Physicians writing on KevinMD about the diseases they treat and the people who have them: cancer and its screening arguments, pain and the drugs that treat it, diabetes and the obesity argument, mental illness and who gets treated for it, and the decisions at the end of a life. Five maintained records draw on this archive: Cancer: what physicians say, in their own words, Opioids: what physicians and pain patients say, in their own words, End of life: what physicians say, in their own words, Diabetes and obesity: what physicians say, in their own words, and Mental health: what psychiatrists and physicians say, in their own words.

We need to do better: Caring for patients after cancer treatment

Conditions and Diseases
July 11, 2021

The number of cancer survivors currently in the U.S. is around 15 million. With the rapid advancement of improved treatments and early detection, this number is expected to increase to over 20 million by 2026. I am lucky enough to be one of the survivors, now fourteen years out from my diagnosis of cervical cancer. The life-altering long-term side effects of surgeries, chemotherapy, and radiation are numerous. …

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We need to do better: Caring for patients after cancer treatment

Nothing prepared me for telehealth’s nightmare

Conditions and Diseases
July 5, 2021

The orders from the state seemed to come suddenly, although we all knew we would have to adjust our methods of treating our clients, the news wasn’t good, and seeing anyone in person was treacherous since many still thought it was a hoax and they didn’t believe they needed to be cautious.  Some would wear a hazmat suit if they could get their hands on one. As a psychiatric nurse …

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Nothing prepared me for telehealth’s nightmare

How I accepted hair loss at 19

Conditions and Diseases
July 4, 2021

I will never forget the first time my thinning hairline hit me in the face with an openhanded, five-finger slap.

It was in February of 2014, the spring semester of my freshman year in (undergraduate) college. I was only 19 at the time. A then-football teammate of mine and I had placed a bet on the upcoming Super Bowl XLVIII. I had all of my marbles placed on the Denver Broncos, …

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How I accepted hair loss at 19

The angel of Angelman syndrome

Conditions and Diseases
June 30, 2021

If they had asked me to make a wish before I met him, it might have very possibly been for eternal happiness. I’d wish for happiness that floods the air with endless melodies and makes the soul sing, just like how a Disney princess. But I had met him first, and he redefined some of the heart’s most beloved concepts.

His eyes were flickering the way golden rays. His giggle sounded …

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The angel of Angelman syndrome

Medical gaslighting due to weight stigma and bias is harmful: a viral TikTok study

Conditions and Diseases
June 28, 2021

“We need to stop weight shaming people & not make them fearful of seeing a Dr., but we also need to find a supportive way to talk about obesity.”
– TikTok commenter

“You’ve got to get on TikTok,” everyone kept saying. Launching a web-based life and weight coaching platform for teens, I begrudgingly decided it was time to jump in. I felt like I was putting on an ill-fitting scuba mask and snorkel …

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Medical gaslighting due to weight stigma and bias is harmful: a viral TikTok study

Being the angel of death during a pandemic

Conditions and Diseases
June 24, 2021

I was looking forward to March 2020. My boyfriend and I had a long-awaited vacation to Aruba we were looking forward to. Everything is packed, plans are finalized, and the world shuts down three days before our trip. Frustrated, we refuse to believe that a “virus” is worthy of shutting the world down. “What’s the difference between this and anything else?”  “Who cares? It’s just a virus?!” “I am still …

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Being the angel of death during a pandemic

The emotional impact of menopause on women

Conditions and Diseases
June 24, 2021

You’ve heard of the emotional impact of menopause on women, but did you know that it can also cause anxiety and depression? Mental health is a topic that many people don’t want to discuss due to concerns of stigma, fear, and perceived repercussions of the diagnosis. However, if this topic is raised with compassion and understanding, the patient will likely become more comfortable and open to the conversation. I found …

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The emotional impact of menopause on women

The connection between mental health and what we eat

Conditions and Diseases
June 16, 2021

There is a connection between mental health and what we eat. Food can be a surrogate for our emotional needs. We could say that you are what you eat, but the truth is more complicated than that. Our food habits often mirror how we’re doing emotionally-whether it’s as simple as eating when we’re hungry or tired or using food to respond to stress in our lives.

We should “trust our gut” …

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The connection between mental health and what we eat

Can personality tests make you a better doctor?

Conditions and Diseases
June 15, 2021

Back in medical school, during a first-year retreat, our whole class did the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) psychometric test, supposedly to help us learn what field of medicine might be the best fit for our unique combination of characteristics. It was the first time I’d done a formalized personality assessment, and it felt like something closer to a Cosmo quiz than a valid tool for career guidance. Since then, I’ve …

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Can personality tests make you a better doctor?

Language is a barrier for many patients. Let’s change that.

Conditions and Diseases
June 15, 2021

My role as a care coordinator for a local mobile health clinic — the mobile outreach clinic (MOC) — comes with responsibilities seldomly awarded to an undergraduate, 20-year old, volunteer student. MOC is unique in that it not only provides free, low-barrier, patient-centered primary care, but it also assigns patients to volunteer care coordinators. Care coordinators have a daunting task: to identify our assigned patients’ socioeconomic barriers to health and …

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Language is a barrier for many patients. Let’s change that.

I bought into the stigmas about the mentally ill, until I became one of them

Conditions and Diseases
June 15, 2021

The first thing someone says when I tell them I have bipolar, anxiety, and obsessive-compulsive disorder is, “I’m sorry.”

For a long time, I was sorry too.

Bipolar runs in my family, so I knew the harsh realities of this untreated illness. A family member faked his own death after a counterfeiting spending spree. My grandfather told people that I would die in a car accident, and he would take my body …

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I bought into the stigmas about the mentally ill, until I became one of them

Today is the day you’ll have to die

Conditions and Diseases
June 13, 2021

She was listless in bed with agonal breathing — only 63 years old.

Before stage 4 colon cancer claimed my mother, she chose to come home to her house … her bedroom, where she’d stare out her window at the dogwood trees that symbolized the blood of Jesus.

A once-vibrant Italian Catholic and mother of four, she was the perfect wife of an IBM executive. But it was all for show — …

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Today is the day you’ll have to die

The need for a standardized approach to weight loss in medicine

Conditions and Diseases
June 11, 2021

Any social media platform can boast an abundance of practical health and weight loss recommendations, whether scientifically accurate or not. Many professional athletes and companies are eager to sell their plans for a premium price and advertise them to the public heavily. Unfortunately, U.S. medical education cannot boast the same dedication towards confronting the obesity epidemic. By the end of my first year of medical school, I had only two …

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The need for a standardized approach to weight loss in medicine

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Men’s mental health: We treat just the tip of the iceberg

Conditions and Diseases
June 11, 2021

June is Men’s Health Month, and this year, as we emerge from the COVID-19 epidemic, more than ever, there is a compelling need to focus on male patients’ overall health, emphasizing their mental health as a key to their wellbeing.

Mental health is a significant problem among men

There are approximately 151 million males in the U.S.; six million of them are affected by depression each year, with over …

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Men’s mental health: We treat just the tip of the iceberg

The benefit of video appointments in the world of cannabis medicine

Conditions and Diseases
June 10, 2021

I obtained a master of arts degree in clinical psychology 20 years after receiving my medical degree. One of the first things one learns as a psych student is to “hold the client in unconditional positive regard.” This was a new concept for me as this was, unfortunately, not always true in my experience of Western medicine.

“You may be the only person who has ever demonstrated this to the client.”

Those …

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The benefit of video appointments in the world of cannabis medicine

The story of my first balloon pump

Conditions and Diseases
June 8, 2021

During the first six months as an ICU nurse, I vividly recall seeing my first balloon pump — a cardiac assist device sitting in the aorta that helps the heart pump blood more effectively and improves perfusion to the coronary arteries. I became mesmerized by the possibilities of mechanical circulatory support. I was nowhere near ready to tackle a patient like this independently, but I found myself immersed in all …

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The story of my first balloon pump

We already know how to save physicians from burnout

Conditions and Diseases
June 8, 2021

The foundation of modern medicine has been built on a well-established, iterative process of empirical research and the pragmatic implementation of new discoveries. A relevant example of this paradigm can be seen in the development of Pfizer’s and Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccines.

Researchers developed a hypothesis to use an mRNA vaccine, demonstrated its promise in animal research and substantiated its safety and effectiveness in human subjects through clinical trials, leading to the …

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We already know how to save physicians from burnout

We need to re-examine quality-of-life metrics in nursing homes

Conditions and Diseases
June 7, 2021

One June afternoon, Susan came in from gardening to find that her husband, John, was missing.

After a frantic scan around their wooded lot, she called 911 and soon had sheriffs, firefighters, and a state police helicopter scouring nearby parklands in pursuit of this 71-year-old man. Seventeen long, terrifying hours later, a deputy found John in the park, safe and seemingly unfazed by his whereabouts.

This was not the first time he …

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We need to re-examine quality-of-life metrics in nursing homes

Is having a baby a celebratory time? Not for everyone.

Conditions and Diseases
June 7, 2021

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), about 1 in 8 women experience symptoms of postpartum depression (PPD). Furthermore, studies show that minorities have a higher prevalence of PPD, 38 percent with low-income Hispanic mothers and up to 63 percent among mothers in Pakistan.

I am a Hispanic woman raised by a single mother in an urban neighborhood and have personally experienced postpartum depression. After delivering my healthy …

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Is having a baby a celebratory time? Not for everyone.

Lessons from COVID-19 about the obesity epidemic

Conditions and Diseases
June 4, 2021

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted our ineffective approach to the obesity epidemic in the United States.

I believe COVID-19 would have claimed fewer lives if we had healthier patients and less obesity. According to the CDC, “obesity may triple the risk of hospitalization due to COVID-19 infection.” Additionally, they note that obesity can make intubation and ventilation more difficult for severely ill patients. While the attention currently is focused on COVID-19 …

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Lessons from COVID-19 about the obesity epidemic

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