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Medicine can only do so much. This is why we have an entire specialty dedicated to providing comfort to people with incurable illnesses and to easing their transition out of this life. This specialty, called palliative care, includes hospice... Continue Reading »
In medicine, we get the most bang for our buck when we catch serious illnesses early. Much has been written about stroke care, for instance. As you probably recall from this column, or from public service announcements and advertisements,... Continue Reading »
Many people own home blood pressure monitors. These little devices allow patients to track their BP as often as they like, but many physicians consider these devices problematic. Let’s make up a case. Mrs. King, 60, at the end... Continue Reading »
Have you been flossing your teeth lately? I know I have. Dentists have told us for about a century that good dental care requires the use of dental floss, and I have been diligent (well, not for a century,... Continue Reading »
It’s August, and that means that school is starting. Middle school and high school, in particular, are times of significant emotional challenges. Not only are students adapting to physical changes and emotional growth and maturity, the fact is that... Continue Reading »
Sometimes, conventional wisdom handed down since the dawn of time is laughed off as irrelevant. C.S. Lewis and his friend Owen Barfield used the term “chronological snobbery” to mean that people who live now often think they are inherently... Continue Reading »
Frequently, when I go to work in the ER, I see elderly patients who are deconditioned. That is, they simply have no physical reserves because they have been bed-bound in the hospital — or homebound — from chronic illness.... Continue Reading »
It seems increasingly as if the names of diseases originate from science fiction novels. This is certainly the case with one of our latest concerns, the Zika virus. First described in Uganda in 1947 and named for a forest... Continue Reading »
These days smartphones are ubiquitous. It’s amazing to realize that you hold in your hand a tiny computer that has more processing power than anything available to NASA during the Apollo years. It’s also amazing, when you have teenagers,... Continue Reading »
I recently had an enormous kidney stone. Okay — it seemed enormous to me. But in terms of kidney stones, it was reasonably large — nine millimeters, in fact. Large enough that I had to have lithotripsy (the use... Continue Reading »
Christmas travel is such a delight! However, there are a few things for travelers to consider before embarking on holiday pilgrimages. As a physician, one of the most important things to consider is general state of health. If you... Continue Reading »
I had a wonderful talk with a young woman a few days ago. She came to the ER confused, hallucinating and suicidal. The mental health system being what it is in most states, she was still in the ER... Continue Reading »
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