The United Nations designated 2016 to 2025 the “Decade of Action on Nutrition” in recognition of the growing importance of food and diet as it relates to all aspects of human health. We’re almost halfway through, and we’re not making the progress we need to.
A comprehensive study of scientific evidence for global diet goals and sustainability, the EAT-Lancet Commission Summary Report, stated, “Read more…
I am a psychiatrist. My field has been marred with human rights violations and treatments that though well-meaning, did not yield the results that were intended. I have always been at the watch and helm of speaking out when I see gaps and places where my colleagues and I are called to do better. I have been treating patients for over 15 years now. I have remained silent …
As the world battles COVID-19, summer has turned to autumn, and a new chill is in the air. With this change, even in a pandemic, comes the flu season. As a physician assistant (PA), one concern for my patients’ health is the possibility that many will forgo routine health checks or other preventative care because they are avoiding medical settings. When it comes to flu vaccinations, I am especially concerned.
In …
President Trump was administered dexamethasone therapy for COVID-19 treatment, and had two episodes of low oxygen saturation levels that required supplemental oxygen, said doctors at Walter Reed Medical Center at a press conference on Sunday.
“In response to transient low oxygen levels, we did initiate dexamethasone therapy [and] our plan is to continue that for the time being,” …
A brief press conference at Walter Reed Medical Center on Saturday sought to provide answers, but may only have raised more questions about President Trump’s clinical status since his COVID-19 diagnosis.
The main point of contention between White House physician Sean Conley, DO, and reporters was if the president ever received supplemental oxygen. Conley said the president’s last oxygen …
As physicians, we know all too well how life can change in an instant. How tomorrow is never promised. This knowledge can sometimes feel overwhelming, but it is also a gift.
Because we know how precious life is.
I am a physician—but I am also a patient. An infertility patient, for whom each passing year can feel like a lost opportunity.
Because my eggs don’t have the perspective. They don’t see the privilege. …
Taking a break from technology is a fine idea, but we don’t need a pseudoscientific new name for it: dopamine fasting. Launched with viral Silicon Valley memes, online reports, and articles in the New York Times and elsewhere, dopamine fasting is now a thing. Basically, the idea is to temporarily deprive oneself of the usual stimulations of life — largely …
You are doing all the right things: washing your hands frequently, wearing a mask when out in public, getting the requisite sunlight needed to reduce stress and maintain your health. And the reward you’re getting for all your diligence?
Dry skin, damaged nails, acne, and sunburns.
As we continue to live with the threat of COVID-19, more people find themselves wrestling with skin issues they never anticipated. Fortunately, there are easy and …
Despite the advances in modern health care, chronic wounds remain highly problematic. For the critically ill and those with mobility issues, missing just one routine repositioning could send them down a protracted path of intensive wound care therapies. Even our ambulatory patients develop non-healing ulcers from neuropathy and microvascular disease. For purposes of this discussion, the question of how the wound formed isn’t nearly as important as why it persists …
Judging from the shortage of canning jars and lids in grocery stores recently, the COVID-19 pandemic has spurred fresh interest in home canning (a potentially dangerous practice that has declined since its peak in 1943); and because the public expects doctors to know everything about health, it may be educational for physicians to consider the tragic case of the unpeeled potato.
I recently read a Facebook post in a …
Last November, our medical school’s community faced a devastating loss, as second-year student R took her own life. As she was rushed to our hospital’s emergency room, some of R’s classmates, as well as her physician mentor, were on rotation and bared witness to her getting rolled in. Understandably, the loss of R cut deeply. While not often discussed, medical student suicide has been no stranger to medical schools both …
I ring the doorbell, waiting patiently outside. I hear a weak “coming” and some shuffling. Who greets me is a mother in her robe, hunched over at the waist, supporting her protruding postpartum belly. Her hair is disheveled. Her mask is revealing exhausted eyes with attempted mascara to look a “little freshened up,” she confesses a little later.
“My husband is just getting the baby; please come in.”
I …
For the first 12 years as a physician assistant, I thought provider burnout only happened to wusses, those better suited to working in health insurance or doctoring at a summer camp. Sure, I felt overwhelmed at times, but I planned to soldier on in clinical practice, happily serving my patients until retirement.
That was before. Before dreading Sunday nights, feeling heaviness in my gut, a tightness in my neck, and bouts …
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An excerpt from This Is Your Brain on Food: An Indispensable Guide to the Surprising Foods that Fight Depression, Anxiety, PTSD, OCD, ADHD, and More.
Suzy was a bright and hardworking student. However, even though she was conscientious and generally cheery, her grades began to fall during …
The behavior of managers and supervisors in organizations affects the mental health of their employees. This is especially true during times of uncertainty, such as a global pandemic.
Does a leader’s health and well-being change how they lead?
Early evidence shows that when leaders are experiencing challenging conditions, they are more likely to become resource depleted and exhibit negative behaviors, such as passive leadership or abusive …
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 …
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 …
“Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand.”
– Albert Einstein
“Mr. Thomas, are you OK? Sir, are you OK?” It was a full clinic day, and I had just improvised a treatment on him.
I had met this patient, “Mr. Thomas,” only once before. After meeting me …
I have noticed several articles describing how antibiotic development has bankrupted some pharmaceutical companies because there isn’t enough potential profit in a ten-day course to treat multi-resistant superbug infections.
Chronic disease treatments, on the other hand, appear to be extremely profitable. A single month’s treatment with the newer diabetes drugs, COPD inhalers, or blood thinners costs over $500, which means well over $50,000 over an effective ten year patent for each …
As an oncologist, perhaps the hardest part I play is as witness. I am there to give a diagnosis that, more often than not, will alter someone’s life forever. For some, I see resignation—a sense that they’ve known something was wrong and that it’s what they thought they had. For others, I see an almost …
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