By Maura RZ Madou, MD
Faculty Peer Reviewed
When the New Jersey legislature approved a measure to legalize the use of marijuana for patients with chronic illnesses early this year, multiple sclerosis (MS) patient Charles Kwiatkowski, of Hazlet, N.J., rhetorically asked the New York Times; “The M.S. Society has shown that this drug will help slow the progression of my disease. Why would I want to use anything else?”1 New Jersey was the 14th state in the nation to…
By Rachel Edlin, MD
Faculty peer reviewed
A 29-year-old female patient with a history of iron deficiency anemia and heavy menstrual periods comes into the clinic for a regular visit. She is tired of iron supplementation and its associated constipation. As she is currently on oral contraceptive pills, you recommend using these to reduce her menstrual period to four times a year. She asks, “Is that really safe?”
Is menstruation necessary?
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David Shabtai
Faculty Peer Reviewed
In a bold move, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recently changed their breast cancer screening guidelines – recommending beginning screening at age 50 and even then only every other year until age 75. Bold, because the Task Force members are certainly aware of the media circus that ensued when in 1997, an NIH group issued similar guidelines, prompting comparisons to Alice in Wonderland. The new guidelines, recommend “against routine screening mammography in women…
Emily Stamell
Faculty peer reviewed
As a well-trained fourth year medical student, I inquire about smoking habits as part of almost all my patient encounters. Yet, I do not recall properly counseling a patient on smoking cessation aside from the one liner “You know you should quit, right?” During first and second year of medical school we are taught the stages of change model, which is just as obscure two years later as cell signaling pathways. I was recently…
Sagar Mungekar
Faculty Peer Reviewed
The incidence of male pattern hair loss can reach almost 100% in some ethnic groups.1, 2 While treatment of the condition is usually deferred to dermatologists, it is often the primary care physician (PCP) who is first approached for advice. Several medical and surgical treatments exist for male pattern hair loss. Herbal supplements and products on infomercials make cursory non-FDA-approved claims of hair growth. Minoxidil, once developed for hypertension, is available over the counter…
Arlene Chung
Faculty Peer Reviewed
Despite the high prevalence of obesity1 and its associated morbidity2 and mortality 3,4, it represents one of the most difficult chronic conditions to treat. Barriers include a metabolically toxic environment, a history of ill-fated weight-loss regimens, and a general view of obesity as primarily a social, not a medical problem. 5 Deep down, the belief that obesity really is the result of gluttony and sloth probably persists. However, as we learn more about the…
Joshua Allen-Dicker
Faculty peer reviewed
A healthy 42-year old patient presents to your office after a day of hiking with his family in Upstate New York. This morning in the shower he found a “big black tick” on his right leg. He is currently asymptomatic and wants to know what his risk of Lyme disease is.
For New York City physicians, the end of summer and beginning of fall herald a spike in cases of Lyme Disease.…
Megan Mulligan
Faculty peer reviewed by Dr. David Rapoport
The role of sleep in memory formation is an intriguing topic that has garnered widespread interest among researchers in recent years. The subject has seen a doubling in the number of publications every decade, yet the mechanism by which memories are formed remains elusive. There is little debate that sleep is important for memory, which begs the question: What does the role of sleep in memory imply for the infamously…
Emily Breidbart
Faculty peer reviewed
As the threat of the swine flu surfaced in early 2009, doctors and the media referenced the influenza of 1918. Also known as the Spanish flu, this pandemic spread to nearly every part of the world and killed more humans than any other disease in a similar period in known history. According to an epidemiological study done in 2002, this unusually virulent strain of influenza A, subtype H1N1, is said to have killed approximately 50 million…
David R. Friedmann MD
Faculty Peer Reviewed
Hemoglobin A1 (Hb A1c) is the standard method for monitoring diabetic patients’ long-term glycemic control by indicating average blood glucose levels over a period of two months, or half of the average life span of red blood cells. A new biochemical marker GlycoMarkTM is a test that measures serum levels of 1,5-anhydroglucitol (1,5-AG), a monosaccharide derived from ingestion of food, slightly different in structure from glucose. The test has been available in…
Gilda Boroumand, MS4
Faculty Peer Reviewed
Chronic insomnia, defined as difficulty with the initiation, maintenance, duration, and quality of sleep for at least one month, is a common complaint with significant impact on an individual’s daytime functioning and quality of life. It is particularly prevalent in the elderly, affecting between 23% to 34% of individuals over the age of 64. This same group is also more likely to experience adverse effects from various treatment regimens, thus leaving physicians with…
Ely R. Felker
Faculty Peer Reviewed
The patient is a 52 year-old white male who presented to his internist for a routine examination. He has no family history of colorectal cancer. He has not previously been screened. He recently heard about CT colonography and would like to know how it compares to conventional colonoscopy. Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the third most common cancer and the second most common cause of cancer death…
