Neurology

A mother’s question about PCOS and her son’s autism

Conditions
October 4, 2025

I am the mother of a 37-year-old son diagnosed with autism and Crohn’s disease. He also has serious intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD), requiring round-the-clock care and support. I also have a medical history of PCOS (polycystic ovary syndrome) and took fertility medication to conceive him. For years, I have watched the autism diagnosis rate climb while public discourse remained fixated on single causes or stigmatizing narratives. But we are …

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Expanding the Parkinson’s universe of care for patients, caregivers, clinicians, and communities

Conditions
September 27, 2025

An excerpt from The Parkinson’s Plan: A New Path to Prevention and Treatment.

The Parkinson’s universe

In 2002, we proposed a simple Parkinson’s care model. The patient is the sun, and all multidisciplinary care should orbit around the patient, not the doctors. The sun is vital but only part of the universe. It is time to expand our Parkinson’s care model.

The caregivers

If we …

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The science behind my son’s sensory overload

Conditions
September 23, 2025

I have spent decades learning about how bodies and brains work, but nothing has taught me more about complexity than raising my autistic son. He is nine, curious, brilliant, and completely captivated by chemistry. He can explain the structure of an atom with more clarity than most high school students.

But when we step into the real world (classrooms, stores, even family gatherings), sometimes his brain does not get to shine. …

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Coconut oil’s role in Alzheimer’s and depression

Conditions
September 15, 2025

There is evidence that coconut oil may be a potent weapon in the battle against Alzheimer’s disease and other types of dementia and, perhaps, psychological problems such as depression.

Not just any coconut oil will do the trick, though. Virgin coconut oil (VCO) is extracted from fresh coconut meat without the use of high heat or chemicals, preserving its natural nutrients, flavor, and aroma. VCO is typically pressed from fresh, moist …

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Inside the high-stakes world of neurosurgery

Conditions
September 12, 2025

People say it all the time: “Well, it’s not brain surgery.” It’s meant as a joke, a way to say something isn’t that hard. But for me and my colleagues, it is brain surgery. Every single day. And it’s hard in ways that go far beyond the technical.

Every August, we mark Neurosurgery Awareness Month. It is a time to shed light on one of the most complex, demanding, and profoundly …

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The crushing bureaucracy that’s driving independent physicians to extinction

Physician
September 9, 2025

As a board-certified neurologist in independent practice for three decades, I’ve watched the soul of medicine slowly erode, not due to a lack of compassion, skill, or science, but from a suffocating bureaucracy that has infiltrated every corner of patient care. Private practice doctors across America are being regulated, pre-certified, audited, and administratively strangled out of existence.

Each week in my office, my staff and I spend countless hours fighting with …

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Medicaid lags behind on Alzheimer’s blood test coverage

Conditions
August 18, 2025

I remember a patient in her early sixties who came to our clinic with subtle memory problems. She lived alone in a rural county, relied on Medicaid, and had been passed between social services and different primary care providers for more than a year. No one had ordered imaging, and there were no neurologists nearby. By the time Alzheimer’s disease was suspected, her window for early intervention had already closed.

Medicare …

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Why “the best physicians” risk burnout and isolation

Physician
August 16, 2025

This is a famous teaching in the Talmud, which in the Jewish faith is the commentary on the Hebrew Bible. Why would the holy book of the Jews make such a proclamation? It turns out this is about arrogance. It is about humility. The “best doctors” may also be the most prideful. Their arrogance may prevent them from realizing they need help. If they do realize it, their pridefulness may …

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Closing the diversity gap in Parkinson’s research

Conditions
August 12, 2025

When people think of Parkinson’s disease (PD), they often picture Michael J. Fox or Muhammad Ali, iconic figures who bravely shared their diagnoses. But the real face of Parkinson’s is much more diverse than what we see in the media, and the research that shapes our understanding of the disease has not caught up.

Despite affecting people of all racial and ethnic backgrounds, …

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How coaching transforms care for people with multiple sclerosis

Conditions
July 28, 2025

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an autoimmune-mediated neurodegenerative disease that affects approximately 2.8 million people worldwide, and its incidence has risen over the past decade. As health and wellness professionals who have cared for people living with MS, we have both witnessed the ever-evolving journey and the roller coaster of emotions, psychosocial impact, symptoms, and health challenges that people living with MS face. The muscle weakness that makes walking more …

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What a childhood stroke taught me about the future of neurosurgery and the promise of vagus nerve stimulation

Conditions
July 12, 2025

I had a stroke at the age of five.

It was an ischemic event, rare in children, difficult to diagnose, and often missed in early stages. I experienced a sudden loss of motor function that led to a long period of rehabilitation. I spent months relearning how to walk, balance, and perform basic movements, guided by physical therapists and the steady structure of routine. I was too young to understand what …

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How the shingles vaccine could help prevent dementia

Conditions
June 18, 2025

Did you have chickenpox as a kid?

If the answer is yes (which it is for most of us), you’re at risk of getting shingles. Shingles is caused by the varicella-zoster virus, the same virus that causes chickenpox. After one recovers from chickenpox, the virus remains dormant in one’s nerve cells. Later in life, if the virus reactivates (which depends on factors like age, stress, or a weakened immune system), it …

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Why what doctors say matters more than you think [PODCAST]

Podcast
June 15, 2025
YouTube video

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

Physician Scott Abramson discusses his article “How doctors’ words can make or break patient care.” Scott shares two compelling scenarios illustrating the profound impact of a physician’s communication. He recounts a family …

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When the diagnosis is personal: What my mother’s Alzheimer’s taught me about healing

Conditions
June 12, 2025

I’ve spent my career as a neurologist diagnosing and managing neurodegenerative diseases. I’ve counseled families through heartbreaking prognoses, navigated complex care plans, and educated patients about conditions like Alzheimer’s disease. I thought I understood what it meant to live with a memory disorder, until my mother became my most challenging, most personal patient.

Her diagnosis came gradually, as these things often do. First, it was the missed appointments and forgotten dates. …

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How proposed NIH budget cuts could derail Alzheimer’s research

Conditions
June 11, 2025

Recent budget cuts to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) have dominated the headlines since February of this year, when the NIH announced a 15 percent cap on indirect costs — a move that jeopardizes essential research infrastructure by slashing funding for facilities and administrative support vital to the advancement of scientific innovation.

Now, leaked documents threaten to compound this issue: The Trump administration plans to cut the NIH’s …

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The hidden cost of health care: burnout, disillusionment, and systemic betrayal

Physician
June 2, 2025

An excerpt from Doctor Slave: Reflections on the Future of Medicine.

The distance from clinical practice provided a clarity that was impossible to achieve while embedded within the system. From outside, I could see patterns, pressures, and paradoxes that had been invisible when I was caught in the daily grind.

I recognized that many aspects of modern health care that are presented as inevitable or necessary are actually artificial constructs designed …

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My journey from misdiagnosis to living fully with APBD

Conditions
May 22, 2025

I have always been a performer at heart, starting with theater in school. For 28 years, I was a law professor at Indiana University in Indianapolis, and teaching gave me a captive audience. Beyond the classroom, I have always been passionate about music. I play the guitar and sing, and back in the day I was part of a band. I was also a distance runner and dreamed of completing …

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She wouldn’t move in the womb—then came the rare diagnosis that changed everything

Conditions
May 21, 2025

Even before Mia was born, I could sense that something about her was different. With my other children, I felt constant movement during pregnancy, but Mia stayed curled up in one spot and hardly moved at all. When I mentioned this to my obstetrician, he assured me that it was normal. But I was sure that there was something more going on.

As soon as Mia was born, there were signs …

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Diabetes and Alzheimer’s: What your blood sugar might be doing to your brain

Conditions
May 20, 2025

There’s an ever-growing body of evidence to suggest that diabetes contributes to the development of Alzheimer’s disease. Some even go so far as to dub Alzheimer’s disease “diabetes type III.”

How might diabetes cause Alzheimer’s disease?

It’s the sugar: Chronic high blood sugar (hyperglycemia) can damage blood vessels, including those in the brain. This vascular damage reduces oxygen and nutrient delivery to brain cells, increasing …

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