My Blog
I dive into subjects related to chronic ailments and how to finally feel relief from them.
Putting Medical Science Under the Microscope, Part 2
Last Friday morning, the Medscape Internal Medicine digest which popped into my inbox contained the following two news items: Statins Increase Diabetes Risk Up to 50% in Older Women 'Suggestion' of Brain Changes With Statin Use Statins, such as Zocor (simvastatin),...
Putting Medical Science Under the Microscope, Part 1
Last year Nature published a survey in which well more than half of the 1,500 scientists surveyed stated they have been unable to reproduce the results of medical research -- even when they were trying to reproduce their own research. In January 2017, the...
Fear is the Last Thing We Need in Medicine
I recently watched Danielle Ofri's TED talk titled Fear: A Necessary Emotion For Doctors. Dr. Ofri begins her talk by relating how she became paralyzed with fear while in the middle of resuscitating a dying patient during her first night as a resident. I know exactly...
Work Should Make You Well
If you google the phrase "working is making me sick," you get over 99 million hits. Search engines work so quickly that we don't usually take notice of the number of hits we get, but I'll tell you that 99 million citations is an enormous number. Repeat...
4 Ways to Create a Healthier Workplace
When you think of health in the context of your job or your company, the first thing which springs to mind is probably health insurance. Or you might think of wellness benefits, such as gym memberships. But having health insurance or wellness benefits is only one part...
The Unrecognized Epidemic of Loneliness and What to do About It
I've been trying to have lunch with a colleague for three weeks. Yes, she's a friend and I want to catch up with her, but I also want to talk business, get her feedback on a new project I'm considering. We've emailed back and forth, trying to find a time which works,...
How Loneliness Makes You Sick
Humans are social animals. We are designed to live in communities. And, much as we like to think of ourselves as independent and self-sufficient, no one can survive without the help other people. This is why loneliness hurts. When we describe loneliness we use words...
Why Your Doctor Doesn’t Know About the Greatest Threat to Your Health
In my last post, I talked about the ways loneliness ruins your health. I suspect the statistics I quoted were a complete surprise. Chances are you've never heard anything about the effects of loneliness on your health. When you see a doctor for your...
The Biggest threat to Your Health That You Didn’t Know About
Quick: think of the most unhealthy habit a person can have. You probably thought smoking, or drinking too much, or something along these lines. Yes, it's true that smoking and excess drinking aren't good for you, but they're not the most unhealthy habit. And now think...
Are You Suffering From Fast-Food Medicine?
Think about the last time you ate at a fast food restaurant. Did you get the thick burger on the fluffy bun with crispy lettuce and a big slice of tomato that you were promised? Probably not. More than likely you got a shrunken patty on a flattened bun with a few...
What Burnout Says About Medical Training
In my last post I posed several questions about physician burnout, questions designed to probe into the culture of medicine which creates and sustains burnout. It’s easy to point to the pressures of regulation, declining reimbursement, increasing patient volume, and...
4 Questions to Ask About Physician Burnout
Yesterday, Medscape published its latest statistics on physician burnout. Burnout continues to increase in the country, with more than half of the 14,000 physicians surveyed reporting symptoms of burnout, a 25% increase since Medscape’s first burnout...
