As confidence in authorities plummets, one cherished bastion remains: the hallowed halls of medical scientific research. There we picture white-coated scientists making objective research determinations. Upon that bedrock, we make health decisions.

But does our image correspond to reality?

"The pharmaceutical companies say they're about the science, but they're...

A bouquet of roses, a box of candy, or a long distance phone call? What will you give your Mom this Mother's Day? And more importantly, what will you feel as you offer your gift? Will your heart overflow with love and gratitude? Or will you be gritting your teeth,...

I've been reporting on, learning about, and practicing integrative healing modalities for nearly two decades--and I'm constantly amazed at how powerful the most gentle therapies can be.

I really had the opportunity to put that to the test when I tumbled on the street, wound up in the emergency...

This week Detroit doctors reported an outbreak of seven cases of VRSA (Vancomycin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus), a close cousin of MRSA, or Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, an antibiotic-resistant infection that has proven deadly. The cases were discovered in nursing homes, wound clinics, outpatient kidney dialysis centers and hospitals, yet another reminder of...

Let's not forget that this is the same ABC that welcomes Cindy McCain to The View, the same ABC which refused to permit more than thirty seconds of the debate coverage to be re-broadcast by others, thereby hoarding coverage that should be considered -- and in the past was considered...

When I watch Jenny McCarthy on CNN or when I read the blogs (and comments) on autism, I keep wondering: What is this debate about? Yes, the parents of autistic kids are more "emotional" than the aloof doctors before them. But why are they met with anger, rather than compassion?...

Amazon is now making moves on monopolizing the kind of books that people can read or write.

This week they are in the process of discontinuing their offering of print on demand (POD) published books and are now putting in place their own POD monopoly. For those unfamiliar with POD,...

Dennis Quaid's movie star status affords his family the best medical care available. But it couldn't shield his children from the dangers encountered by rich and by poor upon entering a hospital.

As everyone knows, the Quaid twins were mistakenly given intravenous doses of the blood thinner, Heparin, 2000 times...

Millions of people, (down to young children prescribed psychiatric medications) take meds, but those who don't got the bad news this week that they too are unwillingly imbibing a weird chemical brew of multiple meds.

Delving past the official denials and half-truths, an Associated Press team of reporters (in a...

Just like Eliot Spitzer, all of us have addictions to unhook from. For news junkies, the addiction to disposable news hooks, celebrity pix, or sex teases momentarily diverts but offers little substance.

Like addictive foods that contain MSG and other excitotoxins chemicals that trick your brain to experience "yum"...

Stand back and watch the P.R. spin as a new study in a peer-reviewed journal finds that antidepressants make "virtually no difference at moderate levels of initial depression to a relatively small difference for patients with very severe depression."

In an article published in PLoS Medicine, researchers doing a meta-analysis...

Last night Deepak Chopra spoke of Jesus. It was the eve of the publication of his book, The Third Jesus, (Harmony, 2008) which is currently a high-ranking Amazon bestseller. Dressed in an elegant black Sherwani, (an Indian long coat with a Nehru collar), Chopra stepped forward from the nave of...

Last night Deepak Chopra spoke of Jesus. It was the eve of the publication of his book, The Third Jesus, (Harmony, 2008) which is currently a high-ranking Amazon bestseller. Dressed in an elegant black Sherwani, (an Indian long coat with a Nehru collar), Chopra stepped forward from the nave of...

We all know that ah-ha! moment when a new insight or experience changes everything. But ah-ha's are the province of the mind, aren't they? Like a backward beast, the body merely drags around our higher mental functions and our opposable thumbs. Despite its amazing capacity to self-heal, it's regarded as...

You're in the airport, when the loudspeaker booms that the so-and-so authority has declared "an orange alert." Do you cringe? Or recognize the attempt to program you into fear? Whether it was yellow, orange, turquoise, or fuchsia, what exactly should you do? Squint suspiciously at your neighbor? Give up your...

How to stay centered in a family gone awry when all the forces around (and in) you join to keep you caught in the same old roles and repeating patterns?

After twenty-five years of the self-help movement, we all know a heckuva lot about ourselves as individuals, but not enough...

In a recent post, Dr. Rick Positano calls aspirin "perfect" - a "wonder drug" in preventing heart attacks, strokes, even colon cancer. As an integrative health journalist, I wanted to offer a different view.

As Dr. Positano writes, people can "use aspirin if the benefit ... outweighs gastrointestinal...

Assembled in New York City to be honored as Pioneers of Integrative Medicine by the Bravewell Collaborative, (a foundation directed by Christy Mack and devoted to promoting integrative health care), Andrew Weil, MD, and Larry Dossey, MD. and four more of this country's leading integrative doctors dialogued candidly...

For the wealthy, there are luxuries that millions can buy. But when raging fires strike enclaves in Southern California, no matter how valuable your property or portfolio, you learn that money can't buy you a stable environment. Nor can it buy you quality health care, some leading integrative doctors say--...

I've just for the second time watched Senator Larry Craig's appalling 1999 performance on Meet The Press, which has come back to haunt him over the airwaves and internet. For anyone who hasn't seen this piece of video, in it, the same man who has been recently charged with public...