I’m grateful that I have a home. I’m grateful that

Malaria is a life-threatening illness marked by high recurrent fever, shaking chills, and severe headache. Though malaria is now treatable, even with treatment it sometimes progresses to coma and death. Survivors frequently suffer recurrent symptoms and can be debilitated. The World Health Organization estimated that in 2010 there were 216 million people infected with malaria. Hundreds of thousa...

The stories and pictures from Sandy’s wake are heartbreaking. The loss of life, the destruction of property, and the prolonged disruption of routine seem overwhelming. I’m sure you j...

Metastatic (stage IV) colon cancer and lung ca...

This week you’ll have to learn a little medical jargon, and I know that you love that. The meninges (men-IN-jees) are the membranes that line the brain and spinal cord. Meningitis is inflammation of those membranes, usually caused by an infection. Meningitis can lead to brain damage, deafness, and sometimes death. Meningitis is usually caused by viruses or bacteria. OK? That wasn’t so bad. Rece...

… or Reflections on Yom Kippur

“My heart is blighted like grass, and withered, for I forget to eat my bread.” -- A patient’s prayer, Psalm 102

[None of the anecdotes in this post are descriptions of any specific patient. They are amalgams of many patients. Specific details have been distorted or invented to preserve anonymity.] I diagnose and treat medical proble...

In 1993 in the Four Corners region of the US Southwest a woman developed a cough and progressive shortness of breath and died shortly thereafter. A few days later, her fiancée, a young physically fit man developed similar symptoms was rushed to a hospital and also died. A series of laboratory tests failed to identify any known infectious agent. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC...

“It’s not what you don’t know that hurts you, it’s what you know that isn't so.” -- attributed variously to Mark Twain and to Will Rogers

Many popular ideas are popular not because they're right but because of a widespread failure of skepticism. For example, in the 1970s the idea that wide lapels really make you look great was widely adopted without rigorous test...

Temperatures are dropping. Children are returning to school. (Parents are elated.) Families are planning a last summer outing on Labor Day. It must be time for flu...