Sofia Espinosa age 6 We all want our children to be healthy—which is my main concern as an integrative family physician—right? But we also want our children to thrive. We want them to feel good about themselves without having inflated egos. We want them to feel confident and competent and have good self-esteem. We want them to be kind. We adults want that too, don’t we? Good health, a good sense of self, competence in our jobs, compassion towards others? So far so good. But imagine you’re only three feet three inches tall. You talk, but not always in a way others can understand. You have very strong ideas about the world but very little experience in it. When you try to drink water from a cup, you spill half all over yourself. When you want to climb the outside of the staircase (one of my daughter’s favorite activity), you get intercepted. When you leave the house in nothing but your birthday suit to tow your little red wagon down the sidewalk, your mom freaks out. ...

Insurance.  Oh the quandary we are in.  Insurance is a God-send for a crisis and there is no other country I would rather be in for a crisis whether it be due to a severe infection, trauma, heart attack, strokes, or any other crisis.  However, how are we for chronic diseases though or the average day to day? We ranked 34th in the world per JAMA (Journal of the American Medical Association) 2014 for quality of health care systems in the world! We are number 1 for Infant and Maternal Mortality. We have to realize that insurance is a system set up for a crisis of your health care but not wellness. With the ever shortening visit to your doctor (often 5-15 minutes), we have to consider what can be done during that time.  Doctor's have a check list of quality care measures to complete to qualify for future bonuses or lose them if they do not complete them.  Sounds great until you realize that your lack of sleep, digestive issues, quality of nutrition, exercise, fina...

Who longs for the days of the family doctor having time to spend with you and actually listen to your issues?  How about those home visits you remember as a child when you were too sick and the doctor actually came to your home?  Those were the romantic days of family medicine and what many of us dream of when we sign up for medical school. These days, thanks to corporations and insurance companies, the clinic has become a patient mill where patients see the doctors for 8 minutes to squeeze in their concerns.  It isn't the doctor's choice to do this but they are owned by companies dictating their schedules.    More and more insurance companies and especially Medicare are dictating medical choices and doctors have to choose the path of least resistance to survive so they give up the fight.  The patients become the diabetic with the ulcer or the sickly kid instead of Mr. Johnson who has diabetes and suffering from an ulcer and little Jay who is having recur...

My grandpa Virgil died a few years back.  He had 9 lives for sure but one time was more due to imposed dietary restrictions. This guy was hardcore.  He survived a ruptured abdominal aneurysm that should have killed him.   He had survived a dense stroke many years ago that affected his speech and the use of the right side of his body.  That slowed him down but he found creative things to do to still be productive.  He was an illiterate genius with a third grade education who was tough as nails and could fix anything .  He finally got diagnosed with lung cancer near the end and had broken his hip.  This starts the part of the story I want to share. He was found on the floor at the front door when he broke his hip waiting on someone to check on him.  Plug for lifeline here for anyone left alone that is at risk for breaking hips even if someone checks on them regularly.  The typical story I have been trained is that once a feeble grandparent b...

I met a young lady who has battled cancer since she was seven years old.  It was a brain tumor and she has endured surgeries, radiation, and worst, recurrences.  Her mama has that look in her eyes of wanting to naturally do anything to save her baby girl.  I met her mom first and after hearing the history of her daughter, I expected something totally different. Her daughter has such confidence and peace about her.  Just a matter of fact nature about her but not in a negative way.  She has faith.  She had a near death experience when she was younger and coming out of surgery.  She felt like she was in the arms of God and she saw her dad that had died when she was too young to remember him.  He told her "not yet".  Then she woke up. Now she is facing growing tumors in her brain and spine and she has maxed out radiation.  They are offering her another because that is her last choice.  Now she has the opportunity to visit her fami...

There are so many ways to stay well during flu season that it will be impossible to cover all the possibilities, so I will cover the ones I have experience with.  The flu vaccine is rarely effective (a few years ago it was 19% effective) and I will post about that in another blog, so we need to focus on more natural ways of staying well. First and foremost is your diet.  Sugar lowers your immune system and simple carbs like bread, cookies, crackers, etc turns into sugar so cleaning up your diet will go a long way.  Eat a majority plant based diet and include good protein sources like beans, lentils, fish, chicken, lean meats and eggs (organic and free range when possible).  Add in a cup or two of daily bone broth as it helps with gut function and immune system.  That gelatinous stuff on top when it cools is really good stuff for you so don't scoop that off. Eat plenty of garlic and oregano as they have natural infection fighting properties.  Get plent...