Your independent, respected source for information about medications and natural therapies.
Medication side effects are the #4 leading cause of death in the U.S. annually (JAMA 1998). Yet, few people receive adequate information when medication is prescribed. This website is dedicated to providing information to help you and your doctor make informed, intelligent choices about medications and natural alternatives to maximize the benefits and minimize the risks of treatment. Note: This website is free of drug company or government influence. Jay S. Cohen M.D.
“An anxiety disorder is not a mental illness,” Dr. Cohen says. “Most anxiety sufferers live normal lives and have normal thinking processes except where anxiety intrudes. High anxiety is mental pain. It is almost always treatable.” Dr. Cohen has been treating anxiety disorders successfully for 38 years. He was one of the first doctors in […]
On March 12, 2013, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) warned the public that the commonly prescribed antibiotic azithromycin (Zithromax, Z-Max) has been found to cause serious cardiac arrhythmias. The side effect does not occur frequently, but it does occur enough to raise considerable concern, especially because the arrhythmia can be lethal. The FDA […]
A quiet revolution in the diagnosis and treatment of prostate cancer is underway, but many doctors and most men diagnosed with prostate cancer have not heard about it. Instead, today men are quickly dispatched for aggressive treatment such as prostate surgery or radiation, both of which can affect men’s sexual or bladder competence permanently. The […]
Dr. Cohen developed severe erythromelalgia (EM) in 1995, when little was known about treating EM. He was disabled for several years but is pain free and highly active today. Dr. Cohen is an adjunct (voluntary) professor at the University of California, San Diego. He has published several medical journal articles on EM. What is erythromelalgia […]
Dr. Cohen developed severe erythromelalgia (EM) in 1995, yet he is pain free and highly active today. Dr. Cohen is an adjunct (voluntary) associate professor at the University of California, San Diego. He has published several medical journal articles on treating EM. Erythromelalgia, with its burning, red hands and/or feet, is a painful, limiting condition, […]
Erythromelalgia (EM) is a disorder of the neurovascular system, that is, of the mechanisms controlling the activity of nerves and blood vessels. These neurovascular abnormalities typically affect the skin in the feet and legs, sometimes the hands and arms, and occasionally the ears, nose or other areas. EM has many similarities to migraine disorder, and […]
Recently I spoke to William, a 45 year-old, previously healthy attorney who in 2006 was prescribed Cipro (ciprofloxacin) for a urinary tract infection. After the first dose, William developed extreme nausea, dizziness and severe muscle pain. The Cipro was discontinued and the urinary infection was treated successfully with another antibiotic. In December 2010, he developed […]
Many types of medications can affect sexual functioning in women and men. Blood pressure medications and muscle relaxants often do so. Many types of antidepressant drugs can also cause sexual dysfunctions, most notably antidepressants of the SSRI (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor) and SNRI (serotonin and norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor) groups. The SSRI antidepressants include Celexa, Lexapro, […]
This serious side effect needs to be added to Cipro’s product information Drug companies like to claim that their studies of medications represent the gold standard of information available to doctors. Many doctors swallow this and accept the drug companies’ version of medical fact without critique. The result is that when individuals experience an adverse […]
What are the implications as doctors place millions of patients on this powerful, cholesterol-lowering statin drug? If you read a newspaper or watched television news on December 10, 2008, you would have thought that Crestor, a cholesterol-lowering statin medication, was a wonder drug. Of course, a few years ago you would have thought the same […]