Patients and friends tell me it’s sometimes difficult to decide exactly what symptoms merit a doctor’s appointment. I find that it helps to think of three basic categories of visits. One category is the all-important annual checkup, which assesses and promotes overall health and can detect signs of early disease. Another category is the follow-up appointment to track chronic conditions or recovery from a major illness.
But the third category …
Lets face it — the system of primary care medicine in the United States is broken. Even in Boston, the mecca of medicine, patients struggle hard to find an accessible doctor. And when they finally land an appointment, their well-intentioned internist, pediatrician or family physician often seems overworked, rushing from patient to patient, with little time to really listen to details.
As a primary care family physician for 20 years, …
We all know that outdoor aerobic exercises like running and biking are good for your health. But during the hottest days of summer, it’s not just excess heat we have to worry about, but smog, the concentrated air pollution you can often see hovering over the cityscape. During the hot summer months, smog can become a serious health problem in the Boston area. We are often downwind from the Midwest’s …
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