I have nothing against stretching. In fact I spend about five minutes after running, biking or walking with various stretches. I try not to bounce, which is a common mistake among males, who for God knows why, seem to think that briefly touching the toes (or for those of us who can’t quite make it there, perhaps the ankles) demands bouncing upward again and again. I have also tried yoga, which for a middle aged guy may have not been… Read More »
Fingers are really important. Just think for a moment of all the tasks that your fingers do. Since these little guys have so many functions, they have evolved to have extensive nerves, muscles and joints. Unfortunately, with all this complexity comes a greater chance of injury. One of the injuries involves the end of the finger. If a crush injury occurs right over the end joint or DIP as its nom de guerre is known, it could tear the attachment… Read More »
Watching TV may actually shorten your life span. Granted, the dramatic soap operas, the cheesy commercials and the overpaid yet under skilled actors contribute to a less than stellar experience. But for God’s sake: ESPN? Mash reruns? Saturday night live? Sedentary behavior, ie sitting and not doing much else has been associated with a greater risk of death. How much or rather how many years lost had never before been studied-until recently. Well, a study in Australia contains some disturbing findings.… Read More »
You may have heard the joke: How to you tell if a lawyer is lying? Answer: When his mouth is moving. While there may be more than just a grain of truth in that joke, there is quite a bit of information which can be found by observing faces and not just those of lawyers. If a person smiles and only one half of his mouth forms the smile, he or she could be suffering a stroke or perhaps a… Read More »
For males who still have some hair and for almost all females going to the hairdresser is a common thing. Given that these hairdressers are in a unique position to find suspicious scalp and face lesions, how many actually look for such potential skin cancers? A recent study found that about 40% of hairdressers looked for possible cancers and about half of these stylists had actually suggested to a customer that he or she see a dermatologist. This is very… Read More »
Premature deliveries can result in serious complications. If a baby is delivered weeks or even months before it should be delivered-say about 40 weeks, bad things can and do happen: The baby may need to be hospitalized for weeks or even months;brain, lung, gut injury can occur; lifetime disabilities may result and a boat load of money is consumed. What if there were a way to help prevent such catastrophes? Progesterone is the hormone which nurtures the developing fetus by… Read More »
Not too long ago when a patient arrived with stroke symptoms, there was very little to do. The extent of the stroke was determined by CT scan; labs were done to diagnose possible stroke mimickers (hypoglycemia) as well as risks for future strokes. In some cases an ultrasound of the carotids was completed to see if these arteries, which supply the brain had enough narrowing from plaques to justify surgery (endartectomy). Yet for the brain itself it was almost a wait… Read More »
Last year, my daughter, along with about 5 million other Americans had her wisdom teeth pulled. Why? We were told by her dentist that her wisdom teeth were crowding out her other teeth. If we didn’t remove the offending wisdom teeth, infection and even jaw growth damage could occur. It turns out that despite recommendations of the American Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons, there is very little hard evidence that failure to remove wisdom teeth represents a major health hazard.… Read More »
Imagine, if you will, that you finally made it to the gym. Here you started lifting free weights, even though you hadn’t touched the weights in years, perhaps even decades. As you start the squats, burdened with what for you seems an awfully heavy forty pound weight, you suddenly experience severe, tearing pain in the groin. Fortunately, the pain resolves but every so often, you feel a little twitch there. Grounds for worry? Hernias are very common in all age… Read More »
You might think that your teenager’s hearing loss is subjective: Not hearing about completing the homework, getting off the internet or cleaning the pig sty which happens to be her room and yet hearing each and every cell call and tweet announcement. Well, if you or your significant other happen to be a smoker that hearing loss might be real. A recent study found that children of smokers were much more likely to have a particular form of hearing loss… Read More »
