Category: Conditions

A potential discovery of highly fatal SARS coronavirus?

Has a highly fatal SARS coronavirus already been discovered? Maybe yes, but just its report is highly concerning. On January 4, 2024, a letter to the editor was uploaded to a preprint server which gave too few details but described a 100 percent fatal …

Understanding seasonal affective disorder: more than just winter blues

As the summer sun bids its farewell, a distinct group of people seem to “fall back” as a mysterious change begins to take hold. Several individuals get caught in the embrace of the transitions of fall and winter, revealing a shift between t…

Shedding some weight on the health care crisis

In today’s world, the term “obesity” is more than just a medical diagnosis—it’s a complex issue intertwined with personal experiences, societal norms, and systemic challenges. As a seasoned family doctor, I’ve witnessed fi…

Women of color face biases in endometriosis diagnosis and surgical treatment

March is endometriosis awareness month. Endometriosis, a disease in which tissue similar to the lining of the uterus grows outside of the uterus, affects 1 in 10 women, or 190 million individuals worldwide. Although endometriosis leads to chronic pain …

Beyond the workout: the hidden struggle of diabetic gastroparesis

The final three minutes of my hour-long elliptical workout were not easy. Pain spread across my stomach, causing me to row in a half-sitting motion, and my chest vacillated between violent coughs and the sorts of deep breaths people take when they thin…

Sepsis protocols coupled with rapid host response technologies are the key to improving patient outcomes

Patients come into the emergency department (ED) with symptoms, not diagnoses. That’s when time is of the essence. Clinicians must quickly triage patients and establish an appropriate care pathway to obtain the best possible outcome. The time-sen…

A doctor’s journey: from student to healer, facing a mentor’s illness

I had a teacher in my third year of med school. His name was Dr. T. He taught us pediatrics. At that time, he was the head of the department of pediatrics in the busiest teaching hospital in our city, where I was working. Every day, hundreds of childre…

Assisted suicide: Safeguards debated as bioethicist warns of unintended consequences

At a time when many states are considering assisted suicide legislation, I was interested to encounter the perspective of the well-known bioethicist Arthur Caplan who recently expressed his support for these laws on these pages. While I appreciate Capl…

Inside the cancer waiting room where hope hangs in the balance

I sat there, frozen in time, full of fear, full of anxiety. Waiting for my time to “face the music,” but this wasn’t a dance party. My fellow patients, complete strangers, were seated about me, and each of us kept a safe distance apar…

From overdose to ICU: a doctor’s battle for a young woman’s life

An excerpt from Adventures of an American Medical Student. I can still remember Ms. Osborne’s long, messy, brown hair and pale, attractive face like it was yesterday. She was young, and she presented to the Brighton Medical Center Emergency Depar…