Blog & Columns
Useful information about health and Korean medicine.
Total 207 posts
Why your knee hurts only when going down stairs, not up
When you climb stairs, your thighs are the engine; when you go down, they're the brakes. Holding your body weight as you lower yourself is harder work, and the pressure on the knee is much greater. If it only hurts going down, it's a sign your braking strength is falling short. We sort the paths by where it hurts, and share tips you can use on the stairs today.
My knee hurts. Is it okay to walk?
If you walk less to spare your knee, the thigh muscles that support it weaken first. That's why instead of "don't do this," we give you "do it like this": walk on flat ground in shorter bouts, take stairs one step at a time holding the railing, practice getting up from a chair, and switch activities on painful days.
They say my knee cartilage is worn. Is it okay to walk?
When you're diagnosed with knee arthritis, you're usually told to go easy on it. Yet the treatment that every major international guideline recommends first is exercise. Cutting back on activity weakens your thigh muscles, the knee's shock absorbers. We lay out the real size of exercise's effect, and the mixed evidence for acupuncture, as it is.
"Herbal medicine damages your liver": we checked the numbers
The saying that herbal medicine damages your liver has some basis. So we looked at the numbers. In a study that followed prescribed herbal medicine from the start, liver injury occurred in 6 out of 1,001 people, or 0.6%. It isn't zero, so our conclusion is: take it while being checked.
If you've spent months searching online, unsure whether to try herbal medicine
Hesitating over whether to get herbal medicine is reasonable. It means you don't want to decide what goes into your body without evidence. We don't prescribe without testing, we don't recommend it on the first day, and we set an end date before we start. Here are those principles.
If you've started hiding your legs in front of the mirror
There's something you should know first when you look into bow leg correction. There's no evidence that bone angles in adults can be changed without surgery, and we don't promise angles. But much of how curved your legs look comes from muscles and habits, and those can be worked on. That's why we measure before any correction.
Your jaw has clicked for years, but now it's started to hurt
Half the people who come to us about their jaw start with this question: "My jaw makes a sound. Is it something serious?" A jaw that only makes noise usually doesn't need treatment, and we don't recommend treatment for it. The jaws that need treatment are a different group, and we start by helping you tell which is which.
When your endoscopy is normal, but your stomach hasn't had a single good day
The tests say you're normal, yet your body is uncomfortable every day. Then someone says "it's just nerves," and you start to feel like you're being treated as if you're faking it. Let's set that straight first. A normal test doesn't mean your symptoms aren't real. An endoscopy looks at structure, and this is a problem of function and sensation.
The best posture is your next posture
There's a sticky note on your monitor that says "Sit up straight!" Yet the more you focus on good posture, the stiffer your shoulders get. Not being able to hold good posture isn't a sign of weak willpower. Any posture becomes a bad posture if you hold it too long. People who change their posture have easier necks than people who guard it.
"I didn't sleep a wink," I say. "You were snoring," says my family
"I didn't sleep a wink last night." "What are you talking about? You were snoring." You've probably had this conversation. The first thing to make clear is that you're not lying. Your family isn't lying either. You may both be telling the truth.
Is it normal to sleep less as you get older?
At 4 a.m., the living room light is on. "Everyone's like this when they get older" is only half right. It's true that sleep changes with age, but that phrase covers up causes that can be fixed: pain, reflux, sleep apnea, the timing of medications, mood, and the amount of time you spend lying in bed.
The baby is sleeping, but Mom can't
Even after the baby starts sleeping through the night, Mom's sleep doesn't come back. The baby is sound asleep, yet you wake up every two hours on your own and look at the clock. This isn't about having a sensitive personality. Months of sleeping with one ear open have taught your body that "the bed is a place for standing by." What was learned can be unlearned through new learning.