Ketones may be the key to unlocking a healthier brain

Conditions and Diseases
January 29, 2024

You’ve undoubtedly heard the buzzwords: ketogenic diet, intermittent fasting. I don’t have much of an opinion about what that all does for your waistline, but I venture to say that ketones may benefit your brain.

Some doctors have recommended, with rock-solid evidence, diets that increase brain ketone levels as part of the regimen to treat drug-resistant epilepsy in children. Others claim that high ketone levels are like a magic bullet and …

Read more…

Ketones may be the key to unlocking a healthier brain

Holistic success and happiness in medicine [PODCAST]

Podcast
January 28, 2024
YouTube video

Subscribe to The Podcast by KevinMD. Catch up on old episodes!

Join Ketan Kulkarni, a physician entrepreneur. We’ll delve into the pressing issues of burnout and discontent among health care professionals, particularly physicians, and explore strategies for achieving holistic success and happiness in both personal and professional life.

Read more…

Holistic success and happiness in medicine [PODCAST]

What’s trying to start the next pandemic? AI drug discovery and the quest for a pan-antiviral drug

Conditions and Diseases
January 28, 2024

As the world continues to navigate the challenges posed by respiratory viruses, recent developments have highlighted the urgency of advancing our therapeutic arsenal, particularly in the realm of broad-spectrum antivirals.

1. Winter is here. It is winter again in the northern hemisphere, and with it come the known respiratory viruses like flu, RSV, and COVID-19. Recent reports have also identified a wave of childhood pneumonia in China, not entirely attributable to …

Read more…

What’s trying to start the next pandemic? AI drug discovery and the quest for a pan-antiviral drug

Beyond the myths: ADHD explained in powerful comics

Conditions and Diseases
January 28, 2024

An illustrated overview of ADHD, addressing common misconceptions and illustrating the real challenges faced by those with the condition. Through comic strips, the narrative explains the impact of ADHD on executive function and daily life, debunking the myth that symptoms are a choice or the result of not trying hard enough. It also touches on the less visible inattentive symptoms, aiming to …

Read more…

Beyond the myths: ADHD explained in powerful comics

Escaping the time warp: my journey after leaving clinical medicine

Physician
January 28, 2024

It’s been almost two years since I left clinical medicine. In the midst of our country’s health care attrition crisis, stories of early retirement, burnout, and career transitions aren’t hard to find. While each of those accounts brings a deeper understanding of the problem, as well as potential strategies to remedy it, this is not a story about why I left medicine. Instead, it is an observation of how medicine …

Read more…

Escaping the time warp: my journey after leaving clinical medicine

Intralymphatic immunotherapy: a breakthrough approach for allergies

Medications
January 28, 2024

Are you or a loved one constantly battling the frustrating symptoms of seasonal or year-round allergies? You are not alone; millions around the globe are affected by sneezing, itchy, watery red eyes, stuffy, runny noses, and headaches. Avoidance of triggers and medications may provide temporary relief, but for those seeking a longer-lasting or more natural solution, immunotherapy (IT) can be life-changing. IT provides sustained benefits of decreased symptoms and medication …

Read more…

Intralymphatic immunotherapy: a breakthrough approach for allergies

Empathy: the unexpected gift from abuse

Physician
January 28, 2024

Months after I left him, I could still feel the pain he inflicted. He not only weaponized my insecurities but also demeaned the things about myself that I loved, insidiously dismantling my sense of self until nothing remained.

I even doubted my ability as a psychiatrist, and I hated him for that.

“Talking to you is like trying to read a Step 2 question!” he had sneered. “I don’t know anyone who …

Read more…

Empathy: the unexpected gift from abuse

A physician’s journey in Cuba reveals surprising faith and resilience [PODCAST]

Podcast
January 27, 2024

Subscribe to The Podcast by KevinMD. Catch up on old episodes!

Join William Lynes, a urologist, as he shares his remarkable journey of a recent missionary trip to Cuba. Discover the challenges and triumphs faced by both the Cuban people and the mission team. Explore the profound faith and resilience …

Read more…

A physician’s journey in Cuba reveals surprising faith and resilience [PODCAST]

How to lose your compassion: the brutal reality of medical internship

Medical Education
January 27, 2024

Not all at once, just slowly enough that you don’t notice.

“I’m having a rough go at it,” Mr. Robinson confesses. He was listening to me use choppy, challenging vocabulary to piece together what’s landed him in the hospital.

But I know what he’s talking about. The mass in his chest that’s been compressing on his airway, making him so sick, so quickly. He is talking about his pneumonia: the fevers, chills, …

Read more…

How to lose your compassion: the brutal reality of medical internship

The Federal SAVE Act: a beacon of hope for health care worker safety

Health Policy
January 27, 2024

It’s a narrative that has become disturbingly familiar: different health care providers, yet the same traumatic story.

Ramon, an idealistic new nurse, was drawn to nursing to make a meaningful impact in the lives of the most vulnerable. But in an instant, his love for nursing changed. After just six months as a nurse, a patient’s son viciously attacked Ramon, enraged over his mother’s COVID-19-related hospitalization. In a blind fury, …

Read more…

The Federal SAVE Act: a beacon of hope for health care worker safety

Is the MCAT still vital for medical school admissions?

Medical Education
January 27, 2024

I recently concluded my application cycle with an acceptance, and I’ve been catching up on the news regarding medical school admissions. Admittedly, I’m disappointed. Also shocked by how much can happen while being occupied. It kind of felt like Neo getting out of his “bubble.”

Simply put, the MCAT is still important and should remain so, at least until other forms of assessment, such as the Situational Judgment Test, are refined …

Read more…

Is the MCAT still vital for medical school admissions?

The top regret of the dying: Are you living your true life?

Physician
January 27, 2024

During her time working with people who were dying, nurse Bronnie Ware found that one of the top 5 regrets is, “I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.” (Source: The Top Five Regrets of the Dying by Bronnie Ware)

How do you know if you are living a life true to you? What steps may you take …

Read more…

The top regret of the dying: Are you living your true life?

Health care’s hidden struggles: a paradigm shift [PODCAST]

Podcast
January 26, 2024
YouTube video

Subscribe to The Podcast by KevinMD. Catch up on old episodes!

Join Vickie Leff, a palliative social worker. We’ll dive into a thought-provoking conversation about shifting the health care paradigm, where we explore the emotional toll on health care professionals, the need for sustainability, and how institutions can …

Read more…

Health care’s hidden struggles: a paradigm shift [PODCAST]

ADVERTISEMENT

My spinal cord injury story from physician to patient, and how I rebuilt my nervous system

Physician
January 26, 2024

It took a traumatic spinal cord injury in 2008 to transform my life.

The experience was a radical awakening. I was told that I would never walk again.

On one fine spring day in 2008, my life changed forever. I was walking to work when I was hit by a car at high speed. My body was flung into the sky, and as I hovered, like a slow-motion movie, a few thoughts …

Read more…

My spinal cord injury story from physician to patient, and how I rebuilt my nervous system

The superhero spectrum in health care

Physician
January 26, 2024

Strategic thinking: The Doctor Strange of health care. Health care professionals, much like Doctor Strange, often engage in complex decision-making, foreseeing multiple outcomes to choose the best path for patient care. Your ability to strategize and anticipate is crucial in saving lives and ensuring quality care.

Innovation: Channeling Iron Man. Innovation is key in health care. Just as Iron Man tinkers and invents, you too innovate daily – whether through cutting-edge surgical techniques, …

Read more…

The superhero spectrum in health care

Should you fire back after a stealth firing?

Physician
January 26, 2024

Stealth firing is a term used to describe the cold, unexpected firing of employees by their managers and/or individuals from human resources (HR) departments – sometimes without the manager’s awareness and even after years of loyalty for some. The Bureau of Labor Statistics cannot adequately track this statistic because its definition lacks precision, but it is not uncommon in certain practice areas, such as law, tech, and financial firms. The …

Read more…

Should you fire back after a stealth firing?

Tragic turn in the OR: A rookie doctor’s race against time

Physician
January 26, 2024

An excerpt from A Surgeon’s Knot.

The phone jarred Jackson Cooper, MD’s weary, anxious brain into consciousness from the edge of sleep. He jumped up, dropping the receiver on the cold floor of the call room. “Hello,” he said, tension entering the new intern’s mind.

“Dr. Cooper,” the nurse’s voice said nervously. She almost stuttered as she spoke. “It . . . it’s . . . Mr. Simpson, he’s bleeding. I …

Read more…

Tragic turn in the OR: A rookie doctor’s race against time

How one family’s hero ended a pandemic [PODCAST]

Podcast
January 25, 2024
YouTube video

Subscribe to The Podcast by KevinMD. Catch up on old episodes!

Join Shan Liu, an emergency physician and co-author of Masked Hero: How Wu-Lien Teh Invented the Mask and Ended an Epidemic. Discover the journey of Wu Lien-teh, Shan’s great-grandfather, who played a pivotal role in ending a …

Read more…

How one family’s hero ended a pandemic [PODCAST]

Pandemic aftermath: Navigating a new normal in health, education, and social dynamics

Health Policy
January 25, 2024

Psychological distress. In 2021, 40% of high school students felt sad and hopeless, 20% seriously considered suicide, and 10% attempted it, with suicides among young people hitting their highest rates ever, though they fell in 2022. Since the greatest increase was before 2017, we can’t really blame the pandemic. And some “innovative” approaches for combatting …

Read more…

Pandemic aftermath: Navigating a new normal in health, education, and social dynamics

Euphoria-free pain relief: A gabapentin alternative you’ve been waiting for?

Medications
January 25, 2024

A groundbreaking discovery in pain management could revolutionize how we treat chronic pain. In a report from a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers at New York University, in collaboration with colleagues at the University of Pittsburgh, have announced the discovery of a novel medication that could treat centralized pain that targets Cav2.2 calcium channels (also called N-type calcium channels).

First, what is centralized …

Read more…

Euphoria-free pain relief: A gabapentin alternative you’ve been waiting for?

1563
pages