patient unnecessary antibiotics just to keep them happy, the doctor is doing exactly what the owner did.  Same principle, and same consequences (actually, probably worse since antibiotics wipe out much of the entire gut flora for a long time).  So why do most doctors think the hamburger story is ghastly, yet continue to prescribe unnecessary antibiotics?

According to the CDC* and the New England Journal of Medicine** studies indicate that nearly 50% of antibiotics are unnecessary but some patients are happier when we prescribe them.  Yet antibiotics have a number needed to harm (NNH) of about 10 if we define harm as antibiotic associated diarrhea (that means that for every 10 people who take an antibiotic, 1 of those 10 will end up with diarrhea).  This is the same as in the hamburger story.  Of course, that’s without counting the growing threat of antibiotic resistance and without considering the likely longer term health consequences.

So, if you’re a patient, the next time you’re tempted to demand antibiotics unnecessarily, consider this story.  Or, if you’re a doctor, the next time you’re tempted to prescribe an unnecessary antibiotic to keep a patient happy, tell the patient this story instead.

*Get smart for healthcare. Centers for Disease Controland Prevention Web site. 

**Hicks LA, Taylor TH Jr, Hunkler RJ. US outpatientantibiotic prescribing, 2010. N Engl J Med. 2013;368:1461-1462.

Note:  The inspiration for writing this story came from an article in The Journal of Family Practice, November 2013, Vol 62, No 11, Pg 620.  I used their story and made it my own.


Medical Disclaimer: Information provided in this email is for informational purposes only. The information is a result of years of practice and experience by Yoshi Rahm, DO. However, this information is NOT intended as a substitute for the advice provided by your physician or other healthcare professional, or any information contained on or in any product label or packaging. 

Do not use the information provided in this email for diagnosing or treating a health problem or disease, or prescribing medication or other treatment. Always speak with your physician or other healthcare professional before taking any medication or nutritional, herbal or homeopathic supplement, or using any treatment for a health problem. If you have or suspect that you have a medical problem, contact your health care provider promptly. Do not disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking professional advice because of something you have read in this email.


Information provided in this email and the use of any products or services related to this email by you DOES NOT create a doctor-patient relationship between you and Yoshi Rahm, DO. or any other physician featured in this email. Information and statements regarding dietary supplements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration and are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.

Nothing to Lose but Your Pain – GREAT OFFER

Allow me to share with you one of the ways I keep my body physically fine-tuned. 

Background first… I’m very active and enjoy many forms of exercise for physical fitness, but I mostly run and swim because I enjoy these activities tremendously.  They make me feel good in so many ways.  While I choose to swim and run, these are not necessarily the best exercises for everyone. 

Movement is the key.  Everyone must move!  But I encourage everyone to find a movement activity that they enjoy.

Anyway, often I get painful “kinks” in my body, mostly from running.  That’s why I now regularly treat my body with some TLC.  

One of the main resources I use for my body’s TLC is Optimal Performance Systems (OPS at www.OPSmovement.com).  Some of you may have:

• Back Pain
• Knee Pain
• Shoulder Pain
• Neck Pain

These are just a few of the very many types of pain that so many people suffer from.  If one of these pains (or any other) has a hold of you and you can’t shake it, then I invite you to check out what OPS can do for you.  Running beats me up, and OPS Therapies are able to reduce/eliminate my hip, knee and foot pain.  See the flyer for further explanation and a GREAT deal they are offering.  OPS employs a technique called Corrective Movement Therapy (CMT) that:

• Treats Root Causes of Pain
• Is Non-Invasive
• Improves Your Movement Efficiency
• Eliminates Stress on Joints
• Accesses Your Body’s Healing Power

Combine their great CMT pricing with their FREE initial evaluation, too!  You don’t have much to lose and you have lots to gain.  I can vouch for their ability to heal the root cause of your musculoskeletal pain, since they keep my body fine-tuned so that I am able to keep doing what I love so much to do – running and swimming.  In other words, OPS keeps me sane.

I invite you to spend some time nurturing your body, whether it’s for prevention or for specific therapy.  Your body will thank you J

Medical Disclaimer: Information provided in this email is for informational purposes only. The information is a result of years of practice and experience by Yoshi Rahm, DO. However, this information is NOT intended as a substitute for the advice provided by your physician or other healthcare professional, or any information contained on or in any product label or packaging. 

Do not use the information provided in this email for diagnosing or treating a health problem or disease, or prescribing medication or other treatment. Always speak with your physician or other healthcare professional before taking any medication or nutritional, herbal or homeopathic supplement, or using any treatment for a health problem. If you have or suspect that you have a medical problem, contact your health care provider promptly. Do not disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking professional advice because of something you have read in this email.


Information provided in this email and the use of any products or services related to this email by you DOES NOT create a doctor-patient relationship between you and Yoshi Rahm, DO. or any other physician featured in this email. Information and statements regarding dietary supplements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration and are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.

Taking Advantage of ADHD

I recently came a across a great article from the New York Times about how the pharmaceutical industry relates to ADHD.  It’s interesting to note how financial interests and good science intersect – in a blurry line.  Quite a blurry line.  I’d say 20/400 blurry (i.e. severe visual impairment).  The article is well written, so rather than spend hours writing my own article on the subject, check this one out.  Please note how many experts, who we ought to be able to trust, receive drug company money for giving lectures that promote these medications.

Some people DO absolutely benefit from these drugs and I prescribe these to a few people (emphasis on few) as it absolutely benefits their life positively.  So please understand that I am not against these drugs being made and given to people.  I AM AGAINST as many people using them as do currently and I think it’s indisputable that the pharmaceutical industry is taking advantage of people.  Of course, I also think it’s we the people’s (including doctors) fault for allowing that to happen.

Solution: Consider yourself in a broad context, and address lifestyle first! 

Medical Disclaimer: Information provided in this email is for informational purposes only. The information is a result of years of practice and experience by Yoshi Rahm, DO. However, this information is NOT intended as a substitute for the advice provided by your physician or other healthcare professional, or any information contained on or in any product label or packaging. 

Do not use the information provided in this email for diagnosing or treating a health problem or disease, or prescribing medication or other treatment. Always speak with your physician or other healthcare professional before taking any medication or nutritional, herbal or homeopathic supplement, or using any treatment for a health problem. If you have or suspect that you have a medical problem, contact your health care provider promptly. Do not disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking professional advice because of something you have read in this email.

Information provided in this email and the use of any products or services related to this email by you DOES NOT create a doctor-patient relationship between you and Yoshi Rahm, DO. or any other physician featured in this email. Information and statements regarding dietary supplements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration and are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.