Medical

I have been a doctor for twenty years, but I’m also a patient. We are all patients. This summer, my previously mild heart rhythm problem got a lot worse. By July, I was having frequent episodes of heart rates four times normal, causing me to almost lose consciousness. It was dangerous and scary. I consulted…

When the president of the United States contracts a dangerous disease, the story is big news. When the same disease has taken the lives of 200,000 people and the same president has been under fire for grossly mishandling the response, the tale takes on a much bigger, almost biblical significance. Americans have been on tenterhooks…

My seven-year-old son’s soccer club motto was “Audentes Fortuna Juvat,” which translates as “fortune favors the bold.”  Many years later, I discovered that this concisely stated philosophy is adhered to by the Trumbull College at Yale University, several U.S. Navy ships, and the 80th TAC Fighter Squadron, among others. In reflecting on my own path…

The pandemic has been hard on families. There has been so much loss, so much hardship, so much stress, and so much change. What makes it even harder is that there is so much uncertainty about when and how it will end; our lives, and the lives of our children, are going to be disrupted…

“Telehealth has come into focus during the COVID-19 pandemic as physicians face an immediate need to reduce exposure by providing care—or at least triage—remotely when appropriate. Under usual circumstances, telemedicine is comparatively low risk. That said, telemedicine does bring specific risks to patient safety and physician/practice liability. Minimizing those risks calls for adapting daily practice…

The COVID pandemic has now claimed as many American lives as World War I, the Vietnam War, and the Korean War combined. Most of these deaths are due to the well-known pulmonary complications of the coronavirus. It has become increasingly recognized, however, that the virus also attacks the nervous system. Doctors in a large Chicago…

The United Nations designated 2016 to 2025 the “Decade of Action on Nutrition” in recognition of the growing importance of food and diet as it relates to all aspects of human health. We’re almost halfway through, and we’re not making the progress we need to. A comprehensive study of scientific evidence for global diet goals…

The little things? The little moments? They aren’t little … I noticed the two of them shortly after I arrived for my shift. I was standing at the counter, immersed in a chart, when out of the corner of my eye, I saw them walk out of their treatment room. Together. Slowly, they walked into…