While there are over 5.7 million people living with Alzheimer’s today, there are 16 million more caring for loved ones affected. Added to that number are the many paid health professionals who provide care and support for the 24/7 management often required. In the Coachella Valley, it is estimated that over 50,000 are affected by… Read more »
Have you ever been told by your eye doctor that you have keratoconous [ker-uh-toh-koh-nuhs], a type of astigmatism that cannot be fully corrected with glasses or soft contact lenses? To understand keratoconus, you must first understand that the eye has many components that all work together to help you see including the cornea, lens, and… Read more »
Choosing a career is one of the most difficult choices a student has to make. The Palm Desert Health Academy provides real world experience for students to help them make decisions for their future. As students, we have learned that it is important to have a firm idea of what it takes to enter the… Read more »
Like many personal improvement expressions “Live Your Passion,” the title of this issue’s front page feature, is alluring in its simplicity, powerful in its promise, but difficult to achieve. Difficult, but not impossible. Identifying where we are and the personal energy we have left to contribute to achieving new goals in our life is a… Read more »
Strokes present in two manners. The first is ischemic stroke caused by a blockage of a large or small blood vessel to the brain. The second form, hemorrhagic stroke, is caused by bleeding of a blood vessel into the brain or on the surface of the brain as in subarachnoid spaces. Hypertension is the most… Read more »
Sixteen years after the approval and use of the prostate-specific antigen (PSA) test for generalized population screening by the FDA, an opinion editorial in The New York Times by the discoverer of PSA (and co-author of this article), Richard J. Ablin, directed attention to the shortcomings of the PSA test contributing to overdiagnosis and overtreatment… Read more »
When sexual intimacy with your partner causes pain, it can have a deep psychological impact. You may feel alone and uncertain where to turn. Many will suffer in silence, as the topic can be difficult to discuss. The pain can lead to a disinterest in sex and eventually you may avoid physical intimacy altogether with… Read more »
Congratulations on making the most difficult decision of your life: the decision to get sober. The journey of addiction and dependency can be a long and arduous road fraught with challenges in every aspect of life. Long-gnarled tentacles take hold wreaking havoc and then, ah…the early days of recovery are the calm after the turbulent… Read more »
The Desert Healthcare District (DHCD) is a leading organization connecting local residents to health providers, facilities, programs, and services. Each year they grant an average of $4 million to nonprofit, community-based and provider-based organizations to assist residents – especially the underserved – in accessing vitally needed resources, such as primary and behavioral health care, housing,… Read more »
As an alumni of La Quinta High School’s Medical Health Academy (’03), Andrew Kehl set his sights on using his new medical knowledge to help others. Deliberately enlisting in the U.S. Air Force as a firefighter, he finished his emergency medical technician (EMT) credential and responded to over 400 medical emergencies where his skills were… Read more »
In summer 2018, the Alzheimer’s Association will launch the first-ever U.S.-based study to examine the effects of lifestyle interventions for seniors at high-risk for cognitive decline. The 2-year clinical trial will enroll 2,500 participants from health systems across the country, and intervention categories will include: healthy nutrition physical activity social interactions and intellectual challenges frequent… Read more »
Each Friday, patients at JFK Memorial Hospital receive a visit from Zane, a six-year-old standard poodle, trained as a therapy dog. Owner Sherri Halstead wanders from room to room, gently knocking on each door to ask the patients if they would like to spend a few minutes with Zane. For most, he offers the irresistible… Read more »
This is the final pillar of a six-part series on brain health from Deborah Schrameck, NC, PT, of the Eisenhower Wellness Institute. For previous articles click here. My final pillar on brain health is “stimulation,” more commonly known as “use it or lose it.” In the Jan/Feb 2011 issue of Desert Health, the article Alzheimer’s… Read more »
Last June, ten members of Harvard’s incoming freshman class who had just received their acceptance letters to Harvard received another letter from Harvard. It was a letter rescinding their acceptance because of their posts on Facebook. How tragic and embarrassing for these students and their families! Social media can impact our lives in ways we… Read more »
Glaucoma, a group of diseases that leads to damage of the optic nerve, is one of the leading causes of blindness worldwide. Left untreated, glaucoma causes permanent vision loss and blindness. Given that it is so common (it affects about 3 million people in the US alone) and there are many available treatments for it,… Read more »
In my practice, I often encounter post-menopausal clients that are referred for recurrent urinary tract infections. While on some occasions, physically identifiable ailments account for these issues, more commonly, they suffer from a hidden condition named vaginal atrophy which is often ignored or not recognized by patients and/or their physicians. The goal of this article… Read more »
There used to be a television show called The Newlywed Game during which the host asked the newlyweds questions to discover how well the newly married couples knew each other. It was entertaining to hear the answer compared to what the spouse thought the answer would be. Exposed habits were frequently the brunt of the… Read more »
“Oil pulling” is an ancient Ayurvedic practice from India that has recently become popular in the US as a means of improving health of the oral cavity, especially gum health. The practice involves using an oil, usually coconut, and swishing it around the mouth and between the teeth for about 20 minutes. Advocates of the… Read more »
A recent article published in the British Journal of Ophthalmology1 helped highlight the difference in eye disease based on whether a diabetic patient is on insulin or not. The study involved over 15,000 patients followed for 9 years. What is interesting is that outcomes were differentiated by any eye disease, sight-threatening eye disease, and something… Read more »
What does it mean to have a heartbeat that “skips”? And how prevalent is it? Among the senior population, as many as one in ten may suffer from a condition called atrial fibrillation (AFIB), a serious heart rhythm disorder. But what is AFIB? Here are five things to know: The heart has an electrical system—and… Read more »