HOW TO INCREASE YOUR CHOLESTEROL WITH SALADS!

Have you been told that your cholesterol is too high and you immediately go on a crash course of consuming salads only to discover that your numbers went UP? It happens fairly often and I have often wondered why. Patients will swear they have changed their diets, no red meat or shrimp. No butter or fried foods and yet there it is, their cholesterol is worse than it was before they changed their eating habits. You can only imagine how frustrating that must be, "doing everything right" including exercising and yet your numbers are getting worse! So let's look at possible causes: First there are the complicated scientific theories. For example: All your hormones are made from cholesterol, it is possible that your body perceives that you need more cholesterol to correct some hormonal imbalances. So it makes more, obviously in this case the underlying problem needs to be resolved. But it maybe as simple as checking your food labels. If you are like me, maybe you like cheese in your salad and you forget that cheese anywhere is a problem. The more you eat the higher your cholesterol gets! Obviously you would avoid boiled eggs and other high cholesterol items like that in your salad but don't forget about nuts and shellfish. If you use yogurt make sure it is low fat and then there is the dressing. Ironically, most salad dressings are laden with cholesterol but they give the calorie and cholesterol count in terms of '2 tablespoons' but do you limit yourself to 2 tablespoons each time? A mistake that I made was eating "healthy" pre-prepared foods at a local supermarket. Excited by the wide array of vegetarian foods in the hot meal section I went crazy on the Spinach Flan, Egg Plant Flan and other concoctions like the huge mushrooms with fancy melted cheese on top. When I later reviewed the cholesterol content I was shocked! The point here is simple, one has to be vigilant and pay attention to the small print even when you think you are eating healthy. One last tip: Add high fiber grains, bran and oats to your salad and your cholesterol might go down. Last but not least: despite the strong push from the pharmaceutical and cardiology community there are no studies that definitively show that taking cholesterol medicine actually decreases a person's risk of a heart attack, there are however many studies showing the complications and side effects that they cause. If you can get away with eating salads it is definitely a better option :)

Our Spring Seminar: A good time was had by all!

Hello there! We had such a great time at the seminar on Saturday, they keep getting better, and better. What a wonderful and enthusiastic crowd. They had so many great questions and were so much "into" it!
The next few blogs will be about the seminar and I will try to recap some of the information shared as I get further into it
.
We started the day as usual, with some NIA, led by our expert instructor Ms. Claudia Salomon, she got the blood flowing to everyone's brain.

Next we looked at what Anti-Aging means and what an Anti-Aging program does. After this, we listened to a compounding pharmacist: Sam Georgiou talk about 'how to get your libido back'. He gave out little red cards with his 'turbo charge' formula.
I know Trader Joe's got a run on Brazil nuts and Cod Liver Oil after his talk :)! Both the male and the female participants were feverishly writing down all of Sam's tips.
I then gave a talk on what I call the Untold Truths of Hormone Replacement where we discussed the common misconceptions about what exactly Menopause and Andropause entails. I'll get more into that in another blog.
Dr Scott Buckner, an Interventional Radiologist, talked about Varicose Veins and a non surgical alternative for Fibroid treatment.
After lunch and an additional stretch with the NIA instructor we talked about .........Feet!
Watching the audience, it was clear that most people had never really given much thought to their feet however at the end everyone had a new appreciation of the two things that carry us around all day long! Everyone was planning to get their feet checked at their first opportunity. I really wished I had been a little more pro active with my feet, we really need to embrace every part of our bodies and what they do for us.
Every one loves show and tell, so I showed before and after pictures of Acne Treatment, Wrinkle Therapy with Dysport and Fillers, Obagi and skin tag removal. This was followed by a demonstration of Filler insertion on Cindy Battle and Free Dysport for everyone which was really popular.
We rounded the day off with a Zumba class.
Last but not least, I would like to throw a shout out to our sponsors for being so forward thinking as to support an Anti-Aging Seminar : The Vein Clinic, Professional Arts Pharmacy, Arbonne, Chef Tracey, and Angela Riddick, Obagi and Spectracell. What a great day! Hope to see you all at the next seminar in October. In the meanwhile, please be healthy.

Return to Harvard

After 27 years I finally returned to Boston and the Harvard Medical area. Of course the area is very built up and now all the Hospitals seem to be one big collective conglomerate. In my day, Beth Israel was very distinct from the Dana Faber Institute and Deaconess but no more, where one ends the next one starts.

The T (the Boston mass transit system)is still fairly decrepid and jammed packed with people who all seem to be under 30, My Lord! I never realised when I was one of them, that 90% of the people on the T are students. I bet Boston has more students per square yard than anywhere else in the country. My husband and I felt like 'seniors'almost everywhere we went. Speaking of the T at least it now comes out to the airport negating the need for the old 2 hour sit in the tunnel.

Well, my purpose of going to Boston was to return to my old stomping ground. I find that people at Schools of Public Health are always so interesting and 'Global'. Full of ideas about how to change the World's health.

On my way in to the Alumnae event I had the distinct pleasure of meeting the chief investigator of the MRFIT trial, himself an alumnus. The MRFIT trial was one of those pivotal trials that proved that a high Cholesterol causes heart disease. That was big news back then! He smiled when I suggested I might need his autograph, I believe he was from the class of 47!
At the registration desk, I asked if anyone else from the class of '84 was there. "What did you say" one of the students asked, "2004 or 1994?" "err... that would be 1984 I responded" now feeling very flattered as they all looked incredulously at me. I was similarly astounded to hear myself, could time possibly pass that fast? I was looking at graduate students in my old school who were not even born when I was there. We were equally fascinated by each other. "Its nice to know your anti-aging program is working" joked my husband.

Later,we went to Harvard yard and bought Harvard sweatshirts, mugs and key rings. Did I feel at home? Not at all, I felt like a tourist and when I discovered that Filene's had been closed my heart sank. All these years, to tell the truth that's what I missed most about Boston, Filene's!

I am officially a Marylander, proud and happy to be back doing what I love practicing medicine! Its nice to be able to go back when you want to but nothing beats the present. I often say reliving the past only wastes the present and diminishes the future. The future is ours to live ! Stay healthy, feel great, do better!!

The benefits of having your hormones balanced

For those of you who followed my blog from Haiti, thank you for reading it! It is amazing how stimulating an environment like that can be. With all the hardships the Haitians are AMAZINGLY strong people and I feel priviledged to have been able to go there and help in any small way. They say the first person to benefit from any service is the giver and it is so true! I will go back when I can.

In the meantime I shall refocus on what I specialize in and try to help more people here at home to feel better in a different way.
Everytime I meet with both new and old HRT patients I am inspired by how much good natural hormone balancing does for them. Professional people who are able to carry on with their busy lives without missing a beat, mothers who had babies in their forties but can still keep up with them as teenagers,and relationships that refind their zest. I see people who can come off anti-depressant and anxiety medications once their hormones are in better balance and young people throwing off PMS and bad periond cramps that used to keep them at home every month.

So this too, is a very gratifying field of medicine for me something that I enjoy practicing everyday.

My next blog will be about Telomeres,a fascinatng field of research in Anti-Aging.

Its good to be back .....do come and visit!

Happy 90th birthday Ms. B! News about our great seminar!

Here is a picture of me with a patient of mine who turned 90 this month. Doesnt she look great!Happy birthday.

Last weekend I held an anti-aging and hormone replacement seminar entitled: looking good and feeling good after 40! It was great and very inspiring for me personally to see women so receptive to receiving new information.
The seminar opened with Claudia Salomon a renowned Nia (and Zumba) teacher helping us claim the space that we were in. What I thought was going to be a mild stretching exercise had me breathless when called upon to speak even though we performed the movements right where we stood. After lunch she gave us another 7 minute workout and for those who wished she did a full class at the end. So invigorating and energizing, after Claudia the excitement was palpable, the room was electrified.
The first discussion was about Bio identical Hormone replacement and evaluating what hormones need to be replaced. Over 40, the most important hormones to get in harmony are: Estrogen, Progesterone, Cortisol, Thyroid and Insulin. Many people were surprised to discover that all steroid hormones are derived from cholesterol and there is such a thing as a too low cholesterol.
We also talked a lot about women's sexual dysfunction, how to manage it, how hormone replacement can help and what Herbs maybe useful. Its interesting that "erectile dysfunction" is all over the airwaves now and is considered a socially acceptable topic of conversation but more women than men suffer from sexual dysfunction yet no one feels comfortable talking about it.
Wow! No one knows unless they ask. "Is this normal?"
Dr Kanter followed with a very concise presentation on body contouring with plastic surgery. He got rave reviews from all the participants. He covered the body from head to toe and kept the audience spell bound with his before and after photos.
After lunch Claudia's routine helped with digestion and then we were back to talk about Anti-aging and Telomeres.
Three scientists were given the Nobel Prize for medicine last year for their work in this amazing field. Its implications are profound for understanding the aging process.
(Call our office if you would like to get your telomere length measured).
I was able to discuss a full and comprehensive Anti-aging workup such as the one we perform, in great detail. A very important component being neurological testing.
Dr Comeau a local physician talked about Botox and Fillers and then did a demonstration on my office manager Cindy. Once again everyone was riveted with attention.
There wasnt a dull moment!
It helps to be a woman over 40 and with the number of women I see in my practice I know what subjects are of interest to Baby Boomers. It is my goal to keep bringing you seminars
that are relevant, interesting and exciting with the end result of bringing life to your years!
We shall be holding another seminar in early fall, if you would like to be notified of our events please call our office at 410 992 0011 and give us your email address or send it through the contact page of the website.

Next week I will be blogging from Haiti !