by James Hubbard, M.D., M.P.H.
Inflammation used to be easy to detect. There was redness, pain and swelling. Nowadays it’s not as easy. It has been implicated as a major culprit in chronic diseases such as heart, cancer and stroke. Read our newly posted article on why this is so, how to detect and treat it.
Is It Really Swine Flu?
The pork lobby has a good point in not calling the new H1N1 flu virus the swine flu. It is not a strain that usually circulates in pigs. Rather, it contains a combination of one gene usually found in birds (avian flu), two from pigs and one from humans. This is why some are suspicious it was an experimental laboratory virus that got into the general public.
Another point is, you are absolutely not going to get this virus from eating pork. Of course, this is true of any flu past or future. It just doesn’t make scientific sense.
The fact is, however, this is a brand new strain and humans have no immunity. (more…)
by James Hubbard, M.D., M.P.H.
Remember the avian flu scare a year or two back? A few people had caught a flu from chickens, which usually was just contagious to other birds. If it ever mutated more and spread from person to person (rather than just chicken to person), look out. It would be a new strain—people would have no immunity—so it would it hit hard and fast: a pandemic.
Most of us thought a particular strain of avian flu was never a serious threat to humans … but that one, down the road, might be.
That event may be happening in Mexico, except pigs are the carrier, hence it’s swine flu. (more…)
by James Hubbard, M.D., M.P.H.
From my last post, you know the skin has many functions vital for a healthy body. It’s pretty low-maintenance, aesthetics aside. However, there are some basics you need to follow to keep this organ in tip-top shape.
For the inner layers, you need plenty of water to keep them hydrated and lots of fruits and vegetables for healthy growth. A healthy diet helps new cells grow properly, and oil and sweat glands function properly. There is no supplement to take the place of this.
In addition, proper external skin-care is a must. Why? (more…)
by James Hubbard, M.D., M.P.H.
Quick, what is your body’s largest organ? If you haven’t guessed by the title, it’s the skin.
Of course, the skin is aesthetic, but it’s so much more. Maybe beauty is more than skin deep, but many functions on which you rely aren’t. The skin is multilayered, multifunctional and dynamic. Old cells continually slough off, as new cells replace them. As a doctor, I’m amazed by its restorative powers. Scrape it and it grows back. If you get a bad cut, pull the edges close, and voila, it grows together.
Here are a few of its functions you may not know about.
Last week I was not my old blogging, commenting self. I was under the weather a little with a virus that kept me down most of the week.
More importantly, my laptop was and is still in disrepair. It has most of my data, e-mail addresses and bookmarked websites. At present, I officially hate Windows Vista, Dell and their support.
But it has been a good time to reflect on my future plans and changes since I am now concentrating on two diverse plans. Actually, I have thought long and hard on this so don’t think my new business plan is to throw something against the wall and see what sticks. (more…)
Happy World Kidney Day.
And you should be happy if your kidneys are functioning well. You can’t live without at least one, you know. Well, you can with treatment, but it’s such a pain.
Ask the approximately 150,000 Americans who have had to have a transplant, or the roughly 350,000 on dialysis.
And then there are the costs in dollars for treatment of end-stage renal disease (renal failure), over $32 billion per year, with Medicare fronting about $20 billion of that (6.7 percent of its overall expenditures). The latest estimates are for a 60-percent increase by 2020. Some of that is those with the disease will be living longer, but here is the take home message:
by James Hubbard, M.D., M.P.H.
A new JAMA study is very interesting for two reasons. It gives us hope for preventing a leading cause of blindness in the U.S. But it’s also a great example of why, while the popular “association” studies give us valuable information, they never prove causation. You need more-focused studies for that.
First, the great news: (more…)
by 
James Hubbard, M.D., M.P.H.
A British study shows four healthy steps to cut our risk of stroke by more than half.
Every year 795,000 Americans have a stroke. It’s our third leading cause of death, behind heart disease and cancer. The risk increases with age. We can decrease our chances by keeping our blood pressure and cholesterol under control, but there’s more we can do to help even further.
by James Hubbard, M.D., M.P.H.
Today is National Wear Red Day, decrees the American Heart Association. Women are supposed to wear red to remind us women have heart disease, too. I’m not sure if men are to wear red or not, but I’m not taking any chances. My running shoes I wear to work have red edges.
So I’m thinking, doesn’t everyone know by now women are at risk for heart attacks and strokes? There are studies coming out all the time about women’s heart-attack symptoms being different from men’s, women being harder to diagnose in the ER, dying more often than men.
Then I went to the American Heart Association website and discovered new facts I didn’t know. Conclusion? I will always have new things to learn about women. It is a lifelong, unachievable quest, but I will not give up.
For instance, in 2003:
