Author's posts
Consider the natural ways to prevent or reverse atherosclerosis
Some people have high cholesterol but not much atherosclerosis. We think of their arteries as having nonstick surfaces. We know inflammation can predispose to plaque formation and plaque rupture, which is the trigger of most heart attacks. We know stat…
There is endless profit potential to treat chronic diseases
I have noticed several articles describing how antibiotic development has bankrupted some pharmaceutical companies because there isn’t enough potential profit in a ten-day course to treat multi-resistant superbug infections. Chronic disease treatments,…
4 pitfalls that run through the minds and daily realities of primary care doctors
I looked at a free book chapter from Harvard Businesses Review today and saw a striking graph illustrating what we’re up against in primary care today, and I remembered a post I wrote eight years ago about burnout skills. Some things we do, some challe…
When a diagnosis leads to sadness instead of triumph
He did a double-take as we passed on our small town sidewalk the other day. “Hey Doc, I didn’t recognize you dressed like that, without your …”, he gestured to where my tie or stethoscope would have been. I was wearing a cafe-au-lait colored T-shirt an…
Participating in the greatest miracle a physician is privileged to be part of
An excerpt from A Country Doctor Writes: CONDITIONS: Diseases and Other Life Circumstances. “Welcome back. How was your trip? Or exile … you were away for a long time.” “Almost a year,” my nine o’clock patient answered. A woman just over forty, s…
There’s a code for pain, but what’s the code for suffering?
Opiates relieve pain and can transport people to their apparent happy place. So does marijuana. Lyrica, the seizure-turned-pain medication, caused enough of a buzz in early study participants that it became a controlled substance. The anesthetic ketam…
Will telemedicine make us better diagnosticians?
We have all heard that 90 percent of the time, a patient’s history provides the diagnosis before we even perform a physical exam or order any tests. At the same time, much of our reimbursement used to hinge on how many body systems we examined. Like so…
It took a pandemic to realize the value of telemedicine
It took a 125-nanometer virus only a few weeks to move American health care from the twentieth to the twenty-first century. This had nothing to do with science or technology, and only to a small degree was it due to public interest or demand, which had…
How to build trust and therapeutic relationships in 15-minute office visits
It is well known by now that a physician’s demeanor influences the clinical response patients have to any prescribed treatment. We also know that even when nothing is prescribed, a physician’s careful listening, examination, and reassurance about the n…
The most powerful way to provide substance abuse treatment is in a group setting
We knew that the most powerful way to provide substance abuse treatment is in a group setting. Group members can offer support to each other and call out each other’s self-deceptions and public excuses, oftentimes more effectively than the clinicians. …
