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Low Fat vs Low Carb

At a time when Americans are getting fatter and struggle to find a strategy to combat the obesity epidemic, the rift between proponents of low fat vs low carb eating remains intact.  Both philosophies have fans and detractors, but the mixed messages in the media create confusion about what truly is healthy for average individuals to consume.  Obesity has been associated with an increased risk for diabetes, cardiovascular disease, several different cancers and premature death.  So, finding the right remedy is more than just a matter of vanity and looking good in a swim suit, it is a matter of length and quality of life. Read the rest of this entry »

Statins and Cholesterol: Hope or Hype?

Cholesterol had become the indisputable villain for heart disease over the last several decades.  After all, it seemed intuitive that cholesterol was the cause of heart disease, since cholesterol made up a large portion of the vascular plaque that characterized atherosclerotic heart disease.  But as the understanding of cholesterol metabolism has become better delineated, the connection between cholesterol and the cause of heart disease has become considerably more tenuous, and the role of statin drugs questionable. Read the rest of this entry »

Are You Playing With A Loaded Gun?

One of the most shocking surprises to emerge from the Human Genome Project in 2003 is the discovery that we are the proud owners of a paltry 30,000 genes — barely twice the number of a fruit fly.

After a decade of hype surrounding the project that gave us the full sequence of our human genome, and the regular discovery of genes for killer diseases and complex traits, this unexpected result led many scientists to a stunning conclusion. The seesaw struggle between our genes (nature) and the environment (nurture) had swung sharply in favor of nurture. “We simply do not have enough genes for this idea of biological determinism to be right,” asserted Craig Venter, president of Celera Genomics, one of the two teams that cracked the human genome. Read the rest of this entry »

Why Do We Age?

Incredible scientific discoveries that will change the way we look at aging and disease have been unfolding during the early 21^st century.  The secrets for healthy, youthful aging, while clearly influenced by our behavior, appear to be rooted in mechanisms at the molecular level of our cells.  In 1990, the journal Nature published a ground­breaking article based on something called the telomere. It changed forever our under­standing of the aging process.  Last year, the Nobel Prize in Medicine was awarded to scientists for their discoveries of the role of telomeres, and the enzyme telomerase, in aging, cancer and chronic diseases.  But are telomeres the whole story? Read the rest of this entry »

Fight or Flight?

It’s 4:30 on Friday afternoon.  You are thinking about your plans for the upcoming long weekend when you get an email from your boss.  They need to see you right away about something, but they don’t say what.    What do they want to see you about this late in the day?  Is it about the rumored layoffs everyone’s been talking about?  Suddenly, your heart starts pounding, your palms become sweaty, your mouth feels dry, and your face feels hot.  Say hello to your fight-or-flight response.

 All mammals have a fight-or-flight response when under stress.  This makes sense from an evolutionary sense – animals that didn’t react to danger didn’t leave behind descendents.  As Stanford University neuro-endocrinologist Robert Sapolsky says, “If you’re a normal mammal, what stress is about is three minutes of screaming terror on the savannah, after which either its over with or you’re over with.”  Read the rest of this entry »

Andropause: the “Male Menopause”

In 1980, an 18-year veteran police detective in Ontario with a previously spotless record stole approximately $1000.00 worth of items from the evidence room of his department.  He persuaded the judge in his case to spare him a prison sentence, claiming that “male menopause” had clouded his judgment.

 Ever since the term “male menopause” was first coined in 1949, there have been debates about whether men go though a psychological and physiological change that is similar to menopause in women.  Read the rest of this entry »

Testosterone Therapy: Moving toward Mainstream

As the American population ages, baby boomers are confronted with a number of troublesome age-related diseases.  Many are scrambling to hold onto their health and youthful vitality.  Retirement is not what is once was.  More people want to remain active and engaged with life, not just sitting around with a fishing pole in their hands.  And, they certainly do not want to suffer the slow decline in physical and cognitive function that afflicts far too many in nursing homes.  Although a number of factors must be considered, including living a healthy lifestyle, mounting scientific evidence points to diminished hormones as a previously under recognized, yet modifiable factor in the aging process. Read the rest of this entry »

Desmond Ebanks, M.D. in the Hartford Business Journal

Desmond Ebanks, M.D., of Alternity Healthcare, a preventive medical practice

Q. You have brought the SphygmoCor CP system, a new cardiovascular test, to your practice at Alternity Healthcare in West Hartford. What is it and why should people care about it?

A. The SphygmoCor CP system is a painless and non-invasive test that measures critical cardiovascular system parameters that are not available with traditional brachial blood pressure cuff measurements. The CP system allows the non-invasive measurement of the pressure that the heart, brain and kidneys actually experience. Through a complex algorithm, the pressure wave at the ascending aorta is derived from an external measurement of the patient’s radial artery at the wrist. This identifies the central aortic pressure, determines the portion of the pressure attributable to diseased or stiffened arteries, the relative workload of the heart, and the ratio between the heart’s demand for oxygen and the available supply.

These central blood pressure measurements have been shown to be a superior predictor of cardiovascular events. Traditional peripheral brachial blood pressure cuff measurements do not accurately reflect central pressures due to pressure amplification. And, medications have different effects on central blood pressure despite similar reductions in brachial blood pressure.

Incorporating this technology into the cutting edge cardiovascular screening already available at Alternity Healthcare helps me to correctly answer two questions for my patients: (1) Do I have cardiovascular disease that puts me at risk for a heart attack or stroke? (2) If so, what can I do about it? Read the rest of this entry »

How Your Diet Affects Bone Health

As a doctor practicing integrative medicine, I find that education is as important to my patients as anything else I do.  We focus on maintaining health and vitality of individuals instead of curing diseases, so dietary and lifestyle choices are often more effective than any medication I can prescribe.  In a perfect world, making healthy choices would be simple.  Unfortunately, the information that we have to guide these choices is often confusing, contradictory, incomplete, or flat-out wrong. Read the rest of this entry »

Osteoporosis in Men

Osteoporosis is a disease characterized by low bone mass and structural deterioration of bone tissue, leading to bone fragility and an increased risk of fractures.  While there is a belief that osteoporosis is a “women’s disease,” more than two million American men have osteoporosis with 12 million more at risk.  Read the rest of this entry »