First, here’s a practical (and important) financial article by Liz Pulliam Weston, titled Why Medical Debts Shouldn’t Count. Read it to find out about a vastly under-reported issue that is affecting thousands of lives: the recent, widespread selling of medical debt to collection agencies, often for pennies on the dollar. To add insult to injury, [...]

We love Dave Barry here at Doc Gurley (in a purely platonic, stalker fan, restraining-order kind of way). With teenager squeals and bouncing and hand-flapping, we share an actual response from His Daveness to Doc Gurley (O.M.G.) to a question I submitted to the Dave Barry For President Q&A Forum. Check it out while I [...]

For those who started the (pre-dawn) day with a list of stores to hit, all I can say is…wow. A Walmart on Black Friday is the purest example of survival of the fittest ever devised. I’ll admit it up front, I’m not woman enough to Black Friday. I don’t believe the obviously false propaganda that [...]

Our latest Bogus Award winner is a real doozy, folks. What would you do if you got fired from a job, and then received a valid insurance card in the mail, with your name on it? But wait–what if you got that card, and you had ovarian cancer and multiple sclerosis and spinal problems? Would [...]

1) Giving thanks improves your mood and your quality of life, both of which have a tremendous positive impact on your health. Seems like a cheat, doesn’t it, but who am I to question? We can give thanks for gratitude.
2) You can bulk up in your geriatric years. It’s never too late to start. No [...]

Are you worried about catching the horrifying MRSA super-bug when you go see the doctor? I’m embarrassed, as a physician, to say that there are legitimate reasons to be worried. Doctors actually do a bad job of washing their hands, with observed rates of hand-washing in the ICU as low as 28% (urg). On average, [...]

A new one to add to the scary list of emerging infections: The CDC announced today that a new strain of “cold”–AKA adenovirus–has emerged that can kill young, healthy people. Unlike the potential “bird flu” scare, there are already ten documented deaths from this virus in the past year. So what can you do, besides [...]

The one sure fact about the news of Dr. Dondra West’s death, even from a distance, is the tragic loss to the world of a wonderful person. I extend my heartfelt condolences to those who knew and loved her. While the media speculates about the circumstances of her death, I’d rather, instead, focus on a [...]

The long-simmering gender wars have escalated to a whole new level—germ warfare. Qualified inspectors searched high-value targets and reported shocking results in the health news —one third of men are leaving bathrooms without washing their hands, a number that’s actually getting worse. One hot-spot that was searched was the Atlanta Stadium bathrooms, where only 57% [...]

This week’s news saw two extraordinary health tales–both of them reminders to trust yourself and report odd symptoms, even if they seem embarrassingly weird. The first story is the horrifying news that Bindeez toys can convert to the date-rape drug when swallowed. How likely does that seem? Imagine being the mother who has to take [...]

With one million pounds of ground beef recalled this weekend (adding to this year’s total of “more than 30 million pounds of ground beef — enough to make 120 million quarter-pound burgers“), the issue of what to do about a recall of something you just ate is not a theoretical concern. In addition, over six [...]

[UPDATE - Angry? Frustrated? Read the Doc Gurley post http://www.docgurley.com/2008/05/30/im-not-going-to-suck-it-up/ for information on how you can make a difference. ]
Are you inhaling a low-flow toilet? Have you been Blackwatered by the FDA?
If the answer to both those questions is no, well, prepare yourself—you will be soon. For many of you readers, however, this tragedy has [...]

A Doc Gurley letter got paraphrased in the Daily Mail of London about the most recent bogus award recipient–check it out.

There is a great article in this week’s New York Times by Tara Parker-Pope that says, basically, you are more likely to die from a coconut falling on your head (by a wide margin) than you are to die of a shark attack. The article lists the general risk of death from a variety [...]