Opinion

Although I am physically fit and was always considered fairly athletic I cannot touch my toes. Never could and probably never will. Although I have always admired another's ability to do so, I never understood its purpose.

It turns out that not only is stretching not necessary before a sporting activity, but may actually make it more likely that you will injure yourself.

Allergic rhinitis in itself is a risk factor for sleep apnea, as the underlying nasal congestion and blockage, and can also be seen with enlarged tonsils and/or adenoids as well. There is an especially an increased risk between allergic rhinitis and the development of sleep disordered breathing, including sleep apnea in children. Snoring can worsen the effects of poor quality sleep and compound the problem, further exacerbating nasal and sinus obstruction.

To better understand the skin and its behavior we must first look at its component parts. The skin is composed of 3 layers: the epidermis is the outermost layer and is composed of keratinocytes or skin cells that form the "bricks" of our skin's barrier.

What causes free radicals? Most commonly, UV exposure disrupts electron paths within the dermis, leading to these unstable particles. Other insults to the skin like pollution and chronic irritation may likewise lead to the generation of free radicals. The best defense against free radicals is preventing their occurrence at the outset by blocking UV rays and keeping the skin hyrdated.

The under-eye is THE most common area of the face that I get asked about in my practice! It seems to be everyone's least favorite part of the aging face. In order to improve under-eye puffiness and darkness, we must first look at what creates this unwanted look.

Preschool children of mentally ill parents are far more likely to die of both natural and unnatural causes than children of mentally well parents.

As my wife breezed out of the room, wishing me luck as she left for work, it suddenly hit me: I had the three kids today. I was faced with no babysitter, 3 basketball games and a baseball clinic to juggle, no food in the house, and a snot-filled three year-old who wasn't all that good about wearing underpants.

Vitamin D, now getting a return of recognition for conferring important health benefits ranging from cancer prevention to heart health, may have a new title: natural aphrodisiac. Why is it that sun drenched islands are associated with romance? It may be because the vitamin D manufactured in our skin on a sunny vacation raises testosterone levels.

There are also no trials of garlic in PubMed in the treatment of sinusitis, and yet you will find me slicing raw garlic and eating on a cracker with peanut butter whenever my sinuses start to get filled up. If there were clinical trials on my home remedy treatments, and if the trials were well done and valid, and if the results indicated that there was no benefit to treatment, then I'd probably give them up.

You know that fanatic dad on the sidelines of the soccer field or basketball court who screams complex instructions at the top of his lungs at their kids? The guy who sets up special sports equipment in the yard and assigns their kids sports homework? I have a confession to make. I am that guy. But excess pressure on children can backfire and make them perform worse rather than better.

The leap from paying doctors to have discussions about end-of-life care to the specter of death panels or euthanasia is dramatic and disingenuous at best. It devalues the important work that providors of palliative care and hospice care perform every day. And it doesn't return control of the dying process to patient, it actually deprives patients of control of the dying process. I talk about end-of-life care options with patients all the time, and no-one benefits but the patient and their families. In fact, I talked for the third time with my grandmother about palliative care yesterday.

Here's the background: health care has been trending away from its intellectual and healing origins and towards a service model for some time now: nurses and doctors are expected to not only save lives and tend the sick, but to do it quicker, better, more efficiently, cheaper, with more emotional availability, and with less security.

Maybe that's why Jenna, who now works in a brothel as a prostitute, quit nursing.

It surprised me that my grandmother had plans to get her hair permed and colored. Didn't Jacqueline Onassis get non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma from using dark colored hair dye, I was asked. The rumor sounded familiar, but I wasn't sure, so I dug for information.

It comes as no surprise to me that prostaglandin analogue eye drops can cause your eyelashes to grow to an attractive healthy length. Similar drops have been used to treat glaucoma for years and this “side effect” of eyelash growth has been seen in many of my patients.