To Your Health, by Dean F. Giannone, M.D.

By Dean_G_M.D. - About Me - E-mail this page - Add to My Favorites - Add to Blog List - See other blogs in Health & Fitness

Monday, October 31, 2005

Halloween and Your Waistline

Halloween Day is the perfect opportunity to discuss how all those sweets will plague your waistline. Sorry to be a party-pooper. All those wonderful candies and chocolates and cookies are made primarily of simple sugars, which (witch) impart upon them a high glycemic index. We have gone over the... Sign in to see full entry.

Friday, October 28, 2005

"But I Got The Pneumonia Shot. Why Did I Get Pneumonia?"

As health care providers, we generally recommend the pneumonia vaccine (Pneumovax) for elderly people and for those younger people who have chronic medical conditions. We recommend that Pneumovax be received only once, but it may be given in multiple doses to people with chronic kidney disease,... Sign in to see full entry.

Thursday, October 27, 2005

"But The Flu Shot Gave Me The Flu!!"

How many times have you heard people tell you this. They got the flu shot and ended up with the flu. If this is the case, why do we bother giving out the flu shot at all? Do we doctors want people to get the flu so we make more money when they come back for treatment? The fact is, the flu shot will... Sign in to see full entry.

Monday, October 24, 2005

CRP and Heart Disease Risk

There are new markers available to us for testing that are predictive of an individual's propensity towards heart disease and heart attack. One of these important new markers is the cardiac-specific C-reactive protein (cCRP). Generally speaking, the CRP is a marker of inflammation in the body. The... Sign in to see full entry.

Friday, October 21, 2005

Raising Your HDL Cholesterol

Not all cholesterol is bad. HDL cholesterol is the good form of cholesterol that removes plaque from your blood vessels. It's important, then, to have plenty of HDL cholesterol in order to promote heart health. But many people suffer with low HDL. A low HDL isn't something you can feel, but it's... Sign in to see full entry.

Thursday, October 20, 2005

Weight Loss Surgery - Vital or Fatal?

Surgery for obesity, be it gastric bypass, Lap-band placement, or some other option, is an up-and-coming solution for those who struggle with weight loss. After weight loss surgery, people can shed upwards of one hundred pounds and regain their health and quality of life. However, a new study in... Sign in to see full entry.

Wednesday, October 19, 2005

Treatment of PTSD

I received a bunch of questions about the management of PTSD in response to my entry from a couple of days ago, so I thought I'd expand that entry to discuss it. This past Friday, I discussed how PTSD is more common than we may think. Despite the events causing PTSD being so extreme and unique, many... Sign in to see full entry.

Monday, October 17, 2005

Drunk Doctor - Perhaps

Who would you rather have caring for you in the hospital, a tired doctor or a drunk doctor? Fact is, there may be no difference. An article in the September 7th, 2005 issue of JAMA sought to determine the effect of a heavy on-call schedule on the degree of cognitive and behavioral impairment of... Sign in to see full entry.

Friday, October 14, 2005

PTSD - It's More Common Than We Think

We often think of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in the context of veterans of foreign wars or survivors of terrorist attacks. But PTSD is more common than that, and those whom experience it need help. A good summary of PTSD appears here. Some salient points include the following: PTSD... Sign in to see full entry.

Wednesday, October 12, 2005

Stomach Acid - A Slightly Different Story

As a continuation of yesterday's entry, I present the issue of stomach acidity. Unlike our bodies in general, the inside of the stomach is a very acidic environment, maintained at a pH of 2 by cells in the lining of the stomach that continually produce acid. This acidity is necessary for the proper... Sign in to see full entry.

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