It's often said that pediatricians and veterinarians have the hardest jobs in medicine because their patients can't tell them where it hurts. But the same is often true for the health care professionals treating older patients who can't communicate well or don't fully understand what's being explained to them.
So, whose job is it to advocate for these patients? The answer is that everyone on the medical team must play a ...
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Lower urinary tract symptoms in men are amongst the most common reasons for a urological visit. In this post, I explore ten questions that every man must ask when seeking urological help for these symptoms.
1. Are my symptoms related to my prostate?
The natural assumption is that urinary symptoms in men are related to a growing prostate. This may be true, but other variables need evaluation. First, is there excessive fluid ...
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Donna Ferguson awoke in the resort city of Cancun before sunrise on a sweltering Saturday in July.
She wasn’t headed to the beach. Instead, she walked down a short hallway from her Sheraton hotel and into Galenia Hospital.
A little later that morning, a surgeon, Dr. Thomas Parisi, who had flown in from Wisconsin the day before, stood by Ferguson’s hospital bed and used a black marker to note which knee needed ...
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Prevention of heart disease has centered on smoking cessation, controlling blood pressure, achieving an appropriate weight, regular exercise, control of blood sugar, and control of your cholesterol. Despite addressing and controlling these items, individuals still have heart attacks and strokes and vascular events. Researchers are now directing their attention to a dietary metabolite of red meat called trimethlamine N-oxide or TMAO.
Recent peer-reviewed and published studies have shown ...
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Breastfeeding provides ideal food for the healthy growth and development of infants; it is also an integral part of the reproductive process with important implications for the health of mothers. Breastfeeding has numerous health benefits for both the mother and infant. Breast milk contains all the nutrients infants need in the first six months of life. Breastfeeding protects against diarrhea and common childhood illnesses such as pneumonia and may also ...
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Test your medicine knowledge with the MKSAP challenge, in partnership with the American College of Physicians.
A 25-year-old woman is evaluated in the emergency department for chest pain after a belted motor vehicle accident. She is pregnant at approximately 23 weeks' gestation. She reports no additional symptoms and is otherwise well. Her only medication is a prenatal vitamin.
On physical examination, the patient is afebrile, blood ...
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Veronica Kelley was working at an office building across the street from the Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino, Calif., in December 2015 when a county employee and his wife entered with semiautomatic rifles and opened fire, killing 14 and wounding 22. Most of the victims were co-workers of the gunman.
The couple went on to wound two police officers later that day before being fatally shot by ...
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Everyone knows someone today who's dealing with dementia. And as a geriatrician — that means a lot of questions come my way. Questions about parents who recently had cognitive testing, about the role of assisted living, about prevention — you name it. Dementia is out there in a way it never was before. People have questions, and they need answers.
Dementia is not a normal part of aging
This is where I ...
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The decision seemed straightforward. Bob McHenry’s heart was failing, and doctors recommended two high-risk surgeries to restore blood flow. Without the procedures, McHenry, 82, would die.
The surgeon at a Boston teaching hospital ticked off the possible complications. Karen McHenry, the patient’s daughter, remembers feeling there was no choice but to say “go ahead.”
It’s a scene she’s replayed in her mind hundreds of times since, with regret.
On the operating table, Bob ...
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Perfect nurse.
Perfect manager.
Perfect puppet.
An ICU physician once told me: Nurse managers have a life cycle of a mosquito.
Fast and furious
And then gone.
Deleted until the next one shows up.
It was the perfect ICU.
Twenty-five beds.
Dynamic intensivists. Phenomenal.
And they respected us nurses and collaborated with us. We had perfect cerebral perfusion together.
Experienced ICU nurses who knew what to do like clockwork — teaching the younger new nurses. Teaching them the facts of ICU. ...
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