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

There is an old joke where a man walks into his doctor’s office and says, “Doc, it hurts every time I do this. What should I do? To which the doctor replies, “Simple, don’t do that!” While the advic...

Winter weather has finally arrived this year. Getting outside for some activity, even in winter, is great for your overall health. However snow, ice and cold can turn a stroll in the park into an...

Myths are just stories we tell ourselves and others to make sense of the world around us. Myths convey beliefs or values and attempt to tell truths. In their effort to tell the truth, myths may...

From the back of our hands to the back of our legs, pale blue blood vessels are visible just under the skin. Oftentimes these veins are flat and not painful. However when these vessels become...

On July 4, 1939, Lou Gehrig said these famous words at Yankee Stadium, “For the past two weeks you have been reading about the bad break that I got. Yet today I consider myself the luckiest man on the...

From Dr. Marcus Welby and Dr. Meredith Grey to “Hawkeye” Pierce and Doogie Howser, MD, there have been a multitude of television doctors. You likely spend more time watching them than you do with you...

The first successful organ transplant was a kidney transplant in 1954. The donor was the identical twin of the recipient. The new kidney worked for 11 months. This was long before any anti-rejection...

Johnny Nash may have started his song with “I can see clearly now, the rain has gone,” but what about someone with cataracts? They cannot easily see “all the obstacles in their way” and there are not...

Most people know that getting enough sleep is important for their health, but many do not realize that there are specific health benefits that come from getting a good night’s sleep. Getting enough s...

When people talk about skin cancer, the type that most people think about is melanoma. This skin cancer follows the ABCDE rules for diagnosis. A – asymmetry, B – irregular border, C – more than one c...

Merriam-Webster defines humanity as “compassionate, sympathetic, or generous behavior or disposition.” It is also defined as “the quality or condition of being human.” The first definition is what peo...

Every day in the clinic or hospital I meet extraordinary caregivers. They are the ones who have gone above and beyond the call of duty; sometimes for years at a time. When you ask them how they do...

People often talk about having a "gut feeling" when they know something is wrong. What feelings come when there is something wrong with the digestive system itself and how do you differentiate...

Summer is just around the corner and warm days outside in the sunshine will soon be here. This is the perfect time to remember the importance of sunscreen. The number of sunscreens has increased over...

Over the course of my career, I have performed countless pelvic exams on women of all ages from all walks of life. There are two common patient behaviors that I have observed. First, most women leave...

Post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, was first listed as a medical diagnosis in 1980. However, it has been recognized and called by many different names throughout history. The first recorded...

I enjoy visiting with my colleagues who are medical specialists. We dive in and explore the depths of a particular condition. However, there is something to say about the breadth of knowledge that a...

The saying goes “time heals all wounds”, but what happens when a wound does not heal? Wounds go through many stages while healing and complications at any step can prolong the process. The first step...

When you watch a medical drama on television, the main characters are generally doctors, nurses and patients. We rarely learn about the many extras in the background. In an actual hospital, patients...

Imagine a condition with symptoms that present differently in each person who has it and no currently-approved lab test can definitively confirm the diagnosis. Imagine that the symptoms can flare up...

Daylight savings time has just ended and now everyone has had the chance to "fall back" to standard time. While many people enjoy that extra hour of sleep that comes each fall, 63 percent of...

When we think of Henry VIII, most of us envision an oversized man with multiple wives, a bitter personality and a propensity for beheading his enemies. A lesser-known fact is that he suffered with...

The kidneys may be called the Rodney Dangerfield of the body, as they often "don't get no respect." The National Kidney Foundation estimates that one in three adult Americans are at risk for kidney...

JILL KRUSE, D.O. I was sitting in my beach chair on vacation soaking up the sun when I overheard the couple next to me sounding concerned. They were throwing out lots of big medical terms but were...