Conditions

How trauma, health care, and kindness are the keys to contagious change

Conditions

July 23, 2023

I spent years researching and writing about the health care crisis. It was depressing and isolating — traumatizing. When I met someone with more reach, it was a relief to be able to stop.

Early on, it was obvious to me that our medical health care crisis is actually a mental health crisis. It is about disconnectedness and devaluation of relationships, a basic need. Evidence abounds. The Read more…

How trauma, health care, and kindness are the keys to contagious change

From medical student to MS warrior: Navigating life with multiple sclerosis

Nesrin Abu Ata, MD

Conditions

July 22, 2023

I was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis during my second year of medical school. It happened while I was on a neurology rotation when I approached the neurologist after a lecture and expressed my suspicion of a flare-up. Subsequently, a lumbar puncture and a contrast brain MRI confirmed the diagnosis, leading to my treatment with IV steroids and later disease-modifying medications.

It has now been 18 years since my diagnosis, during which …

The struggle is real for patients and doctors

Kim Downey, PT

Conditions

July 21, 2023

If you are a patient, we all are at some point. Undoubtedly, you have experienced some of the difficulties patients face today in getting approved for and receiving medical care in a timely fashion. From scheduling doctor visits to undergoing tests, procedures, obtaining medications, and even surgeries, the process can be challenging.

It’s easy to be tempted to blame your doctor for the long wait times to schedule an appointment, the …

It’s time to stop stigmatizing long COVID patients with mental health conditions

James C. Jackson, PsyD

Conditions

July 19, 2023

Mental health conditions are common among individuals with long COVID due to various factors. These include the direct effects of COVID-19 on the body, such as neuroinflammation, as well as the circumstances often associated with the condition, such as job loss, reduced income, disconnection, isolation, chronic pain, immobility, and the persistent feeling of being unwell. Alongside cognitive impairment and fatigue, mental health issues form what I call the “unholy trinity” …

Can minors truly consent to reversible puberty blockers in gender-affirming health care?

Logan Vayder

Conditions

July 17, 2023

Gender-affirming health care (GAH) is a rapidly developing sector within the medical profession that can include indirect therapies such as counseling, direct therapies such as hormone treatments, puberty blockers, or gender-affirming surgeries. A main ethical concern with GAH resides in its use on adolescents, and this paper will primarily explore the use of puberty blockers, sometimes called GnRH analogues, on minors.

Considering that most children start puberty around the age of …

Is obesity really a disease?

David M. Mitchell, MD, PhD

Conditions

July 17, 2023

Obesity is unquestionably a major risk factor for disease and an increasingly serious societal problem, but is it actually a disease? I would argue that obesity, defined purely by a BMI of >30, is really just a number – an objective finding. In the long-honored tradition of medical science, an objective finding is not a disease, unless it is tied to a pathogenesis. For example, anemia is just a number, …

Read more…

Is obesity really a disease?

Food allergies are not preferences. Let’s start treating them that way.

David R. Stukus, MD and Anushree Vashist

Conditions

July 14, 2023

We’re in a rapidly growing food allergy epidemic. 1 in 13 American children have food allergies—a number that’s only growing. Private insurance claims of anaphylactic food reactions, which are severe and potentially life-threatening, rose 377 percent from 2007 to 2016. Yet despite their increased prevalence in recent years, one thing hasn’t changed: Undermining the very real risks and anxieties associated with living with food allergies.

Beyond the risk of …

The surprising power of lifestyle and diet changes to prevent infertility

Nicole Avena, PhD

Conditions

July 12, 2023

An excerpt from What to Eat When You Want to Get Pregnant.

I know firsthand how hard infertility can be to talk about. Personally, I struggled conceiving my second daughter, and I am an advocate for taking control of your own fertility through lifestyle and diet changes. Infertility has been seen …

Ending the opioid crisis starts with physicians

Amy Baxter, MD

Conditions

July 11, 2023

A recently published opinion article by opioid advocates attempts to assuage physicians’ prescribing guilt, arguing “doctors prescribing to their patients did not create the U.S. opioid crisis.” As lawsuit after lawsuit concludes, Purdue Pharma, Johnson and Johnson, and blindered distributors and pharmacies share the blame for propping up pills for profit. Physicians may inflate home narcotic quantities for convenience, but with rare prosecutable exceptions, not monetary gain. But the …

Our institutions have given up on the COVID-19 pandemic. We should not.

William Zhu and Gregory Jasani, MD

Conditions

July 11, 2023

The COVID-19 pandemic is over. On May 5, The World Health Organization announced that COVID-19 was no longer a public health emergency. The U.S. followed suit on May 11, allowing the public health emergency declaration to expire.

The pandemic did not end because of vaccination efforts nor from acquired herd immunity. The pandemic is over because of the capitulation and resignation of public health authorities as they concede …

Uncovering the truth about genetic mutations and weight loss

Franchell Hamilton, MD

Conditions

July 10, 2023

“I do not feel full even after I eat” is what I heard from so many of my patients. Even after bariatric surgery, this feeling of fullness would go away initially but then it would come back, and they found themselves again overindulging. Why does this happen? Brain studies have shown that obesity impairs the dopamine signaling in the brain that tells the brain it is satisfied after nutrients enter …

Accessing needed pediatric mental health care was difficult before the pandemic and is now at crisis levels

Victoria Chen and J. Wesley Boyd, MD, PhD

Conditions

July 9, 2023

The COVID-19 pandemic has hit kids hard. Their mental well-being was already tenuous before the pandemic, and COVID-19 has only exacerbated what was already a crisis of anxiety, depression, and suicidality among youth. Getting treatment for adolescents with mental health issues was difficult prior to the pandemic. We have recently published a study in Psychiatric Services that shows that currently obtaining an appointment with a child psychiatrist is very difficult …

Life and death in the ICU: a night of heroism, tragedy, and budgetary battles

Debbie Moore-Black, RN

Conditions

July 8, 2023

ICU: Our acuities were high, and staffing was low. Our ICU, with 24 beds, was already full. The staffing situation for that night was so poor that instead of our RNs having a 2:1 patient-nurse ratio, we were forced into 3:1 assignments.

Despite the challenging circumstances, we couldn’t have asked for a better team of ICU nurses. They were the best in their field, supported by two dedicated Respiratory Therapists assigned …

Revealing the hidden impact of skin conditions

Dr. Natasha Khalid

Conditions

July 8, 2023

During my internal medicine residency, I rotated through various subspecialties, but the one that always gave me thought-provoking perspectives at the end of the day was dermatology. I was very excited to work in derma and learn how to treat basic clinical conditions like acne, hair fall, dermatitis, etc., at the back of my hand. However, my daily clinics opened my eyes to a new Pandora’s box of issues in …

Is inflammation too much of a good thing?

Kara Wada, MD

Conditions

July 7, 2023

Inflammation is currently a popular topic, and I must admit that I’ve fallen into the trap of vilifying this natural physiological phenomenon. Simply put, inflammation is our body’s response to infection, injury, or insult. Heat, redness, swelling, pain, and pus signal that you are injured or sick and provide the necessary feedback to seek treatment or avoid further injury.

Human nature often leads us to categorize things as either good or …

C. difficile: a dangerous bug takes hold in communities

Larry K. Kociolek, MD

Conditions

July 4, 2023

Carol Raye’s devastating Clostridioides difficile (C. difficile) experience started with what she thought was a stomach bug after a dental visit. She took the antibiotics prescribed by her dentist and thought a weekend of rest would make her feel better. Soon, she was debilitated by the severe diarrhea from a C. difficile infection that left her weak, confused and barely able to get out of bed. Fortunately, she made it …

Fourth of July daredevil fireworks mishap: a tragic tale of loss and redemption

Debbie Moore-Black, RN

Conditions

July 3, 2023

Jason had always cherished the Fourth of July—it was his moment to shine. At 19 years old, he saw himself as a real man, a car mechanic who garnered the attention and admiration of the ladies. With a fit and muscular physique, he relished his workouts and delighted in showcasing his daredevil spirit.

The day was marked by a grand cookout, where Jason reunited with his high school friends. The smoky …

Everything the government thinks it knows about the opioid crisis is wrong

Richard A. Lawhern, PhD

Conditions

July 1, 2023

“In July 2015, journalist Johann Hari gave a TED Talk that over 20 million people have since viewed. Hari offered convincing evidence that vulnerability to opioid addiction is a consequence of the conditions under which people live — the social determinants of health — rather than simple exposure to opioid pain relievers. This theme is brilliantly elaborated by economist Anne Case and Nobel Prize winner Angus Deaton …

COVID-19 vaccine neglect: a tale of regret and debilitating symptoms

Jenna Podjasek, MD

Conditions

June 29, 2023

As an allergist-immunologist who trained at Mayo Clinic, one might assume that I’m up to date on my COVID-19 booster vaccinations. However, I realized months ago that I was overdue for a booster; it’s been over a year since my third vaccination. I’m embarrassed to admit this, but I didn’t stop at the pharmacy or schedule an appointment with my primary doctor. I was among the roughly 85 percent of …

The unsung heroes of disease detectives: Controlling outbreaks and pandemics to save lives

Nicholas A. Daniels, MD, MPH

Conditions

June 27, 2023

An excerpt from Outbreaks and Pandemics: The Life of a Disease Detective.

The importance of disease detectives in solving and controlling outbreaks and pandemics must be recognized. We are the backbone of our public health system. We are scientifically savvy, inquisitive, detail-oriented, and able to follow the data wherever it leads, …

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