httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mNPftTx3m8I
1. Myth #1: Breast cancer doesn’t run in my family, so I’m less likely to get it.
A strong family history predicts breast cancer in only 5-10% of women in the US. In fact, 80% of breast cancer cases occur in women with no known family history of breast cancer whatsoever.
2. Myth #2: A lump in my breast means that I have breast cancer. Read more »
Several years ago I was urgently paged by a patient who had discovered a lump at the bottom of his chest. He came straight over to my office, fairly certain he had cancer. The lump turned out to be a normal part of his sternum (breastbone), a small piece of cartilage called the xiphoid. Now that’s the kind of diagnosis I like to make. Read more »
When thinking of the health risks of smoking, almost everyone is aware that smoking causes lung cancer and respiratory diseases. The connection between inhaling smoke into the lungs and developing diseases of the lung is immediately plausible. But every year medical researchers discover more and more diseases that are worsened by smoking.
One example that recently caught my attention is multiple sclerosis (MS). MS is a very serious neurological condition caused partly by damage to the myelin sheath covering cells and their connections in the central nervous system. The precise neurological symptoms the person experiences depends largely on which part of their central nervous system is affected. Read more »
This post, Smoking May Worsen Multiple Sclerosis, was originally published on Healthine.com by Jonathan Foulds, Ph.D..
There’s a disease that American doctors are absolutely terrible at diagnosing. It’s estimated that three million Americans have celiac disease and only a small percentage of them know it. In celiac disease, a component of wheat, rye, and barley called gluten sets off an immune reaction that attacks the intestine and can affect the entire body. Read more »
Last night I had a chance to sit with some parents here in Norwalk and talk about our collective experiences with diabetes. These parents were taking care of children with diabetes, ranging from the newly diagnosed three year old to the newly diagnosed 13 year old, and everywhere in between. High school angst, the issues of disclosure, the pursuit of “perfection,” and all those other issues that parents of kids with diabetes, and the kids themselves, are dealing with.
“I was invited here to talk about how to raise a child with diabetes without losing your mind. But I’m not really qualified to talk about that sort of thing, to be honest. I’m not the parent of a diabetic child. I am the diabetic child.”
The parents at this group were wonderful, all actively engaged in their child’s health, just trying to make sense of what diabetes doles out every day. We were a small group – about 12 of us in total – so the conversation flowed pretty smoothly and comfortably. And we hit upon some very intimate issues.
Like menstrual cycles and their impact on blood sugars. (Remind me again why I’m talking about puberty and my female hormones with strangers?) Or the dodgy things I did as a kid to lash out at my diabetes or my parents or at life in general. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Six Until Me.*
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