Dear Reader,
On Labor Day weekend, 1991, my parents, brother and I were waiting for the results of a test which would tell us whether my mother had lung cancer.
If the answer was yes, given the size of the mass on her X-ray, it was inoperable. All our spouses could do was watch helplessly as we […]

By Cheree Cleghorn, Editor
Just in time for Labor Day, there is great news for all adults.
A noted aging expert says we will be healthier, happier and smarter if keep working our whole lives — whether paid, volunteer or part-time.
“Life is so much about the choices you make,” he also says.
We are not all doomed to […]

Who wants to hear bad medical news? Nobody.
Not knowing that death is expected within a specific time frame, though, exacts high costs — medical, emotional and financial — for patients and families.
A Harvard sociology professor and physician, Nicholas A. Christalis, explains.
From the “The Bad News First,” The New York Times Op-Ed (August 24, 2007):
“By not […]

Anthony H. Guarino, M.D., Dir. of Pain Mgmt. Barnes Jewish West County Hospital 
Read one expert’s explanation about why there has been an 88% increase in pain-killers between 1997-2005, the good and bad, posted on Google News in Comment following an Associated Press analysis of the increase in pain medication use. Comment posted: August 21, 2007
This is a useful […]

By Cheree Cleghorn, Editor
The Associated Press has examined the use of painkillers in America—-there was an 88 percent increase between 1997 and 2005.
Doctors are having to work without any guidance about what’s appropriate. Unfair to them. Unfair to patients.
That increase is due, in part, to a noble purpose—-helping patients manage pain at tolerable or better […]

Richard A. Friedman, M.D., has written an excellent, crisp overview about psychotherapy—including excellent resources to aid the reader in finding guidelines for “state of the art” care. His column is in The New York Times Health section, August 21.
The headline does not hint at all you will find. “To Reap Psychotherapy’s Benefits, Get A Good […]

By Cheree Cleghorn, Editor
Federal officials have said that Medicare intends to stop paying hospitals for eight problems in-patients develop which are classed as “preventable.”
It also says you, the patient/beneficiary, may not be billed, either.
Just as important to patients who are younger than Medicare-age, health plans are expected to follow Medicare’s lead. That means the whole […]

By Cheree Cleghorn, Editor
A super-star super-specialist blew up at a patient.
This man rarely is speechless. He was that day.
Patients who have to face challenging treatment beg friends and family members who are working with their caregivers, “Please don’t make the doctor mad.”
When his wife called his internist to tell him about it and get his […]

In his book, How Doctors Think, author Jerome Groopman, M.D., says that he would not go to a doctor if he thought that the doctor didn’t like him. (See Books for summary)
This man is a distinguised researcher, clinician and professor, so he is about as numbers-savvy as it gets. Still, he places a lot of emphasis […]

As we learned when we were small, it’s better to get it over with.
When you have something to tell the doctor which makes your face red just thinking about it, what can you do?
Write it down. Hand it to the doctor and say, “This explains the problem. It’s hard for me to talk about without […]