Recent content by davidclarke

A comprehensive answer to your question will await the results of much more research. We do have research results that confirm an interaction between the mind and the immune system mediated by the neurologic system. The existence of this interaction came as a big surprise and resulted in the...

I provided a personal response to Water Rider but was asked by a moderator to repost (with no identifying details of course) so that others might benefit. 1. Psychophysiologic disorders (the term my colleagues and I now prefer for TMS, abbreviated PPD) generally do not cause changes in blood...

Good chance you have some key insights there. When you feel ready, you might try writing your mom a letter (unmailed) expressing your emotions and thoughts fully.

Hello Raz, Your symptoms are most consistent with cramping of the large intestine and/or rectum (which are not under voluntary control) and probably some tensing of the anus which is under voluntary control but may be occurring unconsciously. I can't think of a purely physiologic reason for...

Hello Z, Sorry to read of your many symptoms. Without access to laboratory tests, imaging studies and physical exam (and you also don't mention your gender) I can't exclude the possibility of an abnormal abdominal organ or, if you are female, a pelvic organ. However, there is at least some...

Hello Ms Bean, Sorry to read of your illness. There are many forms of disease that can cause symptoms resembling IBS and so it is important to have a qualified physician perform an evaluation. Your current symptoms (which you don't describe) may or may not be due to IBS. Other possibilities...

One of the most challenging situations we physicians face is when a patient simultaneously has symptoms from TMS (which I prefer to call PPD for psychophysiologic disorder) and symptoms from an organ disease (such as GERD with or without Barrett's esophagus). Though some patients may have an...

Amazon's statistics for the week in which I hit the 3000-4000 range in sales rank showed I sold 13 books which is consistent with selling 8-9 on that Monday-Tuesday and just a 4-5 more the rest of the week so the formula above was certainly in the ball park. Their author's web page also showed...

It would be most unusual to have a food sensitivity manifest with neurologic symptoms and not also with diarrhea due to the body attempting to rid itself of the offending food. Many people with PPD(TMS) react to their symptoms by thinking about what they ate recently and blaming that. Before...

My reference to the relationship between Amazon Sales Rank and Book Sales per Week being exponential does mean the same thing as saying it follows a power law. The formula you quoted, however, should read: Sales/Week = e ^ (10.526 - (.87 * Ln(Sales Rank))) where e = 2.718282 (the base of the...

Having watched the numbers for my book fairly regularly since publication in 2007 I would add that while the sale of one book can jump you from a sales rank of 500,000 to 100,000 fairly easily it takes the sale of more than one book to generate a significant jump in the graph as you get close to...

Alan describes a useful approach and I would like to add another. For some of my patients relapses occur because they have strong emotions (anger, fear or grief most commonly) that they do not fully recognize and so are not able to think or talk about. Consequently these emotions are expressed...

Bloating has many possible causes including slow stomach emptying (from nerve damage in the stomach wall (usually from long-term diabetes) to partial blockage at or near the entrance to the intestine), slowed contractions or partial blockage in the bowel, increased gas production from intestinal...

My granddaughters, ages 4 and 2, love this song so much they sang it for me (several times) during my last visit. Of course, their voices and recall for words are such that I couldn't catch all the lyrics until I looked them up on line. Then I was struck, as many here have been, of the...