• Nutrition for Healthy Skin: Part 2

    Updated: 2012-08-31 16:00:24
    Contrary to what many conventional doctors and dermatologists may believe, nutrition plays a critical role in the health of your skin. Acne, rosacea, psoriasis, dry skin, and wrinkles are all affected by your diet, and eating the right types of foods is a great strategy for reducing and even eliminating these skin conditions. The first [...]

  • COMFORTABLE AMI: New-generation DES shows benefit

    Updated: 2012-08-29 01:47:41
    TweetDrug-eluting stents (DES) with biodegradable polymers can allow controlled drug release followed by subsequent degradation of the polymer, leaving a in essence a bare-metal stent.  In patients undergoing primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) for acute ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI), this may prevent the delayed vessel healing that is thought to be caused at least in [...]

  • Burnout (Part I)

    Updated: 2012-08-28 17:38:12
    An article  published in the Archives of Internal Medicine last week touches on something everyone should understand.  It is one of those articles that pulls back the curtain on the great and wonderful Oz.  Some things are best left unsaid in most people’s minds, but everyone should understand the dynamics of the changes that are [...]

  • Insulin

    Updated: 2012-08-23 21:33:30
    Here is a riddle for you.  Who was the youngest Nobel prize winner in Medicine?  Almost 90 years ago in 1923, Frederick Banting was awarded the Nobel prize for Medicine along with John Macleod.  They discovered Insulin.  Banting was 32 years old.  What do you do with the rest of your life after a Nobel [...]

  • HIV and arterial inflammation

    Updated: 2012-08-22 10:20:47
    TweetPatients with Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) demonstrate a high prevalence of noncalcified coronary atherosclerotic lesions.  However, the specific mechanisms that lead to this remain unknown.  In this study Subramanian et al. used 18fluorine-2-deoxy-D-glucose positron emission tomography (18F-FDG-PET) to assess arterial wall inflammation in patients with HIV, and compared this to traditional and nontraditional risk makers. [...]

  • $716 Billion

    Updated: 2012-08-21 21:41:49
    Clearly Mark Twain was wrong.  He said there were three lies: “lies, damn lies and statistics.”  He never saw this year’s Presidential election.  The saying should read “lies, damn lies and Presidential attack ads.” Does anyone know what we did to deserve this?  It makes me heartsick to see Medicare handled like a political football.  [...]

  • Supplements don't protect bone in advanced prostate cancer

    Updated: 2012-08-17 06:30:00
    Calcium and vitamin D regimens widely recommended to prostate cancer patients who undergo hormone therapy are inadequate to prevent treatment-related bone loss--and may even increase the risk of heart disease and advanced prostate cancer. This according to a review article...

  • The loss of trust (Part II)

    Updated: 2012-08-16 19:30:42
    The saga of Mark Midei is truly disturbing on oh so many levels. He was apparently at one time the busiest interventional cardiologist in the state of Maryland. I do not know the overall quality of his work, but his ethic chip was removed and destroyed at one point, and he has become the poster [...]

  • The loss of trust (Part I)

    Updated: 2012-08-14 21:20:32
    Benjamin Franklin said that reputations, like fine china, are easily broken and difficult to repair. Cardiology is a unique specialty in many ways.  We see patients, then test patients, then treat patients often without other physicians being involved. When a patient presents to the office for the evaluation of chest pain, they often have a stress [...]

  • Chest pain and the emergency room (Part IV)

    Updated: 2012-08-09 21:24:22
    As I have described in the past blogs, the problem of chest pain and the work up in the emergency room is an ongoing one.  The article published in the New England Journal of Medicine highlights the issue but shows us  little in how to move forward. The authors randomized 1,000 patients age 40-74 years [...]

  • Chest pain and the emergency room (Part III)

    Updated: 2012-08-07 22:07:11
    The problem of undiagnosed chest pain presenting to the emergency room has been tackled in many ways.  At Holy Cross Hospital, it is done in a CPU, or chest pain unit, and starts with the history and physical.  ECG and lab tests are done and then the ER physician decides whether the patient is high [...]

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