Reliable, Trustworthy Reporting, Capturing The Heartbeat Of Our Community
Reliable, Trustworthy Reporting, Capturing The Heartbeat Of Our Community
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We all know that exercise is great for our overall health. Exercise is important for our cardiovascular health of course, which is why the American Heart Association recommends 150 minutes of moderate intensity exercise every week. No less importantly, and especially as we get older, another huge benefit of exercise is in fall and injury prevention. Starting an exercise routine, especially when starting from scratch, can be daunting. The simplest way to get started is to start a timed walking...
Spring is finally here in the Northern Plains and summer feels just around the corner. As all we Northerners know, as soon as the temperatures hit even a mild degree on the thermometer, most of us shed the jackets and long pants and our skin is front-and-center. The sunny season is prime season for mosquitoes and ticks, along with the itchy bites and all the unpleasant infections they can carry. Different species of mosquitoes and ticks can transmit different bacteria and viruses and, around...
From Babe Ruth to John Wayne, Americans have seen chewing tobacco in popular culture for over a century. Spitting chew has been a trademark of cowboys and professional athletes alike and chewing tobacco use continues at high rates in the United States. In 2018, a survey showed 2.4% of American adults used smokeless tobacco, with snuff or snus pouch use on the rise and chewing tobacco on the decline. Though smokeless tobacco use is not associated with lung cancer like smoking is, it has its own...
Life expectancy is a measure commonly considered when it comes to the overall health of a population. In this day and age, when most of us think about which medical interventions are most important to increase life expectancy, we probably think about things like treatment of cancer, interventions to treat heart attacks or surgeries for life-threatening illnesses. While those things are all important, their overall impact on a population’s life expectancy pales in comparison to the prevention o...
Last spring, I was at home washing my hands and as I glanced up into the mirror, I noticed something unusual. My bathroom light hit my neck just right as I swallowed and there it was: a prominent lump. I diagnosed myself with a thyroid nodule and wondered how I, a physician, had failed to notice this large protuberance before that moment. Thyroid nodules are quite common. In some cases, they are noticed by the patient (like me) or are found on exam. In many cases, they are found on accident...
With 2022 nearly upon us, so, too, is the tradition of the New Year’s resolution. Merriam-Webster defines the New Year’s resolution as “a promise to do something differently in the new year.” I would argue that, in practice, the resolution is less of a promise and more of a hope or intention. My resolution for 2021 was to read 20 books by year’s end. I failed. I could blame my kids, work, other hobbies, but honestly, I blame my phone. In my defense, I was in good company as a flopped resolver; l...
I love Thanksgiving. I love preparing the food all day and enjoying it while sitting around a table with some of the people I love most. And, there is one holiday tradition I have grown to adore. As we sit down to eat, we share one thing we feel grateful for this year. Practicing gratitude has been shown to improve aspects of mental health and our sense of well-being and it isn't hard to understand why. Saying or thinking "I am grateful for..." feels really good and doing so regularly can help...
In the last couple years, I have developed a renewed awe and appreciation of our scientists around the world who work for entire careers to advance science and medicine in their laboratories and beyond. One such scientist is Dr. Barry Marshall. Marshall is an Australian physician scientist, who, in the early 1980’s along with his cohort Dr. Robin Warren, initiated a paradigm shift in the world’s understanding of gastrointestinal disease when they discovered the bacterium Helicobacter pyl...
It is September, fall is in the air and what we might call "respiratory season" is nearly upon us. Respiratory season refers to the colder months in which we spend much of our time indoors, maybe October through March. Normally, this season correlates with when we see high rates of typically seasonal respiratory infections, such as influenza and respiratory syncytial virus or RSV. Living through the COVID-19 pandemic has given us knowledge we can use to greatly decrease the spread of all respira...
