Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRI)

Articles by Dr. Erdman are for informational purposes, and are not to be taken as specific medical advice.

In today’s world of high stress and fast paced lifestyles, many people can feel overwhelmed. Depression, anxiety, and other mental health issues are skyrocketing. Many people turn to their medical doctor for help.

According to the CDC, one in twelve Americans over the age of 12 report some form of depression, and a full 11% of the population over age 12 is on some type of antidepressant medication. In the Geisinger Health System, the number one drug class prescribed by their doctors is for depression/anxiety.

Unfortunately, the latest research overwhelmingly shows these drugs do not work as advertised. They may actually exacerbate the cause of some of the mental disorders.

Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness (DOMS)

Articles by Dr. Erdman are for informational purposes, and are not to be taken as specific medical advice.

Now that summer is finally with us to stay, many people are motivated to get into exercising again. That is great!

One problem many people from new exercisers to hardcore trainers run into is post exercise soreness. There is a technical name for this pain in the muscles that occurs 1-2 days after the workout; it is called Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness or DOMS.

DOMS is actually caused by the inflammation from small microscopic tearing of muscle fibers and surrounding soft tissues. The damaged muscles release chemical irritants that contact pain receptors and cause them to fire pain signals to the brain. Generally, the pain of DOMS will go away within just a few days without lasting effects. In the meantime, it will more than likely keep you from being as active as you’d like to be, or just hinder normal movements with pain.

Diet Soda

Articles by Dr. Erdman are for informational purposes, and are not to be taken as specific medical advice.

Pepsi has just announced that Diet Pepsi will be switching from aspartame to sucralose, as the artificial sweetener.

So why is Pepsi Co switching?  As many studies over the years have shown, aspartame is just hazardous to your health. It is carcinogenic in many ways, and people are rejecting its use.

Sucralose, or Splenda, isn’t really a better alternative at all. It has many of the same adverse effects as aspartame including, headaches, seizures, GI problems, heart palpitations, respiratory difficulties, and ironically, weight gain.

Magnesium

Articles by Dr. Erdman are for informational purposes, and are not to be taken as specific medical advice.

After hearing of another study reporting to have found that taking certain vitamins may actually be bad for you, I just have to ask if that is really a possibility. I don’t know the answer, but it sure doesn’t make me want to toss my nutritional support. Common sense would dictate that too much of even a good substance may be bad for you in abject excess. Hey, even water can kill you if you drink too much at once. Common sense also says that our food is lacking in many nutritional areas, even with the best of diets.

Let’s move on to this week’s topic of the vital mineral magnesium. Overlooking this mineral can lead to calcium imbalance, type 2 diabetes, vitamin D deficiency, lack of energy for your muscles and ill health. Magnesium is the fourth most abundant mineral in your body. It exists in over 300 different body enzymes. Fifty percent of it is found in your bones. It aids in energy metabolism and protein synthesis. It is required for making glutathione, known as the master antioxidant. As high as 80% of Americans are deficient in magnesium.

Shaken Baby Syndrome, Part 3

Articles by Dr. Erdman are for informational purposes, and are not to be taken as specific medical advice.

In the last of the series of three articles on Shaken Baby Syndrome (SBS), we will look at how vitamin D deficiency and vaccine aluminum adjuvants mimic SBS. Child abuse is a terrible crime, and should be punished to the fullest. But as scholars such as Dr. David Ayoub have found, thousands of cases of ‘child abuse’ are in fact misdiagnosed cases of rickets, caused by vitamin D deficiency.

Vitamin D deficiency in an infant looks different on an x-ray then it does in the classic presentation at an older age. On an x-ray, bones may appear to be broken, even to the trained radiologist ignorant of rickets presentation in infancy.

Shaken Baby Syndrome, Part 2

Articles by Dr. Erdman are for informational purposes, and are not to be taken as specific medical advice.

Is it Shaken Baby Syndrome (SBS), or something else? They tell us the triad of brain swelling, retinal hemorrhage, and brain hemorrhage can only mean one thing, you hurt your baby. Child abuse is abhorrent, but so is being accused of killing or injuring your own child with abuse when you know you have not. The simple allegation can ruin a person’s life; so we better be sure when that accusation is leveled.

According to experts, the alleged scenario for SBS goes like this: A baby crying inconsolably triggers the action; the perpetrator shakes the baby from 5 to 20 seconds at a rate of 2 to 4 times per second. So at a minimum, you can do unfathomable damage to a baby’s brain in 5 seconds by shaking them up to twenty times. Is this good for a baby, obviously not, but can it do the alleged damage absent neurologic and neck injuries? It seems highly improbable that that action would kill a child, especially after the quote from the National Shaken Baby Coalition that less damage may occur if you drop them from three stories up! And real science seems to back up that conclusion.

Shaken Baby Syndrome, Part 1

Articles by Dr. Erdman are for informational purposes, and are not to be taken as specific medical advice.

At the beginning of February of this year, Mr. Mahmoud Ibrahim was on trial for attempted homicide. He allegedly shook his 4 month old son, Ali, so severely as to cause brain hemorrhage and retinal hemorrhage. He was jailed on 1 million dollars bail in October of 2013, where he had remained until being acquitted in February. This man spent 13 months in jail for a crime he was just acquitted of committing.

He was committed to jail because Dr. Bellino, who treated Ali that fateful day, said Mr. Ibrahim was a child abuser, based solely on his observations and findings. During the trial Dr. Bellino testified “that the brain injury suffered by Ali was due to abusive head trauma and likely caused by shaking within an hour of Ibrahim making a 911 call for help on October 28, 2013, when his son began struggling to breath.”

It sounds logical until you really take a hard look at the reality of Shaken Baby Syndrome or SBS. Are there people out there who abuse children? Sure there are, and they need punished to the fullest extent.