Conditions

When modesty kills: the CPR gender gap you didn’t know existed

Conditions
April 18, 2025

A chilling incident from a past summer camp at Achimota School still resonates: A young woman collapsed with her life hanging in the balance. The male Red Cross prefect, attempting to administer potentially life-saving CPR, was quickly stopped by concerned students. The bystanders’ focus was on protecting her from exposure, and it overshadowed the urgency of the situation. This experience, now viewed through the lens of my medical training, reveals …

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Fatty liver disease is no longer reserved for older adults

Conditions
April 17, 2025

Increasingly, it’s showing up in people in their 20s and 30s—individuals who don’t drink excessively, don’t appear outwardly unhealthy, and often have no idea their liver is under stress. The condition, now referred to as metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis (MASH), is emerging as a quiet epidemic, and diet and gut health are playing a larger role than many realize.

As a gastroenterologist, I’ve observed a shift in the demographics …

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What money can’t fix: the scars left by a friend

Conditions
April 17, 2025

I stood at the check-in counter of my physician’s office, waiting for my yearly physical. Beside me, another patient was checking in. I recognized her instantly.

It was Denise—my childhood best friend.

And yet, I couldn’t bring myself to say hello.

We had spent our childhoods side by side—playing Barbies, cheerleading, swimming at the neighborhood pool. Every single day. She wasn’t just a friend; she was my safe place. We stayed close all …

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Why vaccine access still fails America’s most vulnerable groups

Conditions
April 16, 2025

The health, judicial, and socioeconomic disparities among ethnic minorities are pervasive, and vaccination rates are key among them. The inequities among marginalized groups are largely driven by social determinants of health, education, and access to care. The United States has a well-documented history of these inadequacies, strengthened even further by the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, leading to higher mortality and …

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ADHD isn’t one-size-fits-all: Why nuance in diagnosis matters

Conditions
April 16, 2025

I read with great interest the recently published article in The New York Times by Paul Tough, who has reported on child development and education over the last twenty years. He outlines statistics, specifically the rise in diagnosis of children and adults since the 1990s, and then discusses implications, including questioning a current understanding of the disorder and its treatment.

Neurodevelopmental disorder

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder …

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How the CDC’s opioid rules created a crisis for chronic pain patients

Conditions
April 15, 2025

Adapted from Greed to Do Good: The Untold Story of CDC’s Disastrous War on Opioids.

The 2016 CDC opioid guideline seemed to make obvious sense: Americans were consuming far too many prescribed opioids. Many users of illicit opioids reported that prescribed opioids had been their gateway to illicit usage, even addiction. And users of illegal opioids, whether addicts or not, were dying of overdoses—more and more each year. The prescription …

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When leadership turns defensive: the impact of workplace paranoia on professionalism

Conditions
April 15, 2025

Leadership in any industry, especially in health care, demands a delicate balance of trust, ethical judgment, and professionalism. However, when leaders view collaboration through a lens of suspicion, assuming that employees are conspiring against them, it can lead to a culture of distrust and unprofessional behavior. This article delves into the psychological and ethical aspects of such behavior, its impact on workplace dynamics, and practical strategies for navigating these challenging …

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From the other side of the table: a plea for empathy

Conditions
April 14, 2025

Unless you’ve lived it,
you can’t fully understand.

We’ve all cared for patients with cancer. We’ve delivered hard news, sat beside bedsides, explained scan results, and offered hope when we could. We’ve been the calm in the storm. That’s what we were trained to do.

But being on the other side of the table changes everything.

When you become the patient, the world shifts beneath you. Suddenly, you’re the one in the gown, lying …

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The role of contingency management in addiction treatment

Conditions
April 13, 2025

Before leaving office, the Biden administration increased the annual cap for Medicaid-reimbursed contingency management (an evidence-based psychosocial intervention) as part of an individual’s addiction treatment. This move demonstrates what I have seen in my own practice: Contingency management drives results when it comes to treating substance use disorder.

Despite the evidence and fact that every individual living with substance use disorder (SUD) requires a unique approach to treatment for …

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What Avarie’s death in Rome teaches us about the gaps in food allergy education

Conditions
April 12, 2025

I’ve just returned from the Mary H. Weiser Food Allergy Conference in Michigan, an inspiring confluence of advocacy, research, and business, all focused on one shared mission: Improving the lives of those living with food allergies. I’ve been attending food allergy research forums around the world for over a decade, and I can honestly say the momentum and possibilities in this field have never been more exciting. We’re …

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How moving abroad eased my allergies

Conditions
April 12, 2025

A personal discovery

“I used to have respiratory allergies back home, but since I moved to Málaga, they didn’t bother me anymore,” a patient answered to the usual question, “Do you have any allergies?” during a checkup in my occupational medicine practice. He was from India, and he had moved to Málaga two years before our talk. He was the fourth patient within a month telling me the same story (before …

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How early CKD diagnosis can save lives: a transplant survivor’s journey

Conditions
April 8, 2025

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) often develops unnoticed, gradually impairing kidney function. Approximately 950 million people worldwide are affected by CKD, and it is now the 9th leading cause of death, projected to become the 5th leading cause in the near future.

For years, I was unaware of the severe health battle brewing beneath the surface—until a routine pregnancy scan in 2015, at the age …

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Why real therapy isn’t just about crisis

Conditions
April 7, 2025

Maybe you’ve struggled to put the shattered mirror of yourself back together, and you don’t want to unearth what you’ve been able to put to rest. Plenty of people decide that psychotherapy is not for them, and we are, as our own individual, sovereign self, the best judge of our needs. As someone looking from the outside, we can only know a fraction of the depths of another person and …

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Beyond survival: How nerve repair is reshaping outcomes in jaw surgery

Conditions
April 7, 2025

John Németh, winner of multiple Blues Music Awards, built his life and musical career as a singer and harmonica player. But X-rays taken during a routine dentist visit threatened to change that.

John’s dentist discovered an ameloblastoma, a benign but aggressive tumor, that was rapidly growing in his jaw and chin and needed to be surgically removed. This was a reality that could mean the end of his career and the …

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How stress affects your gut—and how to fix it

Conditions
April 6, 2025

Life can feel overwhelming at times, with busy schedules, unexpected challenges, and daily pressures that never seem to slow down. While stress is a normal part of life, it can take a serious toll on your body—especially your digestive system. If you’ve ever experienced stomach cramps, nausea, or bloating during a stressful period, you’re not alone. The gut and brain are closely connected, and when stress levels rise, digestion often …

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Alzheimer’s impact on the young should be an open book

Conditions
April 5, 2025

It has long been said that Alzheimer’s disease or a related dementia (ADRD), like some other conditions, is a disease of the family. The ramifications of the disease extend well beyond the periphery of the person with cognitive decline to other family members, such as parents, adult children and siblings, and children under 18.

Yet, the latter, the most vulnerable, are often left in the dark.

Whether young children are living with …

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Antimicrobial resistance needs a publicist

Conditions
April 4, 2025

The mass layoffs at federal health agencies, combined with the recent flurry of federal government announcements—paused communications, stop-work orders, and canceled meetings—have the health care and life sciences communities on edge. One announcement I found quite concerning was the cancellation of the Presidential Advisory Council on Combating Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria meeting scheduled for January 28. This was supposed to be a gathering of experts focused on the growing threat of antimicrobial …

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The unspoken weight of words: reflections on a Vietnamese patient’s final choices

Conditions
April 3, 2025

When the patient arrived by ambulance, he was frail, elderly, and alone in a hospital that spoke a language he could not understand. He had been transferred from a neighboring hospital across state lines due to concerns of malnutrition and pain. The initial CT scans were alarming—multiple lung masses, highly concerning for metastatic cancer. Yet, despite the grim prognosis, there were still barriers to giving him a definitive diagnosis, and …

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I almost left health care: my nurse practitioner burnout story

Conditions
April 3, 2025

My journey in nursing has led me to experiences and insights I will carry with me for the rest of my life.

I declared nursing as my major because I was passionate about making a difference in patients’ lives. I envisioned sitting by patients’ bedsides, holding their hands, and providing comfort in their moments of need. I dreamed of showing up every day to make a meaningful impact.

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A retired ICU nurse’s brunch conversation sparks a life-changing moment

Conditions
April 3, 2025

We were a team. Always had been. Always would be. We defended each other, protected each other—from management, from nurse bullies, from the cruel ICU doctors who thought they ruled the world. Back in the day, we had our own kind of “therapy sessions”—long talks over coffee, unloading the weight of twelve-hour shifts, of lives saved and lost, of the battles fought in the trenches of critical care. But life …

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