On Vacation

Dear readers,I will be rafting the rapids on the Colorado River for the next week. Stay healthy, wear lots of sunscreen and visit EverythingHealth again in about a week.TB

Common Drug Interactions

Did you know that a lack of acid in the stomach significantly affects the body's ability to absorb thyroid hormone? That is just one of many facts that patients often don't know. Here are a few others: * Proton Pump Inhibitors (PPI's like Prilosec, Aciphex, Protonics, Nexium) reduce calcium absorption. If you are on these pills,(and millions of people are) you will need extra Calcium. * Warfarin

Chatty Doctors

Wow, I read an article in the New York Times on "Chatty Doctors" and had to gulp and wonder if I have ever done that. It seems researchers videotaped 100 primary care doctor-patient interactions and they found the doctors talked about themselves in 1/3 of the visits. This wouldn't be so bad except they never circled back to the patient's issues and wasted a lot of the precious visit time

Osteoarthritis vs. Osteoporosis

Patients often confuse Osteoarthritis and Osteoporosis. They are two very different conditions. The following is a quick comparison: Osteoarthritis (Degeneration of cartilage at joints)o Painfulo Cause unknown but occurs with aging, prior trauma and geneticso Mainly joints of hands, knees, hips and spineo Worse in obese peopleo Calcium does not helpo Swelling

Medical Tests - think twice

An article in the New York Times struck home with me today. It has to do with excess radiation exposure from CT scans, X-rays and other ionizing radiation from medical tests.Many patients think more is better when it comes to diagnostic testing. They request scans for headaches, backaches, new knee pain and screening total body scans "just to make sure I'm ok". Despite warnings that body scans

Brits Got Talent - A Star Is Born

British Idol - just believe in yourself

Greetings by your Doctor- how do you like it?

The Archives of Internal Medicine had an interesting article about patient preferences for how a doctor greets them. Over 78% of patients want the physician to shake their hand. (I hardly ever shake hands with a patient! Why pass those germs?) Over 50% want the doctor to greet them with their first name and 56.4% want the doctor to introduce his/her self using first and last name. (I always do

Green Tea - maybe very very good for you

Green tea, like black and oolong tea, comes from the Camellia senesis plant. For green tea, the plant leaves are steamed and parched after picking to prevent oxidation of the compounds present in the leaf. Green tea extracts have been used in traditional Chinese medicine for centuries but now conventional medicine practitioners are beginning to explore the health-promoting benefits of green tea

Liquid Skin

When my daughter was young and I told her to get out of the sun or it would ruin her skin she would reply "Oh, it's OK, when I grow up there will be liquid skin. I will just rub it on and all the sun damage will be gone". I laughed at her silliness as I slathered sunscreen on her. Now there is a recent study from the Archives of Dermatology that shows there is hope for the wrinkles of aging.Sun

Health Care Reform - Myths and Facts

Finally, after almost 15 years, Health Care Reform is back in vogue. With the upcoming election, our country might be poised to actually address this issue. The California Healthcare Foundation has released some myths and facts that readers of EverythingHealth will find interesting.MYTH - The uninsured can get care when they need it.FACT- Almost half of uninsured individuals will not seek care

Cigarette Addiction -More on Nicotine

Here in the San Francisco Bay area, few people still smoke. But if you get away from the coast, you see the grip that nicotine addiction still has on people. I wrote a prior post on stopping smoking but newer studies are showing that the addictive properties of modern cigarettes are even more powerful than we thought.Cigarette smoke contains 4000 chemical compounds, some of which also reinforce

Recall on Imported Toothpaste

The FDA is warning consumers to throw out any Chinese toothpaste after it found a component of antifreeze in several products.Because diethylene glycol (DEG) is not always listed in the ingredients on the package, the FDA says people should examine their toothpaste and discard any imported from China. The FDA is concerned about chronic exposure to DEG, particularly to vulnerable populations like