Weighing the needs, many or few ... or one?

The ethics of medicine, now perhaps more than ever, are coming front and center into medical practice.  How do we approach a patient with serious disease, whose treatment may consume valuable resources?  How do you balance the patient in front of you with those yet to be seen?  These are tough questions, but real ones in today's world.  Here is a Friday Feedback piece from MedPage Today where five professionals, and I am one of them, look at the issue:

Balancing Patient Care and Public Health

I don't want to rib you, but ...

So there are those that think this is a problem:  women's ribs showing when they exercise.  Truth is, sometimes yes, sometimes no, but there is more to say to flesh out this question.  So have a look at this article from Scary Symptoms that looks at the issue of visible ribs:

A Woman’s Ribs Showing Doesn’t Mean She’s Too Thin!

Sometimes a nosebleed is a nosebleed

Blood is scary, and when it's coming out of your face, even more so.  Our friends at Scary Symptoms asked me a question about the association of nosebleeds with leukemia which, apparently, is something that people worry about all the time.  I can understand the concern, if you take your mind down that path.  So, here is a piece I pretty much wrote for them to address the concern ...

Normal Nosebleed vs. Leukemia:

Is There a Difference?

If Dents not enough...

So here is the other article about muscle dents.  You know, I never knew this was really a problem, but many of my patients who work out have told me that this kind of angst really does fly around the locker room.  So look folks, take a deep breath, engage your sense of reason and logic, and read this:

Benign Calf Dent or Muscle Atrophy:

Your Last Article!

Dents not the end of the story

A bit ago, the Scary Symptoms website carried an article with my comments about "dents" that athletes may see in limbs with well developed muscles.  Apparently, this causes anxiety in some folks, thinking that they have some terrible disease.  Well, here's a little more on the subject, from the same website, with a little more content and explanation of the issue:

ALS Anxiety, Muscle Atrophy and Twitching

Conquering This Stress

Vomiting with Vigorous Exercise

Here's another of those Scary Symptoms to help stop you from worrying and thinking that you have some unknown disease.  This post is about the not too infrequent situation of vigorous exercising, lifting weight, running or the like, followed by vomiting.  It turns out, your body it just trying to be itself.  Read about it at:

Nausea, Puking from Lifting Weights:

Advice from Doctor

... and I guess I don't have to tell you whom the doctor with the advice is?

An old Maxim surfaces

Last year, Maxim magazine had posed a bunch of rather far out questions to me.  Although many were published in the magazine, some were not, and the magazine reportedly changed its format and is no longer featuring the "ask the doctor" type question.  So, when a friend sent me a link to the South African Maxim site, I did a double take!  Check out this informative column!

Why Does Scaring Someone Cure the Hiccups?

Just in case this link goes down ....

Why Does Scaring Someone Cure the Hiccups?

-Marcus Sims

Marc I. Leavey, M.D at a medical centre in the USA, breaks it down, “When your diaphragm is having spasms that produce hiccups, a good, swift stretch, such as that produced by the involuntary gasp from a scare, often is enough to break the cycle.” Now, if you can tell us our financial future, chances are our hiccups will be gone for good.

String of Medical Pearls is Blog of the Month!

My thanks to Melissa Ibarra of the Blog Blog for naming this blog the Blog of the Month.  That's more blogs than a sentence should permit!  Here's her posting, with the interview we did about my little corner of the Internet:

June 2015 Blogger of the Month

Is it a good stitch or a bad stitch?

I have recently been approached by a writer at the Scary Symptoms website to have a medical look at, well, scary symptoms.  You know, these are the thoughts that pop into your head when something happens and your first thought is if you finished your will.  But, more likely, it is something much more innocent.  Check out this first entry:

Lower Stomach Pain From Running Could Be Serious

and watch for more to come.

The magic 8 ball?

This is really just another little marker post, denoting the passing of the 8000 view mark some six weeks after passing 7000.  There are more posts in the queue, just need time to make them all nice and readable for you.  Thanks to all who stop by, and please wander around the neighborhood; you might stumble on something that is meaningful to you.