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Latest Posts

Secrets to Weight Loss: The Body Doesn’t Lie

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Now a couple weeks after Thankgiving, an important concept to remember is the following:

The body doesn’t lie.

We’ve all eaten a little too much. If we’ve done any exercise, then it is likely standing in line during Black Friday (or clicking the mouse on Cyber Monday). We should not be shocked about some weight gain. Although my patients find it hard to believe, the body doesn’t lie and are stunned that they continue to gain weight in subsequent office visits. It can’t be due to anything they are doing. Read more »

*This blog post was originally published at Saving Money and Surviving the Healthcare Crisis*

How To Care For A Stoma

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There is a very nice review article in the “throw away” journal Advances in Skin & Wound Care (full reference below) which discusses the causes and management of peristomal skin complications.  The photo (credit) to the right shows normal, healthy skin around a stoma.

Peristomal complications are one of the most challenging aspects of living with ostomies.  The purpose of this review article was stated to be “to illustrate practical approaches to prevent and treat common peristomal skin conditions.” Read more »

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

The Wheel Of Misfortune

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I love graphs, especially interactive graphs.

GE made a graph of the average annual cost of patients with eleven common chronic diseases.  Go check it out, marvel at the coolness as you grab the sliders and spin the wheel o’ misfortune.  Take home point: hypertension is the single biggest driver of medical cost in all patients age 33 and up.  Go figure.

*This blog post was originally published at Movin' Meat*

Do Hand and Foot Warmers Work?

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Ski season is upon us. There is no greater relief on a frigid winter day than warming cold, painful fingers and toes. In a recent issue of Wilderness and Environmental Medicine (2009;20:33-38), William Sands, Ph.D. and colleagues authored an article entitled, “Comparison of Commercially Available Disposable Chemical Hand and Foot Warmers.” The objective of their study was to characterize the thermal behaviors of 14 commercially available hand and foot warmers.

The warmers were studied in pairs in a laboratory setting, not in frigid conditions. Each warmer was monitored with a rapidly-responding thermister to determine its external temperature. One of each pair of warmers was placed in a boot or glove. Temperature was recorded until the heat output of the devices ceased and the temperature was determined to be identical to ambient temperature.

The results were quite interesting. There was variability both within and between manufacturers and types of warmers. Some of the devices exceeded packaging claims, while others fell short. The greater the mass of the warmer, the longer the duration of heat production. Read more »

This post, Do Hand and Foot Warmers Work?, was originally published on Healthine.com by Paul Auerbach, M.D..

Finger Nail Bed Injuries After A Motorcycle Accident

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I was supplied these photos by someone who found my blog and then corresponded with me regarding their injury. He had injured his fingers in a motorcycle accident six weeks previous to our “meeting.” He understood that I could not be his treating physician and keep his questions respectful of that. I am grateful to him for the use of his photos as they show how healing occurs.

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*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…

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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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