Lady Docs Corner Cafe Blog - Linda Yau, M.D., F.A.C.P.

The autumn months bring temperature changes and remind us of the influenza (flu) season that will occur soon. Influenza is a highly infectious virus that causes 20,000 preventable deaths and 200,000 hospitalizations annually. The seemingly low protection (45%) of last year’s flu vaccine spells uncertainty for most of us when deciding to vaccinate for flu this year; however, ...

February has traditionally been designated Red Dress month to raise awareness of the issue of heart disease in women. Now there is a special day and a website as well. The stereotypical heart patient is an older man who may have high cholesterol and high blood pressure. However the leading cause of death in women in the United States continues to be heart disease. Women ...

The first book review I wrote for this website focused on The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer by Dr. Siddhartha Mukherjee. I absolutely loved that book. Critics agreed, since it won the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for nonfiction. It is hard to top such a sweeping drama in terms of the breadth and depth of cancer research. Therefore, this book on cancer, The Death of ...

When I saw the subtitle of this book, I immediately felt hope. It is good to think of the opportunity that lies with midlife. Often being in this time of life brings stress with aging parents, growing children and health issues. So often the word “midlife” goes along with the word “crisis”. Not so in this book. The author, a long time reporter at ...

My good friend from medical school forwarded me an article called Before I Go published in the Spring 2015 Stanford Medicine magazine. It was written so beautifully by a young neurosurgeon that it made me tear up. Dr. Kalanithi majored in English and biology at Stanford and then got a master’s in English literature before attending Yale School of Medicine. This article ...

As the days get longer and schools let out, the summer travel season is heating up. If you are traveling internationally, be sure to get all the appropriate shots to protect yourself from preventable infections. As a first step, everyone should be up to date on the routine vaccines. The following should be up to date if you are traveling: Tetanus: Tetanus/Diphtheria/Pertussis: ...

In the introduction to this book, the author remembers that “by the time I stepped down as dean at Stanford in 2012 I had interacted not only with a tremendous number of parents but with students who seemed increasingly reliant upon their parents in ways that felt, simply, off.” “Helicopter parenting” , “invasive parenting”, and the “cult ...

I recently heard a very scary story from my friend. Her father had called her at work saying he was not feeling well, and that an alarm was loudly blaring in the background. She made out the mechanical sounding words, “Carbon monoxide” by the alarm system. Immediately she told her father to open the windows and called 911. After rushing to her father’s home, ...

In the Acknowledgements section of this book, British neurosurgeon Dr. Henry Marsh starts with this sentiment: “ I hope that my patients and colleagues will forgive me for writing this book.” Why would this be? As a physician, I found his many stories of serious illness, tragic consequences of surgery, and ethical dilemmas profound and not unlike many American ...

Did you know that checking your email multiple times a day drains your brain of power and ability to make proper decisions? In fact, just knowing you have an email waiting for you lowers your IQ by 10 points. In this fascinating book full of scientific facts on the neural networks and processing in the brain, Dr. Levitin, a neuroscientist at the University of Toronto, explains ...