Myths and Realities

Myths and Realities: Colon Cleansing: Healthful or just a load of @$%!

July 16, 2009
Myths and Realities: Colon Cleansing: Healthful or just a load of @$%!

Chau Che MD

Faculty Peer Reviewed

You’ll have increased energy, radiant skin, reduced joint pain, improved asthma symptoms, and best of all…you will lose weight. These are some of the purported benefits of removing “toxins” (otherwise known as undigested material) from the colon through cleansing. As with fashion, music, and art, what’s old has a way of becoming trendy again…especially when celebrities such as Beyonce talk about it on the Oprah Winfrey show. Colon cleansing has become popular but it is far from a new …

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Myths and Realities: Is Breakfast the Most Important Meal of the Day?

June 18, 2009
Myths and Realities: Is Breakfast the Most Important Meal of the Day?

Chau Che MD

Faculty Peer Reviewed

In an age when two thirds of adults are either overweight or obese and obesity rates in children continue to rise, would an intervention such as consuming breakfast daily help combat this problem? Skipping breakfast has become increasingly common in adults and adolescents in the United States, with the proportion of adults and children skipping breakfast increasing from fourteen to twenty-five percent between 1965 and 1991 (1,3). Additionally, skipping breakfast may be detrimental to other functions. To examine the …

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Myths and Realities: Do Power Lines Cause Cancer?

May 20, 2009
Myths and Realities: Do Power Lines Cause Cancer?

Aditya Mattoo MD

Faculty Peer Reviewed

Prompted by personal experience, I thought I would explore the alleged causative role of power lines in hematologic malignancies for the next installment of Myths and Realities. In recent years, two close family friends living at separate locations but in homes adjacent to lots with electrical transformers were diagnosed with Multiple Myeloma and Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. Naturally, the coincidence was not unnoticed, so I decided to put power lines on trial and look through the literature to see if a …

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Myths and Realities: Does the Weather Really Affect Arthritis?

March 19, 2009
Myths and Realities: Does the Weather Really Affect Arthritis?

Welcome to the first installment of Myths and Realities! With each post we hope to tackle some of the longstanding myths often perpetuated by patients and physicians alike. Through literature reviews we will attempt to validate or debunk these beliefs in an evidence-based manner. We hope you enjoy (and learn a little bit)!

Commentary by Aditya Mattoo MD PGY-3

Faculty Peer Reviewed

For our first post, I wanted to address the age old belief that changes in the weather can affect arthritis pain. Since the …

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