There are many topics on which I cannot claim to be an expert. I cannot solve the issue of gun violence, I don’t know what will “fix” the current societal crises, and I have no idea what will happen in the future regarding climate change.
There is one topic that seems to be coming up with more frequency and regularity, and I am qualified to speak on that. The shortage of …
Why is there a shortage of mental health professionals?
He was a tall, healthy psychiatric technician, experienced in his line of work. He was a CNA but wanted more. He wanted to help heal the troubled, forgotten, and neglected — behavioral health was his niche.
He would lead the way with therapy sessions in this group every day. This was Intensive management: the intermittent home for the paranoid schizophrenics, bipolar, and MDD.
They came in all shapes and sizes — wealthy, …
Game over for behavioral health
In a published statement in JAMA Network on May 24/31, 2022, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force found that there was insufficient evidence for screening for primary open-angle glaucoma in adults. They could not find a way to balance harms versus benefits for screening in general. But is this reasoning faulty?
It is well known that Black and Hispanic populations suffer a greater incidence and severity of glaucoma, …
Open-angle glaucoma: To screen or not to screen?
One day, working as a floater PT, I walked into the rehab gym, and every single therapist looked at me with the same pitying expression. The rehab manager took me into her office.
“I’m so sorry to put you in this position. One of your new patients today is a really large man. His BMI is 103. It took 12 people to move him from the stretcher into the bed last …
Confronting weight bias in health care
An excerpt from The Paper Tiger Syndrome: How to Liberate Yourself from the Illusion of Fear.
Your Original Blueprint is the part of you that knows abundance is your natural state. It’s the inner voice, which says, I am full. I am satiated. I am content. I am peaceful. …
The body is the gateway to the Original Blueprint
Why does one person respond favorably to lung cancer treatment while another does not?
The answer lies in their DNA.
Just 20 years ago, lung cancer was broadly categorized into two groups: non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and small cell lung cancer (SCLC). Relatively recently, the treatment of NSCLC shifted from chemotherapy as a single treatment option to treatment with precision medicine, which is positively impacting survival rates.
Precision medicine: the rifle vs. shotgun approach to cancer treatment
Facts combat fear
It’s hard to believe the first COVID-19 vaccine was administered in the U.S. only a year and a half ago. Like many others, I welcomed the COVID-19 vaccine as a triumph of global cooperation that leveraged decades of research and a beacon of hope that life could eventually return to normal. Yet I was so surprised the first time a pregnant patient told me …
How to help rewrite the COVID-19 information playbook
I cry often enough that my kids almost gleefully expect it, checking me for tears during movies or shows, shaking their heads in mock dismay when they see that their prediction is correct. I’ve cried many times at home, watching screens, reading books, talking on the phone, and at work, where I am a doctor who cannot always suppress my emotions. And I’ve cried in front of health care providers …
Is there more to patient safety than preventing medical error?
“I don’t want to be alive anymore.”
My friend Margot was despondent. Her lips quivered. Her eyes, normally the shape of almonds, folded themselves into little triangles when she cried. This kind and gentle woman of 62 years – my neighbor – was undeniably at her lowest point. I was sharing a couch with her during my junior year of college as her composure crumpled before me.
I first met Margot when …
The gravity of difficult questions
Recognizing accomplishments and a ticket to residency: That was Match Day. But now, at the doorstep of the next challenge, you’d better take a hard look at your most important personal relationship.
That is, if you want to keep your good thing together. Because if you think residency is going to be the start of easy, no-maintenance times for you and your partner, maybe you need to go back to medical …
Maybe we need to educate upper management — those multi-million-dollar hospitals with multi-million dollars per year salaried CEOs and board members with their financial perks — that health care professionals and nurses during “Health Care Worker/Nurse Week” in May of each year are no longer in the second grade.
Maybe we need to remind “them” that we are college-educated health care professionals with degrees, like ADNs, BSN, MSNs, RNs, LPNs, educators, …
Health care worker appreciation: When the thought doesn’t count
The landscape of medicine and health care is constantly changing. With the integration of electronic medical records (EMR) and other technological advances, physicians and health care providers must be much more adaptable than ever before and possess unprecedented levels of technical literacy in the field.
The modernization of health care has been a driver of burnout, defined as “the constellation of symptoms that occur when your energy account …
I used to spend most of my day listening.
As a high school counselor, I encouraged teenagers to talk. Feeling stressed, they said, is their automatic response to demanding teachers, parents’ high expectations, and the drama of shifting friendship alliances.
Daily dilemmas and problems affect everyone: the terrified boy who just heard rumors he was going to be jumped after school, the teary-eyed girl whose teacher embarrassed her in front of the …
10 suggestions for a smoother high school experience
In a viral video shared on Twitter in 2021, we see a line of women waiting to board a flight from Santo Domingo to Atlanta. Airline staff in safety vests stand around the women, all of whom are sitting—in wheelchairs. These women had recently undergone the popular Brazilian butt lift or “BBL” surgery, where fat is transferred from one part of the body to the buttocks, despite …
The cost of cosmetic procedures resulting in short-term disabilities
When Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa acquired the company that makes Lovot, a pet-sized robot for emotional support, it spoke about more than a financial investment in robotics. The news was tied to love, companionship, and healing. It also revealed the global loneliness and social isolation pandemic. The use of assistive robots is gaining popularity in Japan and China to deal with the caregiver shortage because social isolation is …
Simple solutions for social connections
In 2022, you might have never envisioned that the United States of America would be among other countries struggling to feed its babies. As of the first week of May, more than 40 percent of formula brands are out of stock, and many families are desperately searching high and low, near and far, to find substitute options. In the background of this chaos, I cannot help but consider how we …
The conundrum of feeding our minds and our babies
Before the contemporary context of spandex and exercise trends, physical activity and exercise were integral to daily life for most human beings across historical contexts. In this piece, we explore the historical roots of physical fitness born out of necessity for combat and survival.
Ancient fitness
The earliest evidence of fitness training dates back over three thousand years before the rise of the Greek Olympics, in 4000 BCE. Ancient civilizations residing in …
The past, present, and future of fitness
When a congressional candidate was recently cheered on after demanding the execution of Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, it was another reminder that civil discourse and trust in science are continuing to dwindle.
A controversial household name in the sciences, Dr. Fauci was the first scientist to make the cover of Time Magazine in its 100-year history. Well-established scientists can easily recognize Fauci’s important contributions to …
Distrust in science is a cancer to public safety
Breast is best.
Fed is best
Informed is best.
Fed is first.
What really is best and first when it comes to infant feeding: support. Support is best. Whether we are talking about infant feeding or frankly anything else related to postpartum or the fourth trimester, support is critical.
The other slogans just fall short.
Breast is best. Breastmilk is the most ideal nutrition for infants. Milk is created specifically for infants …
When it comes to feeding infants, support is best
A patient undergoing chemotherapy for breast cancer was diagnosed on April 20th with profound secondary adrenal insufficiency (hypophysitis: ACTH undetectable, cortisol 0.2) caused by immunotherapy (pembrolizumab). She was started on corticosteroids and sent home from the hospital on April 24th with a prescription for only five days of prednisone. After completing the five days of prednisone, she predictably began to feel profoundly weak and nauseous. She continued losing weight …
How patient education can save lives
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