Information and Critical Thinking for Your Health
Passing the torch One difficult responsibility as a physician is to recognize physical frailties especially those indicating patients are incapable of driving. Too often in my medical practice, most resistance … Continue Reading →
Teammanship Nothing could have prepared me better for my career and life than playing team sports growing up. It’s hard to imagine someone now in their 70s pitching a fastball … Continue Reading →
The Meaning of D-Day Robin and I share a family bond. Both our fathers were wounded WWII veterans. Her father was on the water, taken to a British hospital unconscious … Continue Reading →
A Jury of Lie Detectors A trial by a jury of your peers does not mean they will reach the correct conclusion of innocence or guilt. When serving on a … Continue Reading →
Targeting Targeted Cancer Therapy For decades, many patients, their children, and grandkids have strived to answer, “What is cancer? As a doctor and scientist, over the past 16 months, I … Continue Reading →
Emancipation from the Medical-Industrial Complex My grandfather was forced to immigrate from Japan to Canada in 1910. As I learned, he owned many saki factories in Japan, which were nationalized … Continue Reading →
On Being a Doctor and an Advocate I opened my internal medicine practice almost four decades ago to serve a growing urban community. I gravitated toward the underserved geriatric population … Continue Reading →
Dear Editor Recently, I have had a hip problem and walk with a cane. When I go shopping, to the post office, and even to the Senior Center, people open … Continue Reading →
Disadvantage Plans Continue to Inundate Us With the primary election over in California, I was hopeful junk mail would lessen. However, the mailbox is still clogged with advertisements targeting older … Continue Reading →
My parents grew up on farms: my mother in British Columbia and my father in Pennsylvania. Both told me how they walked 5 miles in the snow to school. We … Continue Reading →
Telemedicine Can’t Cross State Lines Forty years ago when I first started in medicine, there were no CT scans or MRIs. In the next forty years, I foresee cancer as … Continue Reading →
Nursing Homes: Diminishing the dignity of older adults Call it what you want: Nursing home, skilled nursing facility, rehab center, convalescent home, or post-acute care. They are all the same … Continue Reading →
Medical Decision-Making The practice of medicine has been augmented by advancing technology. But even with 4 years of medical school and an MD degree, this only provides the foundation of … Continue Reading →
As a medical doctor, I have peeked into the lives of many patients who have unique experiences. When I started practice 40 years ago, some of my patients had parents … Continue Reading →
Science fiction writer Ray Bradbury and I attended Los Angeles High School separated by 15 years. He once spoke there and quelled the rumor he failed English: “I got a … Continue Reading →
The slowing of technology by the medical-industrial complex How I practice medicine has changed for the better because of technology. In the future I foresee no pandemics, cancer becoming a … Continue Reading →
We worry about politicians who trip over sandbags, walk gingerly down rain-soaked stage ramps, or have “episodes” during press conferences or Congressional meetings. Typically, these frailties are attributed to “old … Continue Reading →
Parades are for memories Raising children is not an easy task. But as parents, we try to provide occasional life experiences they will preserve as memories for decades to come. … Continue Reading →
Doin the walk On the first day of class, one of my medical school professors limped in, stopped, then proceeded to teach us specifically what ailment a patient has to … Continue Reading →
Buffalo and Hart Park I miss the buffalo. They always seemed so gentle. Sometimes they would roll around in the dirt kicking up a dust cloud at Hart Park in … Continue Reading →
Ageism and the role it plays on being a doctor There are several certainties in the world, and one is we will age. But unfortunately, there are some unforeseen consequences … Continue Reading →
Lessons learned from the pandemic – a silver lining Prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, many Americans were unaware of the 1918 pandemic that rampaged across the United States a century before. … Continue Reading →
A thank you to my Los Angeles community I am a medical doctor in my fourth decade of saving lives, but my life was saved long before today by a … Continue Reading →
Pulling the Plug How many older adults and disabled have had their “plug pulled”? Here is a recent story how a group of senior advocates fought back and rectified state … Continue Reading →
Abortion States: Facing Restrictions from Faith-based Hospitals Medical decision-making is not easy. A patient’s quality of life, including career and family, may hang in the balance. I have practiced … Continue Reading →