Conditions

The hidden crisis in health care: How corporate greed is destroying patient care

Conditions
March 14, 2025

I grew up in a medical family, primary care. I’ve worked in the medical field for 40 years, from the front office to the back, lab to radiology. I’ve been a registered nurse for 33 years and a family nurse practitioner for 30 years. I have worked in hospitals, private practices, federally qualified health centers (FQHC), hospice, and corporate health. I am deeply passionate about my calling—caring and advocating for …

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When protocol kills: a tragic lesson from the ER

Conditions
March 11, 2025

My wife once told me, “It was like everyone was your friend.” And she may be right. I connect well with others and take an honest interest in them. In practice, I always ask where they are from. I find that a great opener, and even Alzheimer’s patients and the elderly can often answer that one. I have done that since my paramedic days.

Don’t get me wrong, though, as I …

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The personalization of cancer care in 2025

Conditions
March 8, 2025

In the past 50 years, cancer in many cases has morphed from a certain death sentence into a chronic illness. However, cancer is unlike other chronic conditions. There are hundreds of different cancers, classified by where they start in the body and how their cells behave. To turn cancer from an acute, life-ending illness into a chronic one, we now understand that cancer must be treated with a targeted, personalized …

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Why patients need a registered dietitian on their health care team

Conditions
March 7, 2025

How’s your cholesterol? Are you getting enough protein? Do you even know? Whether you’re a doctor, a patient, or both, you may be missing out on the powerful benefits of a registered dietitian.

Recently, I received lab results that were concerning, and my doctor suggested adding another medication. I’m focused on reducing medications, so I wanted to explore all possible ways to improve my numbers safely without adding to my pill …

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Why ADHD kids struggle and how we can truly help

Conditions
March 6, 2025

How do I talk to my kid about ADHD?

You’re not alone. Your child’s pediatrician should be your first stop in this journey. As a neurospicy pediatric neurologist with an ADHD child, this is how I discuss this topic with my patients and their families.

The first thing I ask my patients is, “Are you trying harder?” Because that’s what we keep telling them to do—try harder! Every single child nods eagerly …

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Do microplastics cause dementia?

Conditions
March 5, 2025

Let’s begin by understanding the scope of the dementia problem: According to data from Alzheimer’s Disease International, before you finish reading this sentence, someone, somewhere in the world will have developed dementia. Here comes another sentence, and there goes another new case of dementia. There goes another. And so on.

In 2020, the organization estimated that more than fifty-five million people across the globe were suffering from dementia. What’s more, this …

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What’s going on with left-sided breast cancer: a curious phenomenon

Conditions
March 3, 2025

In clinical research, chart review is nearly as familiar as daily functions like walking or breathing. My days are full of identifying missing variables, finding them in the electronic medical records, then documenting them in my meticulously organized data sheets. However, during these chart reviews, my mind tries to find a way to break out of autopilot by looking for trends in the data. That’s how I recently noticed the …

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Maternal ambivalence: the side of motherhood no one talks about

Conditions
March 3, 2025

An excerpt from Maternal Ambivalence: The Loving Moments & Bitter Truths of Motherhood.

What is maternal ambivalence?

Motherhood is a messy, loving process, filled with complicated and conflicting feelings that, though it’s hard to admit to, can even include passing moments of hate. The struggle a mother faces as she recognizes troublesome feelings equally allows her to discover new ways to engage with her child. This investigation of the mother within …

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New dietary guidelines should prioritize plants and healthy beverages

Conditions
March 2, 2025

As both a physician and a certified culinary medicine specialist, I know firsthand how a nutritious diet can prevent and treat diet-related diseases. Diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular disease, and other conditions are becoming increasingly more common. Over and over, the science tells us that a low-fat vegan diet, rich in fruits and vegetables, can help patients suffering from these conditions. Physicians can do our part to help patients use …

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The untold toll of COVID-19: a doctor’s battle to save lives and family

Conditions
March 1, 2025

Hello! Your friendly next-door ID physician here checking in! I haven’t submitted anything here in several years. I’ve been too caught up with my work and family to delve into my creative side. But the very recent news that we will have a new head of human and health services (an individual without formal health care training and who has expressed a rather strong anti-vaccine sentiment in the past) paired …

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How DNA and hormones shape who we are

Conditions
February 25, 2025

We move into every new year carrying beliefs from previous years. Scientific confusion and unresolved questions can sometimes cause society and families to become intellectually and emotionally divided.

Centuries ago, we thought the Earth was flat and the center of the universe, and we feared that sailing exploration would send us over the edge of a cliff. Sir Isaac Newton tried to explain gravity, but now this discussion extends even further …

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Endometriosis and fertility: What every woman should know

Conditions
February 22, 2025

Introduction

Endometriosis is a chronic, estrogen-dependent inflammatory disease affecting approximately 10 percent of reproductive-age women and is a leading cause of infertility. Despite its significant impact, it remains underdiagnosed and inadequately managed. This review examines the pathophysiological mechanisms linking endometriosis and infertility, current treatment strategies, and the role of dietary and lifestyle interventions in optimizing reproductive outcomes.

Endometriosis is characterized by the presence of endometrial-like tissue outside the …

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Ending physicians’ addiction to unhappiness

Conditions
February 21, 2025

A large number of physicians are addicted to unhappiness. Practicing medicine is no longer fun, and they are frustrated working in an environment where they do not feel valued and appreciated. Forty percent of all physicians are looking to change their employment venue over the next two years, according to a recent survey by the AMA.

Physicians’ unhappiness is understandable.

Reimbursement by Medicare and other payors is declining, while the costs of …

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A stroke patient’s unwavering love: Caring for his wife amidst his illness

Conditions
February 20, 2025

A 90-year-old gentleman has been admitted to our ward under the care of a neurologist. He was diagnosed with an ischemic stroke after experiencing weakness in his left upper limb and slurred speech. His mental status is fluctuating, and the stroke has impacted his memory. However, it has not affected his ability to walk and move around.

He and his wife had been living independently for the past 20 years. They …

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How physicians can fight medical misinformation in the digital age

Conditions
February 20, 2025

In 2019, a mother in the U.S. stood in a hospital, clutching her feverish toddler, tears streaming down her face. Just months earlier, she had declined the routine vaccination after reading an article claiming it was “full of toxins” and linked to developmental disorders. That article, shared widely on social media, was based on no credible evidence. Now, her child was fighting for their life against a disease that vaccines …

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Why empathy is the missing piece in modern health care

Conditions
February 19, 2025

As I navigate this world, I often feel overwhelmed by its harshness, making peace and harmony seem elusive.

Today, the atmosphere feels particularly heavy with distrust and anger, leaving me caught in a constant “me” versus “you” mindset. At times, it feels as though a corrosive glue has enveloped the workings of my heart, preventing me from experiencing emotions and diminishing my willingness to seek the truth or ensure my story …

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Helping your teenage patients with chronic headache move on to college

Conditions
February 18, 2025

It’s getting close to that time of the school year. Your teenage patient with chronic headache/migraine is finishing up their high school education, either through the traditional or non-traditional pathway. They have chosen their next step—going to college. As their provider, you are so proud of them. Perhaps high school has been really hard for them academically, socially, and/or emotionally. They needed and used accommodations around schoolwork and attendance. They …

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The truth about the orgasm gap and how to bridge it

Conditions
February 18, 2025

If you have followed my blogs for the past few years, you know that I have focused on practice management, the business of a medical practice, and recently AI. This blog will depart from those topics and discuss a clinical topic, the orgasm gap, that I have written with a colleague, Dr. David Mobley, a urologist at Weill-Cornell Medicine.

Everyone, both men and women, deserves to experience an orgasm or the …

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From surviving to thriving: a new era in breast cancer care

Conditions
February 17, 2025

Breast cancer recovery is about more than survival—it’s about reclaiming a vibrant, fulfilling life. Instead of focusing solely on survivorship, we need to embrace what I call “livingship”: the journey of truly thriving after treatment. This approach focuses on ensuring patients not only survive but thrive in their cancer-free lives.

A personal journey in medicine

My path to becoming a breast cancer specialist was shaped by early aspirations and personal experiences with …

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Solving a hidden challenge: 10 tips to reduce diagnostic error in the emergency department

Conditions
February 17, 2025

Diagnostic error is a difficult issue to track in the emergency department (ED). For a good reason, too: The patient population is so transient it’s difficult to detect a “missed” diagnosis. It’s less readily apparent than medication errors, falls, and other commonly reported incidents.

But that’s precisely what makes diagnostic error such an insidious problem.

Recent research into malpractice claims over a five-year period suggests that 28 percent of all diagnostic error …

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