"This blog was developed to provide medical updates that are important and have my perspective as additional insight."
Medical Marijuana is becoming increasingly popular in Arizona since legalization, and this remains controversial on a number of levels. Dr. Alan Block, one of our neighborhood neurologists, is well known to many of our patients as he is always in shorts and Hawaiin shirt. He has a regular column in one of the professional magazines …
Getting the combination of tastes perfect, if mostly by accident, explains the amazing and unique flavor of Heinz Ketchup. It’s why nothing can replace it in our tastebuds. Read about the explanation of HEINZ….>>>>HERE<<<<< More about your digestive tract can be found in Mary Roach’s GULP …a great read if you have some time …
I am a big fan of the Warner Brothers cartoons. Both the humor and insight in these cartoons often captures a concept perfectly, demonstrating that laughing at our challenges helps keep us humble and open. In the famous “One Froggy Evening” a Ralph Kramdenesque fellow discovers a singing frog and hopes to make big money on …
We’ve all heard of placebo medications, phony pills that are meant to make us feel better just by suggesting that they can provide relief from some medical issue or another. Well, this humorous piece from THE ONION, a satirical faux-news website, offers a funny take on the value of seeing the PLACEBO DOCTOR. Of course, …
With the passing of Gene Wilder, I wanted to reprise this old blog-post……..in his honor. Gene Wilder is among my favorite actors….for many reasons: Young Frankenstein and Blazing Saddles…amazing. Also, he was at University of Iowa….which always interested me (so was another of my favorites…Kurt Vonnegut)….but I digress. This short video provides some …
I think I’m like most people….in that I have a feeling about most of the foods I eat. What I mean by that is not….oh, this is tasty….but rather that I have a feeling about whether I’m eating healthy or not. If I eat a burger….I feel like ‘that’s not good for me’, while if …
The truth is….medical care is expensive and it’s getting more so each year. In addition, with the aging of the population, medical costs in total continue to climb at a rapid rate. It is important to us all to try to control costs, for ourselves as individuals, and for the system in general. Due to …
Does anybody remember the short-lived TV show THE IMMORTAL. It revolved around a dying aged millionare who needed the blood of Christopher George to survive, because he was ill and Christopher George had blood that uniquely gave the power of good health. Well, it now appears researchers have found a similar effect in mice. Young …
As a medical student and medical intern, I prided myself on my ability to get blood samples from ‘difficult to stick’ patients, and I can remember IV drug abusers teaching us students how to find their veins, as they were the most expert of all in finding a difficult to stick vessel. Now, today, two …
Among the best parts of this time of year is all of the graduations going on around us, and the best part of graduations are the ‘best of the best’ commencement addresses that are given. There have been many especially good ones over the years, although I’ve never been privy to personally seeing one given, …
Well….my title for this piece is not quite accurate, but it rhymes! I’m talking about the famous patient from the past, Phineas Gage. His story if one of the ‘classics’ of neurology, as he had a severe injury from an explosion that damaged his brain, and he lived to tell about it. Although never formally …
A patient told me about a 60-minutes piece on the over 80 population, covering the 90+ project at University of Irvine in California. There are many findings from the study that are contrary to population belief and expectation, and which they feel are revealed in the data they have collected to residents of Leisure World, …
There was a recent research article that I reviewed about smoking and the aging effects it has on the skin. It reappeared with some good pictures in the NY TIMES, so take a look and see how smoking makes one twin look older than the other. Here are the pics>>>>>>HERE
I just heard a ‘wild’ report from a newly pregnant woman when I asked her about all the new issues that pregnant woman have to deal with. I was thinking of issues of genetic screening, and cord blood banking….how woman were handling these new issues that had not confronted my wife and I when we …
Yes….I said it. Dr. Oz is full of baloney….or something more fragrant. Someone had to say it…someone legitimate, like a practicing, Hopkins-trained internist who is carrying on the Osler Tradition. Well, not everything he says is suspect, but I hear from patients all the time about the latest supplement or vitamin that Dr. Oz …