A few years ago, my friend encouraged her father to drink large amounts of water through hot and sultry summer afternoons in India in a bid to sustain hydration in him — with solely good intentions. The next year, he was diagnosed with cardiomyopathy — which meant that his heart muscles were not pumping efficiently; leading to water retention and dilation of the heart. While the water drinking of the previous year did not cause the heart failure, co-existence of both events could have had a devastating effect on his health. Unfortunately, a woman from Sacramento, CA was not as lucky, and died as a result of consuming too much water. She voluntarily consumed about 8 ounces every 15 minutes for a whole day while controlling her bladder. Read more →

Recently a very popular colleague of mine was hospitalized. He happened to be hospitalized at the facility where he works and thus you can imagine he was inundated with visitors and friends wanting to wish him well. Unfortunately, the terms of his hospitalization were emergent and thus he did not have a choice in where he went for treatment. His frequent visitors coming into the room began to hamper his recover and his family was forced to try and enforce privacy rules and HIPAA. Read more →

Self-diagnosis, -treatment, and -monitoring is widespread due to the expansion of healthcare and the surplus of medical information available via television, radio, magazines, and the internet. While relying on introspection to develop awareness of your body and emotions is an important skill, self-treatment with over-the-counter (OTC) remedies without the expertise or guidance of a trained health care provider can lead to dangerous outcomes. Read more →

We often see advertisements on television for some type of medication — usually one involved in a large-market disease and the commercial is sponsored by a big pharmaceutical company. This is called direct to consumer (DTC) advertising, and doctors would prefer they did not exist.

Since 1997, when the FDA relaxed regulations regarding this form of advertising, the popularity of these commercials greatly increased. Now, the pharmaceutical industry spends around $5 billion annually on this gigantic media effort. Normally, the commercial airs within a year of the drug’s approval, which raises safety concerns and involves money spent that could be applied to greater uses, according to many. But, we are dealing with a corporation here. Read more →

Adult attention deficit disorder or AADD is characterized as a condition causing inattentiveness, organization problems, procrastination and difficulty completing work. It is believed that adults can see an onset of AADD later in life maybe as a carryover from childhood, but in order to receive a diagnosis you must have had symptoms as a child. The condition has differing levels of severity so treatment options vary all the way from coping skills to medication to control the symptoms. Medical intervention will come with some unwanted side effects so many patients opt for social counseling and other less invasive treatment options. Read more →

Sleep is one of our most enigmatic functions. The uncertainties of why we sleep and the utter necessity of sleep are being incessantly investigated. Based on what we do know, it is fairly safe to assume that sleep is certainly vital to our well-being. The necessity of sleep can be determined by each one of us by simply observing and evaluating the effects on our body after just one sleepless night. Read more →