Sound Medicine -- December 14, 2002

Hosts Barbara Lewis & Dr. Kathy Miller talk to experts about:

Book: The Complete Home Wellness Handbook

Book: The Solution weight management plan

Common thyroid diseases

Book: Complete Home Wellness Handbook

We talk with Dr. John Swartzberg, author of the new book, The Complete Home Wellness Handbook: Home Remedies, Prevention, Self Care, now in its second edition. Dr. Swartzberg is professor of medicine at UC Berkeley and UC San Francisco. He is also author of the UC Berkeley Wellness Letter. He specializes in infectious diseases with an emphasis on AIDS.

With so much health information available today, Dr. Swartzberg says people need authoritative books to help sort facts and formulate questions for their physicians. The book focusses on the 100 most common problems people wrestle with and includes a section on how to shop for over-the-counter products. Dr. Swartzberg also talks about the state of AIDS in the U.S. Proceeds from this book (and from the Wellness Letter he edits) go to the School of Public Health at UC Berkeley.

Resources

The Complete Home Wellness Handbook by John Edward Swartzberg, MD, FACP and Sheldon Margen, MD. Available at Amazon.com.

Get commonsense health information from the UC Berkeley Wellness Letter. Subscribers have access to the full newsletter.

Book: The Solution weight management plan

Author Laurel Mellin, MA, RD, believes the secret to weight management is understanding the psychological, physical and lifestyle behaviors that trigger appetite. Her book is called The Solution: 6 Winning Ways to Permanent Weight Loss. Mellin is associate clinical professor of family and community medicine at the University of California San Francisco School of Medicine. She's also a nutritionist and weight loss expert.

Mellin says that if we can achieve emotional balance, we can turn off the drive to overeat. This involves learning to nurture, and also limit, the feeling part of our brain. Ongoing research from UC San Francisco shows that the feeling brain -- and our level of emotional balance -- is influenced by the way we learn to nurture and limit ourselves during childhood. Adults without these skills can learn them by asking questions such as: how can I nurture myself so I don't want food? How do I feel, and what do I really need? Mellin also describes teaching children "The Solution" and the results of those experiences.

Resources:

For more information, visit the Web site dedicated to Laurel Mellin's "The Solution" weight management program.

Common thyroid diseases

The endocrine system plays a large role in regulating the human body. This week we learn about the thyroid gland with Dr. Jim Edmondson, endocrine specialist and professor of medicine at the Indiana University School of Medicine.

A butterfly-shaped gland in front of the neck, the thyroid produces thyroid hormone, a chemical that controls how our cells use energy. Dr. Edmondson explains that with too little thyroid hormone the body slows down -- from the brain to the digestive tract. With too much, body processes speed up, causing symptoms like perspiration and nervousness. He describes symptoms and treatments for Graves disease, Hashimoto's thyroiditis, goiter, as well as hypothyroidism in general -- a condition suffered by 15 million Americans. Hypothyroidism is an autoimmune disorder, primarily affecting women over 35.

Resources

A good primer on hypothyroidism from the American Thyroid Association.

Learn more about the endocrine system and its disorders from EndocrineWeb.com.

The Thyroid Disease Manager is an electronic reference devoted to major disorders of the thyroid. The site is run by physicians specifically for physicians, researchers, and students. Includes a textbook, CME credits, and treatment schemas.

Upcoming programs:
We talk to fitness expert Jim Karas. He evaluates current fitness programs and trends for us.

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a. mistletoe berries
b. Christmas holly berries
c. poinsettias

Find out!

When the temperature dips, moms tell us to wear a hat so we don't catch a cold. But does the temperature outside really have anything to do with getting a cold?

Find out!

Despite miraculous medical advances, there's still no cure for the common cold. However there is an abundance of over-the-counter remedies to bombard the sickly consumer at the drugstore. The Complete Home Wellness Handbook provides some guidance:

Decongestants
Decongestants, available in both oral and topical forms, temporarily reduce swelling in blood vessels in nasal passages. Topical decongestants work faster, but can cause more congestion if overused. Alternatively, oral decongestants last longer, but can have side effects like elevated blood pressure or insomnia.

Cough syrups
Two types of syrups, suppressants and expectorants, help ease a dry non-productive cough or loosen up congestion, respectively. Although a good cough syrup can allow a more restful night's sleep, avoid taking one during the day since coughing is the body's natural way of preventing the lungs from filling with fluid.

Pain relievers
Aspirin and acetaminophen aid in treating aches and fevers, but children and teenagers should not take aspirin because of risks associated with Reye's syndrome. Additionally, researchers have found that both aspirin and acetaminophen can suppress certain immune responses and increase nasal stuffiness in adults.

Antihistamines
Although they can help treat allergies, antihistamines do little to relieve the common cold and may in fact thicken mucus. They can also cause drowsiness.

Source: The Complete Home Wellness Handbook