Many years ago when I was about 12 years old, I had a cousin who had a baby girl. I asked my parents about the father. They told me he lived in Mexico. I had no reason to [...]

Things tend to come in threes. For that reason, I will do one more article on mnemonics. I used to train Family Practice residents and medical students during their time on the pediatric rotation. There were times when [...]

Last week I wrote about a mnemonic that I created for diagnosing migraine headaches. I want to share another mnemonic that I created to address pain. There are many questions that can be asked about pain. However, if [...]

Headache is a common presenting symptom at any age. One of the common types of headaches is migraine headaches, which can range in severity. The question is often how to tell if someone is having migraines or another [...]

The American Psychiatric Association publishes a book titled the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. It sets up criteria for physicians to make a diagnosis of a mental disorder.  When I was practicing full time, many of [...]

In 1996 the Federal Government passed a law concerning patient records. It was called the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). It provided health records protection for patients. The rules were in play long before that. However, [...]

We have a tendency to be spoiled by our country’s health care system. A good example of this is the current measles outbreaks that have occurred. We call them an outbreak when the numbers rise above 5 infected [...]

There has been much made of the ages of the current Presidential candidates and their cognitive skills. Cognitive skills are indeed important. However, people sometimes think there is an overall decline in all abilities with age. That is [...]

As a member of the Knights of Columbus, I often have to attend funerals of members. Sometimes I have to call the widows and speak to them. That means I have both a religious and medical role in [...]

A new study on exercise was published in February in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. It looked at exercise levels in men and women and compared them to each other. The usual recommended amount of [...]