The Summerland Advocate-Messenger - Reliable, Trustworthy Reporting, Capturing The Heartbeat Of Our Community

During our most recent family movie night, we watched one of my favorites: Encanto. At one point in the movie, a character who has been gifted supernatural strength confesses that she fears she will...

I confess that occasionally even doctors get squeamish. Or perhaps more honestly, this doctor does. My personal list has gotten pretty short, but one of the things that still makes me squirm is...

I learned a lot of statistics back in medical school, many of which are outdated and long since forgotten. A few still haunt me, though. One example: over 50% of seniors who suffered a broken hip...

Aristotle is said to have referred to the female as a mutilated male, and this philosophy seems to have carried forward into much more modern times. In 1977, official FDA guidelines recommended that...

My mother had six siblings, 16 aunts and uncles and innumerable cousins. She was the first of them all to be diagnosed with breast cancer. I think of my mom every time one of my patients tells me...

If I asked you to name a chronic disease, you would probably think of conditions like high blood pressure, diabetes, cancer or dementia. The odds are, one of the most common chronic diseases would...

When I was a young physician, we talked with almost religious zeal about the "Golden Hour." Early on, this principally focused on the idea that within the first hour after an injury, a patient needed...

At my house, classic TV is a given. My 93-year-old father-in-law enjoys watching reruns of westerns, Perry Mason, Andy Griffith and Gomer Pyle. With these old favorites come commercials targeting an...

My son is one of the many Americans with cleft lip and palate. The specifics of each affected individual’s situation vary, but one thing they have in common is that they will be having surgery. L...

Recently, while visiting from out of state, my father had a "health hiccup." As we navigated getting this problem investigated and addressed, he was very concerned that we keep his primary care...

It’s tempting to blame the pandemic for the dizzying rates of mental health concerns among American teens. We are all familiar with the impact Covid is having on our lives and the disruption it c...

One summer during my college years, I had a roommate who suffered from suicidal thoughts. She’d attempted suicide before we met, and been hospitalized, but continued to struggle. Back in the late 80s,...

The annual wellness exam is one of my favorite things to do as a doctor. It’s a chance to talk about one of my passions: health promotion. As most patients expect, our health-promotion discussion i...

It’s been a long time since I’ve worked in the ER, but some stories stay with me. One such story belongs to a woman in her early 30s. After a year of trying to conceive, she was finally pregnant. The...

For the past few months, I’ve been fielding questions about the baby formula crisis. Make no mistake, the shortage of baby formula is indeed a crisis. Babies are delicate. Their immature bodies r...

I don’t know how you feel, but in my opinion, parenting is hard. Someone must have forgotten to hand me the instruction manual when my children came home. I have yet to meet a parent who wouldn’t app...

Skin is the largest organ in the human body, but it’s easy to take it for granted. Unless we notice pain or itching or funny spots, most people don’t give it much thought. However, the skin is cri...

Lately my teenager has been fascinated by medical dramas. Although my “doctor self” is usually rolling my eyes throughout the program, it’s often a good conversation starter. One recent show featu...

One of my favorite parables describes the difference between heaven and hell. In both places, hungry people sit at tables laden with delicious food. In hell, people suffer and starve because they...

Obesity affects approximately 40% of American adults and I've been one of them for nearly as long as I can remember. There are innumerable schemes that promise effortless, or nearly effortless,...

In medicine, we routinely ask people about their family health history. Knowing that your mother had diabetes, or that your grandfather battled alcoholism, helps us be alert for health conditions to w...