Reliable, Trustworthy Reporting, Capturing The Heartbeat Of Our Community
Reliable, Trustworthy Reporting, Capturing The Heartbeat Of Our Community
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As husband and wife urologists, we talk a lot about sex (mainly at work). There are several issues that commonly arise in our patients that can lead to a less than satisfactory sex life. The great news is many treatment options exist. There are many factors affecting men and women as they age that can interfere with sexual relations. In women, vaginal dryness, prolapse and incontinence are most common. A decrease in circulating estrogen in peri and post-menopausal women leads to atrophy, or...
“I’ve got this cough that just won’t go away,” my patient says, and I know this story all too well. Chronic cough, a cough that lasts more than two months, is a common ailment which in most cases is benign. But for the patient it is both bothersome and worrisome. If your cough has lasted for less than two months it may just be the residual effect of an upper respiratory infection. Dry cough after having one of many viruses can last for weeks and weeks and the only cure is time. In patient...
It still looks like winter out my kitchen window but I’m totally admiring pastel colors and cute little bunnies on everything I seem to look at the past week. Is this just because I’m tired of the gray winter scene outside, or is it because we are in Lent? I’m researching plants for the garden, shuffling my seed packages and asking friend gardeners if they have started seeds indoors. With another birthday being marked off, I find myself thinking of my garden bucket list. The bucket list chang...
“No man is an island, entire of itself, every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main.” This is the beginning of a poem from 1624. In it, the poet John Donne appreciates how humans are all connected. Indeed, humans are social beings and social connection is a factor in our health. We all know the importance of a healthy diet and exercise for our health. We are getting better at understanding the importance of mental health. One thing we do not discuss much, however, are the ben...
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 something I nevertheless frequently recommend to my patients. So what is this mysterious and rather ominous medical recommendation? Nasal saline irrigation. The practice of rinsing the nose out with liquid probably originated centuries ago in India and it remains part of spiritual ritual as well as...
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 obstacle course. Having proper footwear is not only important for warmth, but also the wellbeing of your feet. Choosing the correct boots for the elements could mean the difference between enjoying the outdoors and needing an urgent care visit. What makes good footwear for enjoying the outdoors safely?...
Routine visits to the dentist are key to maintaining overall health. Preventive dental care starts at home. We advise patients to brush twice a day, usually in the morning and before bed, for two minutes followed by flossing. Eating healthy is also crucial to maintaining oral health. Sugary foods and beverages are key factors in tooth decay. Acid is produced when the bacteria in your mouth break down sugar. That acid dissolves the tooth surface leading to tooth decay. Preventive dental care...
My family has a fondness for crime dramas and thrillers. It isn't uncommon to watch a scene in which a peacefully-sleeping individual wakes when a shadowy figure approaches their bedside with a pillow. Predictably, the assailant calmly presses that pillow over the face of their victim and waits until the struggling stops. For millions of us, the threat in our bedrooms isn't some malevolent other, but rather our own bodies and brains. We may get our next breath, but for those with sleep apnea, it can be a struggle. Sleep apnea has two basic...
It’s a new year which leads into new garden ideas. Visions of growing, blooming plants come to mind while a coat of snow coats the backyard as I look out my kitchen window. Garden seed catalogs have started arriving and flipping through to favorite categories I can’t help but notice the price of seeds has not come down. Will that stop us? Probably not. It means reading more and being a bit more careful when placing those tiny seeds we plant. The first step to planting seeds comes before we pur...
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 exaggerate or misrepresent things. Sometimes this misrepresentation is innocent, while other times it is used as a tool to regulate or manipulate people. Myths can be used to give a sense of power and control over an overwhelming situation. Of the many types of myths, ones that deal with medicine are...
Urinalysis, or testing of the urine, has ancient origins dating back to the time of Hippocrates and beyond. Although we have evolved in our methodology of studying the urine and our understanding of the meaning of its characteristics, we do still rely on urinalysis in making clinical diagnoses frequently in medicine. In centuries past, the tools of urinalysis were blunt and primarily involved human senses of sight, smell and taste (yes, taste). Ancient physicians noted that sediment in the...
December 7, 1941, is a "date that will live in infamy," as stated by President Theodore Roosevelt, in his famous speech after the events of the Pearl Harbor bombing. That event led to the United States involvement in World War II. President's Roosevelt's speech was a call to arms and a declaration of war against this act of aggression by a foreign nation. He never wanted us to forget what happened. Roosevelt concluded his speech by saying, "With confidence in our armed forces, with the unboundin...
TV is flooded these days with commercials encouraging everyone to sign up for Medicare Advantage. What is MA and why are they doing this? First of all, a bit of history. For more than 30 years, Congress has debated whether the private insurance industry could deliver Medicare benefits more efficiently than the federal government. In 2003, these efforts evolved into what is now known as Medicare Part C or, more commonly, Medicare Advantage. MA plans, operated by private insurance companies, cover...
I love Thanksgiving. I love preparing the food all day and enjoying it while sitting around a table with some of the people I love most. And there is one holiday tradition that I have grown to adore. As we sit down to eat, we share one thing we feel grateful for this year. Practicing gratitude has been shown to improve aspects of mental health and our sense of well-being, and it isn't hard to understand why. Saying or thinking "I am grateful for..." feels really good and doing so regularly can...
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 would be in a nursing home, or in their grave, within a year. The odds are somewhat better today, but a hip fracture is still a very serious event, especially if your health, or your independence, is already compromised. We may be better at helping people recover, but the best strategy is not break...
How much blood flows through your joints? Would you be surprised if I told you, "None"? That's right! Inside the joint there is a clear, viscous, slippery fluid that lubricates the joint surface, but no red blood flows inside the joint. Doctors do not want to see blood in a joint. When there is blood inside a joint, it is usually because of trauma. That means tissue has been injured and blood vessels have been broken, bleeding into the clear cavity. "How," you may ask, "can a joint get oxygen...
A common lament I hear from my patients as they try to discuss a real concern they have about their body: “I’m sorry; this is so disgusting!” Their cheeks burn with shame as they tell me how their bowels have betrayed them. No matter what the issue is, so many of my patients are mortified discussing their diarrhea, constipation, fecal incontinence. My response, always, is “you can’t gross me out – we talk about poop every day in this clinic.” Plenty of things can go wrong in the gastrointesti...
Chili. Just one little word that causes so much controversy. And no, I'm not talking about the whole "beans-or-no-beans" debate that seems to pit Texas chili purists against the rest of the world. I'm talking about the chili and cinnamon roll combo that so many of us remember from our school lunch days. In 2020, as were all sheltering in place and more of us were cooking at home than we had in years, I was invited to join a Facebook group that focused on "Eating through the pandemic." It was...
I’m anxious these days to get in my vehicle and drive. It’s time to stop looking out my kitchen window and look upwards at all the beautiful fall trees with leaves of golds and reds. Taking a drive with my husband, I was treated to a spectacular show of Mother Nature’s painting skills. In my area of Northeast Nebraska the trees are dotting the landscape in gold, burgundy and deep red. Along a mile stretch of a country road, three acreage driveways and groves are filled with trees that are flood...
If you ever played baseball, you may have been told to “keep your eye on the ball.” When batting, a baseball player is taught to watch the ball the entire time from when it leaves the pitcher’s hand to when, hopefully, their bat smacks the ball for a hit. It may sound simple, but some pitchers can throw fast and sometimes they throw a curve ball. Great hitters use their vision and spot the difference, helping them get a hit. Lose focus and, in the blink of an eye, the pitch has whipped past...
Known as "the other white meat," pork got a bad rap for decades. Cook it until it's completely done and it's dry as a bone. Leave it a bit pink in the middle and you'll die of food poisoning. It has too much fat and it's bad for you. Whatever. A lot has changed in the past 10 years or so. America's pig farmers have worked closely with their teams of pig health professionals reviewing and researching what pigs eat and how they are raised and bred to develop leaner, higher quality pork foods that...
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 women of “childbearing potential” be excluded from early stage clinical trials. Men, particularly white men, were considered the ideal model, from which the success and side effects of any particular treatment could be judged. Somehow, women’s menstrual cycles made them too difficult to study, while...
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 abnormally swollen or dilated, they are called varicose veins. This swelling is caused by the valves inside the veins becoming weak and no longer sealing tightly. Varicose veins can become painful, quite large and stick out from the surface of the skin. In order for blood to return from your feet back to...
People often think they need to lose weight. The hard part, of course, is following through on that desire in a sustained and successful manner. Here are a few of the ways people do lose weight and the secrets of their success. Some people should not lose weight, so please talk to your doctor. First of all, consider the reasons to lose weight. Benefits can include having more energy, improved mobility, fewer aches and pains, sleeping better, improvement in mood, lower blood pressure and lower...
We all know that exercise is great for our overall health. Exercise is important for our cardiovascular health of course, which is why the American Heart Association recommends 150 minutes of moderate intensity exercise every week. No less importantly, and especially as we get older, another huge benefit of exercise is in fall and injury prevention. Starting an exercise routine, especially when starting from scratch, can be daunting. The simplest way to get started is to start a timed walking...
