Obesity is worsening not because of patients’ failures, but because of medical science’s failure to understand it. Depending on old tactics to deal with the problem is an expression of ignorance. The rising epidemic indicates not only that...
“Yellow jaundice”, a redundant phrase that literally means “yellow yellow,” is a sign of a very sick liver. I recall a patient of mine, a quiet woman with chronic hepatitis C infection who visited me looking like a lemon. As I examined her...
Futuristic movies with medical scenes have one thing in common: cool technology that can diagnose and cure all of humanity’s disease woes. Is movie magic a sneak peek of medicine to come? No. If disease understanding continues to depend on...
In 2015, I was struggling to escape my education to find new ways of thinking about the chronic disease problem. At the time, my colleague Steve Best and I were meeting regularly to free-associate and follow our trains of thought as they wandered...
I stared blankly at the website’s flashing cursor. Maggie was 103 years old when she died. She had no medical problems. One winter, she started staying in bed more, then died six weeks later. Completing her death certificate felt impossible. The...
Explore perplexing health and disease issues using a relaxed, coffee-shop tone. Topics and stylistic presentations are broad and may include observations, experiences, philosophy, exploration of paradoxes and oddities, or even fictional poetry and...
Sometimes, there are hills around the village, where I live. On certain days, there they are, surrounding us – sheltering, like a giant cradle; on other days they’re not there at all. As long as I can remember, I have wondered how this...
Today’s Perspective When a patient comes to me with a health complaint, I listen. When it’s my turn to impart advice on what to do about the patient’s problem, what are the tools in my proverbial doctor’s bag? When it comes to chronic diseases like...