With all the ink spilled on MERS of late, it’s easy to forget that other communicable diseases are making quiet inroads as well. None of these is quite so successful as valley fever, or Coccidioidomycosis, a fungal infection that can spread throughout the body, including spinal fluid and the brain. The CDC estimates valley fever … Continue reading The Silent Epidemic Facing Down the American Southwest
View More >>Outbreaks come with their own infrastructure these days. Ever since the days of Ebola, world health officials have been building up an apparatus for rapid response in the event of an epidemic. This network is extensive and well-equipped, and includes special teams dedicated to sequencing DNA and answering questions about vector, reservoir and origin. This … Continue reading Welcome to the MERS War Room
View More >>Allergies have a tendency to strike at inopportune moments. Think big meetings, important interviews, graduation days. But there is no event quite as important as your wedding day. Because so many nuptials take place during the spring and summer months, an appalling number of brides and grooms find themselves diving for the tissues when they … Continue reading Nuptials Without Sniffles: How to Have an Allergy Free Wedding Day
View More >>The world of biochemical markers is a woolly one, fraught with false positives and meaningless correlations. To say that one thing is “associated” with another is quite different from proving cause and effect. But correlations can teach us things nonetheless, pointing the way toward common etiologies and intertwined physical processes. All of which is prelude … Continue reading What Do Sleep Apnea and Preeclampsia Have in Common?
View More >>Periodically I appear in this space to share some bad news about sleep apnea, a poorly understood sleep disorder that has been linked to a host of health problems including stroke and depression. Today, I’m afraid, will be no exception: The Mayo Clinic recently completed a sobering review of apnea’s long term health effects. The … Continue reading Sleep Apnea Linked to Cardiac Arrest
View More >>Balloon sinuplasty stories in the news often seem to follow a predictable contour. First there is the long-suffering patient who has run out of credible alternatives. Then, the procedure. And then the relief, bold and bright, on a scale previously unknown. I would fault such stories for their distinct lack of dramatic twists were it … Continue reading Balloon Sinuplasty Benefits Go Beyond Your Face
View More >>Everyone in my corner of medicine is talking about the latest pediatric guidelines for treating children with sinus infections. In a widely expected release, doctors recently extended the recommended wait time before prescribing antibiotics from 10 days to 13. As it happens, antibiotic resistance is just one reason why. The other is that several studies … Continue reading Kid Has Sinusitis? Don’t Dive for the Antibiotics
View More >>Sinus surgery technology has progressed by leaps and bounds in the last generation. What began with fully invasive surgery has given way to endoscopic sinus surgery, and from there into an ever-widening array of microscopic implantable devices, medications and treatments. But it wasn’t until recently that digital technology offered sinus surgeons the chance to extend … Continue reading Need Surgery? Let Me Practice on Your Double
View More >>The march of consumer-based medical products continues unabated. Already we have seen a wide array of home diagnostic tools, genetic kits and blood chemistry products. The latest entry into an increasingly crowded category is MyAllergyTest, a ten-factor blood test that gives consumers a look at what they may be allergic to. The process is fairly … Continue reading Can a Product Put Allergists Out of Business?
View More >>I like to focus on the latest developments in sinus surgery and sinus symptoms, but every once in a while a general science story proves too difficult to resist. In this case it is a new breakthrough in medical technology: tiny, implantable electronics that dissolve harmlessly into the body, known as electroceuticals. Crafted on an … Continue reading Welcome to the Age of Electroceuticals
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