Better Health: Smart Health Commentary Better Health (TM): smart health commentary

Latest Posts

Blogging For Clean Water

This year’s topic for Blog Action Day [was] water. Many of us take clean water for granted, but even in the United States we are finding more and more that our drinking water is contaminated with prescription drugs. Dry years put our water reservoirs at risk and often result in mandatory restrictions on water use.

I am guilty of taking water for granted. I do try to use a full load when washing my clothes. I do turn off the water while brushing my teeth. I don’t water my lawn regularly. But I am still guilt of taking it for granted. I expect clean water to be there for me to drink and use for bathing.

Clean water is not the norm for many in the world. Nearly one billion people lack basic access to safe drinking water. That’s nearly 1 out of every 8 of us. Organizations like CharityWater.org are trying to bring clean wells to areas in Africa that lack clean water.

Read more »

*This blog post was originally published at Suture for a Living*

Latest Interviews

IDEA Labs: Medical Students Take The Lead In Healthcare Innovation

It’s no secret that doctors are disappointed with the way that the U.S. healthcare system is evolving. Most feel helpless about improving their work conditions or solving technical problems in patient care. Fortunately one young medical student was undeterred by the mountain of disappointment carried by his senior clinician mentors…

Read more »

How To Be A Successful Patient: Young Doctors Offer Some Advice

I am proud to be a part of the American Resident Project an initiative that promotes the writing of medical students residents and new physicians as they explore ideas for transforming American health care delivery. I recently had the opportunity to interview three of the writing fellows about how to…

Read more »

See all interviews »

Latest Cartoon

See all cartoons »

Latest Book Reviews

Book Review: Is Empathy Learned By Faking It Till It’s Real?

I m often asked to do book reviews on my blog and I rarely agree to them. This is because it takes me a long time to read a book and then if I don t enjoy it I figure the author would rather me remain silent than publish my…

Read more »

The Spirit Of The Place: Samuel Shem’s New Book May Depress You

When I was in medical school I read Samuel Shem s House Of God as a right of passage. At the time I found it to be a cynical yet eerily accurate portrayal of the underbelly of academic medicine. I gained comfort from its gallows humor and it made me…

Read more »

Eat To Save Your Life: Another Half-True Diet Book

I am hesitant to review diet books because they are so often a tangled mess of fact and fiction. Teasing out their truth from falsehood is about as exhausting as delousing a long-haired elementary school student. However after being approached by the authors’ PR agency with the promise of a…

Read more »

See all book reviews »

Commented - Most Popular Articles