recording the data, but sadly in the wrong way. You know, like how the whole HRT/post-menopausal women and heart disease thing came to light?

I'm not anti-medicine nor anti-long-term medical regimes (having grown up around my parents' non-profits, I have very powerful memories of how the evolution of anti-psychotics, SSRIs and other drugs for managing mental illness have made a profound difference in peoples' lives over the long term), but I do happen to believe that one should look at medicine in the context of total lifestyle and environmental factors.

You make an interesting point with pharmacists. In the last years of my dad's full-time employment, and now in his two years of "semi-retirement", my dad's gotten involved in a project called the Storefront in NYC. It's a centre in, yes, a storefront in mid-town Manhattan for the mentally ill, and basically it administers treatment from soup to nuts. So, say you come in for a consultation with my dad, who is a social worker. You're apt to have a group meeting with the social worker, the doctor and the psychiatrist, who will talk with you about how your treatment is proceeding, what factors (like obesity, or diabetes, or high blood pressure) are impacting on your drug regime and vice versa, and how, say, your job and working routine are impacting on it all and vice versa. There's AA meetings, a branch of Weight Watchers, a GP, the psychiatrist, the social worker(s), a dentist, and, yes, a pharmacist that all have hours in the storefront.

My dad has dual functions there - he's one of the social workers, yes, but he also collates data for research projects and grant-writing purposes. Unsurprisingly, he's discovered over the years that by addressing mental illness in the context of everything else, and not in isolation, the "co-morbidity" factors have also decreased and people have healthier outcomes.

Sorry - long post, but I've become quite passionate about this subject.

that doctors alone can't control lifestyle. But doesn't that hint more of the failures of the traditional medical model?

It's not always, also, that people just want a pill but that preventative/proactive treatments aren't available/affordable under the current US medical fiasco. I remember a NYT series last year about diabetes; there was a program run by (I believe) Beth Israel; focused on lower-income people, it ran as a preventative, holistic approach, so yes, blood sugar monitoring, but in conjunction with group discussions, education on why neglecting your meds/regime is just so damn bad, weight control plans, diet and nutrition classes, etc., etc. The result? Better co-morbidity statistics and a marked decrease in the number of amputations related to complications from diabetes. You'd think this would become standard, but the program actually had to be shut down because of lack of funds; HMOs pay for amputations, you see, but not for preventative healthcare, and most of these people didn't have medicaid. Most of the people in the program loved it and would have stuck with it, but after it was finished, the old, bad habits crept back in.

makes lifestyle suggestions impossible. Here you've got someone in front of you that you barely know, maybe you saw them for 12 minutes last year, and so if you want to convey that info, it has to be fast and brusque.

When I was sick, on my own I found a dietician (and paid for her completely too). I think I had about 10 hours of her time in total - which cost about 20% of just one run of the drug alternative that wasn't working anyway. In 10 hours, she could get to know me, we corresponded via email (I could write out my frustrations at midnight, or tell her what I'd eaten that day, or ask for suggestions), and she could make suggestions that fit me and my talents and my family and my lifestyle.

I know not all of her clients were/are successes. But, I still treasure what she did for me 7 years later, and my eating and cooking changed dramatically based on her suggestions. No doctor - even if you could find an MD who knew as much about nutrition as she did - could have done that for me.

I think that's why chiropractors and homeopaths have become popular - not because their methods are more effective - but because they have the time to spend with a client. That's what most people need - the time. They don't need someone with an MD, just someone knowledgeable about their particular need who can be there to provide support during the transition to new habits.

Homocysteine: Higher levels (greater than 15 micro mol/L) of this protein in the blood are associated with an increased risk of heart disease and stroke, but it is unclear whether lowering levels really helps decrease that risk. Increasing your intake of B12 (RDA is 2.4 micrograms/day), B6 (RDA is 1.3 mg/day) and folate (0.4 mg/day) can effectively lower homocysteine levels in most cases. Dietary sources of folate include fortified whole grains, beans and dark green leafy vegetables. B12 can be found in lean protein such as meat, fish, poultry, milk products and eggs, and some of the best sources of B6 include fortified cereals, bananas, potatoes, beans, pork loin and chicken. Supplement your diet with these three nutrients (a daily multivitamin with 100 percent of the RDA is sufficient) if your homocysteine levels are high and you have risk factors for heart disease like high blood pressure, high cholesterol or a family history.