Neurologists and physicians writing on KevinMD about the brain: dementia and Alzheimer's disease and the biomarkers that now find it early, stroke and what recovery really allows, autism, Parkinson's disease, gait and balance as vital signs, and caring for a spouse or parent with a neurological illness. Three maintained records draw on this archive: Aging and dementia: what physicians say, in their own words, Heart disease: what physicians say, in their own words, and Mental health: what psychiatrists and physicians say, in their own words.
In the old days, bullying used to consist of name calling or physical aggression from someone in a position of power over another, typically from a roughly similarly aged peer group. The bullying could be mild such as occasional name calling and having one’s books knocked down when walking in the hallway. This does not mean the effects of the bullying were mild but comparatively speaking, this is generally not …
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Impersonal communication on the Internet fuels cyberbullying
Would you consider a career as a singer if you had involuntary tics from Tourette Syndrome?
Well, it apparently didn’t stop 20-year-old Contemporary Christian musician Jamie Grace.
In fact, Grace attributes singing with helping her cope with her disease.
And now she is being rewarded with a Grammy nomination for best contemporary Christian music song, Hold Me. The song features TobyMac, who is a Grammy winning Christian recording and hip/hop artist. He …
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A Grammy artist with Tourette Syndrome
Labels matter. We quickly form judgments based on them. If we hear someone called lazy, the label “lazy person” attaches in our mind even though we may not have even met the person. The same is true for labels given to various medical conditions. If the label for an illness uses language such as “fatigue,” we abstract from our experience and think we know what it’s like to suffer from …
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Why we need truth in labeling of medical conditions
Billionaire Teddy Forstmann had been diagnosed with a serious form of brain cancer. There’s a tragic twist to the story: according to Fox Business News, Forstmann believes that for more than a year, he had been misdiagnosed with meningitis.
ABC News wonders, “How could such a misfortune befall a billionaire —- a man able to afford the best doctors, best technology and the most sophisticated diagnostic tests?”
They’re missing the point. …
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5 ways to avoid a misdiagnosis
There seems to be a deep, even innate, need on the part of many young men to actually, or vicariously, strike out at other people to cause pain and injury while striving to dominate.
In 1996, I wrote an editorial entitled “Blunt Force Violence in America” describing “a modern continuum from street fights to barroom brawls to domestic child, spousal, and elder abuse, to ultimate fighting to extreme fighting, to …
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Why ultimate fighting is better than boxing
Jack and John are identical twins but have varying interests in life. One day Jack, 43 years old, decides he has had enough of these headaches and calls his family doctor and asks what he should do. He is told that his doctor can see him in 4 days and to take some over-the-counter ibuprofen. And to go to the ER if the headaches worsen.
John, who has also been having …
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Identical twins with different ideas about health care
Mark Twain, the American author and humorist once said, “It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.” In my experience as a geriatrician, I’ve encountered many misunderstandings about this degenerative neurologic disease that devastates both patients and their families. Countering these can help patients, families, professionals, and all those who have someone in their lives with Alzheimer’s disease.
1. …
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Myths and misses about Alzheimer’s Disease
Recently, the Philadelphia Flyers announced that all star defensive stalwart Chris Pronger has been shut down for the rest of the NHL season with what the team has described as “post-concussive syndrome”. Pronger joins Pittsburgh Penguin superstar Sidney Crosby, teammate and NHL leading scorer Claude Giroux, and Ottawa Senator forward and NHL second leading scorer Milan Michalek out of action due to concussion. To list every star player currently on the …
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The phenomenon of concussions in professional sport
Test your medicine knowledge with the MKSAP challenge, in partnership with the 
