Alternity Healthcare Blog
Alternity Healthcare, LLC is an innovative medical practice emphasizing proactive, preventive care designed to help patients avoid degenerative diseases, regain lost vitality and achieve optimal health.
Breast Cancer Prevention – Myth or Reality
The statistics have become familiar enough to most of us: Breast cancer accounts for almost 200,000 new cases and 40,000 deaths every year. The National Cancer Institute estimates that 12.7 percent of women alive today will be diagnosed with some form of breast cancer during their lifetime. This makes breast cancer by far the leading cancer in women, accounting for almost 40% of all cancers diagnosed in women. read more…
Sweet Dreams
It may seem obvious that sleep is beneficial. Even without fully grasping what sleep does for us, we know that going without sleep for too long makes us feel terrible, and that getting a good night’s sleep can make us feel ready to take on the world. When we awaken from a restful sleep, we feel more alert, more energetic, happier, and better able to function. However, the fact that sleep makes us feel better and that going without sleep makes us feel worse only begins to explain why sleep might be necessary. Numerous studies have linked poor sleep with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease, a weakened immune system, cancers, high blood pressure, obesity and Type 2 diabetes. read more…
Is the FDA Negligent?
Over the last twenty years, Americans appetite for prescription drugs has exploded. One need only to turn on the TV to see ad after ad suggesting that there is a pill to satisfy any pain, discomfort or ailment that you may encounter. The message seems to be: “No need to work hard at anything or modify the way you live because we have a pill for it; whatever it is”. But with the FDA looking out for the public welfare, isn’t that a safe proposition?
Well, let’s look at the facts. Last year over half a million Americans suffered adverse events due to prescription medications.[1] Almost 100,000 people die yearly as a result of complications from pharmaceutical drugs.[2] read more…
47,000 Deaths and Counting
It is inconceivable that a product could remain on the market after it has been directly linked to tens of thousands of deaths. But this is exactly the case we have with two popular diabetes drugs, Avandia and Actos.
Avandia was introduced in 1999 and a study performed by its maker, SmithKline Beechem (later acquired by Glaxo) found that it posed a significantly increased risk of cardiovascular events and bone fractures. What did they do? They suppressed the data for the next 11 years! read more…
Are You Losing Muscle Mass?
“Normal” aging is typically accompanied by easier weight gain and, along with declining hormones and decreased physical activity can reduce muscle mass, lead to frailty and a higher prevalence of metabolic disorders. This insidious, age-related loss of muscle mass is called sarcopenia.
In many respects, sarcopenia is to muscle what osteoporosis is to bone. The typical American gains one pound of fat and loses a half pound of muscle yearly between age 30 and 60. Deterioration of muscle and loss of muscular strength is a major reason elderly lose mobility and cannot remain living independently. read more…
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 more…
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 more…
Why Do We Age?
Incredible scientific discoveries that will change the way we look at aging and disease have been unfolding during the early 21st 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 more…
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 more…
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 more…
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