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During my family medicine rotation, I noticed the physicians I worked with focused more time on weight management than in any other outpatient clinic I had worked in. Recently, while on a less demanding elective, I decided to conduct my own observational study. How often, and with what prompting, do physicians address their patients’ weight? […]
October 14, 2012
This month, I’m spending my days working with a rheumatology practice. It’s interesting to see the kinds of things the group is consulted on in the hospital – but in the office it’s mostly NSAIDs and knee-injections, which inspired this mediku. “Doc, my joint’s in pain!” Hmm . . . stick a needle in it […]
September 22, 2012
For centuries, certain cultures have customarily added milk to fresh-brewed tea – but in recent years, scientists in laboratories around the world have been “hotly” debating whether this seemingly-benign practice may actually inhibit some of the already well-established health benefits of tea drinking. The topic arose recently in the oncology clinic (of all places), when […]
June 22, 2012
I’ve been interested in health and nutrition since I started playing high school sports. During my 3 year stint as a personal trainer, I developed a distinct opinion of the Body Mass Index (or BMI – the most widely used anthropomorphic measurement in medicine): it’s not a very good tool. My issue with BMI began […]
March 30, 2012
Since March is National Nutrition Month, and because I’m still on my pediatrics clerkship, I thought “What better time to write about childhood obesity?” In recent years, childhood overweight and obesity statistics have received a good deal of media attention, but this has done little to slow their rise. Data from the National Health and […]
December 18, 2011
I apologize for the lack of content recently – I was pressed for time, between finishing up my psych rotation and relocating to Pittsburgh for a family medicine clerkship. The drive wasn’t bad – in fact, I made it here from Philly in only 4 hours. But when I decided to check out my accommodations, […]
November 20, 2011
As I’ve alluded to in the past, the study of medicine can be overwhelming. We’ve simply discovered too much for one person to master completely. This is the challenge medical educators are tasked with – what’s so important that it must be allotted time in the brief 2 years of dedicated book learning doctors-to-be receive? […]
October 30, 2011
October is health literacy month, and I would be remiss not to take a moment to give this issue the attention it deserves. In his book The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark, astronomer Carl Sagan wrote: “We live in a society exquisitely dependent on science and technology, in which hardly anyone […]
October 8, 2011
I recently took care of a patient who, very unfortunately, had undiagnosed type II diabetes and presented in a state known as Hyperosmolar Hyperglycemic Nonketotic Syndrome (HHNS) – his blood sugar on presentation was ~1,000 mg/dL. HHNS is a very serious complication of untreated diabetes, but can happen to any type II diabetic with poor […]
August 19, 2011
When a patient shows up for a doctor’s appointment with a companion, I often find myself studying (and later, interacting with) them as much as I do the patient. Most times, a quick review of body language is all I need to make an assessment – is this person looking out for the interests of […]
December 27, 2012
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