Health care should be apolitical, but it isn’t [PODCAST]

“COVID-19 is a tragedy that could have easily been prevented if our leaders cared more about the well-being of their citizens instead of economies, stock markets, and their political campaigns. To all those arguing about how the economy is more important, I ask, how will sick and dead people contribute to an economy? How will…

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When we coach, we change the lives of our children

For the past six months, I’ve spent my free time becoming a certified life coach. I’m a hospitalist, but a little more than a year ago, I was introduced to life coaching. I love the changes it has produced in my life – particularly how it’s changed me as a mother. Coaching helps me to…

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It’s time to go all in on climate action

I can’t sleep, or maybe it’s that I got up too early. It’s 3 a.m. and a good 1 to 2 hours before I usually get up. California is literally burning. We have no rain in sight. Colorado is burning as well, although they may have snow soon. Do you remember last year when Australia…

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So you want to be a doctor? Here are 10 myths debunked.

I’m glad you’re looking at a career in medicine. I hope you will be happy with your choice forever. To help you out, these are a few myths I wish somebody told me about when I was in your shoes. 1. You’ll be rich. You likely won’t. After two decades or so of med school…

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Getting the best treatment for your fibromyalgia

Imagine being in pain and having your doctor tell you it’s all in your head. Unfortunately, this is not an uncommon experience for many of the six million Americans living with fibromyalgia, a chronic, painful condition. People with fibromyalgia experience widespread pain, aches, and stiffness in muscles and joints throughout the body, as well as…

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What is an informed decision in the context of an addiction?

Ironically, his fingers looked like cigarette butts. They were black and chalky at the tips and then tan through his knuckles to his hands. A couple was capped by long yellow fingernails, shooting out like stalks of hay, bending in different directions. A few other fingertips had already fallen off, leaving behind stumps he could…

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Hormonal treatments for prostate cancer may prevent or limit COVID-19 symptoms

Men have roughly twice the risk of developing severe disease and dying from COVID-19 than women. Scientists say this is in part because women mount stronger immune reactions to the disease’s microbial cause: the infamous coronavirus called SARS-CoV-2. Now research with prostate cancer patients points to another possible explanation, which is that the male sex…

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What will medicine look like in a post-COVID world?

We all have understood by now that life has been changed irrevocably by COVID-19. As physicians, while we navigate the rapidly changing waters of testing, prevention, and acute treatment, we are now becoming increasingly cognizant of the long-term effects of COVID-19 infection with post-COVID clinics already being established in many places. Here are some of…

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Anesthesia touches nearly every area of medicine [PODCAST]

“I suppose those of us between zero and ninety-three are blessed in our own way as well. We are here, swirling in a jumble of the inconsequential and consequential. We’ve enjoyed some of the world’s beauty and reserve the potential to experience more. Some of us will have longer than others, but perhaps we should…

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