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Tuesday: Health

Talk with the Doc

Next week, the annual Christmas Holiday will be celebrated throughout the world. It is time when many families and friends will get together as 2024 winds down to the end of the year. It gives us a time to reflect on this past year and look forward to 2025. As we all know, in our great Upper Peninsula, we usually don’t have to be singing the famous Bing Crosby Christmas song, “I’m Dreaming of a White Christmas.” A white Christmas in the U.P. this year is almost certainly guaranteed. For those of you who may be traveling by car during this very busy time of year, please be ...

Health matters

Modern medicine has made many advances benefitting our health and wellbeing. Our understanding of disease has progressed tremendously, more so in some fields than others. An examination of life expectancy is evidence of these advances. Prior to the development of antibiotics, before we knew about bacteria and hygiene, many infections were deadly. These days, more people succumb to the chronic diseases of lifestyle as opposed to trauma or infection, as was the case just a few decades ago. The improvements made in operative interventions, aka surgery, has similarly been significant. In ...

Urology Pearls – Part 3: From stones to solutions

This is the third and last in a series of articles about research studies concerning kidney stones. My goal hasn’t been to merely describe the latest research about the prevention and treatment of kidney stones, but to show how researchers and doctors try to simplify their management considerations by asking, then answering, a series of simple questions. Here is the question presented in the research study I will discuss today: can recurrent kidney stones be prevented by diet modification? The study, authored by the late Professor Loris Borghi from the University of Parma in Italy, ...

Health Matters: The lost art and science of the physical exam

Remember some of the old doctor shows, there have been quite a few over the years. The patient would lie down on the exam table and the physician would place their hands on the individual’s belly to palpate their “insides,” amounting to feeling around. Of course, this was always followed with use of a stethoscope to listen to their breathing and heartbeat. At last, voila! The wise healer would provide the precise diagnosis. How did he do it? What magic spell was he weaving with “the laying on of hands?” Our tv doctor was practicing the art, and science, of physical diagnosis. ...

Do weighted blankets help you sleep better? Here’s what to know

NEW YORK — Rhonda James was skeptical when her husband ordered a weighted blanket for her online. But five minutes after she wrapped it around her body, she zonked out. “It felt like a really big hug,” said James, a banker in Charleston, South Carolina. As outside temperatures grow ...

Talk with the Doc

Vitamin C, also known as L-ascorbic acid, is a water-soluble vitamin that is naturally present in some foods, added to others, and is available as a vitamin supplement. Unlike most animals, we humans are not able to synthesize vitamin C internally, so it is an essential part of our daily diet. ...