Category: Conditions

Diagnosed with prostate cancer? You must ask these 10 questions.

Prostate cancer often presents unique challenges to patients and physicians alike. It can be indolent and non-aggressive — or life-threatening and everything in between. Unlike most cancers that have a dedicated roadmap for treatment for prostate cance…

AEDs save lies: Why more people should know how to use them

Did you know that over 300,000 people a year visit a doctor for symptoms of anaphylaxis — yet, thankfully, between 1999-2010 only 2,458 died from anaphylaxis? Compare that with the fact that each year anywhere between 180,000 to 450,000 people in the U…

A clinician’s guide to microbiome testing

The intestinal microbiota, also commonly known as the ‘‘gut microbiome’’ is integral to human physiology and has wide-ranging effects on the development and function of the immune system, energy metabolism and even nervous system activity. There is a l…

MKSAP: 82-year-old woman with Alzheimer’s disease

Test your medicine knowledge with the MKSAP challenge, in partnership with the American College of Physicians. An 82-year-old woman is seen for follow-up evaluation of Alzheimer disease. Since her last visit 12 weeks ago, she has been taking rivastigmi…

It’s easier to get a gun than a psychiatrist in America

America in 2018: 307 mass shootings in 311 days. Recently, a veteran with presumed PTSD shot up Borderline Bar & Grill. His Facebook declaration: I hope people call me insane… (laughing emojis).. wouldn’t that just be a big ball of irony? Yeah.. I’…

How youth sports might be a risk factor for heart disease

“If only there was just one more creative way to increase my child’s sugar intake,” said no parent ever. As a pediatric cardiologist, I spend much of my day counseling parents of children with obesity, hypertension, and hyperlipidemia. I tell them to i…

Doctor’s orders: Follow these 6 tips to avoid holiday stress

For many of us, “the most wonderful time of the year” is anything but. If we let the holiday season get the better of us, we can find ourselves overeating, overspending, and over-extending from now through New Year’s Eve. Holiday stress has real health…

Nocturia: the underdiagnosed condition patients find extremely distressing

As a family physician, I treat patients of all ages – children to those nearing 100 years old. One issue that plagues young and old alike is lack of sleep. In fact, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) 2016 Morbidity and …

Too much of a good thing when it comes to medicine for older adults

Prevailing wisdom states that more is better — and it is no different when it comes to our expectation of medical treatments. With the help of the internet, patients and their families have come to expect intensive tests, treatments and therapies at ev…

The simplest treatment is sometimes the best

“I am really uncomfortable and in pain,” said Elaine tearfully as I met her in the preoperative area for the first time. She had a very sad and difficult history, dealing with complications from childbirth nearly two years ago. She had developed a comm…