Stuttering in children: How parents can help
When a child starts to stutter, it can be alarming for parents. But most of the time, it’s nothing to worry about. Stuttering is very common. In fact, according to the National Institute on Deafness and other Communication Disorders (NIDCD), 5% to 10% of all children stutter at some point, usually between 2 and 6 […]
Can vaping help you quit smoking?
Lately it seems like everywhere I look, someone is vaping as they walk by, stand outside a store, or roll up in the car next to me at a stoplight. It’s not surprising: e-cigarette use, or vaping, has become remarkably popular in recent years. About 6% of adults in the US now report vaping. That’s […]
Do I have to yell so much?
You’ve been trying to get your point across, but it’s not getting through. It’s getting you frustrated, maybe a little offended, so you go for a different approach. You yell. Now, concert-level volume has its place, like for saying, “There’s a bear behind you” or “Power line down.” But the big question is, how often […]
Evoking calm: Practicing mindfulness in daily life helps
It’s easy to say you simply don’t have time to be mindful. With so much going on in daily life, who has time to stop and be present? But everyone has at least 10 minutes to spare to practice mindfulness. The point of these brief, daily reflections is to help you tap into calmness whenever […]
What happened to trusting medical experts?
In all aspects of our lives, we rely on experts, from home repairs to weather forecasting to food safety, and just about everything else that’s part of modern society. There’s just no way to know everything about everything. Yet when it comes to medicine, people seem to be taking their health in their hands in […]
Cancer survivors’ sleep is affected long after treatment
Once the stress of a cancer diagnosis and its intensive treatments have passed, the hope is that life can return to normal. But we know that this is not true for many people who have had treatments for cancer, and sleep is often impacted for a long time after treatment. Researchers at the American Cancer […]
Gastroparesis: A slow-emptying stomach can cause nausea and vomiting
If you have a daily commute, a backup of traffic or road work may delay you, but you’ll eventually reach your destination. Gastroparesis, a digestive condition, can be imagined as a slowed commute through the stomach. But the delay involved can cause uncomfortable symptoms, and may have other health consequences that can affect nutrition and […]
Icy fingers and toes: Poor circulation or Raynaud’s phenomenon?
If your fingers or toes ever turn pale (or even ghostly white) and go numb when exposed to cold, you might assume you just have poor circulation. That’s what I used to think when I first started noticing this problem with my own hands many years ago. It usually happened near the end of a […]
A conversation about reducing the harms of social media
Editor's note: In this blog post, Dr. Sharon Levy interviews her son Isaiah Levy, a college student. We appreciate Isaiah’s insights and comments on social media's impact on teens and young adults. It is hard to remember (or for younger people, hard to imagine) a world without social media, but indeed such a world once […]
Preparing for the holidays? Don’t forget rapid tests for COVID-19
As the holiday season approaches, there’s a lot to keep in mind. Let’s just start with the easy questions: Who’s hosting Thanksgiving? Who’s making the turkey? The stuffing? Dessert? But as we embark on our second round of holidays during the COVID-19 pandemic, we all have additional questions and decisions to make about how to […]