The People's Pharmacy

If you need surgery, medication or some other medical intervention, you count on your health insurance company to pay the bill. When the treatment is unusual or the expected cost is especially high, it seems reasonable to ask for prior approval. Increasingly, though, insurance companies are denying those requests and not paying the claims. How […]

Would you be surprised to learn that hypnosis is a powerful tool for healing? If your primary exposure to this practice has been in books and movies, you may have a few misconceptions about how it works and what it can do. Some people imagine that when you are hypnotized, you lose control. Instead, it […]

This week, Joe and Terry Graedon welcome your questions and stories about difficulties in stopping medicines, whether prescription or OTC. Dr. Richard Friedman, an expert on drugs to treat anxiety and mood disorders, describes the symptoms of discontinuing such an agent too suddenly. Have you had trouble getting off the medication treadmill? You can ask […]

Our culture tends to avoid thinking about death. Even though we know it is inevitable, we tend to act as though it doesn’t actually pertain to us. As a result, most of us have spent little time learning how people find hope and meaning at life’s end. The intense dreams and visions that dying people […]

For years, the reigning paradigm in health care has been “Doctor knows best.” Providers rarely sought input from patients about their needs or experience. That picture has been changing, though, as more people have been using online tools to band together and find solutions for themselves and their loved ones. Susannah Fox describes the patient-led […]

The term “homeostasis” was coined about a hundred years ago. What does it mean? Essentially, it is a way of describing how various systems in the body work together to maintain internal equilibrium even in the face of a changing environment. This concept is crucial to good health, as healers have known intuitively for millennia. […]

This week, Joe and Terry Graedon welcome your questions and stories about the dangers of overdosing on OTC meds. Dr. Lisa Sanders, an acknowledged expert on medical diagnosis, starts us off with a story about a patient’s mysterious illness. How was it linked to the medicine he was taking? You can ask your questions about […]

This week on our nationally syndicated radio show, we examine the consequences of prescriptions for anxiety or grief. All of us, at some point in our lives, will experience some of these emotions. If we discuss them with a healthcare provider, there’s a chance we’ll end up with a prescription. When are medications helpful and […]

. Decades ago, people trusted their doctors and assumed that physicians always had the patient’s best interests in mind. That belief has faded and trust in medicine seems to be in tatters following the divisive battles of the pandemic. In this episode, we consider how doctors might rebuild faith in medicine. You may want to […]

Plenty of issues in the public eye could well make anyone anxious. Some people suffer more than others, however. What we feed our gut microbes–and ourselves–can make a big difference. In this episode, a nutritional psychiatrist and professional chef explains how to calm your mind with smart food choices. You may want to listen through […]