Conditions

Test your medicine knowledge with the MKSAP challenge, in partnership with the American College of Physicians. A 65-year-old man is evaluated during a visit to establish care. He is interested in colorectal cancer screening; however, he adamantly refuses to undergo colon preparation, and he does not want to modify his diet for screening. He has never undergone colorectal cancer screening. Medical and family histories are ...

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Australian singer/songwriter Sia (born Sia Kate Isobelle Furler), 43, is known for wearing elaborate wigs and headpieces that hide her face. However, the "Chandelier" singer is not hiding the fact that she was recently diagnosed with the connective tissue disorder Ehlers-Danlos syndrome. In a tweet, Sia wrote: "Hey, I'm suffering with chronic pain, a ...

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Is your patient having trouble breathing? I can ask respiratory to give him a nebulizer. I'm looking at his chest X-ray now — why don't we bump up that Lasix, too? I wish the ER would have grabbed an ultrasound of that swollen leg. Does he need more oxygen? If something is missing from this picture, it isn't the clinical people who are at fault. Clinicians solve problems with the tools they're ...

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Smoking was cool. And he started smoking at the age of 15. Two packs a day — every day. When he was 32 years old, we had our first-born son. And he decided to quit cold turkey. But the damage was done. Somehow, someway, it would catch up with him in devastating ways. By the time my husband was 66 years old, he developed shortness of breath and chest pain. With exertion and without ...

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It was flu season. I was meeting the usual frustrations of trying to convince my patients to get the flu shot. The flu vaccine has such potential to save lives, yet its reputation is marred by misinformation, leading people to decline this simple, inexpensive, and effective way to limit disease and death. Day in and day out, I felt like I was beating my head against a wall. This particular day, I ...

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Here’s some good news for a change about cancer: Cancer mortality — the rate of death from cancer — has fallen substantially over the last four decades. There is also, however, some not-so-good news: Cancer incidence — the rate of cancer diagnoses — has been rising. This doesn’t reflect increasing dangers in our environment, but a danger in ...

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My wife is a teacher. Her passion is helping the Bart Simpsons of the education system. This past year the school district in the rural area where we live tasked her with the job of opening the community’s first alternative education school. Imagine taking 60 of some of the hardest kids in the area and creating a school just for them, so they have an opportunity to feel success, thrive, and ...

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The National Institute of Aging (NIA) just announced $73 million over five years to fund two new research centers. "The Alzheimer Centers for the Discovery of New Medicines are designed to diversify and reinvigorate the Alzheimer's disease drug development pipeline," says the NIA online. The AlzForum.org has more details, quoting researchers saying they will change the direction away from amyloid-beta and tau (the presumed ...

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The Skeptical Cardiologist was recently greeted by headlines announcing that an international panel of 14 unbiased researchers had concluded that it was OK for humans to continue eating red meat and processed meat at current levels. The startling news was a reversal of what the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, the American Heart Association, and the American Cancer Society have ...

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