Category: Conditions

Navigating the challenges of breast cancer-related lymphedema

As advancements in breast cancer treatments have led to improved patient survival rates, the focus has begun to shift to addressing the significant long-term side effects, particularly lymphedema. This condition, often resulting from cancer therapies, …

Costly care vs. cutting-edge treatments: the state of cancer today

For decades, many patients, their children, and grandkids have strived to answer, “What is cancer?” As a doctor and scientist, over the past 16 months, I have learned the latest cancer information from experts at Cedars-Sinai in Los Angeles…

Geriatric oncology: challenges and rewards of treating elderly cancer patients

If anyone asks me, “What part of oncology do you hate the most?” I would definitely answer without much thought, “geriatric oncology.” I think that’s the most difficult specialty because it needs extraordinary skills and p…

Why pelvic floor disorders deserve more attention

She’s the reason I pee when I sneeze. She’s the reason I fart when I walk. And yet, I would give birth to my daughter again, a thousand times over. And that, I think, is the crux of the cross we bear as mothers — bearing children and, speci…

Lessons learned in psychiatry: How experience shapes your career

I am now in the twilight of my psychiatric career. Yes, I can write that without wincing now, almost, well, maybe just a little. I have made decisions in the last twelve months that have changed my daily schedule, my work life, and my relationships pro…

Incurable psychiatric disorders: Should we offer palliative care or medical aid in dying?

The application of palliative care to intractable psychiatric disorders has been debated at least since 2010, when a journal article reported that a patient with severe anorexia nervosa died in hospice after being referred there by her psychiatrist. Th…

Don’t wait until you’re old: Diseases hitting younger generations now

The news is rife with articles about younger people getting cancer, heart attacks, high blood pressure, atrial fibrillation, and arthritis. We used to think of these as diseases of aging, but now we are finding high blood pressure and atherosclerosis i…

Hemophilia treatment: new hope with gene therapy and other advancements

Hemophilia and other bleeding disorders are rare genetic conditions that affect the body’s ability to properly form blood clots. People with these conditions often face challenges in accessing appropriate care and treatment. This is true not only…

Why my doctor never mentioned pelvic floor dysfunction (and why it matters)

I was 31 when I learned I had a pelvic floor: the set of muscles, ligaments, and tissues that stretch like a hammock across the pelvis. Like many women, my pelvic awakening came far too late in life. The phrase was never uttered in high school sex ed, …

Lung cancer in Asian American women: Don’t be a statistic (never smoked)

May is AANHPI Heritage Month so it’s a good time to share again my journey from nonsmoker to lung cancer survivor. It is such an important issue to bring awareness to this little-known and potentially deadly health disparity because, according to…