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Testosterone is one of the most over-prescribed and poorly understood medications. It is prescribed to millions of men for myriad indications, many of them unproven. Athletes believe it will improve their muscle mass and strength. Older men look to it as an anti-aging remedy. Men with flagging libido hope it will restore their sex drive. Testosterone has developed a mythology of masculinity. T...

Fall is upon us with its much-anticipated wonders. Giddy parents are gently pushing anxious children onto school buses and then enjoying their first child-free hours in months. The temperature is dropping into the 70s. The leaves on the palm trees in Beverly Hills are staying exactly the same color. An occasional cloud dots the sky. We Jews are anticipating the arrival of the New Year by ta...

Former President George W. Bush underwent an angioplasty this week, and the details sparked a public debate about the controversies of heart disease treatments. His spokesman stated that he underwent a routine physical exam and had no symptoms of heart disease. A stress test showed EKG changes and a CT angiogram found a blocked artery. He was transferred to another hospital and underwent an...

Cyclosporiasis is the name of the intestinal illness caused by the single-celled microscopic parasite Cyclospora cayetanensis. It is spread through ingestion of food or water contaminated by stool. (Oh, sorry. I hope you’re not reading this over lunch.) In the US, outbreaks of cyclosporiasis have usually been linked to contaminated imported fresh produce. It is not spread directly thr...

Anytime you or I feel particularly content with our achievements, we would be well advised to review the biography of Marie Curie. We would then quickly realize that we are unambitious mediocrities who should be much more productive. The magnitude of her accomplishments is dizzying. Virtually everything we know about radioactivity rests on the work of Madame Curie and her husband Pierre. The C...

Back when I was a medical student (in the Cretaceous Period) we were taught that someone once did a study comparing folic acid levels in the blood of cancer patients compared to the blood of healthy patients. The cancer patients had, on average, significantly lower folic acid levels. And the ones with the largest, fastest growing tumors tended to have the lowest folic acid levels. “Aha,” they ...

Doctors spend a lot of time recommending diet and exercise for weight loss. If you’re my patient, unless you’re quite fit, you've probably heard ...

Hepatitis A is an illness which affects the liver and is caused by a virus. (You’ll be shocked to learn it's called the hepatitis A virus.) It is usually transmitted through food and water contaminated by human feces, even in microscopic amounts. In the US outbreaks have frequently been linked to food workers who have hepatitis A and contaminate food with their hands. The disease typically cau...

The bacterium Staphylococcus aureus can live on our skin and in our noses without causing disease. Such a condition is called bacterial colonization, to contrast it from infection in which the bacteria causes illness. When the skin is broken or when host immunity is weakened Staph. aureus can enter the blood stream or other body spaces and cause life-threatening infection. Be...