Conditions and Diseases

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.

COVID fallout: A cancer pandemic predicted in the coming years

Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian

August 28, 2020

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of cancer screenings performed in the U.S. has plummeted.

After decades of progress in detecting, treating, and preventing many types of cancers, this nation could face a “cancer pandemic” in the next ten years as a result of this delay in routine screenings.

Postponed or canceled appointments for cancer screenings will likely result in delayed cancer diagnoses, recurrence of disease, and increases in cancer deaths.

That …

6 strategies to help you return to exercise routines safely

Miles J. Varn, MD

Conditions and Diseases

August 28, 2020

If you’ve always been an avid gym-goer, the COVID-19 pandemic may have significantly disrupted your fitness routine as gyms, health clubs and exercise classes were unavailable for months. Getting active again is not only good for your physical health, but it’s also beneficial for mental health and can help you manage the symptoms of depression and anxiety, which a larger than ever number of people report experiencing during the pandemic.

But …

A doctor’s moment of painful tenderness

StorytellERdoc, MD

Conditions and Diseases

August 27, 2020

I walked into Room 30 to find two eager sets of eyes awaiting me. One set belonged to a young man, late-20s, muscular and imposing, sitting in a chair in the corner of the room. His eyes were hazel brown, big and inviting, relieved at seeing my entry into their sheltered world. The other set of eyes, darker brown and magnified by her gold-stemmed glasses, belonged to my patient, a …

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A doctor’s moment of painful tenderness

Nurses are our most valuable resource

Michael Tanner Libsack

Conditions and Diseases

August 27, 2020

I am about to express a wildly under-advertised piece of advice: Our nurses are our most valuable resource. This reality has been true for physicians for many years, but with months of lost time on in-person rotations, it will be true for us more than any other class.

My career in medicine started while working as an ED tech. It was a night shift job to get me through my degree …

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Nurses are our most valuable resource

Your brain and PTSD: biomarkers and high-stress states

Samoon Ahmad, MD

Conditions and Diseases

August 27, 2020

If you’re reading this, you’re probably stressed. Whether it’s related to work, household chores, parenting, school, politics, or, yes, COVID, stress is a normal part of life.

Because stress is a normal part of life, our bodies have adapted to react to stress through a series of neurophysiological responses. Once the stressor or threat has been resolved, we settle back into a state of repose. This ability to maintain a sense …

The final insult after my husband died alone

Anonymous

Conditions and Diseases

August 27, 2020

This new virus is changing everyday life-hospitals are doing their best to protect their staff and patients. One thing I’ve learned is that they need to do a better job of communicating with families.

My husband was 70 years old when he died of cancer and COVID-related issues. He was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer, lung mets to the brain on December 23, 2019. Because he had only one lesion in …

A medical student’s 100 days of COVID

Priyanka Shindgikar

Conditions and Diseases

August 27, 2020

March 11, 2020. The medical school officially made all classes remote until the end of the semester. Tom Hanks and his wife have coronavirus. The NBA is suspended; Utah Jazz player Rudy Gobert has corona. Travel to Europe is suspended. The renal midterm can be postponed if you choose. Not going home anymore. I don’t want my parents to get it because of me. I had to cancel Spain. What …

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A medical student’s 100 days of COVID

When the best care is a comfortable death

Jessica Lu, MD

Conditions and Diseases

August 26, 2020

I am no stranger to death. I have gently closed the eyelids of a woman dying from liver disease, blasted Led Zeppelin by request during a man’s last breath, and exchanged dog photos with an elderly gentleman on his final day. Although I cared for these patients deeply, our relationships were defined by illness. Ms. B was different. Healthy and curious, she had sat in my clinic countless times with …

Stuttering: Understanding the neurobiology, psychology, and treatment options

Samoon Ahmad, MD

Conditions and Diseases

August 25, 2020

Stuttering is a speech disorder characterized by the involuntary disruption of verbal fluency. It is relatively common, with an estimated 55 million people affected by the condition worldwide. For some, the condition can be relatively mild and is barely noticeable unless one is feeling especially anxious. In more severe cases, the disorder can be virtually debilitating. Stuttering not only impairs communication, it can also have a …

A coronavirus confession

Raymond Abbott

Conditions and Diseases

August 25, 2020

I am elderly now, and as a lad, I was raised a Roman Catholic. That often involved going to confession.

I wondered if confession was still done, part of the faith. You can see how out of touch I am. I am here to report confession is alive and flourishing in the church. In the city where I live, confession is now offered (probably entirely) outside the church itself. It is …

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A coronavirus confession

The world needs more infectious disease doctors

Jesse O'Shea, MD

Conditions and Diseases

August 23, 2020

My face shield whistled with noise as it brushed against my thin yellow gown. Bright monitors surrounded me, chirping like cardinals in the summer. A slow exhale felt comfortably warm against my N-95 mask. Treading down the river of COVID-19 patients as a second-year infectious disease fellow, I knew this was exactly where I needed to be. Even beneath these protective barriers, I could look left, right, and …

Let’s talk about dying

Jennifer Li

Conditions and Diseases

August 23, 2020

Every time I visit my great grandmother, Tata, Atul Gawande’s Being Mortal floods my thoughts. Tata is 101 and developed severe dementia within the past two years. In 2019, she fell and fractured her hip. In the hospital, she recovered poorly. The physicians on her team offered hospice. My grandfather (her only son), declined fervently. Instead, he insisted on moving her back home to my aunt’s house, where my great …

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Let’s talk about dying

Love one another. Respect each other. We sure could use this today.

Debbie Moore-Black, RN

Conditions and Diseases

August 22, 2020

I never have a problem going to sleep. In fact, after I work a night shift, I easily go into a semi-coma. But tonight is different. 2 days off from work, with a regular sleep schedule at night, but my mind is twirling. I can’t sleep.

So at 3 a.m., I took a shower. Took an ibuprofen with some ginger ale. And I started to drift back to Catholic elementary school. …

Is the FDA too slow to handle the pandemic?

Peter Ubel, MD

Conditions and Diseases

August 21, 2020

The FDA plays a critical role in our nation’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. It helps decide which medicines are safe and effective to treat the disease. It evaluates the accuracy and reliability of laboratory tests. And it will play a central role in assessing potential vaccines.

But will the FDA bureaucracy move with the kind of speed necessary to deal with such a crisis? Some critics are concerned it will …

A COVID-19 vaccine: 5 things that could go wrong

Robert Pearl, MD

Conditions and Diseases

August 19, 2020

According to Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, a coronavirus vaccine could be ready for distribution within months.

“We feel cautiously optimistic that we will have a vaccine by the end of this year, and as we go into 2021,” he told lawmakers on July 31, adding, “the plans …

Incremental risk amid COVID-19 re-openings: What do we value most?

Sara L. Merwin, MPH

Conditions and Diseases

August 19, 2020

Julian (his real name) has been extremely careful for many months, working from home, foregoing seeing friends, and avoiding stores. But his new puppy Rufus requires “socialization,” so by his own admission, he is being less careful as he/the dog interact with humans and other canines.

In a completely anecdotal and unscientific manner (and in definitive contrast to the methodology of my training), I have been polling friends, family members, and …

Consider the natural ways to prevent or reverse atherosclerosis

Hans Duvefelt, MD

Conditions and Diseases

August 19, 2020

Some people have high cholesterol but not much atherosclerosis. We think of their arteries as having nonstick surfaces. We know inflammation can predispose to plaque formation and plaque rupture, which is the trigger of most heart attacks.

We know statin drugs can prevent and reverse plaque buildup, and make existing plaque sturdier and less likely to rupture. These drugs lower blood levels of inflammatory substances. Most doctors focus on their cholesterol-lowering …

Could antigen testing be the key to safely reopening the nation?

Christine Lau, MD

Conditions and Diseases

August 18, 2020

COVID-19 has wreaked havoc on every aspect of life. With over 5 million cases and 167 thousand deaths in the United States, COVID-19 has caused the nation to shut down. During the pandemic, social distancing and masks have been crucial in controlling the spread of virus. However, with the reopening of the states, social distancing and masks are not the only factors to consider, especially with talks about children going …

The COVID-19 pandemic is changing end-of-life care. We’re not ready.

Lochan Shah, MD

Conditions and Diseases

August 18, 2020

The last thing Jessica said to John, her fiancé of 10 years, was, “I love you” before he drove to work. Hours later, after suddenly experiencing a cardiac arrest at the office, he was in an ICU bed attached to a ventilator. He was pale and unresponsive, on multiple medications to artificially augment his blood pressure, hooked up to a machine that did the work of his kidneys, and cooled …

How psychiatry has changed over the years

Greg Smith, MD

Conditions and Diseases

August 18, 2020

I grew up in a small mill village in northwest Georgia. When things did not go right, someone got sick, or we had an accident, or we needed a sports physical, we would head around the circle to the entrance to the mill complex, just across the grassy field from my house, and see Dr. Harry Dawson. Dr. Dawson was that old omnipresent breed of physician who had a small …

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