Category: Health

Sept. 1, 2023 – The future of public health could be in your hands – or on your wrist, to be precise.  Researchers are using smartwatches and fitness trackers to do rigorous large-scale studies that would have been impossible in the past. It’s a growing trend that may vastly expand our knowledge of an array diseases.  “There’s really no disease that won’t be touched by this type of research,” said Calum MacRae, MD, PhD, vice chair of scientific innovation for the Department of Medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital.  Wearables are already in use to research heart, respiratory, neurological, and ... Read more

July 13, 2023 – The FDA’s approval today of the first birth control pill for women to be available without a prescription is being hailed by many as a long-needed development, but there remain questions to be resolved, including how much the drug will cost and how it will be used.   The drug, Opill, is expected to be available early next year, and its maker has yet to reveal a retail price. It is the same birth control pill that has been available by prescription for 50 years. But for the first time, women will be able to buy ... Read more

Let’s face it: Kids are microbe magnets. They also like to share. These tiny humans don’t enter the world knowing that spraying a sneeze into your face or wiping their runny noses and then putting their grubby little hands into their mouths are a big “No-no.” But they can learn from you. “Kids mirror the behavior they see from the adults in their lives,” says Amy Edwards, MD, a pediatric infectious disease expert at University Hospitals Rainbow Babies & Children’s Hospital in Cleveland, OH. That means it’s up to you to help kids learn that even though sharing is caring, ... Read more

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Having patients give themselves injections, when possible, not only saves clinic time and expense, but also spares the patients a trip to the clinic, of course, and often a copay. Source link

July 14, 2023 — For as long as we’ve had official recommendations for exercise, those recommendations have focused on effort. Do at least 150 minutes a week of “moderate to vigorous” physical activity, public health guidelines say. That could be anything from brisk walking (moderate) to competitive mountain-bike racing (vigorous).  But as broad as that spectrum is, it still leaves out a lot. Like washing dishes. Or changing a diaper. Or birdwatching in the park. Or giving a PowerPoint presentation.  All those tasks are “light” physical activities. We don’t think of them as exercise, and public health guidelines don’t account for ... Read more

Nikki S. was angry. After several years of different migraine treatments, one of her pain doctors suggested that it might be time to try a drug called ketamine. “Absolutely not,” she told her doctor. She knew about the drug’s shady past as a party drug known as “special K” and she didn’t want to be linked to it in any way. (Nikki asked WebMD not to use her last name because of the stigma of ketamine use in some quarters.) But Nikki was getting desperate. She had developed chronic migraine after a train accident in 2016 when she was 25. ... Read more

By SeAndrea Collins, as told to Keri Wiginton  I’m 38 and I’ve had myasthenia gravis (MG) for over 20 years. A good life is still possible. I enjoy my work as a third-grade teacher and the time I spend with my husband, our teenage son, and my friends and family.  So did I learn to pace myself with MG? That’s a good question.  Now that I’ve lived with it for so long, I can tell when it’s OK to push myself and when I need to pull back. But I overdid it a little more when I was younger. I ... Read more

By Charlotte Laycock, as told to Keri Wiginton One year before I summited one of the world’s tallest mountains, a doctor told me I might never exercise again. Unlike most people, I didn’t start climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro with the summit in mind. That’s because I have myasthenia gravis (MG). And while my disease is fairly stable these days, MG is unpredictable. My goal was to put one foot in front of the other each day.  I can’t easily describe what it felt like to look out on the world from a height of nearly 20,000 feet. There was some relief ... Read more

By Richard J. Nowak, MD, as told to Keri Wiginton  Myasthenia gravis (MG) is a chronic autoimmune condition without a cure. But it’s treatable. And as long as you work with your doctor to optimize your treatment plan, which can be different from one person to the next, there’s a good chance you can live symptom-free or close to it.  What Is Remission? This medical term gets thrown around loosely. But there are specific definitions for remission. You can read about each one by searching online for the Myasthenia Gravis Foundation of America (MGFA) post-intervention status. But I’ll break down ... Read more