In Part One I explained how as a teenager I began to develop a pragmatic approach to personal health.  I embraced trial and error, exploring, researching, and refining personal well-being and what works for me.  Often this meant quietly pushing aside peer or societal pressures and medical norms.  Over the decades, I continued seeking out pragmatic health tools that best fit me. Until the past year, I still looked first for help from the U.S. “sick” care system, which repeatedly failed to help me during Covid and Long-Covid.  Read More

Though frequently referred to as “little Chicago” by folks from Illinois, the “Cream City” (so called for the hue of the local brick) has a distinct culture and identity. A case in point, Milwaukee water fountains are called “bubblers”.   And the local NPR radio series answering listener questions in Chicago called “Curious City” (on WBEZ) in Milwaukee entitled “Bubbler Talk” on WUWM.  The origins of this odd term and public radio series offers an interesting dive into Milwauke history. Read More

That’s right, “Milwaukee or Bust”.  So, while not literally driving a beat-up Model-T cross-country for the promise land, echoing back to 1930s Dust Bowl days, the metaphor helps dramatize my move and internal travails to find a new home.  Temporarily living in “God’s Country” (as my cousin’s refer to Wisconsin) shifted my mindset, which has evolved over the past couple months as a post-pandemic, 50s-something. My June blogpost “Exit Chicago” detailed uprooting myself from Chicago to try out Wisconsin while still buzzing back to the city one-day a week for appointments with Back to Natural Health and catch friends.    Read More

The narrative current over the past 11-months has been overwhelmingly in support of vaccines.  The same time I was pursuing a regimen of repurposed, off-label prescription drugs, a modified diet, and boosting vitamins to fight off long-Covid.  In retrospect, from my experience, thousands in online support groups, and front-line doctors it is clear these medicines indeed work.  Today, I am no longer suffering from crushing fatigue, shortness of breath, malaise, and am beginning to really live again.  Although still not 100% these treatments have made a huge difference. Read More

Fast approaching a year of dealing with Covid I am finally starting to feel better thanks to a friend of a friend and a Nobel prize winning substance, known in medical shorthand as IVM.  My journey is not over, but IVM has offered a major path to recovery which has been thwarted from the start.  This is my story… Mid-morning on March 23, 2020, I was knocked down with fatigue, slept for 2-1/2 hours and awoke to a growing malaise and brain fog.  Read More

I am not going to get all “soap-boxy” about what should have been done to combat this pandemic.  Plenty of that can be found elsewhere, but suffice it to say face masks are a good idea.  In Czech Republic they have used them quite successfully to curb the spread of the Coronoavirus (COVID-19). In my case, I believe (without readily available tests, still unconfirmed) I came down with Coronavirus last Monday (3/16).  I have no idea where or how I got it.  Read More

So New Year’s Resolutions . . .  Have you broken yours yet?  So far, I’ve both broken and mostly stuck to mine, as we humans love contradictions. Normally I am not a New Year’s Resolution kind of guy, but this year I felt the need for something different.  I had been cycling the last couple years with a group that became a team with uniforms, sponsors, and an executive board last fall.  Composed of late-20s and mostly 30ish-year-old riders I enjoy trying to keep up.  Read More

Questioning the origins of everyday things saved my a**! Christmas had rolled around again and as usual I was scrambling and out of time.  Thankfully I remembered the dozen or so scarves I had bought while traveling last January, but unsure my niece (age 13) and two nephews (ages 11 & 13) would really appreciate “a stupid scarf.”  My attempted solution (and in the spirit of home made gifts, which were not out of the ordinary when I was growing up) I created the following to go with each gift . Read More

To begin 2016, I spend most of January in an empty hotel on Mackinac Island.  r-e-d-R-U-M, R-E-D-R-U-M!!  As a Chicago author and avid sailor the opportunity to visit in the winter was simply too unique and tantalizing to pass up.  Having participated multiple times in the Chicago-Mac Race, I was quite familiar with the island in high-season — when the primary means of transportation is by bicycle, wagon, or carriage.  Here this more than 100 year-old way of life has been preserved, and except for emergency vehicles, no automobiles are allowed on the island.   Read More