Did you have chickenpox as a kid? If the answer is yes (which it is for most of us), you’re at risk of getting shingles. Shingles is caused by the varicella-zoster virus, the same virus that causes chickenpox. After one recovers from chickenpox, …
Category: Neurology
Why what doctors say matters more than you think [PODCAST]
Subscribe to The Podcast by KevinMD. Watch on YouTube. Catch up on old episodes! Physician Scott Abramson discusses his article “How doctors’ words can make or break patient care.” Scott shares two compelling scenarios illustrating th…
When the diagnosis is personal: What my mother’s Alzheimer’s taught me about healing
I’ve spent my career as a neurologist diagnosing and managing neurodegenerative diseases. I’ve counseled families through heartbreaking prognoses, navigated complex care plans, and educated patients about conditions like Alzheimer’s d…
How proposed NIH budget cuts could derail Alzheimer’s research
Recent budget cuts to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) have dominated the headlines since February of this year, when the NIH announced a 15 percent cap on indirect costs — a move that jeopardizes essential research infrastructure by slashing fu…
The hidden cost of health care: burnout, disillusionment, and systemic betrayal
An excerpt from Doctor Slave: Reflections on the Future of Medicine. The distance from clinical practice provided a clarity that was impossible to achieve while embedded within the system. From outside, I could see patterns, pressures, and paradoxes th…
My journey from misdiagnosis to living fully with APBD
I have always been a performer at heart, starting with theater in school. For 28 years, I was a law professor at Indiana University in Indianapolis, and teaching gave me a captive audience. Beyond the classroom, I have always been passionate about musi…
She wouldn’t move in the womb—then came the rare diagnosis that changed everything
Even before Mia was born, I could sense that something about her was different. With my other children, I felt constant movement during pregnancy, but Mia stayed curled up in one spot and hardly moved at all. When I mentioned this to my obstetrician, h…
Diabetes and Alzheimer’s: What your blood sugar might be doing to your brain
There’s an ever-growing body of evidence to suggest that diabetes contributes to the development of Alzheimer’s disease. Some even go so far as to dub Alzheimer’s disease “diabetes type III.” How might diabetes cause Alzhe…
How motherhood reshaped my identity as a scientist and teacher
Mother scholar. The phrase rolls off the tongue with the force and ferocity of a curse word—blunt, unsparing, weighty. I didn’t coin the term, but I inhabit it. A vessel for the seeming contradictions of tenderness and skepticism, integration and…
Alzheimer’s and the family: Opening the conversation with children [PODCAST]
Subscribe to The Podcast by KevinMD. Watch on YouTube. Catch up on old episodes! Journalist and patient advocate Carol Steinberg discusses her article, “Alzheimer’s impact on the young should be an open book.” She argues that while Al…
