An excerpt from A Schizoid at Smith: How Overparenting Leads to Underachieving. “Work always lacks effort,” “Just no interest whatsoever,” “Inattention,” “Disturbance,” “Silly conduct,” the te…
Category: Conditions
Navigating organizational dysfunction: lessons from Boeing
If it ain’t Boeing, I ain’t going—at one time, public opinion of an engineering company run by engineers. Today, perception is a little different. The multinational conglomerate and defense contractor owns some staggering recent mishaps—saf…
Which study is right? Investigating the impact of screening on breast cancer mortality
A splashy headline in The Washington Post caught my attention: “Breast cancer death rate dropped 58 percent over 44 years in U.S.” A Stanford Medicine news story reports that this victorious conclusion is based on “a new multicenter s…
Gene therapy’s impact on incurable illnesses
Gene therapy has been used recently to cure previously incurable diseases, including sickle cell anemia. It is a horrible disease that I have seen so many times in the ER that it haunts me at night, especially one patient. He was a sweet man with a lov…
Rethinking teen medical consent: Navigating complex health needs
Is it time to reconsider the age of medical consent for teens? This is a question I have been asking myself as my children are approaching 18. For many years, I’ve dreaded the thought of my medically challenging child turning 18 and suddenly bein…
Suspicions of medical child abuse delayed my child’s cancer diagnosis
It was November 2014. I was leaving the parking structure of my local children’s hospital when I realized, “They don’t believe us.” I didn’t know it at the time, but it would take seven more months to find the cause of my …
The overlooked impact of childbirth: hidden pelvic floor damage
Most women, about 60 percent of us, have a biological child. And while the birth of a child is often eagerly anticipated at the end of pregnancy, there are common concerns about the impact and process of delivery. Women worry about all kinds of things….
Confronting colon cancer: a daughter’s regretful journey
My mother. 63 years old. Colon cancer. She first noticed rectal bleeding. She made excuses. Maybe it’s hemorrhoids. She put her physician on a pedestal. He said, “You’re too young to die,” and there was no need for further tests…
The abuser’s playbook: the weaponization of mental health
I almost didn’t write this piece. Almost. I feared it might be seen as provocative like I was asking for trouble. But that is exactly the attitude that has silenced victims of harassment and stalking for too long. The short version of the story i…
How microplastics harm your health
The New England Journal of Medicine recently published a paper titled “Microplastics and Nanoplastics in Atheromas and Cardiovascular Events,” which detected the presence of microplastics and nanoplastics (MNPs) in carotid artery plaque, wi…
