Look for a few simple, inexpensive ingredientsFlu season is still raging across the country.
Most cases don’t require a trip to the emergency room or even the doctor. But there are a few over-the-counter (OTC) flu medicines that can help treat the most common symptoms: fever, headache, sore throat, muscle pain and cough.
You don’t need to spend a lot of money, and these products can be used for … read on
My husband’s beloved older brother passed away on Christmas morning.
Many people might think a death on Christmas Day would taint the holiday, bringing up an unpleasant and unwelcome memory year after year.
But we believe future Christmases will actually be more special and meaningful, and we can feel this way because my brother-in-law not only lived a purposeful and rewarding life, but he died a good death.
What is … read on
Would you know what to do?I wasn’t planning on writing about this topic today, but disasters don’t work around my editorial calendar.
I live in Seattle, and early yesterday (Monday) morning, a Seattle-to-Portland commuter train derailed while speeding across Interstate 5. Several of the train cars actually fell off the overpass, hitting cars on the freeway below.
Last I heard, at least 6 people were dead, and over 70 … read on
I have always been fascinated by the history of medicine and disease. I minored in medical history in college and have probably read dozens of books on the subject.
If you’re interested but don’t have that kind of time to invest, I just ran across a couple of short (very short!) videos on YouTube that I found to be remarkably good overviews of a complex topic.
The … read on
I just found this great game, Guts and Bolts, while I was surfing around on the internet last weekend!
It’s not new, just new to me 🙂
It’s a creation of BrainPOP, which features all kinds of cool educational games and tools.
The game is kind of a Dr. Frankenstein meets Joe the Plumber as you are introduced to different body parts and organs and learn how they … read on
OK, this post is just for fun.
Last year I mocked the new catalog of diagnosis codes, the ICD 10. Every medical bill must include a diagnostic code, and I thought the ICD 10, which increased the number of available codes from 13,000 to 70,000, was really over-the-top ridiculous.
New diagnoses included such notables as “injured when knitting,” “sucked into a jet engine” and “problems with the in-laws.”
But … read on
I’ve always believed that if I were diagnosed with a terminal illness and had a choice between a few months of quality living and a few extra months filled with doctors’ visits, surgeries, lab tests and drug treatments, I would choose quality of life.
Many friends, some of them doctors, have told me, “Oh, you think that now, but when the times comes the will to live is just too … read on
I was watching Game 5 of the World Series this weekend (go Royals!) and I couldn’t help but notice all the ads for prescription meds—Belsomra, Cialis, Lyrica, Cymbalta and Symbicort to name but a few.
Direct-to-consumer advertising has been legal since 1997. There is no doubt in my mind it has contributed to the over-prescribing of medications in this country, as well as our skyrocketing health care costs.
Anyway, watching … read on
I was watching with much amusement and satisfaction last week as the hostesses of TV’s The View took a much-deserved bashing for their uninformed and frankly bitchy remarks directed at Kelley Johnson, a nurse and a contestant (Miss Colorado) in the Miss America pageant.
With apparently nothing better to talk about, the mean girls ladies of The View picked apart Ms. Johnson’s heartfelt and at times tearful monologue on the … read on
I just read that the brilliant physician-writer Oliver Sacks died yesterday from a rare form of eye cancer. Although he had been diagnosed with the disease several years ago, he learned earlier this year that the cancer, a form of melanoma, had spread aggressively into his liver.
At that time, he wrote a moving Op-Ed for the New York Times, and I bookmarked it because his words reflecting on … read on