Julie Chen, M.D.

I was recently asked to do a show about African mango and as I was researching the popularity and interest on this, I was astonished to find how many people are spending a lot of money for this for weight loss. As I looked further into this topic, there are...

For decades now, we hear of taking aspirin daily as a way to prevent heart disease. Some of my patients even take it upon themselves to start taking a daily baby aspirin because they think it is a healthy thing to do.

I would like to start first by...

Hair loss is a devastating event for men and women alike. While there are drugs on the market being used for hair loss, these drugs are not without the dangers of long-term side effects. Even with these potential hair loss aides, the positive outcomes may not always be substantial enough...

One of my patients recently brought in a magazine article whereby a popular mainstream magazine article was citing an article from the British Medical Journal (BMJ) from April 2011 regarding calcium increasing risk for heart attacks.

She was concerned that taking her usual low dosage -- 400-800mg of calcium...

It seems that throughout life, even as we grew up, we heard from our friends and family comments like "If you think bad thoughts, then you'll jinx it" or "If you think the worst, then you'll make it happen." It seems that in clinical research, these sayings actually have a...

We are all capable of checking our own heart rates. We can count the number of beats we feel in our wrist or our neck over the course of 60 seconds and figure out our own heart rates. Well, what if this simple measure of our body's function can help...

Many of my patients express their frustration that massage therapy generally is not covered by their health insurance, yet the health benefits seem tremendous for them. I believe that the growing trend of discontent with lack of coverage for massage therapy is not just limited to patients, but from health...

Even as a child, I remember my family doctor telling my parents about how they should eat to make sure they don't end up with heart disease, high blood pressure or strokes. My parents are significantly older now, in their 70s, but they still pay attention to their diet because...

I recently saw a patient in my clinic who had just gotten her liver ultrasound result and was found to have fatty liver. She wanted to know the implications of that, and whether she was going to get cirrhosis and liver cancer.

In my medical career, I have seen...

We've all heard about how red wine can help with cardiovascular health and how it helps us to relax at the end of a long work day. With recent studies, we also have heard how more than three glasses of wine per week can put women at higher risk for...

A recent study was published in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) stating that a review of patients who had been taking ADHD medications like Adderall and Ritalin were not shown to have increased risk of heart disease or other cardiovascular diseases like strokes. With more than...

When you are in pain, does it ever seem like nothing else matters except you and your pain? Well, you may not be alone in this feeling.

In my clinic, I have a large patient population of chronic pain patients, and it is common to have the chronic pain...

We all know sugar, especially at higher levels of intake, is bad for our health. We know that it worsens aging of skin, suppresses immune functioning, puts us at higher risk for diabetes and cardiovascular diseases and worsens inflammation in the body.

But, increasingly, we are seeing that the...

When HIV was first discovered in 1983 to be the cause of AIDS, patients and doctors alike felt the full brunt of the fear associated with a newly-discovered lethal contagion. Today, almost two and a half to three decades later, we seemed to be on the brink of having found...

I was approached by a patient of mine this week who wanted to know if she could start eating all the chocolate she wanted because she had heard about a recent study showing that chocolate consumption was beneficial to health. My resounding answer for her was, "No." Please allow me...

With summer already upon us, we have been happily exposed to more sunlight. Which, let's face it, is a good thing, especially after a long winter where our vitamin D level and mood could likely benefit from this increasing sun exposure.

While the extended daylight hours afford us more...

Many people see the pre-teen and teen years as naturally being fraught with "angst'" and "growing pains." All too often, behavioral and mood issues in children and young adults are brushed aside because "they'll grow out of it." But a study published recently in The Lancet, suggests young...