You’ve probably had friends and family corner you to look at a rash or talk about medications. With social media exploding about Ozempic, these questions and even curbsides from physicians have boomed. We all want to know more about weight. As a …
Category: Conditions
Physician autonomy and patient interactions in corporate health care
Have you noticed that when you try to make an appointment with your primary care physician, you have to wait much longer these days to be seen? And when you do finally walk into the exam room for the appointment, it seems the countdown clock is already…
Vague criteria can lead to misdiagnosis and prison
The definition of addiction, now called substance use disorder, has varied greatly over time. The first edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, from 1952, didn’t include specific diagnostic criteria for this condition. Over the next six…
U.S. maternal mortality crisis: a deep dive
Our increasing maternal mortality rate is gathering attention both nationally and internationally. The U.S. is 33rd among developed nations, and the rate is increasing. Indeed, as Neel Shah notes: Americans today are 50 percent more likely to die in th…
Contemporary weight loss: Unveiling the quest for elusive elixir
Recently, I received a call from an old friend. We had drifted apart over the years, but his purpose in calling wasn’t rooted in a desire to rekindle the embers of yesteryears. No. Rather, it was an explicit inquiry into whether I could assist hi…
Why patients write: stress relief, self-care, and sharing experiences
To compliment and complement the KevinMD article “Why physicians need to write,” by Dr. Louise Aronson, I’ll share why patients, at least this patient, write. I wrote What Patients Want: Anecdotes and Advice because I had been “…
Misinformed claims and the offensiveness of discrediting COVID-19 vaccine development
The development of COVID-19 vaccines has been an extraordinary scientific achievement in the face of a global health crisis. However, an unfortunate consequence has been the emergence of misinformed claims by non-medical individuals who assert that the…
Family support is pivotal in the treatment of schizophrenia
Research reveals that most caregivers of people living with schizophrenia are family members (94 percent), and oftentimes, the journey of the caregiver can be just as challenging as that of the patient, whether they’re newly diagnosed or have bee…
Exploring disfigurement and self-worth
An excerpt from Rearranged: An Opera Singer’s Facial Cancer And Life Transposed. In the usual post-op haze after reconstructive surgery, in a wide-open, multi-bed recovery room partitioned by wavy muslin walls, I heard one strangled sentence rise…
Are we doing enough to help chronic pain sufferers?
One in five adults in the U.S. suffers from chronic pain. We see these patients every day—but do we really hear them when they confide in us about their pain? As health care providers, no matter our discipline, we can do more to truly listen and consid…
