Flu Symptoms: What are They? Feeling like you got run over by a bus? Fever, aches, and fatigue — they’re all tell-tale flu symptoms. If it makes you feel any better, you’re not alone. Flu is wreaking havoc in the US right now, and Austin and San Antonio, Texas have been hit particularly hard. But it’s not just that so …
Children’s Medicine Is there a section of the medicine aisle that causes greater anxiety than the “children’s medicine” section? OK, maybe the “Family Planning” section, but it’s a close second. Stacked across these aisles are dozens of cold remedies for kids, all with similar claims. We get questioned about these medications often, and no wonder! Everyone wants to help their …
Diagnosing Your Child’s Sickness as a Parent I love the excitement I see as a pediatrician when parents correctly diagnose their child’s ailment. They get a big grin on their face, and I invariably hear an “I knew it!” or “I told my husband/wife/mother-in-law that I knew what was going on”! Often they’ll tell me how happy they are that …
Salmonella Dangers You know about Salmonella, right? It’s the “raw cookie dough” bacteria. You know, as in, “Don’t eat raw cookie dough or you’ll get Salmonella.” Raw Eggs = Salmonella Or maybe your college boyfriend watched Rocky too many times and cracked raw eggs into his protein shakes, and you remember something similar. Why’s that? Because Salmonella comes from chickens! …
Raw Milk: What’s the Deal? A few years back, my family lived in Ethiopia. I was the director of a hospital there, and our town was a five hour drive from the capital city … and supermarkets. That meant we couldn’t buy milk in our town. But we had fresh, raw milk delivered three times a week from a farmer …
High Blood Pressure High blood pressure, or as we docs call it, “hypertension” is a peculiar disease. It’s not as simple as the flu, where you either have it, or you don’t. Baseline Blood Pressure Think of it like this – Every single person has a baseline blood pressure. The top number (we call that “systolic”) is the pressure in …
For Convenience’s Sake Look around your city, and chances are you’ll see an urgent care or freestanding emergency room on nearly every corner. Why has this happened? Well, for one thing, patients like the convenient access. We like well-placed locations next to the grocery store, and easy parking. We like that we can get in and out without even making …
Accuracy of Flu Tests How well can a given test tell if you have a disease? Doctors call this measure “sensitivity.” The sensitivity of a test is expressed as a percentage. It means if we take 100 people who we know have the disease, and we test them, how many will come back positive? If the answer is 75, …
Prescription Drug TV Commercials Prescription drug TV commercials have gone beyond weird. Like the one commercial where the couple is sitting in two separate claw foot bathtubs, outside, under a pergola of fragrant purple flowers – We all know what that feels like, right? Or the one where the rugged construction project manager takes time away from building a house …
West Nile Virus in Austin, Texas? Mosquito bites are all too familiar to those of us here in Texas. And other than the itching for a few days, they’re typically fairly benign. Recently, we started seeing new mosquito-borne illnesses here in the US. First it was West Nile and then Zika. West Nile had been around in the Eastern Hemisphere …