Reliable, Trustworthy Reporting, Capturing The Heartbeat Of Our Community
Reliable, Trustworthy Reporting, Capturing The Heartbeat Of Our Community
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Artificial Intelligence or A.I. has gone from science fiction to a reality. This technology continues to evolve and find new applications in the world, including the world of medicine. With any new advancement, there are pros and cons to be considered when implementing it into regular use, especially in medicine. In 2023 the Journal of Medical Internet Research published an article where they had ChatGPT take two of the three USMLE exams. Step 1 is taken by third-year medical students and all...
School is back in session so it is time for a little pop quiz. What is an item that almost every student carries? If you said backpack, you are off to a great start. Do you know what it takes to be at the head of the class? Let’s find out if you are a star student or need to brush up a little on your backpack knowledge. Most students carry a backpack filled with their books at some point during their school day. Did you know a heavy back pack can cause neck, shoulder or back pain? Those narrow s...
Doctors are taught medical terms and jargon in medical school like a secret code. Many medical terms are rooted in Greek and Latin. Over the course of our training, these words become second nature and we become fluent in this medical "language," although we are also expected to talk to our patients using simple terminology. However, most specialties in medicine still use the original Greek and Latin roots for their names. Once you know where these names come from, everything makes sense. Most...
Doctors write prescriptions for medications all the time. However, have you ever heard of a doctor prescribing a walk in the park? While this prescription will not fit in a bottle, it can pack some powerful health benefits. It may sound strange, but doctors actually can prescribe time outdoors to their patients with the help of a national program, ParkRx.org. This free online program can help a patient track their outdoor activity and discuss more outdoor exercise options with their doctor. In...
Technology has come a long way in the past 200 years. The telegraph was invented in 1837 and made rapid long range communication possible. Messages could be sent around the world through a series of connected wires. The telegraph had medical applications in the Civil War. It was used to order medical supplies and report information about injuries and casualties to medical teams. This was cutting edge technology at the time, but it now is considered an obsolete method of communication. Alexander...
As we approach the end of our 22nd season, I would like to thank our audience for trusting us to bring them health information that is current and accurate. There are many doctors out there who cannot make the same claims as the Prairie Doc’s and I would like to take this opportunity to help sort out those charlatans and quacks from trusted sources of health information. While tasty and refreshing, I would not trust Dr. Pepper for medical advice. Nor would I trust Dr. Evil from Austin Powers, de...
There is an old joke where a man walks into his doctor’s office and says, “Doc, it hurts every time I do this. What should I do? To which the doctor replies, “Simple, don’t do that!” While the advice seems trite and maybe even insulting, like most jokes, there is some truth in it. Pain is one of the ways your body tries to protect you from even worse injury. Pain tries to keep you from walking on a sprained ankle or lifting things with a broken arm. In those cases, the advice from the doctor is...
Winter weather has finally arrived this year. Getting outside for some activity, even in winter, is great for your overall health. However snow, ice and cold can turn a stroll in the park into an obstacle course. Having proper footwear is not only important for warmth, but also the wellbeing of your feet. Choosing the correct boots for the elements could mean the difference between enjoying the outdoors and needing an urgent care visit. What makes good footwear for enjoying the outdoors safely?...
Myths are just stories we tell ourselves and others to make sense of the world around us. Myths convey beliefs or values and attempt to tell truths. In their effort to tell the truth, myths may exaggerate or misrepresent things. Sometimes this misrepresentation is innocent, while other times it is used as a tool to regulate or manipulate people. Myths can be used to give a sense of power and control over an overwhelming situation. Of the many types of myths, ones that deal with medicine are...
From the back of our hands to the back of our legs, pale blue blood vessels are visible just under the skin. Oftentimes these veins are flat and not painful. However when these vessels become abnormally swollen or dilated, they are called varicose veins. This swelling is caused by the valves inside the veins becoming weak and no longer sealing tightly. Varicose veins can become painful, quite large and stick out from the surface of the skin. In order for blood to return from your feet back to...
On July 4, 1939, Lou Gehrig said these famous words at Yankee Stadium, “For the past two weeks you have been reading about the bad break that I got. Yet today I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth.” The bad break he was referring to was the diagnosis of a condition that would become synonymous with him - a neuromuscular condition called Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis. ALS is a disease which causes motor nerves in the brain and spinal cord to break down. This reduces the nerv...
From Dr. Marcus Welby and Dr. Meredith Grey to “Hawkeye” Pierce and Doogie Howser, MD, there have been a multitude of television doctors. You likely spend more time watching them than you do with your own physician. Television shows the life of a doctor as exciting, dramatic and glamorous; however, real life is often much different. On television, doctors can solve every medical mystery within the span of a single show. Rare diseases or unusual presentations are no match for the intellect or...
The first successful organ transplant was a kidney transplant in 1954. The donor was the identical twin of the recipient. The new kidney worked for 11 months. This was long before any anti-rejection medications were available. Cyclosporine, the first anti-rejection medication, was approved for use in 1983. The use of anti-rejection medications has significantly increased how long transplanted organs will function. A transplanted kidney from a living donor will last, on average, 12 to 20 years....
Johnny Nash may have started his song with “I can see clearly now, the rain has gone,” but what about someone with cataracts? They cannot easily see “all the obstacles in their way” and there are not “dark clouds that make you blind” like in the song, but cataracts do cause vision clouding. Cataracts is the name given to the clouding of the lenses in the eyes. These lenses allow light to pass through the eye to the retina, where the signal is sent to the brain so we can perceive the world aroun...
Most people know that getting enough sleep is important for their health, but many do not realize that there are specific health benefits that come from getting a good night’s sleep. Getting enough sleep can improve your mood, help you maintain a healthy weight and reduce your risk of chronic health problems like diabetes and heart disease. Sleep can even help boost your immune system and improve memory. Despite knowing that sleep is important, according to the CDC, one in three adults do not g...
When people talk about skin cancer, the type that most people think about is melanoma. This skin cancer follows the ABCDE rules for diagnosis. A – asymmetry, B – irregular border, C – more than one color, D – diameter more than six millimeters and E – expanding in size. However, these rules will not help find the most common type of skin cancer called a basal cell carcinoma. Unlike melanomas, basal cell carcinomas are often symmetric with regular borders in the early stages. They are usually o...
Merriam-Webster defines humanity as “compassionate, sympathetic, or generous behavior or disposition.” It is also defined as “the quality or condition of being human.” The first definition is what people want in a health care provider. We all want to be taken care of by a caregiver who is compassionate, kind, sympathetic and generous with their time and knowledge. Health care providers spend countless hours taking care of patients. In order to do this, at times we ignore our own needs for rest,...
Every day in the clinic or hospital I meet extraordinary caregivers. They are the ones who have gone above and beyond the call of duty; sometimes for years at a time. When you ask them how they do it, they shrug and smile. I am not talking about any doctor, nurse or therapist. I am referring to those who care for and look after their elderly friends and family members. This can be a spouse, adult child, adult grandchild, neighbor or even a good friend. There are many reasons that people...
People often talk about having a "gut feeling" when they know something is wrong. What feelings come when there is something wrong with the digestive system itself and how do you differentiate between "butterflies" acting up and a serious gastrointestinal problem? There are many different organs that can cause GI problems and may include the esophagus, stomach, the small intestine and the large intestine. The esophagus is the tube that connects the mouth to the stomach. The most common issue...
Summer is just around the corner and warm days outside in the sunshine will soon be here. This is the perfect time to remember the importance of sunscreen. The number of sunscreens has increased over the years and the plethora of options can make it confusing when shopping for one that works best for you and your family. There are two main categories of sunscreen: chemical and physical. Each type has its own list of pros and cons. Where you are going, how long you are going to be outside, and...
Over the course of my career, I have performed countless pelvic exams on women of all ages from all walks of life. There are two common patient behaviors that I have observed. First, most women leave their socks on. This could be the fact that most stirrups are cold, but it also seems like one feels just a little less exposed when wearing at least one item of their own clothing. The other thing that almost every woman does in the exam room is hide her undergarments under her pile of clothes. It...
Post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, was first listed as a medical diagnosis in 1980. However, it has been recognized and called by many different names throughout history. The first recorded description of PTSD is in the Epic of Gilgamesh, which dates back to 2100 B.C. In The Iliad and The Odyssey, Homer wrote about Trojan War soldiers exhibiting symptoms of PTSD. Shakespeare described a character in King Henry IV who suffered from post-traumatic nightmares. During the Civil War, the terms...
I enjoy visiting with my colleagues who are medical specialists. We dive in and explore the depths of a particular condition. However, there is something to say about the breadth of knowledge that a family medicine physician is expected to have. Your family doctor can run through the alphabet of conditions from acne to the zika virus. A 2004 study in the “Annals of Family Medicine” found that a family medicine physician managed an average of 3.05 problems per clinic visit. For patients over 65...
The saying goes “time heals all wounds”, but what happens when a wound does not heal? Wounds go through many stages while healing and complications at any step can prolong the process. The first step is stopping the bleeding. For people who are taking blood thinners like aspirin or warfarin, it may take longer for the bleeding to stop or clot. The next step after the blood starts to clot is forming a scab. This happens when blood vessels around the wound narrow and platelets in the blood clump t...
When you watch a medical drama on television, the main characters are generally doctors, nurses and patients. We rarely learn about the many extras in the background. In an actual hospital, patients are cared for by their doctors and nurses, along with a large supporting cast and crew. Many of these people on stage and behind the scenes rarely get their name in lights. I would like to introduce them now. Before a patient arrives at the hospital, we often rely on emergency medical technicians...
