Hey Doctor Scott ...

  One of the most frustrating times of being a physician, and perhaps of being any human who deals with the problems of another, is when you are unable to figure out why that person is feeling poorly and unable to give them any options that can help them feel better. You feel powerless and useless and in those times often people will look for any lifeline or last ditch effort to give hope to either person that they have some power to make a change, meaningful change that will help them both feel better about their role in the relationship.  I think one such issue that happens in medicine is related to chronic fatigue syndrome, now also known as myalgic encephalomyelitis.  This is a condition that is very poorly understood and for a long time, and even now, is under diagnosed and misdiagnosed, oftentimes because we as physicians have a fear of saying that we do not know why someone is sick and have very limited training on or education about.    A brief look...

As I was thinking about New Year's traditions, I only really had two that came up and since last year I talked about the Polar Bear Plunge, this year I thought about eating black eyed peas, which apparently is more of a Southern thing so I don't know if y'all do it out here too (written when I was living in California) . Peas always come to mind these days as a source of protein (1 cup has as much as 2 oz of beef or salmon or chicken) and iron (4 mg or about a quarter of your daily allowance).  The iron thing actually comes up a lot when we start talking about iron deficiency. Iron is essential for making hemoglobin and myoglobin, which transport and use oxygen from your lungs to all your cells.  Most of your body's iron is stored in red blood cells and muscle cells.  A small amount is used for maintaining immune system function and building proteins and collagen and the rest just hangs out in your blood as ferritin, like suitcases just going around the carousel...