Did you get away this summer? Travel to new places and meet new people? Maybe you are one who packs up each May and leaves the desert for cooler climates. If so, I admire you. Packing up your life and setting up camp in a different location takes a lot of motivation. It also takes… Read more »
Whether it’s a workout buddy, Zumba class, or a Spartan team, working towards wellness alongside others creates a sense of accountability, motivation and fun. So why is it that the place many spend most of their day with the largest group of people–the workplace–is often the least healthy? From hours at the computer and stressful… Read more »
Summer is a time for vacation, families, barbeques and friends. But our toasty temps often keep friends and family – and even many of us – far away from June through August. This summer we were thrilled to have our 7-year-old granddaughter come stay with us for a week. It was the first time she… Read more »
Just as every patient trusts his or her surgeon, surgeons must be able to trust their equipment. What happens, though, when the surgeon’s equipment fails? We are not discussing robotic devices or mechanical issues, but rather something significantly more dangerous: the timeless routine of gowning and gloving surgeons before surgery. While this is important to… Read more »
Twenty-five Coachella Valley undergraduate health science students helped advance critical need projects for local health care businesses this summer through the Health Career Connection (HCC) internship program. Hosted for the seventh year in collaboration with the Coachella Valley Economic Partnership (CVEP), the HCC program offers ten-week, paid summer internships for local college students to introduce… Read more »
This column is a continuation of last issue’s feature story on Shay Moraga who at 39 years old was diagnosed with triple negative breast cancer. We are honored to have Shay sharing her journey with Desert Health® readers in an ongoing column. When we left Shay, she was close to finishing 20 weeks of chemo…… Read more »
Individuals suffering from chronic pain assume that the pain symptoms are purely physical. There are many times though that clinicians scratch their heads to identify painful symptoms when nothing structural presents itself in an effort to prove a mechanical problem as the pain culprit. Dr. John Sarno, author of Mind Over Back Pain and Healing… Read more »
Most amateur players spend a lifetime trying to attain the perfect golf swing. Today, professional golf has evolved into a game that demands a team approach bringing together the most elite specialists including coaches, nutritionists, and medical professionals to provide tour players with every possible advantage over the competition. Without that luxury, many of the… Read more »
James Bond, Star Trek, Star Wars. We’ve grown up seeing lasers as technology of the future or science fiction, but they are real and their use is changing many areas of our lives as we know it. One of these areas is the health field, specifically dentistry, where their use has led to great advancements… Read more »
This literature review is an important update on the role of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in prostate cancer diagnosis and treatment. Over the past ten years, physicians and researchers all over the world – and right here in the desert – have been exploring new ways to detect, diagnose and treat prostate cancer using MRI.… Read more »
The use of cupping therapy by athletes has grown over the last decade as evidenced by the marks on Olympian Michael Phelps’s shoulders and back. Cupping has been used historically, not only in China and Asia, but also in Greece, Russia, Italy and South America. The technique has been in use for literally thousands of… Read more »
As a registered nurse, I have been with Eisenhower Medical Center and the Betty Ford Center for 29 years. I became an acupuncturist 15 years ago and have had impressive results treating patients with auricular (ear) acupuncture for chemical dependency, alcohol withdrawal, anxiety and pain. The ear is innervated (has nerve supply) from three major… Read more »
Methylation and the MTHFR gene have been making news as emerging topics in a branch of medicine called nutrigenomics, or the study of how the food and nutrients we consume influence our gene expression and play a vital role in our health. Methylation is a key biochemical process that is essential for the proper function… Read more »
Oxytocin is commonly known as the “snuggle hormone” or the “love hormone.” Various types of positive sensory stimulations such as warmth, touch, or even eating food release it. Nature wired men and women to experience surges of oxytocin when bonding. It helps create the feeling of falling in love and naturally enhances a sense of… Read more »
The most common struggle for those with digestive trouble is accurately identifying foods that could be causing symptoms such as bloating or diarrhea. At some point, we are likely to opt for traditional food sensitivity testing via blood sample. This form of testing produces results in one to three weeks and identifies the degree to… Read more »
Forgetful lately? Did you know that doing 35 to 60 minutes of aerobic exercise (as little as 4 days a week), cutting out high protein intake from animal sources, and staying hydrated will improve your mental and cognitive health within a few weeks? In addition, adding turmeric and a quality B vitamin can diminish symptoms… Read more »
Everywhere we look nowadays there is political antipathy. Two parties approach the finish line on November 8th holding steadfast to their ideals and platforms, as well as their assumptions about the opposite party. We get very wrapped up in the drama and constant barrage of media influence related to the campaigns. As individuals we hold… Read more »
Intravenous therapy, commonly known as I.V. therapy, is often thought of in conjunction with cancer chemotherapy or as a necessity for hospitalized patients. However, it has a wide variety of applications from eliminating migraines to helping the body get over a cold or flu to assisting in athletic training. I.V. therapy is the procedure of… Read more »
Have any of you wondered about this column’s title, The Paradigm Shift in Medicine Today? What is the paradigm shift it references? Why does this matter? And, why would this be important to me? A paradigm shift is an expansion of perspective to include more information. The revelation that the world was round and not… Read more »
Health care stress is rampant― affecting its providers (employees and the organizations) and customers (patients and their families) alike. “Most stress in life is unnecessary, though some of it is inevitable,” says Kiran Dintyala, MD, MPH, a board certified internal medicine physician with Eisenhower Medical Center. “There are simple things that one can learn to… Read more »