I’ve been interested in health and nutrition since I started playing high school sports. During my 3 year stint as a personal trainer, I developed a distinct opinion of the Body Mass Index (or BMI – the most widely used anthropomorphic measurement in medicine): it’s not a very good tool.
My issue with BMI began here – it doesn’t actually measure a person’s body fat or lean mass, but rather is …
Is measuring Body Mass Index (BMI) obsolete?
As a medical student who just completed this third year of training, I took special interest in Dr. Pauline Chen’s recent article about Harvard Medical School’s “Integrated Clerkship” – a program that eliminates traditional block-style clerkships and asks students to follow a panel of “up to 100 patients” longitudinally over the course of a year in order to emphasize continuity of care and the humanistic aspects …
Will a shift to longitudinal experiences improve medical education?
In recent years, childhood overweight and obesity statistics have received a good deal of media attention, but this has done little to slow their rise. Data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey shows that nearly 1 in 5 children aged 2-19 are obese. Even more concerning, since 1980 obesity rates have tripled in the 6-11 and 12-19 age groups.
Our …
Bearing the burden of the uphill battle against childhood obesity
The study of medicine can be overwhelming. We’ve simply discovered too much for one person to master completely. This is the challenge medical educators are tasked with – what’s so important that it must be allotted time in the brief 2 years of dedicated book learning doctors-to-be receive?
Students face a similar time-management challenge – first, we must decide what’s important enough to focus on, but the real question I think …
Nutrition needs to be taught in medical school
In the past decade, the incidence of diabetes in the U.S. has nearly doubled – this is due in large part to the obesity epidemic. Currently, it is estimated that the lifetime risk of developing diabetes is around 1 in 3 for males an 2 in 5 for females born after 2000. When you consider that type II diabetes has a strong genetic component – the risk for a …
Steps you can take to prevent developing diabetes
Recently, a friend sent me a text message with a rather conservative back-of-
Here’s the conservative estimate, not including quizzes, workshops, and miscellaneous other goodies: with roughly 100 questions per exam, an average of an exam every 3 weeks, and accounting for a few weeks …
Disease treatment progress will continue to be slow and painful
When a patient shows up for a doctor’s appointment with a companion, I often find myself studying (and later, interacting with) them as much as I do the patient. Most times, a quick review of body language is all I need to make an assessment – is this person looking out for the interests of the patient? Are they here begrudgingly, or out of concern? Are they indifferent, or …
Medicare patients should bring a companion to office visits
Taking a trip to the grocery store can be more dangerous than you’d think.
Waiting for you in each and every aisle are marketing ploys aimed at suppressing your better reasoning, the ultimate result being you making poor dietary or financial decisions – whether you know it or not (enter the 100 calorie pack, my arch nemesis, right behind diet soda). But it doesn’t have to be that way – …
Grocery store tips to avoid poor dietary and financial decisions
As I finished my 24-hour call recently, I was reminded of a 2009 study revealing a decline in empathy as medical students transition from their mostly-didactic second year to third year, which is essentially an apprenticeship in the hospital with lecture as an afterthought. I began my third year with what most would argue is the most difficult rotation, surgery, and my experiences over …
Reasons why medical students burn out and become depressed
The USDA has recently released it’s new concept, the food plate, to replace the iconic food pyramid it introduced in 1992 (and modified in 2005).
At its release, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack criticized the food pyramid for being “too complex to serve as a quick and easy guide for American families” – I completely agree, and have always felt this way. The food pyramid was the …
More healthy eating tips to add to the USDA food plate
May is National Osteoporosis Awareness Month.
Osteoporosis is a poorly understood concept amongst the general public, and perhaps the best way to explain it is the presence of an insufficient quantity of bone – the bone that is present, however, is normal (or properly mineralized). This can be contrasted with osteomalacia (or rickets, in children), …
Osteoporosis Awareness Month, and how to prevent early bone loss
A vaccination policy statement released by the American Academy of Pediatrics has already drawn fire from a number of anti-vaccine groups, specifically for its endorsement of vaccination against HPV infection in boys.
First, let’s examine exactly what the AAP added to its guidelines regarding the HPV4 and HPV2 vaccines: “HPV4 may be administered in a 3-dose series …
Myths about the HPV vaccine for boys
What makes your doctor’s education unique from that of other health care providers?
Recently, I was sitting in on a lecture by one of my favorite physician-teachers (certainly my favorite neurologist). I’ll call him Dr. Deeds (for his resemblance to a character from the movie, Mr. Deeds). He was giving a sort of broad, generalized lecture to prepare us for a series of lectures on neurodegenerative diseases …
Why your doctor’s education is unique
Get free updates delivered free to your inbox.
