360 MD

02/25/2025

Q: What's the first thing you eat or drink in the day?

02/21/2025

Often people use substances because of pain and trying to escape feeling alone.
However, if you haven’t developed other tools for dealing with discomfort, pain, or difficulty, then even if you stop one substance, it will pop up in another way - be it alcohol or opiates.
If you haven’t built up enough support within yourself, then you will often start using a different substance or develop a process addiction like gambling.
Like the game whack a mole. You hit one mole, but it pops up in another spot. You target one addiction, but it pops up again in another area.
If you start to give the brain what it needs: food, nutrients, tools for coping with discomfort and difficulty, then you won’t feel the need to substitute one substance for another and recovery becomes longer lasting. That’s exactly what I believe in.

02/20/2025

It’s been a while, so I wanted to do a post to introduce myself to you and share my story.

I got up and went to the gym and while I was stretching, I started to remember and feel grateful for how far I’ve come. I’m a doctor with a successful practice. I help patients with preventing and recovering from complex chronic diseases and addiction without shame and judgment.

In my 20s, I had back pain that lasted a few years after a car accident. It was a 6 car pile up on a Los Angeles freeway. I had back pain that wouldn’t go away. I went through 2 rounds of physical therapy and was still struggling. By making some changes in my life, I eventually got better. After that, I ended up deciding to go to medical school myself so that I could help others as I had been helped. I understand what it’s like to have pain. I hated being dependent on other people to help me. I was used to being independent. I would often think to myself, “would it be this way forever?” I was worried it would never end. And that’s when I found a way.

Over the next few months I will be sharing my journey and process with you so stay tuned.

06/09/2023

"Healing is not about going back to exactly who you were before, because that person was not capable of seeing the storm before it hit, and that person didn’t know how to shield themselves from it. You aren’t supposed to go back to being more naive, or unaware. You aren't meant to return to your mindlessness, a life in which you didn’t know the contrasts. What you get through healing is greater than a return, it is a rebirth. You become stronger where you’ve been broken. You become grounded where you’ve been egotistical. You become responsible where you’ve been neglectful. You become more sensitive and conscious. You become more considerate, more empathetic, more mindful, more careful. You learn from the hard lessons so you can open your heart to the lighter ones. You come more fully into the experience of being alive." ~Brianna Wiest

03/10/2023

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRrC_0Fit78
A look into the UC Berkeley-UCSF Joint Medical Program from the POV of current students. It's nice to see the same classrooms again. It really is a wonderful dynamic way to learn. A very unusual medical school.. I am glad I went there.
A few students said what they loved was how it fostered curiosity and gave them the confidence to know they can figure anything out. I definitely agree with both of those sentiments. I saw a new patient recently who has been struggling with several disabling issues. He said he was looking for a doctor who was curious and shared that it has been difficult for him to find one. It's been 20 years since I finished at the JMP, and I can say I am still curious...

Hear students talk about learning medicine through patient cases (known as Problem-based learning, or PBL) while pursuing a masters degree.

01/04/2023

This study makes me continue to want to avoid Covid infection. Getting Covid a second time, doubles chance of dying and triples the risk of hospitalization in the next 6 months. Bring infected with Covid more than once also dramatically increases risk of developing lung problems, heart conditions or brain conditions and this increased risk persists for 6 months.

01/03/2023

Nice study showing that Mindfulness meditation works as well as medication for anxiety. I was in the medical student study on MBSR for med students. It works, the hard part is sticking with it. Lots of great apps out there to help. My favorites are Calm and screen-free Zenimal for kids.

Researchers compared a practice of daily mindfulness meditation to taking Lexapro to control anxiety symptoms. The meditators got equivalent relief, without the side effects.

05/25/2020

Decent summary of info on vit D and covid- bottom line: we don’t have definite reasearch but likely beneficial and little risk of harm, esp if you are deficient.

Recent headlines have suggested vitamin D deficiency could increase the risk of dying from Covid-19, and in turn, that we should consider taking vitamin D supplements to protect ourselves. Is this all just hype, or could vitamin D really help in the fight against Covid-19?

04/22/2020

Simple at home exercises you can do to support respiratory health.

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