10 exercises you should never do

Posted on by June 5, 2017

Be careful at the gym!

I’ve been working with a personal trainer to improve my muscle strength and cardiac endurance.

At one point my trainer had me doing overhead shoulder presses. After the first few lifts, I knew this was a bad idea. I struggled to lift the bar over my head, even with minimal weight (wimpy arms!).

Since then I’ve been having shooting pains in my right arm and shoulder. Then I watched this video from one of my favorite YouTubers, The Two Most Famous Physical Therapists, who confirmed what I thought: overhead shoulder presses are bad.

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5 stress relieving tips you can try at home

Posted on by June 5, 2017

stress relieving tipsToday’s post is from guest contributor Helen Sanders, chief editor at HealthAmbition.com.

“Health Ambition’s goal is to provide easy-to-understand health and nutrition advice that makes a real impact. We pride ourselves on making sure our actionable advice can be followed by regular people with busy lives.”

Thank you, Helen!

Each and every one of us will experience stress at some point in our lifetime.

Acute stress is normal following a hugely stressful situation, such as a trauma or natural disaster. However, stress can be more intense for some of us and can sometimes lead to a chronic condition that … Continue reading

Choose sunglasses that block UV rays

Posted on by April 26, 2017

sunglasses that block uv raysUV rays damage eyes

As part of May’s Skin Cancer Prevention Month, I wanted to share some tips to protect your eyes.

Just as the sun can injure your skin, it can hurt the delicate tissue of your eyes, too.

Did you know you can also get melanoma of the eye? Unprotected UV exposure from the sun or tanning beds increases the risk of this type of cancer.

Related post: Tanning beds and skin cancer

Long-term exposure to UVA and UVB rays contributes to cataracts and age-related macular degeneration.

Cataracts—cloudy areas on your eye’s lens—can be corrected with … Continue reading

ZDoggMD and Healthcare 3.0

Posted on by May 3, 2017

“Trying to make medicine great again”

I’ve been a fan of Zubin Damania, MD—aka ZDoggMD—for several years. A hospitalist physician based in Las Vegas, he began by making entertaining parody videos on a variety of healthcare topics: end-of-life, the opioid epidemic, electronic health records (EHR), sepsis, sleep apnea, and more.

Now he has expanded his social media footprint in an attempt to rally healthcare professionals behind Healthcare 3.0.

As he explains in the video, Healthcare 1.0 was the old doctor-patient relationship—”Doctor knows best” and all that (I still know doctors and nurses who … Continue reading

Melanoma – Prevention and detection

Posted on by April 27, 2017

May is Skin Cancer Awareness Month!

I think one of the best discussions about the prevention and detection of melanoma is from Doctor Mike Evans in this YouTube video:

It’s only 8 minutes long, but packed full of information.

Melanoma is deadly

And the numbers are increasing. Did you know:

  • From 1970 to 2009, the incidence of melanoma increased by 800 percent among young women?
  • One person dies of melanoma every 57 minutes?
  • About 86 percent of melanomas can be attributed to exposure to ultraviolet (UV) radiation from the sun?
  • Tanning beds are considered
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Beware “miracle” cancer cures

Posted on by April 26, 2017

miracle cancer curesFDA warns consumers

Nothing makes me angrier than unscrupulous companies (owned by unscrupulous individuals) marketing products advertised as “miracles” to cure illness.

These modern-day snake oil salespeople prey on fear and suffering by selling false hope. Worse, the products they sell can sometimes harm rather than heal.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently put out a new warning on their Consumer Updates page: Products claiming to “cure” cancer are a cruel deception

Frequently advertised as “natural” treatments and often falsely labeled as dietary supplements, such products may appear harmless, but may cause harm by delaying or interfering with proven,

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Rudeness and patient safety

Posted on by April 24, 2017

How rudeness affects your healthcare

I just read an article in the New York Times by Perri Klass, MD: Rude Doctors, Rude Nurses, Rude Patients.

Rudeness all around!

Dr. Klass, a pediatrician, refers to a recent study published in a pediatric medical journal. The study looked at how rude or disparaging comments (by an actor playing the part of an infant’s mother) affect the performance of doctors and nurses.

The study’s conclusion?

Rudeness has robust, deleterious effects on the performance of medical teams. Moreover, exposure to rudeness debilitated the very collaborative mechanisms recognized as essential for patient care and

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Tips to save money at the hospital

Posted on by August 9, 2017

save money at the hospital“An American Sickness”

I love Elisabeth Rosenthal’s work.

She’s a medical journalist (an MD, but no longer practicing) who wrote a brilliant series of articles on the high cost of healthcare for the New York Times a few years ago.

Now she has a book on the same topic. Because, of course, our healthcare system with its punishing costs for services, drugs and insurance has not improved. If anything, it’s worse.

As a physician, Dr. Rosenthal has experienced first hand the perverse incentives—illness being more profitable than health, after all—and lack of price transparency in our healthcare system. Her book … Continue reading

Save money on seasonal allergy medications

Posted on by April 17, 2017

seasonal allergy medicationsAnother post related to seasonal allergies, because 2017 is apparently going to be a nasty spring for allergy sufferers! Like me.  😥

As I said in my last post, I prefer to use a neti pot over taking medication (and it works great for me!), but I know a neti pot won’t be everyone’s cup of tea.

Over-the-counter allergy medications can be expensive, though, even the generics. Know what you need before you buy. Then shop for the best price. I always recommend buying the store brand.

Here is some information about the various types of drugs marketed to … Continue reading

Neti pot for spring allergies

Posted on by April 11, 2017

spring allerigesSeattle has had an unseasonably cold and wet spring (even for us!), but that hasn’t stopped my seasonal allergies from arriving on cue.

Time to rinse off my neti pot.

When the pollen counts are high, I use my neti pot every day and it really, really helps.

I prefer using a neti pot rather than antihistamines to treat spring allergies for a couple of reasons.

One, it’s inexpensive. Over-the-counter allergy meds are anything but! Even the generics are pricey.

Two, there are no side effects. I don’t like how antihistamines or decongestants make me feel, and I definitely don’t … Continue reading