"This blog was developed to provide medical updates that are important and have my perspective as additional insight."
Who is Oz but a charlatan who exagerates endlessly and for his own benefit and profit; I’m talking about the aptly name Dr. OZ…not the one whom was all know from the Technicolor days of Judy Garland. The recent Congressional ‘dress down’ of Dr. Oz is the first TV of late that he has been …
Antidepressant medications like Prozac and Zoloft have been around for decades and have an amazing safety track record. For the first 20 years of use, these medications were also considered extremely safe in pregnancy as well, and this was greatly reassuring as there are more and more woman of child-baring age on these drugs. Then, …
I’m a big fan of exercise and feel very strongly that it is the single most important effort you should make to stay healthy. A patient recently sent me this article on a study from the LIFE trial (Standing for Lifestyle Interventions and Independence for Elders). In a study of over 1,500 patients, it showed …
We’ve all heard of placebo medications, phony pills that are meant to make us feel better just by suggesting that they can provide relief from some medical issue or another. Well, this humorous piece from THE ONION, a satirical faux-news website, offers a funny take on the value of seeing the PLACEBO DOCTOR. Of course, …
Why would you give mice Prozac? Well……not to improve their moods. Have you ever seen a depressed mouse??? I didn’t think so. Researchers used Citalopram (a medication quite similar to Prozac as it is an SSRI….Selective Serotonin Uptake Inhibitor) in mice to see if this reduced the production of Beta-Amyloid protein in their brains, as …
With the passing of Gene Wilder, I wanted to reprise this old blog-post……..in his honor. Gene Wilder is among my favorite actors….for many reasons: Young Frankenstein and Blazing Saddles…amazing. Also, he was at University of Iowa….which always interested me (so was another of my favorites…Kurt Vonnegut)….but I digress. This short video provides some …
I think I’m like most people….in that I have a feeling about most of the foods I eat. What I mean by that is not….oh, this is tasty….but rather that I have a feeling about whether I’m eating healthy or not. If I eat a burger….I feel like ‘that’s not good for me’, while if …
The truth is….medical care is expensive and it’s getting more so each year. In addition, with the aging of the population, medical costs in total continue to climb at a rapid rate. It is important to us all to try to control costs, for ourselves as individuals, and for the system in general. Due to …
Does anybody remember the short-lived TV show THE IMMORTAL. It revolved around a dying aged millionare who needed the blood of Christopher George to survive, because he was ill and Christopher George had blood that uniquely gave the power of good health. Well, it now appears researchers have found a similar effect in mice. Young …
As a medical student and medical intern, I prided myself on my ability to get blood samples from ‘difficult to stick’ patients, and I can remember IV drug abusers teaching us students how to find their veins, as they were the most expert of all in finding a difficult to stick vessel. Now, today, two …
Measles is an extremely contagious virus that has virtually been eliminated from the United States since the 1990’s due to broad-ranging immunization of children throughout the country. Now, with the desire to avoid immunizations for their children, we are seeing a resurgence of this illness. To understand the history of this disease and to get …
Among the best parts of this time of year is all of the graduations going on around us, and the best part of graduations are the ‘best of the best’ commencement addresses that are given. There have been many especially good ones over the years, although I’ve never been privy to personally seeing one given, …
Well….my title for this piece is not quite accurate, but it rhymes! I’m talking about the famous patient from the past, Phineas Gage. His story if one of the ‘classics’ of neurology, as he had a severe injury from an explosion that damaged his brain, and he lived to tell about it. Although never formally …
I always liked that saying about the canary. Perhaps it wasn’t such a good job being the canary, but the idea of a simple measure to assess a situation is a great idea, and the latest information on diabetic patients gives us just such information. Diabetic complications have fallen sharply over the past few decades, …
A patient told me about a 60-minutes piece on the over 80 population, covering the 90+ project at University of Irvine in California. There are many findings from the study that are contrary to population belief and expectation, and which they feel are revealed in the data they have collected to residents of Leisure World, …