It is one of the last days of September. The sun, pale and tired, is slowly surrendering the humdrum of earth to the grey, soulless air. My father and I walk to our very final medical appointment, hopeless, exhausted and befuddled. My father’s la…
Category: Conditions
Premature babies grow up. It’s time to pay attention.
Premature babies (a.k.a. preemies) and their families are increasingly becoming a powerful voice in society. Life in and after the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) is like being dropped off a cliff. I support the preemie community from pregnancy to …
The baby formula shortage puts your baby’s brain is at risk
The baby formula shortage has morphed into a full-blown ongoing crisis. Many stores report that more than half of baby formula products are out of stock. Babies who are six months old or younger should only be fed breast milk or formula. Any substitute…
Don’t give up on intermittent fasting just yet
In late April 2022, headlines were plastered across the internet calling for the death of intermittent fasting. This was in relation to a New England Journal study out that week titled “Calorie Restriction with or without Time-Restricted Eating in Weig…
What and who needs to change in medicine for it to be sustainable?
I was a nurse before I was a PA. As the mantra goes, once a nurse, always a nurse. I have lived on both sides of the toxic structure: the medical and nursing models. Nurses eat their young, then place an unrealistic and unsustainable standard of altrui…
Factors to weigh when choosing substance use disorder treatment
During the pandemic, the already significant number of people living with substance use disorder increased. According to data gathered by the CDC, in June 2020, 13 percent of Americans surveyed said they had started using substances (not including alco…
3 misperceptions and myths about food allergies
Recently, singer and musician Halsey shared her recent allergy testing results on TikTok along with the news of her recent diagnosis of Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (EDS), mast cell activation syndrome (MCAS), and Sjogren’s Disease. Pictured were the telltal…
The journey to diagnosing a mysterious illness
As a clinician, you likely do not have the luxury of playing “Dr. House.” Patients enter your exam room, long story in hand, with a litany of mysterious symptoms involving every bodily system, and you were already massively overbooked. Your…
Why I help physicians write
Several years ago, I stood before an audience at a neurosurgical conference to discuss my book The Lobotomist, a biography of Walter Freeman, MD, an advocate and promoter of the controversial treatment of lobotomy. I gave my talk, and it went well. I a…
Military and medicine: 10 shared risk factors for eating disorder development
In 2017, I was medically discharged from the military due to an exacerbation of an eating disorder. At that time, anorexia nervosa (AN) provided relief from the depression that I had developed secondary to the multitude of stressors that came with bein…
