Daria B. Crittenden

Although children today have never known a world without cell phones, the rest of us remember when these devices were created and have watched their popularity soar. The ability to have constant communication, anytime and anywhere, is now taken for granted. Many have asked the question, are we putting our health at risk with this technology? Specifically, with cell phones cradled against our ears many times a day, and sometimes for many hours a day, are we at…

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Chau Che MD

Faculty peer reviewed

Despite the numerous medications available for the treatment of nausea and vomiting, some patients and doctors insist that ginger ale will alleviate gastrointestinal symptoms. As early as the first century AD, the Greek physician Dioscorides praised ginger root because it “gently stimulates the gut and is profitable for the stomach” (4). During the 16th century, the physician Lonicerus similarly wrote, “Ginger does good for a bad stomach” (4). Ginger has long medicinal roots…

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Cindy Mui MD

Faculty Peer Reviewed

Hiccups, or singultus, are sudden, involuntary contractions of the diaphragm, which are terminated by abrupt closure of the glottis, producing their characteristic sound. Hiccups serve no known physiologic purpose, and descriptions of their causes and “cures” date back to the time of Hippocrates. The sheer number of remedies for hiccups prompted Dr. Charles Mayo, a physician at the turn of the 20th century and one of the founders of the Mayo clinic, to…

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