AP News issued a warning to consumers to switch to the new kind of inhalers before the end of the year. In Understatement Of The Year Award-winning fashion, the article states that the new inhalers “tend to cost more.” If you, like me, are appalled at the FDA’s decision to ban generic production of asthma [...]

Here’s my kind of weight loss - and a nice, pragmatic follow-up to the Annual Bikini Bamboozle. Prevention magazine noticed that a lot of medical literature about weight deals with the way our daily lives prevent us from moving around. It’s not hard to spend entire days doing nothing more than a series of “sits” [...]

Grand Rounds is coming to us this week from the Phillipines! Take at look - Grand Rounds, the best of the medical blogosphere, is being hosted at Parallel Universe, a site run by Dr. Emer from the Phillipines. Check out the selections and then poke around the site to see healthcare from a new perspective.

This is why reasonable people tear their hair out. Reuters has announced that the World Health Organization did something HUGE about the high cost of patented drugs for developing countries - we’re talking a major breakthrough, baby, this is the Godzilla of international agreements, crushing special interests underfoot, but heart-warming too, you know? It’s like [...]

Everywhere you look, photoshopped thighs prance along pristine beaches in ads. Weight loss supplements promise you the ability to sport a string bikini in only weeks. Some of us have gotten resistant to the annual bikini con (heck, without lighting crews, spray-on foundation, and post-photo pixelated perfecting, no one looks good in a string bikini), [...]

It sure did me. I was working at the Schweitzer hospital in Africa when a mother brought her two-year-old child to us. Even wrapped in a sheet, it was obvious that he was unnaturally thin, his elbows too pointy, his back too bony. The odd thing was that she had a sheet over his head. [...]

Raise your hand if your mother ever asked teenaged-you “Just because everyone else is doing it, doesn’t mean you have to - what if everyone was running off a cliff - would you?”
Is there anyone who didn’t raise their hand? Well, much as it sticks in the craw (or is that beak?) the fact is, [...]

If you closed your eyes and imagined the voice of last living dinosaur, how would he sound? Witty (because how else could he have survived this long?), insightful (given all the changes he’s seen), and cranky (nuff said). In other words, entertaining. You get all this and more at Musings of A Dinosaur - subtitled [...]

Ever stand in front of the bulletin board at the local coffee shop and see two side by side notes tacked up with pushpins? Dog Lost. Dog Found. Makes you want to call both and let them know things would work out much better if they just got together and compared info. Similar things happen [...]

More exciting news on the cancer front. How would you like it if someone told you there is a drug available to you free - and this drug is not just any drug. This drug is associated with a massive decrease in breast cancer, prostate cancer, autoimmune diseases (including juvenile diabetes, inflammatory bowel disease, and [...]

Great news! Researchers have discovered that regular exercise for teens can reduce the risk of breast cancer later in life - especially the more-aggressive, usually-harder-to-treat, pre-menopausal kind of breast cancer. How much exercise are we talking about? Not an extreme athlete kind. The study found the lowest risk among girls who did 3 and 1/4 [...]

I found out from the media that I have Godlike powers, given to me by a federal commission. Someone, however, apparently forgot to tell my children - I specifically commanded Grace to eat her breakfast, but then, less than three minutes later, I found her plate on the floor with the dog licking it. [...]

In what may be the first case of corporation-induced hemorrhoids, a Jet Blue passenger has sued because it is alleged he was made to sit on the potty on a flight for several hours. Oh, wait, we take that back, corporations have been inducing hemorrhoids (physical and psychic) in office workers for decades. Apparently sitting [...]

There are a lot of not-so-great health articles floating in the ether. It’s so nice when one comes along that’s well-researched, practical and interesting. Here’s a great article about (hic!), you guessed it - hiccups. Hiccups aren’t the world’s #1 public health menace (that would be, apparently, computer keyboards), but this article is so full [...]

Doc Gurley is the guest at Medscape’s Pre-Rounds! Check out her interview by Nick Genes, the creator of Pre-Rounds at Medscape and Grand Rounds of blogs. So what the heck is pre-rounds? Other than something less impressive-sounding than Grand Rounds? Medscape Pre-Rounds, in inimitable Nick Genes style, means an early, in-depth interview with a writer [...]

Are you feeling overwhelmed by the conflicting stories in the news about what pan is safe to use? Are you starting to eyeball that plastic waterbottle of yours like it might contain a Medici poisoning? Was the homeless man actually right - is aluminum foil causing brainwaves? Would someone please answer the question - is [...]

Doc Gurley: We want to start today’s interview by first congratulating you, Bertha, on the very successful launch of your new magazine, Bertha Stuart Livering. Could you tell us a bit about how you chose the name - there’s been so much media speculation.
Bertha Stuart: Well, Dr. Gurley - you don’t mind if I call [...]