On Vacation

Dear readers,I will be rafting the rapids on the Colorado River for the next week. Stay healthy, wear lots of sunscreen and visit EverythingHealth again in about a week.TB

Common Drug Interactions

Did you know that a lack of acid in the stomach significantly affects the body's ability to absorb thyroid hormone? That is just one of many facts that patients often don't know. Here are a few others: * Proton Pump Inhibitors (PPI's like Prilosec, Aciphex, Protonics, Nexium) reduce calcium absorption. If you are on these pills,(and millions of people are) you will need extra Calcium. * Warfarin

Chatty Doctors

Wow, I read an article in the New York Times on "Chatty Doctors" and had to gulp and wonder if I have ever done that. It seems researchers videotaped 100 primary care doctor-patient interactions and they found the doctors talked about themselves in 1/3 of the visits. This wouldn't be so bad except they never circled back to the patient's issues and wasted a lot of the precious visit time

Osteoarthritis vs. Osteoporosis

Patients often confuse Osteoarthritis and Osteoporosis. They are two very different conditions. The following is a quick comparison: Osteoarthritis (Degeneration of cartilage at joints)o Painfulo Cause unknown but occurs with aging, prior trauma and geneticso Mainly joints of hands, knees, hips and spineo Worse in obese peopleo Calcium does not helpo Swelling

Medical Tests - think twice

An article in the New York Times struck home with me today. It has to do with excess radiation exposure from CT scans, X-rays and other ionizing radiation from medical tests.Many patients think more is better when it comes to diagnostic testing. They request scans for headaches, backaches, new knee pain and screening total body scans "just to make sure I'm ok". Despite warnings that body scans