Although summer is drawing to a close, those of us in the South know that summer goes on and on, and Autumn can feel a lot like summer — so can parts of winter and spring. As such, it seems there are always bugs around. We learned this painful lesson in our log house, when […]
Wholly Healthy: Reviewing Our Prescriptions
We live in the age of the prescription. Turn on the television, and you’re likely to see a commercial recommending the latest, greatest pill or injection for everything from psoriasis to bladder spasm. Furthermore, the ads clearly suggest that many of our prescriptions have potential side effects and interactions that are just terrible. Smiling actors […]
Wholly Healthy: Fall Mortality
I have written many times about the importance of fitness and the fact that it is no less important as we age. However, this story drives it home: https://www.upi.com/Health_News/2023/05/15/fatal-falls-seniors/8501683914836/. Americans are dying of fall-related injuries at an alarming rate. However, it’s more than lack of fitness that is behind this gravitational epidemic. I don’t want […]
Wholly Healthy: Summer Stones
Warm weather is upon us. And since we have a tendency to get dehydrated while working or playing outside, those of us in medicine will start to see more kidney stones. But what are they, and why do we see more in summer? Kidney stones occur in some people when certain chemicals, most commonly calcium […]
Wholly Healthy: Loneliness Remedy
When we think of medicine and medical practice, diseases and injuries come to mind. Every church prayer list is filled with assorted afflictions typical of humanity. However, there is an affliction that we seem to forget, but which manifests itself medically more and more. That affliction is loneliness. As certain groups continue to beat the […]
Wholly Healthy: Heart Attacks on the Rise
You never know what the news will bring in an age of spy balloons and UFOs. However, on the medical front, healthcare problems have changed in the wake of the pandemic. Mental health and addiction issues have exploded. Depression and suicidal thoughts in children are higher than I’ve seen in my entire career. It appears […]
Wholly Healthy: Healthcare Prayer List
Our church has initiated a new plan for prayer. We will have an unofficial schedule during which we are advised to pray wherever we are three times daily. I like this idea. It seems an appropriate discipline in a time when the idea of spiritual discipline is often viewed as too rigid or antiquated. While […]
The Sanctity of Human Life: An Embryo from Conception to Birth
When we first learned basic reproductive science, giggling behind our hands in school, we learned that a vast number of tadpole-like sperm swim up to a round, floating egg somewhere in the mysterious geography of the female reproductive tract. Voila! An embryo is made, which (blah, blah, blah) becomes a person in roughly 40 weeks […]
Wholly Healthy: Diabetes and Weight Loss
Weight loss is a big deal and a big business. Turn on the television, cruise the internet, open a magazine and you’re bound to find something about how you can lose weight, and enrich someone else along the way. Not only is weight loss big business, it’s a critical health intervention in a nation plagued […]
Wholly Healthy: Diabetes Treatment
Diabetes, like so many diseases, is a complex disorder. When it comes to what we usually call type 1, or insulin dependent diabetes, we really aren’t sure how it begins. Some researchers believe it is genetic, others believe it begins with an infection that attacks the pancreas, thus causing insulin-producing cells to cease to function. […]