Dr. Ben Kim's blog

A recent case study in the Canadian Medical Association Journal points to the potential dangers of using chamomile products while taking warfarin.

Warfarin, also called Coumadin and Marevan, is an anticoagulant that is often prescribed for people who are at risk of suffering from thrombosis and embolism. Read more

Fungal nail infections, also called onychomycoses, tend to occur more often in toenails than in fingernails. If you are not familiar with what fungal nail infections look like, they tend to make nails look brittle, crumbly, and discolored, usually to a dark yellowish or brownish tinge.

Your body is a host to trillions of microorganisms, some of which are fungi that can live on the outer layers of your skin, your fingernails, your toenails, your hair, and in your digestive tract. When some of these fungi are provided with conditions that allow them to grow rapidly, they can develop into infections. Read more

Ingredients: 

8 cups frozen peas
5 cups vegetable or chicken broth
1 garlic clove, roughly chopped
2 tablespoons of organic butter
Sea salt and black pepper, to taste

Directions:

Over medium to high heat, cook garlic in butter for 2-3 minutes. Add peas and cook for an additional 1-2 minutes.

Add vegetable or chicken broth, bring to a boil, then reduce heat to allow ingredients to simmer for 5 minutes with the lid on. Read more

My first born child was vaccinated at age 3 months with Diphtheria, tetanus, whole cell pertussis and oral polio. These were the vaccines available at that time and I was clueless. My child had an adverse reaction and died a few hours later.

When my daughter died, I was already pregnant with my next child. This was almost 20 years ago, so there was no internet to get easy access to vaccine info. In fact VRAN was just forming and the USA just formed the NVICP. The only info I had at that time was what our attorney was able to dig up. Which was actually enough to prove liability in his pertussis-brain injury case, but he was not able to prove causality and in Ontario law, both liability and causality must be proven. Of course science does not even know how the immune system functions, so it is almost impossible to prove causality without this knowledge in science. Read more

I just ran across an interesting article on the dangers of tongue piercing in the on-line version of USA TODAY.

The article mentions the case study of a 20-year-old woman who grew a permanent "second tongue" after wearing a stud in her tongue for approximately one year. Her "second tongue" was scar tissue that likely formed due to irritation by an inch-long stud that was a haven for plaque formation. Read more

From Our Mailbag:

Dr Kim,

I know that this has nothing to do with health, but since you seem to enjoy writing about Korean culture, I thought I would ask...why is it that so many young children from Korea have attended our elementary school in the past 3 years? I have a cousin who is a teacher in Los Angeles and she tells me that the same thing is happening there.

Wendy Griffin
Vancouver, British Columbia Read more

Ingredients:

1 large cucumber, peeled
1 large field tomato, diced
1/4 cup chopped fresh basil
1/4 cup finely chopped red onion
3 tablespoons house dressing, or 3 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar and sea salt, to taste

Directions: Read more

In response to an article on ways to prevent cancer that I wrote a few weeks ago, several subscribers sent in letters asking for a specific anti-cancer diet, one that can be followed after receiving chemotherapy.

I recommend the following guidelines to people who visit our clinic looking to get stronger and healthier after a bout with chemotherapy: Read more

The Center For Science In the Public Interest (CSPI) released a special report on February 6, 2006 which indicates that many of the top hospitals in the United States are serving up French fries that are laden with trans fats.

The following chart indicates the number of grams of trans fat that were found in 6 ounces of French fries from McDonald's, 18 medical centers and hospitals, and the headquarters of the National Institutes of Health, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and the Food and Drug Administration. Read more

Ingredients:

1 and 2/3 cups of coconut millk
2 teaspoons of coconut oil
1 and 1/4 cups of vegetable broth
6-8 ounces of Yukon or new potatoes, quartered
4 ounces of baby corn cobs
2 teaspoons of raw/unpasteurized honey
6 ounches of broccoli florets
1 orange, yellow, or red bell pepper, seeded and sliced lengthwise
Sea salt and pepper (optional) Read more