Archive for 2018
A Few Fitness Faves for 2019
Fitness should be fun! The more we enjoy the activity the more likely we are to be consistent and stay with it for the long term. It’s also really important to diversify our fitness to work the whole body in a variety of ways. Whether you are just getting started as a new exerciser, or…
Read MoreSocial Connections as The Secret of Happiness
Are you alone at this time of the year, or do you plan to spend time with your family and friends? Do you know of the loners in your neighborhood or your work places? If you have, like me, many holiday gatherings to go to, count yourself very lucky. You might complain how you do…
Read MoreValsartan Recall: An Ongoing Saga
We got a frenzy of portal messages from our patients in the last few weeks wondering why the evening news on television announced a recall of high blood pressure meds they take. They thought changing Valsartan (a commonly used blood pressure medication that is part of the ARB family) to other blood pressure medications should…
Read MoreA Thanksgiving Message from an Interfaith Service at Saint Francis Episcopal Church in Potomac
I love Thanksgiving as it marks the beginning of the holiday season. It also reminds me of all the important relationships I have in my life. It’s a “home coming” kind of holiday and one of kindness, where many of us look out for those who don’t have too many social ties, who yearn to…
Read MoreThree Letters From Sarajevo
On Sunday evening, my husband and I attended a music event at Strathmore, a concert meant to broaden our horizons. Three Letters from Sarajevo, by Goran Bregović, a diversely talented Serbian-Croatian musician. For much of the evening, I found my thoughts drifting to the horrific shooting at the Tree of Life synagogue and the lives senselessly ended. Each…
Read MoreWhy Is Weight Loss So Difficult – A Scientific Explanation
A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of going to a Smithsonian sponsored talk by Dr. Hall, who is a Senior Investigator at NIH and chief of one of the research programs at the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases that reaches across different branches of the institute. It was the…
Read MoreJust Keep Truckin’
You may have heard recently that lack of exercise is a greater risk factor for death than high blood pressure, high cholesterol or smoking. I was curious to see whether this was a sensational headline or if there was good data to back up the claim. The article referred to in the popular press was…
Read MoreNevertheless, We Persist…
Two years ago, one of my 18 year old patients almost killed herself. Her mom told me how she came home abruptly from college and showed signs of severe depression. An emergency appointment with a therapist revealed how she recently was raped on her college campus by a male student she knew. Her college administrators…
Read MoreBig News From the FDA Today Regarding e-cigarettes
Well, we’re finally seeing some action on e-cigarette use in youth! It’s a few years too late, but hopefully we can catch up. E-cigarettes are a form of ENDS, or electronic nicotine delivery systems. We reviewed some pros and cons of the first generation of these devices in October, 2014. “We’ve worked so hard for decades…
Read MoreA Day In Hiroshima: Tolling the Bell for Peace
Two weeks ago we were in Japan. It was an amazing and interesting country and culture for us to explore. The Japanese we met during our trip were so polite, so gentle, and very formal in many ways. Their streets were absolutely clean, something we had heard from many friends who had travelled to Japan…
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