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Pregnancy Can Cause Some Serious Skin Changes

When we think of skin changes in pregnancy, what immediately comes to mind are stretch marks or Striae Gravidarum . Stretch marks occur because of a breakdown of collagen, a substance that holds the skin together and is responsible for its stretching. Teen pregnant patients are more at risk for having stretch marks. Why is that important? Because, according to medical literature, stretch marks can increase the risk of having lacerations (or tears) during birth.

Another fairly common skin condition during pregnant is called Pruritus gravidarum or generalized itching during pregnancy without the presence of a rash. Approximately 14% of pregnant women are affected by this condition and it is associated with twin pregnancies, fertility treatments and diabetes. As stated in my previous blog, itching during pregnancy should not be ignored, especially in the third trimester because it could signify a condition called Cholestasis of Pregnancy that involves an increase in bile or liver enzymes. This condition is also associated with preterm labor.

Hormonal changes of pregnancy that involve estrogen or progesterone can produce Read more »

*This blog post was originally published at Dr. Linda Burke-Galloway*

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…

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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…

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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…

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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…

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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…

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