As a gerontologist, it is disheartening to engage with older adults who express disinterest in routine medical check-ups. Many of these individuals outright refuse to follow doctors’ orders or take prescribed medications. This troubling trend is …
Category: Conditions
A new approach to antidepressants and anxiolytics: the microbiota-gut-brain axis
Our understanding of anxiety and depression has evolved over the years, leading to advancements in diagnosis, treatment, and clinical management. However, their prevalence has not lessened; in fact, it has heightened in recent years due to the COVID-19…
A new approach to antidepressants and anxiolytics: the microbiota-gut-brain axis
Our understanding of anxiety and depression has evolved over the years, leading to advancements in diagnosis, treatment, and clinical management. However, their prevalence has not lessened; in fact, it has heightened in recent years due to the COVID-19…
How biomarkers are advancing dementia detection and care
For decades, physicians have relied on diverse biological indicators to diagnose and monitor normal development, health, and diseases. Such indicators are important from the time we are born, when APGAR scores are recorded in the labor and delivery roo…
Gus Walz and the male loneliness crisis
As Tim Walz accepted the vice presidential nomination at the DNC, his teenage son, Gus, inadvertently became internet famous after clips of him crying and exclaiming, “That’s my dad!” circulated. While many across the political spectr…
Why we’re never prepared for death—even after years of medical training
I remember the first time I pronounced a patient dead—that’s something they make sure you learn well in medical training, as nobody wants to get it wrong. They taught us how to apply pressure to the fingernail to ensure the patient does not respo…
The hidden flaws of traditional CPR: Why we need a new approach to save lives
Since its inception in the 1960s, traditional CPR has been heralded as a revolutionary life-saving technique. However, the limitations of CPR are becoming increasingly apparent, particularly in cases of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA). Currently,…
Is social media fueling the teen suicide crisis?
An excerpt from Facing Suicide: Understanding Why People Kill Themselves and How We Can Stop Them. Between 2000 and 2007, suicide rates were almost stagnant for young people between the ages of ten and twenty-four. Then they began moving steadily upwar…
A surgeon’s battle with ketamine-induced hallucinations
An excerpt from Krooked Ketamine. OK, here’s the thing: I had a little problem that needed correcting if I wanted to continue to work as a government surgeon. I had a janky heart, and it had a tendency to fire off at the absolute worst possible m…
Anorexia nervosa: Silently suffering and debunking myths
You can’t tell how much someone is suffering by looking at them—one reason I don’t share my journey with anorexia using photos to signify my mental health status. I’ve suffered more when appearing well, and “before and after pho…
