Close to 6 million adults in the U.S. are currently living with Alzheimer’s disease or a related form of dementia, according to CDC data. And that number will grow as the U.S. population ages. The number of people with Alzheimer’s and related forms of dementia is projected to increase to approximately 14 million over the next 38 years.
Dementia impacts not only the people who develop this condition but also …
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Americans got accustomed to regularly answering a series of questions about our risk of exposure to COVID and our possible symptoms. For more than two years, our country remained laser-focused on this protection, demonstrating our health care system’s ability to mount a strong response to a public health crisis. So why haven’t we taken similar precautions in the face of other crises, particularly HIV?
For too long, …
Grief is powerful and can break your heart for the rest of your life, or you can learn from it and become stronger. Losing a loved one is something that everyone will go through, but not all come out as survivors in the end. It’s part of life, but a very difficult part. Think of your loss as a lesson to help you live the rest of your life.
How do …
More than a million Americans have died since the late 1990s from drug overdoses, with the vast majority dying from an opioid overdose. This trend started with the heavy marketing of opioids to physicians as nonaddictive and effective. The number of deaths from overdose has escalated significantly in the past few years. Although many of the recent opioid-related deaths are from fentanyl, substance abuse treatment providers report that …
How can you be an example of what’s possible for your patients on their weight loss journey? I got this question recently in a doctor’s social media group I like. The answer is simpler than you think. As their doctor, you aspire to perfection in your medical care for them, but you can be an example of what’s possible in weight loss as a plain regular human being. Sharing …
Every day, patients with the same story walk into my office. Young people in their teens, 20s or 30s are exasperated and seeking help for constant painful boils that drain the pus in underarms, groin, and around breasts — a condition called hidradenitis suppurativa (HS). This disease often makes their lives a nightmare. Despite being a more common condition than once thought, many patients see providers for 7 to 10 …
The superior doctor prevents sickness. The mediocre doctor attends to impending sickness. The inferior doctor treats actual sickness.”
– Chinese Proverb
The management of diabetes today requires an understanding of the concept of the circular economy in eliminating waste and pollution, circulating products and materials at their highest level, and regenerating nature.
Today, we saw a 64-year-old woman for her follow-up visit to the diabetes clinic. She is our typical Oklahoma patient with …
As is the case throughout the country, central Ohio is in the midst of a viral surge with an unusually high number of ill children for this time of the year, leading to long delays in our urgent cares and emergency departments, in our primary care offices, and with over capacity inpatient units. It’s an extremely busy time for all of us and honestly makes for tiring and stressful days. …
When you begin to pay close attention, you notice how what used to be so easy becomes complicated. When you step back and watch things unfold in front of you, you realize that what once was enough is simply too much. Dementia peels back the layers of our lives, and you begin to understand that less becomes more in the world of dementia.
The signs were there for a long time. …
October 27th is the 30th anniversary of the Mammography Quality Standards Act (MQSA). Congress enacted this law to safeguard nationwide access to quality mammography to detect breast cancer in its earliest, most treatable stages. With this Act, the federal government accredits, inspects, and certifies mammography facilities and standardizes mammography equipment, quality assurance, recordkeeping, and communication of results.
What’s missing from the …
The Oxford dictionary defines insidious as “proceeding in a gradual, subtle way but with harmful effects.” Most people associate this term with clever criminals. I am writing this to ask you to think about it in another way.
Perhaps the greatest joy a person can experience is welcoming a child into the world with so many dreams and visions for the future. Ideally, those dreams come true. But not always. Sometimes …
Paula came to my office on a Monday afternoon, a few months after burying her husband. She and John had been inseparable. They were both my patients, so I knew John had spent the last six months battling lung cancer. They had been married forty-five years when John died. I sincerely offered Paula my condolences on that Monday afternoon. I could tell she was in pain and shared how she …
I normally start October off by changing my Facebook profile picture to a pink survivor ribbon and celebrating my breast cancer survivorship, but this October was different. I slept on October 1st because I had spent 48 hours at Gulf Coast Medical Center when hurricane Ian struck Southwest Florida three days before. I was absolutely exhausted when I arrived home after the storm. The world was turned upside down. Then …
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It was the best of medical encounters; it was the worst of medical encounters. But it is indeed a story of how two physicians viewed the same situation very differently, and how one brought trauma to a young patient, and one (two) brought healing to that very patient with the same set of information.
My daughter was a healthy and vibrant 12-year-old when she first had COVID in June 2020. She …
When you visit your doctor for your regular check-up, just like every human being, your body and health are judged by three main scientific standards to determine if you are healthy and “normal.”
Standard 1 is the Standard Scientific Human Body Anatomy Book Body Type (BT1) found in any scientifically approved human body anatomy book. According to mainstream science and medical doctors, every human being is born in a standard BT1. …
I’ve had my share of therapy.
My mother was a clinical psychologist, and I grew up around the concepts of consciousness and the unconscious, growth and awareness, and “authenticity” before “authenticity” was even a buzzword. I’m quite certain she did some sort of therapy on me during my childhood. I remember vividly her briefcase with the blocks from the Stanford-Binet IQ test. She prepped me at home, at 4, in advance …
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Rheumatoid arthritis is a common autoimmune disease affecting approximately 1.5 million people only in the United States. The most common symptoms that will bring patients to the doctor are:
Unfortunately, rheumatoid arthritis is not only a disease of the joints. Chronic, ongoing inflammation …
Ashley, one of my colleagues, and I discussed whether or not a doctor, nurse, or other providers of care should cry or show emotion with a patient or client. We’re not speaking of meltdowns or becoming so emotionally involved that it impairs our judgment or makes it difficult for us to render effective care, but simply being able to show a human response in the presence of your patient at …
An excerpt from The Skincare Hoax: How You’re Being Tricked into Buying Lotions, Potions & Wrinkle Cream.
Why do accomplished, intelligent women spend so much money on skincare products that don’t work? Why do they put so much energy into looking a certain way? These questions hover in the back of …
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The recent report from the National Center for Health Statistics on declining U.S. life expectancy painted a bleak picture, fueled in large part by the impact of Covid-19, but not exclusively. Many of the contributing factors are deeply systemic – poverty and health disparities among them — but other longstanding health issues, including high rates of obesity and Type 2 diabetes, are contributing factors.
More than 34 million people – one …
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