Archive for November 2013
November Health Pearls on Nuts, Knees and Vitamin D
#1 We have already seen that a Mediterranean style diet, rich in nuts, is healthy. This month, researchers from Harvard reviewed nut consumption in over 110,000 health professionals from 1980 through 2010. Eating any nuts reduced the risk of dying by 7%. The more they ate, the better, so those with daily nut consumption reduced…
Read MoreThanksgiving, a Time for Gratitude
On November 10, 2000, three weeks before Thanksgiving, our son Sandy, at three years old, was diagnosed with Stage 4 neuroblastoma, a very aggressive childhood cancer (adrenal, right above the kidney, not brain despite the name). In the ER of Johns Hopkins Medical Center that Friday night, a medical resident informed us of his cancer…
Read MoreIt’s all in your head — sports related concussions
In the last few years, increased attention has been paid to sports related concussions and their effects. In October 2013, the Institute of Medicine issued a summary of recommendations addressing sports related concussions in youth. After reviewing recent research on the topic, they concluded that there is a lack of data on how common sports…
Read MoreIt’s all in your head — sports related concussions
In the last few years, increased attention has been paid to sports related concussions and their effects. In October 2013, the Institute of Medicine issued a summary of recommendations addressing sports related concussions in youth. After reviewing recent research on the topic, they concluded that there is a lack of data on how common sports…
Read MoreHow can my eyes be dry and tearing at the same time?!
Do you suffer from gritty, burning, red eyes? Do they feel dry, or sometimes excessively watery? Then you’re not alone. Estimates are that more than three million women over 50 and over 1.5 million men over 50 are affected by dry eye syndrome. The prevalence increases with age. You can see that women are twice…
Read MorePosture exercises for a proud stance
Your posture, or how you carry yourself, is very noticeable to others. Good posture can help you present yourself as confident and strong, or tired and weak. While posture is often good in childhood, it tends to worsen over time, unless you focus on exercises to maintain or improve it. Every day, we are leaning…
Read MoreThe Checklist Manifesto, A Book Review
The Checklist Manifesto Dr. Atul Gawande Published by Metropolitan Books, 2009 As evidenced by the title, The Checklist Manifesto makes a solid case for using a simple concept, the checklist, to improve patient and healthcare outcomes. Dr. Gawande, a frequent contributor to The New Yorker, serves as an attending endocrine surgeon at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. He opens…
Read MoreShould We Drink Bottled Water or Tap Water?
Poland Spring, Fiji, Aquafina, Deer Park, Dasani, Evian…the list goes on and on. Today, bottled water is becoming more and more prevalent as people turn to this option as a healthy alternative to drinking other bottled beverages, such as sodas and energy drinks. However, you may have heard concerns regarding the differences between tap water…
Read MoreHeart Disease in Women
Why, you might ask, should there be a symposium on heart disease in women? When we talk about pregnancy-related issues, uterine fibroids, and other ‘female issues’, it’s obvious why discussions need to focus on females, but why would that be true for heart disease? Well, having just returned home from just such a conference, I think…
Read MoreMoving Beyond the Need to be Right: Turning Conflict into Collaboration
Over the last 20 years, I’ve had the opportunity to work with individuals, couples, families and businesses on developing and utilizing effective conflict resolution strategies. I’ve seen hundreds of well-intentioned and good people get stuck in the need to be “right.” In any kind of conflict, there is by definition, what seems to be at…
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