Phoenix & Dragon: Acupuncture

07/04/2026

Preservatives are added to packaged, processed food. New research points to a connection to cardiovascular disease.

06/15/2026

05/20/2026

How can I be hungry when I just ate lunch an hour ago?
First, it's important to make a distinction between craving and true hunger. Craving food is all about an associated feeling, not a stomach rumble. A truly hungry stomach growls, cramps, and physically gets your attention. A craving, however, arrives with a fierce desire for a very particular food — you must have it.
Science now confirms what many people have experienced for years: emotional eating is strongly tied to the brain's reward system. Researchers at Harvard Medical School explain that highly palatable foods rich in sugar, fat, and salt can temporarily stimulate dopamine, the brain chemical associated with pleasure and reward. That quick emotional "lift" is one reason cravings can feel so urgent and powerful.
The emotional side of craving, followed by emotional eating, is often tied to our upbringing and learned patterns. Children frequently become unwitting consumers of well-meaning parents who try to comfort or celebrate emotional experiences through food. Picture the loss of a school athletic game . . . out for comfort food to heal the wound. Or the victory celebration at Dairy Queen. Each experience reinforces a subconscious connection between emotion and eating. And, over time, the brain begins to associate certain foods with relief, reward, safety, comfort, or excitement.
When you're excited, your food of choice could be a hamburger, steak, or pizza. When you're upset, it could be a trip to the drive-in, ice cream parlor, or a box of Oreos. And when boredom rises to the emotional peak, crunchy foods often rule the roost. Eating does more than fill our belly — it also satisfies ingrained emotional patterns that quietly run in the background of our lives. These patterns are stored feelings tied to emotional experiences repeated often enough that they become the new "normal response." Unfortunately, the response frequently turns into emotional overeating.
Emotional eating has nothing to do with physical hunger; it's eating triggered by an emotion. Emotional hunger can't wait; physical hunger can. Emotional hunger appears instantly; physical hunger develops gradually. True hunger is satisfied by a variety of foods, while emotional eating usually demands something very specific. You can easily stop eating when physical hunger is satisfied, but you may keep eating the entire box of cookies when emotions are driving the behavior.
"Comfort foods are eaten to obtain or maintain a feeling," says Brian Wansink, former Director of the Food and Brand Lab at the University of Illinois. "Comfort foods are often wrongly associated with negative moods . . . but interestingly enough, comfort foods are also consumed to maintain good moods."
So, what is the number one comfort food? Ice cream, of course! And that's closely followed by chocolate. The real challenge arises when unhealthy foods become the primary way we manage our emotions. Research continues to show that stress increases cortisol levels, a hormone linked to cravings for high-calorie "reward foods." In other words, stress literally changes what we want to eat.
It's been estimated that a large percentage of overeating episodes are emotionally driven rather than physically necessary. This is a classic example of how the subconscious emotional memory override (S.E.M.O) pattern is demonstrated. We think one way, yet our pattern dictates a completely different response. We know we aren't hungry, yet the urge to eat still feels overwhelming.
The good news is that patterns can be changed. Here's a plan to help avoid the roller coaster of emotional eating:
First, learn to recognize the onset of the pattern. Document when you eat outside of normal meals. How did you feel at that exact moment? Were you upset, happy, sad, overwhelmed, lonely, anxious, or bored? Awareness is the first step toward change.
Next, create a "pattern interrupt." Instead of immediately reaching for food, interrupt the emotional loop with movement. A brisk walk, stretching, deep breathing, dancing to music, or the Morter March can help redirect the brain and body away from automatic behavior patterns. Studies show that even short bursts of physical activity can naturally reduce stress hormones and improve mood.
Be thankful for your perfect body, your perfect weight, and your perfect fitness potential. Then positively activate your body. Train your brain to respond differently by pairing emotional awareness with physical movement and healthier choices. Begin picturing yourself craving foods that energize and nourish your body.
And don't deny yourself every time. A cookie or bowl of ice cream enjoyed occasionally and without guilt is not the problem. In fact, feelings of shame and self-criticism often fuel the emotional eating cycle even more. Feeling "guilty" can be much more harmful than indulging. Balance, awareness, and consistency will always beat perfection. The goal isn't to eliminate pleasure from eating — it's to stop using food as the primary solution for every emotional experience.
-Morter Newsletter Morter Health System

03/31/2025

Intersting information on Ivermectin (please read the entire post).

Dr. James Lawler says:
December 11, 2023 at 8:20 am
Ivermectin is a great drug – just not for treating COVID-19. While a handful of studies early in the pandemic suggested that ivermectin might be helpful for the treatment of COVID, multiple large and well-executed randomized, placebo-controlled clinical trials subsequently have provided overwhelming evidence that ivermectin provides no benefit in the treatment of COVID in developed countries. I do wonder whether a high rate of co-infection with helminths (worms) in some developing countries may have contributed to the benefit in some of the early studies, because we know that COVID often results in suppression of the immune system and susceptibility to new or recurrent opportunistic infections, such as strongyloidiasis. If I were treating a COVID patient in a developing world country with a high rate of strongyloides infection, I would consider giving ivermectin concurrently with anti-viral for SARS-CoV-2 like Paxlovid or remdesivir. But the ivermectin would be treating the worms, not the COVID. For treating COVID in places where we have incredibly low rates of helminth infections, studies make it clear that ivermectin provides absolutely no benefit. If you pull all placebo-controlled RCT’s from the National Library of Medicine database (PubMed), you get a good picture of the evidence. Here is a list of all these placebo-controlled, randomized controlled trials categorized by result – most of them have open access, so you can read them:

No Evidence of Clinical Benefit

Naggie et al – pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36269852/

Bramante et al – https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36070710/

Reis et al – https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35353979/

Lopez-Medina et al – https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33662102/

Lim et al – https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35179551/

Vallejos et al – https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34215210/

El Shafie et al – https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35788169/

De la Rocha et al – https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36482326/

Mirahmadizedah et al – https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35738778/

Manomaipiboon et al – https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36028897/

Buonfrate et al – https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34999239/

Evidence of Virological benefit; No Clinical Benefit

Biber et al – https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35811080/

Ahmed et al – https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33278625/

Evidence of Clinical Benefit

Shahbaznejad et al – https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34052007/znejad et al – https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34052007/

As you can see, the only RCT that appeared to show clinical benefit of ivermectin was a small study from Iran, that analyzed 35 patients in the treatment (ivermectin) group. Two studies (from Bangladesh and Israel) that analyzed fewer than 70 ivermectin-treated patients showed some evidence that viral clearance was faster, but there was no clinical (symptoms or outcome) benefit. The rest of the studies, enrolling far more patients, showed no clinical benefit from ivermectin. The first two studies are quite strong, led by Duke University and University of Minnesota respectively, enrolling almost 3,000 patients between them. These studies also looked specifically at severe COVID, hospitalization, and death, which the Biber, Ahmed, and Shahbasnejad studies were not able to do. Reis et al, a 3,500 participant RCT in Brazil, also looked at hospitalization and severe COVID, again finding no benefit.

As you can see, the clinical evidence showing no benefit from ivermectin treatment is exceptionally strong.

Nevertheless, I have often seen the statement, “Well, you don’t know for sure that it doesn’t work, and since the drug is safe, what’s the harm?” I would argue that the trials actually have proven definitively that ivermectin is not an effective treatment for COVID. However, let’s say you reserve an outside chance that the drug could be helpful in some cases – why not give it? I would argue that there are three rational arguments why we should not give ivermectin.

First, although ivermectin has a very good safety profile, that doesn’t mean it never causes harm. We have extensive experience giving the drug to mostly younger and healthier patients to treat helminth infections, and it has low rates of adverse events in that population. However, many COVID patients we treat are older and higher risk, having multiple co-morbidities and long lists of outpatient medicines. We have less experience with ivermectin in this group. Even assuming we maintain a very low rate of adverse events, if we are treating millions and millions of persons, we are still going to get many (likely dozens or hundreds) rare but significant adverse events that will harm people without offering any benefit.

Second, people who hear about the benefit and use of ivermectin will inevitably attempt to self-treat, often with formulations made for animals and not humans. These formulations may have dramatically different concentrations/dosing and other ingredients that may be harmful. In fact, we know this has happened based upon multiple reports of ivermectin toxicity incidents from people self-treating.

Third, and likely most importantly, seeking and receiving treatment with ivermectin probably delays or altogether eliminates therapy with drugs that we know have very good efficacy in reducing severe disease from COVID. If you get treatment with ivermectin, you are not going to get immediate treatment with Paxlovid or remdesivir. We already know that Paxlovid reduces progression to severe COVID by 90% in those who receive early treatment. Remdesivir has similar efficacy for outpatient treatment. Anything that delays or prevents this effective treatment is doing harm.

So, the logic is pretty clear. If you have COVID, you should seek treatment, particularly if you are higher risk for severe outcome. That treatment should be Paxlovid if possible. If not, remdesivir is a good second option, and molnupiravir is probably your third choice. There might be some other adjunctive options – data on metformin is interesting. But these first three clearly have the best evidence for efficacy.

James Lawler, MD, MPH, FIDSA
Global Center for Health Security
University of Nebraska Medical Center

Reply
Bill p says:
December 13, 2023 at 11:04 am
Now it comes out after trials that ivermectin is indeed a good treatment plan against Covid ,even better than the vaccine hmmm

Reply
James Lawler says:
December 13, 2023 at 12:54 pm
Hi Bill,

Please see our latest post on Ivermectin as a treatment for covid here https://www.unmc.edu/healthsecurity/transmission/2023/12/11/about-ivermectin/

Ivermectin is a great drug – just not for treating COVID-19. While a handful of studies early in the pandemic suggested that ivermectin might be helpful for the treatment of COVID, multiple large a…

02/24/2025

You know, my go to for health and wellness is prevention. A healthy diet and lifestyle are essential for a long, vibrant and healthy life. Sadly, there are "bugs" that can multiple quickly and greatly affect those with compromised immunity, like children. Let's protect our children by judicious use of what is available to us. If you are in a rural area and there are no reports of disease outbreak, you may make a choice to not vaccinate. However, if you live in a suburban or urban area, it could be life saving to have basic immunizations. Either way you choose, be sure your kids are getting their six essentials: lots of clean drinking water, whole foods and lots of fruits and vegetables, plenty of sleep, daily activity and exercise, mindful breathing and positive mental focus. These go a long way to keeping all of us "in the pink".

The largest measles outbreak in decades has reached San Antonio and San Marcos. Officials say an individual who tested positive for the virus in West Texas traveled to two major universities and one of the nation's busiest tourist attractions — the San Antonio River Walk.

01/17/2025

Excerpt: In addition to the 38 states that ratified the ERA as the 28th amendment, more than 200,000 Americans signed a petition this week calling for this specific act to solidify constitutional equality. Data for Progress polling from December showed 61 percent of voters would support President Biden publishing the Equal Rights Amendment and adopting it as the 28th Amendment to the Constitution. And a 2020 Pew Research Center poll found that 78 percent of Americans believed that the ERA should be a part of the Constitution, even if they didn’t identify as feminists. With this official recognition today, the will of the people has been vindicated.

The federal government has finally recognized the Equal Rights Amendment as the 28th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, ushering in a whole new era for gender parity in this country.

01/16/2025

Pass it along.

01/15/2025

“Stop, Breathe, Be” is a three-second brain reset to help manage anxiety in the moment. The instructions are in the name: Stop whatever you’re doing, take a brief pause. Take a deep breath in and out. Be grounded in the present moment. “Stop, Breathe, Be” gets you out of “What if?” thinking and back to what is, in the here and now.
Dr. Aditi Nerurkar
Harvard physician specializing in stress and burnout

01/15/2025

I make small efforts to protect my hearing, like covering my ears when I’m using the blender and wearing ear plugs at concerts. Those exposures add up over time.
Dr. Frank R. Lin
Director of the Cochlear Center for Hearing and Public Health at Johns Hopkins

01/15/2025

If you want to eat more healthfully, minimize your intake of ultraprocessed foods — concocted with nonfood ingredients, designed to be irresistible if not addictive (“You can’t eat just one”) and unable to be made in home kitchens because you don’t have the equipment or industrial ingredients. How do you recognize one? Check its ingredient list. If it’s full of chemical flavors, texturizers or colors, leave it on the shelf.
Marion Nestle
Professor emerita of nutrition, food studies and public health at N.Y.U.