March 30, 2012

Symptomatic dry eye can result in a decreased ability to perform daily activities that have an impact on the quality of life.

March 23, 2012

Winter is officially over and spring is here.  Even if you have not looked at your calendar - your nose, eyes and heart probably know.   Love and pollen are in the air!

March 16, 2012

We normally focus on dietary intake and eye health, but today's column focuses on the growing amount of science that connects diet to mental health. The better the diet, the better the mental health of most people.

March 09, 2012

A study published online in in the March, 2012 Nature Medicine and titled, Vitamin E decreases bone mass by stimulating osteoclast fusion, used a rodent model to demonstrate that mice, genetically altered to be deficient in Vitamin E α-tocopherol transfer protein, have a high bone mass as a result of decreased bone resorption.  Higher bone resorption leading to decreased bone mass was shown in normal mice that were not genetically altered to simulate vitamin E deficiency.

March 02, 2012

The healthcare industry, not unlike other industries, engages in many clever tactics to sell Americans overpriced, supposedly new, products.

February 24, 2012

The press has spent a lot of time this month claiming that the famous English actress, Dame Judi Dench, is going blind, based on her recent diagnoses of Macular Degeneration.  We applaud her for taking a stand and announcing that the reports of her impending blindness have been “overblown” and that she considers herself to be a lucky woman, given the support available to her.

February 17, 2012

Throughout most of human history, the main threats to human life and health have been the germ diseases: smallpox, bubonic plague, tuberculosis, dysentery, influenza, typhoid fever, etc. In the developed world these diseases have been mostly eradicated over the past century, and a new set of diseases have become the main causes of debility, illness and death.

February 10, 2012

We’re not sure why B12 shots for the elderly fell out of favor, but it may be time to reconsider the need and start increasing the daily amount of oral supplemental B12 since deficiency is pandemic in older adults due to age-related decreased production of gastric intrinsic factor necessary for absorption of vitamin B12 in the small intestine.  

February 02, 2012

Sunlight is the light of life. It's as important as air and water and it'is the best source of Vitamin D. We all need 10-15 minutes a day of sun on as much skin as we can legally get away with exposing, while wearing our sun glasses.  

January 27, 2012

This past week was a reminder to be proud of American medicine.  I’ll start with the exceptionally talented doctors and researchers who made it possible for Gabby Gifford to walk up to the podium in the House of Representatives to resign her seat in congress.  Given current medical technology, amazing neurosurgeons, neurologists and her will to live and thrive, it may be within reason to expect that she could have a full recovery.