Health Pearls

Quick Tips

Three Quick Tips For Change

Approaches & Strategies: ** What is your WHY?Ask yourself… what do I want to change? What do I REALLY want from my life?Having a WHY gives us purpose and direction. It helps to reinforce our actions making sense of our choices and behaviors. Change is moredifficult without a WHY… Nutrition & Fitness: ** Fiber 25-35…

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Postpartum depression – a common but often overlooked problem

One in five women will experience postpartum depression. The same number, or more, will suffer from postpartum anxiety (let’s save this topic for another time). For many women, especially first-time mothers, the change from their baseline to being a new mother is so different that it is a challenge to make sense of any possible…

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Health News: Coffee Consumption and Longevity; High Dose Vitamin D Decreases Sunburn Effects; Antidepressants’ Effects in Pregnancy;Antibiotics and Birth Defects…

*Coffee Consumption Could Improve Lifespan* Two large studies, recently published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, found a link between lower mortality risk and coffee consumption.   The study from University of Southern California’s Keck School of Medicine in Los Angeles, reviewed data on185,855 of middle aged to older Americans over a decade.  The researchers…

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Updates on Hormone Therapy in Menopause

As a practicing ob-gyn for the last 35 years, I have certainly seen the “hormone wars.” As is true in so many subjects in medicine, studies are presented that demonstrate a significant benefit of a drug or supplement, only to be challenged months or years later with the opposite findings, leading to confusion and angst,…

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Health News: Hepatitis C Rates in Pregnancy; Wine and Breast Cancer; Foods and Depression; Breast Cancer Rates in Asian American Women…

*Hepatitis C (HCV) On the Rise in Pregnant Women* US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report showed a doubling between 2009 to 2014 of hepatitis C (HCV) infections in pregnant women.  Increased incidences were found especially in W. Virginia and Tennessee where there’s a high risk for opioid addiction.  The…

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Hospitalist

Zero to 50,000 – The 20th Anniversary of the Hospitalist

Patients often ask which hospital they should go to in an emergency. I tell them they can go to whichever one they prefer, since my group no longer rounds at the hospital. Our patients are taken care of by the hospital-based doctors. Let’s discuss why this came about and how you can advocate for yourself…

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Health News: Pregnancy Risks in Cancer Survivors; Lymphoma in Breast Implants; BRCA Testing Rate; Depression on the Rise; Gum Disease and Shortened Lifespan; Marathon Runners and Kidney Disease…

*Cancer Survivors and Pregnancy Risks* A study from the School of Public Health at the University of North Carolina shows potential risks of preterm labor, low birth weight infants, and higher cesarean section rate in women with history of cancer.  The study gathered data from 15,000 births of women ranging from 15-39 years old.  The…

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Talking to Your Spouse About Couples Therapy

Lots of people – mostly women – give my Bethesda psychotherapy practice a call to begin couples therapy. Most of the time, both spouses are committed to seeking help and we’re able to get started right away. Unfortunately, sometimes one partner is desperately wanting couples therapy but needs guidance about how to ask their spouse…

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March is Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month

Colorectal cancer will strike one of 20 people in the US over their lifetime, including both men and women. Colon cancer is curable by surgery if it is diagnosed early. Therefore, screening is recommended at age 50 for most people, age 45 for African Americans, and earlier for some people at high risk such as…

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Helping Teens Understand Unhealthy Dating Relationships

Most adults would agree that the teen years can be a vulnerable period.  Teens juggle the mastery of many tasks during this phase.  One of the most important is developing the tools needed to form healthy partner relationships.  Unfortunately, for many teens, an introduction to unhealthy relationships occurs during this time.  According to the CDC,…

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