Here comes another post on the risks and hidden costs of antibiotics: azithromycin has now been linked to death from heart disease. A study published in the New England Journal of Medicine found a concerning new correlation: Researchers at Vanderbilt University looked at the records of thousands of Tennessee Medicaid patients over a period of … Continue reading Antibiotic Linked to Heart Disease
View More >>A deviated septum can be a debilitating issue that leads to serious symptoms such as nosebleeds, headaches and labored breathing. The simplest and most effective way to resolve such symptoms is through an outpatient procedure known as septal surgery, or septoplasty. If you’ve been wondering exactly what this procedure entails and when you can return … Continue reading What to Expect from Your Septoplasty
View More >>One more post this week about respiratory disease, in this case asthma. A new study in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology suggests that smoking during pregnancy can have far-reaching effects on the child’s chance of getting asthma as a teenager – even if the mother stops smoking after the child is born: An … Continue reading Pregnancy, Smoking and the Surprising Origins of Asthma
View More >>Remember when nanotechnology was all the rage? Seminal books like “Engines of Creation” inspired breathless headlines in Wired, Popular Science and elsewhere about the incredible possibility these tiny particles represented. It wouldn’t be long before nanotechnology would unlock a new age of medicine, genetics, manufacturing, even human intelligence. The world was its very tiny oyster. … Continue reading Can Nanotechnology Lead to Autoimmune Disease?
View More >>As a busy Los Angeles sinus surgeon, I field a lot of questions about the various devices used in our most popular procedures. Many questions relate to specific surgical techniques such as septoplasty or balloon sinuplasty, but a surprising number focus on the equipment itself. So I thought I would create a series of blog … Continue reading Endoscopic Sinus Surgery 101: What is a Nasal Endoscope?
View More >>Fact: Most people have a deviated septum to one degree or another. Many experts believe the number is as high as 80%. What separates the truly severe deviations from the conventional kind is the symptoms. If you have a highly deviated septum, you are more susceptible to a variety of nasal and sinus ailments that … Continue reading 4 Symptoms of a Deviated Septum
View More >>Here’s an unexpected finding from the Archives of Internal Medicine: quitting smoking can help you live longer, no matter how long you’ve been smoking, and no matter when you quit. This flies in the face of most conventional wisdom, which holds that you will see diminishing returns from quitting the longer you wait. In fact … Continue reading Quit Smoking at 85? Why Not?
View More >>A recent study found that nasal steroid sprays do help sinus infections – just a bit. Researchers in England found that use of these steroids for three weeks could help patients feel better faster, although the effects were small. Here’s Reuters: Thompson’s group found that two thirds of people felt better within two to three … Continue reading The Pros and Cons of Steroids for Sinus Infection
View More >>I have written before about the sad state of affairs that is our current policy toward pseudoephedrine. If you are late to this controversy or have simply avoided getting a cold these many years, here’s a refresher: in 2006, our government decided that because certain cold and flu medications contained an ingredient that was used … Continue reading Dispatches from the Doomed War on Pseudoephedrine
View More >>Today we check in on the tale of Dawn Burley, a student and nonprofit caseworker who suffered from chronic sinusitis for many years. As she relays the story in this moving video, she became more than willing to try absolutely anything to relieve the constant pressure in her face. Balloon sinuplasty provided the answer: in … Continue reading Another Balloon Sinuplasty Success Story
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