Health Benefits of Coming Out

Sometimes we need a study to tell us what is obvious.  A new Canadian study published in Psychosomatic Medicine shows gays, lesbians and bisexuals who "come out" about their sexuality are less anxious, burnt out and depressed than those who stay in the closet.  AND they are even less anxious than straight people of similar age!

The researchers studied 87 men and women around 25 years old of

I Love My Blog

Thanks to my faithful blog reader, KM, for reminding me that I have been blogging for six years.  I can't believe it has been that long but I love being a health blogger and interacting with readers and other bloggers across the globe. 





Recent visitors to EverythingHealth have come from Indonesia, Mexico, Australia, Taiwan, Hong Kong, India, South Africa, France, UK, Germany, Dubai,

Shame on the U.S. Congress

 The U.S. Congress has an approval rating at less than 5%.  In fact, porn, polygamy and the BP oil spill rate higher than Congress.  Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari's rating within his country in 2011 was twice as high as the U.S. Congress current approval rating.   And this was before the New York Times shined a light on their shady dealings with pharmaceutical giant Amgen that cost the

Herpes Simplex

The answer to yesterday's Diagnostic Image Challenge was #2 Herpes Simplex virus infection.



  The usual mouth Herpes Simplex looks more like this:







Oral Herpes is also called Herpes Labailis or cold sores.  Herpes is a virus that can occur anywhere on the body but usually appears on mucous membranes.  Most people are exposed to the Herpes Virus 1 (hv1) by the time they are 10 years old.

New Strain of Norovirus Hits

A new strain of Norovirus has hit the United States with a vengeance.  The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) reports it is from Australia and was first detected in March 2012.  The new strain is proving to be very fast spread and virulent.  It is called GII.4 Sydney.  During the last 4 months of 2012, GII.4 Sydney accounted for 53% of 266
norovirus outbreaks in the United States reported

What's the Diagnosis?

It's time for you to play doctor (or if you are a doctor, prove your skill) by making the correct answer on the  New England Journal of Medicine Image Challenge.  What does this patient have?

1.     Hand-foot-mouth disease
2.     Herpes simplex virus
3.     Herpes Zoster virus
4.     Folliculitis
5.     Scalded skin syndrome

Click on the image for a better view and post your answer in the

Top Ten Dr. Visit Reasons

Medical training programs should take notice of a new study that was published in Mayo Clinic Proceedings.  It listed the top ten reasons why people see a doctor.  Keep in mind these were people who lived in Rochester and Olmsted County, Minnesota, but I suspect the conditions are not too different across the United States.  As I review the main reasons patients visit me, it seems like they

Cough Lasts Longer Than Patients Think

It's winter and that means lots of viral colds, influenza and bronchitis. A new small study was published in The Annals of Family Medicine that addresses what we doctors already know...the cough following an illness often lasts for weeks after the infection has cleared.

The researchers surveyed almost 500 patients by phone.  They found that people expected their cough to clear up in about 7-9

Compassion

  Sentence

   I know what it's like

  to serve time under

  a sentence without 

    possibility of parole.



       To be given a diagnosis

  by a man in a white

  coat sitting high and

  mighty on his stool.



    No empathy in the 

sentencing, just

             You have broken the law

       of normal, you have



        such-and-such disease.

  Period.  A sentence

       and

The Danger in CT Scans

The United States is higher in its use of  computed tomography (CT)  scans than any other industrialized Country.  There were about 3 million scans done in the U.S. in 1980.  By 2007 that number had risen to 70 million.  A number of articles published in medical journals over the past few years have reported that  excess radiation delivered by these scans will cause cancer deaths in some