Preventive Wellness

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 »

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: Not Just a Woman’s Disease

Osteoporosis, or porous bone, is a disease characterized by low bone mass and structural deterioration of bone tissue, leading to bone fragility and an increased susceptibility to fractures.  Osteoporotic fractures are most commonly seen in the hip, spine and wrist, although any bone can be affected.  In simpler terms, osteoporosis is a condition in which the bones become weak and can break from a minor fall or, in serious cases, from a simple action such as a sneeze. Read the rest of this entry »

Your Heart and Your Bones

We all probably know someone who can predict the weather by the way their bones and joints feel.  And, when someone is especially committed to someone or something, they often say they “feel it in their bones”.   But we now have mounting scientific evidence linking the health of your bones to your risk of developing cardiovascular disease (CVD). Read the rest of this entry »

Alternity Healthcare on WNPR-Connecticut Public Radio

Ray Hardman weighs in with Alternity Healthcare on WNPR-Connecticut Public Radio

Ray Hardman pays a visit to Alternity Healthcare’s West Hartford office to experience, first-hand, part of a Comprehensive Health Assessment.   Click the link above to hear about his encounter and what he found out about his own health…