Back in another lifetime, when I was in medical school, the country was awash with the dawn of a new age. There were all kinds of ideas afloat, political, social, and cultural. One of the big ideas, which really wasn’t new, was vegetarianism.

There were various versions of this phenomenon, and one of the things I took an immediate dislike to was that it was a sort of puritanical cult. The vegetarians didn’t miss a chance to tell you all about the evils of meat, poultry, and seafood, all the while looking somewhat akin to war camp survivors.

This hasn’t changed much over the years. Recently, a friend took me to a restaurant, where they served both sides of the fence, and we sampled a number of meat and non-meat dishes, that were all quite good. While we were there, we witnessed what I think was a fairly common comical situation.

A vegetarian was raking the waiter over the coals about the most infinitesimal details of the preparation and cooking processes. As far as I’m concerned, anybody who has this many concerns about how the food is being handled should stay at home. Or, as my friend put it quite succinctly, “They should be force fed with lard!”

The waiter was extremely patient, and he answered every question with a smile, but you could tell she was getting on his last nerve. Finally, she asked to speak to the chef. This was in the middle of lunch, which would be like asking to talk to a surgeon in the middle of an operation.

A minute or two later, the chef arrived table side, and she started with him. He answered quite a few questions, and then told her he had to get back to work. She then asked for the manager, who turned out to be a quite stunning looking woman.

She listened, answered a few questions, and then said, “Are you ready to place your order now?”

The woman said she has a few more questions. The manager then reached onto the table and started clearing it. Off went the china, glassware, and silverware. She looked at the woman and said, “We have spent well over thirty minutes, answering all of your questions, and now, it’s time for you to take your act on the road. Good day!”

The vegetarian left in a huff, but the manager got quite a number of “Bravo’s” from the other patrons.

When leaving, my friend asked the manager if the incident was a common occurrence. She smiled and said it happened a couple of times a week, and usually ended in the same scenario. “They’re Puritans, and this type of behavior is a test. It took me a while to figure this out, and now I know exactly how to deal with them.”

And then she added with a laugh, “She sure did look like she could use a spot of beef, didn’t she?” (She turned out to be an Aussie.)

I’ve heard all the vegetarian horror stories:

Meat stays in your gut and rots, getting infected with bacteria.

I don’t want to put anything dead into my body.

I want to live in a more natural way.

Farming is not viable. We could feed the whole world, if we became vegetarian.

I don’t want to finance death.

Farming animals is cruel.

It’s all a wagon full of manure. There is no credible scientific data that being a vegetarian is a healthful lifestyle. It’s a political lifestyle, or a cultural lifestyle, and one that I believe is not healthy, at all.

Spend a little time around a vegetarian, or in a vegan restaurant, look at the people, make some observations. One of your observations will be that there are a lot of very unhealthy people around.

I could list the diseases, but I won’t.

But the simple fact is that they are out of balance. Their bodies are out of balance, and as a result, the old brain is off, too.

You need to eat a balanced diet that includes meat. One of the leading nutritionists in Southern California, whose clientele includes some of Hollywood’s biggest names, told me that one of the biggest problems he faces is with vegetarians.

“They come in sick, emaciated, they have skin problems, body odor problems, problems I don’t even want to talk about. They want to know why, and I tell them, “You need meat!”

“Some of them are aghast, they throw tantrums, they tell me how screwed up I am. But once they start eating meat again, all the problems go away. It’s like magic.”

Eat a good balanced diet. Have a good exercise program, and take the right supplements, like my Powerhouse Omega Formula, and my Heart Charging Formula.

And if you want to cure a vegetarian, keep a lot of bacon around.

Believe me, it works.

Everybody in New York seems to be down after the Yankee’s got slobberknocked by the Red Sox over the weekend. But over the last few years the Yankees have always started slowly. The ugly mood might just be exacerbated by the new price of tickets at the new Yankee Stadium. To say the ticket prices are high would be an understatement, and you are left to wonder if the average Joe will ever see a game, except on his television set.

With the economic crisis, and job layoffs, the media is focusing on a growing problem of mental depression. My dad used to say that real men don’t have time for feeling sorry for themselves, and part of me agrees with that. There is way too much focus on fashionable depression, like how Jennifer Aniston feels, after being dumped again.

That’s just da dumb.

But thousands of women will feel it’s okay to visit the doctor and ask for anti-depressants, after watching or reading a story like that. And doctors will give them a prescription, to get them out of the office, so they can take care of those who are really in need of treatment.

Most of the time, these women have no serious mental depression issues. What they have is an omega-3 fat deficiency, which causes what I would term a “letdown,” as opposed to serious depression. This is easily remedied by taking an ultra pure pharmaceutical grade fish oil, such as my own Dr. Bill’s Powerhouse Omega Formula.

Many women have letdowns when pregnant, or after. Physicians often give them anti-depressants, which really can compound the problem, and it often makes it impossible to shed weight gained in pregnancy, which can really become a problem.

Fish oil helps balance out the way your body functions, and gets the much needed omega-3 fat DHA to the brain, so it can function properly, assisting in eliminating depression.

Here’s something to remember:  Depression, more often than not, has nutritional roots. That means that it is closely related to your diet, and the physical state of your body. The better your diet, the better physical shape you’re in, the lesser the chance is you’ll have a letdown.

I’m not going to say that there are not cases of real depression, that need to be treated with drugs, because there are. But they are not the norm. Psychotherapy has its place, and this therapy is often quite successful. But the majority of people can be treated without drugs, using fish oil, diet, and exercise.

The best solutions are often the most simple.

Just as the heat finally gets to Long Island, I’m getting ready to go to business meeting in Florida…so maybe I won’t experience the hot/cold shock I usually get when I make these trips. It looks like the weather is going to be almost the same in both places, which is a rare thing indeed.

In the land down under, (Australia), a study has just been released at the annual meeting of The Thoracic Society of New Zealand and Australia. (What I woulldn’t give for some photos of that group!)

Professor Bob Adams from the Queen Elizabeth Hospital’s Health Observatory Unit staunchly backs the use of fish oil supplements…but he’s just joking about putting it in the water.

Fatty acids from fish oil supplements have been linked to better heart health, more rapid weight loss, and other health benefits.

Now, his study has found that asthmatics taking fish oil cope better. Fish oil has been found to have many benefits, particularly with regard to inflammation, which I wrote about last week. Asthma is an inflammation of the airways.

Preliminary studies found people with asthma taking fish oil had fewer visits to the doctor, fewer sick days, and fewer hospital visits. This points to a larger role for alternative medicine in asthma control.

Fish oil can also help arthritis sufferers.

Over the past few days I have listed any number of maladies that fish oil may help alleviate.

Dr. Bill’s Powerhouse Omega Formula won’t fix everything that ails you, but it sure will help prevent you getting things that become serious problems later on.

Give it a try, and I guarantee you’ll see what I mean.

A full moon must be on the horizon, because I have received some rather odd emails in the old inbox. I don’t keep track of the moon and its cycles, so someone  will have to confirm this to me, but I suspect it.

The first one I got told me that the product just didn’t work. And he had me going, until he admitted (down in paragraph six) that he didn’t take the product regularly, because he found following a routine annoying.

That just doesn’t work, for fish oil, or any other form of medication, so that one got shredded.

The next one dealt with an athlete who took the formula every day, but had doubled his workout routine and wondered why he was sore.

Fish oil is not a steroid, and if you double your routine and expect fish oil to make up the difference, you are sadly mistaken.

Then, somebody out West said my last email wasn’t up to my usual standards.

That’s the trouble with being brilliant–some days, it just doesn’t translate.

He apparently is not a fan of Disney, or pirates, so let’s talk turkey today.

The biggest selling point for my Dr. Bill’s Powerhouse Omega Formula is the purity. You can search all you want, but you won’t find a formula as pure as mine.

Each serving, which is one soft gel, packs a whopping 780 mg of Omega-3′s, which is nearly quadruple what most fish oil contains. 4 soft gels, which is the recommended daily dose, contains 3120 mg of omega-3 fatty acids. You get the best stuff and virtually nothing else.

Then, there is the enteric coating, which insures that the soft gel travels deep into your intestinal tract, before it’s released, which eliminates fish burps or aftertaste.

Not only does the fish oil softgel have an enteric coating, it also has a soft lemon scent, which eliminates any residual fishy smell, or odor. In fact, the soft gels smell so good that you might just keep your nose over the bottle for quite some time.

There isn’t a better natural inflammatory on the market.

But you have to take the Powerhouse Omega Formula on a regular schedule for it to be effective. You can’t skip days and expect it to work. If you miss one dosage you can double up, but try to stay in a routine.

I have several friends in the fitness business, and they’ll tell you about being out of sorts when they ran out, or failed to take it on a trip. Minor aches and pains, that they never felt while using on a regular basis, reoccurred after a few days of not using. They don’t run out anymore, and they make sure to pack it when traveling.

One thing people say to me all the time is: “Hey…I’m not sore anymore.”

For anybody who has been bothered by aches and pains, including myself, that’s a great thing to be able to say.

This story was forwarded to me this afternoon and it made me laugh out loud. It came without any attribution, so I don’t know who to thank.

In an attempt to keep Disneyland’s famous “Pirates of the Caribbean” ride hip and up to date, Walt Disney CEO, Robert Iger, has enlisted the help of the U.S. Navy and stationed three Navy SEAL snipers inside the treacherous ride.

“We want our visitors to feel totally safe,” Iger said. “That’s why I have authorized the snipers to shoot any pirate threatening the lives of our guests.”

“A 5 x 7 photograph of the incident will be available upon exiting the ride for just $9.99,” he added.

Disney prides itself on promoting a family friendly atmosphere, which is why it includes such heart warming displays of terrorism…like drowning a man in a well, or looting a town and then, burning it to the ground, while…pirates get drunk and sing songs about pirates getting drunk.

On the ride, the Navy snipers will be stationed at a point just after the pirates in jail lure a dog with a bone…but before the fat guy gets drunk with a pig in the mud. Only one incident has been reported so far: Goofy tackled a 7 year old guest and stole his cotton candy.

“One shot…Blackjack,” said the sniper, who then disappeared into a mound of mud.

The actor who played Goofy will be buried inside Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride on Tuesday.

Now remember, the story isn’t true.

But it is funny.

Luckily you don’t need a sniper team in order to acquire my newest creation, Dr. Bill’s Heart Charging Formula.

The Heart Charging Formula will put a little skip in your giddyup. That’s something one of my old mentors used to say back when I was a fledgling surgeon. When he saw me finishing a 48 hour shift, he would smile and say, “Billy boy…you look like you could use a little skip in your giddyup.” My laugh always eased the pain in my legs, from all that standing.

If you feel like you’ve lost a step, my Heart Charging Formula is just what you need to get back on track.