Not all hernias are created equal. The most common type is the inguinal hernia, which due to complicated and boring anatomy, seems to herniate often. A hernia is simply put a tear and through that tear stuff can come out. What comes out? Well that depends where the hernia is [...]

During the dog days of summer life is slow, sweet and oh so hot. Yes, the temperature rises and with the heat so too does the risk of overheating or hyperthermia. How to prevent from becoming too hot? First and foremost: be aware of your environment and what you're doing. [...]

A Chinese herb Tripterygium wilfordii or thunder god vine (gotta love that name!) was recently studied for treatment of rheumatoid arthritis. This is a disease which can cause serious and permanent deformities in joints and can affect other organs as well. One treatment that is often used is Methotrexate, which has [...]

An average of 88 people per day die in this country from firearms. It is becoming nearly impossible to discuss this issue rationally due to the politics. Let's try for a minute to cast aside the grandstanding and look at the data which is available. Two thirds of the deaths [...]

If your knee swells and you haven't injured it, what could be going on?   Well, most of the time you probably didn't even realize that you twisted it just a tiny bit, perhaps when stepping off that curb late last night. Usually, there is some prior wear and tear [...]

Kids and babies get sore throats, toothaches and cold sores. H0w can we help our little friends get over these things? Well, unfortunately much of the time antibiotics don't work, because many of these infections are caused by viruses. Antibiotics don't work at all against viruses. Yet, being human, we [...]

Video games to be sure are one of many ways to engage in seemingly mindless activity and are almost guaranteed to drive parents nuts. How do I know this? I have two kids. Still, what surprises me, a middle aged guy who at one point was a pinball wizard and [...]

Americans love coffee. The only liquid consumed more than coffee is water. Not only does the caffeine keep you awake and keep Starbucks shareholders happy, it turns out that caffeine has some other healthy effects. Regular caffeine consumption will reduce the risk of colon,uterine and prostate cancer. Not only that [...]

Q tips are a great invention. With the long wooden handle you can reach quite deeply into a wound,. With the soft cotton end you can soak up some of the yucky stuff within the wound. A little hydrogen peroxide on the tip will clean out the dirty cuts. As [...]

You want to reduce your risk of a heart attack. To begin with you stop smoking, lay off the double bacon cheeseburgers, and avoid the chocolate chip cookies. You start walking more than the usual daily amount from your car to the McDonalds entrance. You treat your high blood pressure [...]