Vitamin D Deficiency: How Common Is It?
By Karen Schwartz These dark and dreary winter months have many Chicagoans longing for warmer climates. But hot rays and relaxing days are not all that Chicagoans may miss by living in a colder and less sunny locale. Living in Chicago may predispose numerous Chicago residents to having a vitamin D deficiency. In fact, about […]
Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move! initiative announces major changes in Chicago
By Riley Andersen First lady Michelle Obama is kicking off the third year of her Let’s Move! initiative this week with a two-day national tour that includes a stop at McCormick place in Chicago on Thursday. The tour will promote the progress of the last two years and announce new ways to battle childhood obesity. […]
Drowsy Driving
What You Need To Know According to the National Sleep Foundation’s 2005 Sleep in America poll, 60 percent of adult drivers—about 168 million people—say they have driven a vehicle while feeling drowsy in the past year, and more than one-third, almost 103 million people, have actually fallen asleep at the wheel.
The Flu Outbreak
Why it broke and whether it’s fixed By David Himmel It begins with an ache. Then a chill. And before you can reach Walgreens, you find yourself in the grip of an influenza outbreak. The final days of last December brought holiday cheer and the third biggest flu season since 2002. After New Year’s Day, […]
Caring for Your Winter Skin
Helpful tips from top area dermatologists By Karen Schwartz It’s wintertime in Chicago, and most likely, your skin looks and feels much drier than it does during the warmer spring and summer months. Two Chicago-area dermatologists give helpful tips for keeping your skin in tip-top shape during the rest of the winter season. Clean and […]
The Un-sexiest Disease in the Room
Why is the idea of improving our heart health so unattractive to us? The problem with cardiovascular disease is that it’s not sexy. Upon first hearing this, it seems obvious, right? What could be sexy about bad cholesterol, hypertension or angina pectoris? But let’s take a moment to define sexy. We’ll use Merriam-Webster’s secondary definition: […]
Sitting at the Unpopular Table
Lesser-known cancers deserve far more attention By Nancy Maes Some cancers, such as breast, colon and lung, are well known. And like principal actors in a movie, they get a great deal of time in the media spotlight. Meanwhile the lesser-known cancers are like the character actors and, therefore, receive far less attention. But these […]
The Primary Problem
As the population grows, so does the need for effective primary care. Yet the number of family doctors has dwindled, and the trend isn’t expected to change course By Patrick Kenney The modern healthcare industry faces an array of challenges, some more vexing than others. One particularly confounding problem; we have a shortage of primary […]
Animal Appetite
Good pet health, like ours, begins with the diet By Eve Becker We know that our health, as humans, is largely influenced by our diet, with unhealthy diets leading to obesity, diabetes and heart disease. It turns out that the four-legged members of our family may have some of the same concerns. “The most important health […]
The Chicago Blues
Seasonal Affective Disorder a far cry from clinical depression By Jenny Allen We’ve all been there. It’s the dead of winter. The alarm clock is blaring. We turn to the window with bleary eyes and… total darkness. A long workday lies ahead. Surely the lunch hour will offer some respite, but it’s 20 degrees out […]
Act Fast to Help Stroke Care
By Eve Becker Last January, Mark Kirk woke up with a headache. It worsened as the morning progressed, followed by vision problems and numbness in his hands. Symptoms became alarmingly more severe. His staff drove him to the emergency room, where it was determined that the junior senator from Illinois had suffered an ischemic stroke; […]
Living Too Large
A Look at the Chicago Childhood Obesity Epidemic By Morgan Lord When it comes to childhood obesity in Chicago, there’s good news, and there’s an overwhelming amount of bad news. Here’s the bad news first. “Childhood obesity is definitely becoming a bigger issue in Chicago,” says Dr. Mary Westerholm, a physician at Central DuPage Hospital […]
Real Men Ask for Help
Erectile dysfunction can damage self-esteem and hurt relationships. But if dealt with appropriately, it just might save your life. OK, maybe we wouldn’t normally put that last one on the list of manly attributes. But lacking good vascular health can mean that everything else on the list is compromised. There are few things that fall […]
Physical Therapy after Joint Replacement Surgery
The recipe for a successful return to normal activities By Nancy Maes When extensive pain makes knee or hip replacement a necessity, it sometimes is beneficial to go through a presurgical round of physical therapy with a trained physical therapist. “If a patient lacks strength or range of motion before surgery, it can be beneficial […]
Old Arthur Itis
Are the effects of arthritis just something we have to deal with as we age? By Karen Schwartz Ah, getting older… You wake up each morning, and that back pain makes it hard to get out of bed. Or perhaps you jogged around your neighborhood, and it feels like you’ve run a marathon. Should you […]
More than Bridge and Bingo
Retirement communities are no longer homes for the old folks By Karen Schwartz Walk into the independent living apartments of The Admiral at the Lake continuing care retirement community (CCRC) on the North Side of Chicago, and you’ll see beautifully appointed one-, two- and three-bedroom units, some with an expansive view of Lake Michigan. The […]
The Cost of Delaying Childbirth
Celebs can afford to do it, can you? So many stories abound about celebrities in their late 30s or 40s giving birth to healthy babies, that delaying childbirth seems like a normal, natural experience. Yet women who wait until their mid-30s or later to have a baby face certain risks. “The first important hurdle they […]
A Hazy Shade of Healthcare
What does tort reform mean for local doctors, insurance companies and you? By Morgan Lord Many of us have a vague idea of what the phrase “tort reform” means. But it’s just that—vague. Tort reform is defined as setting limits for awards of noneconomic damages such as pain, suffering and mental anguish. Meaning, if a […]
Good Oral Health
More at stake than just fresh breath By Terri Yablonsky Stat Your mouth is home to billions of bacteria that not only pose a risk for tooth decay and gum disease but can seriously affect your overall health. If you don’t take care of your teeth, bad breath and less-than-pearly whites may be the least […]
Going Above and Beyond
Shining the spotlight on Chicago’s charitable organizations By Megy Karydes There is no shortage of nonprofit organizations doing great work in Chicago. For families dealt with a devastating blow like news that they have been diagnosed with cancer or they don’t have health insurance to cover prescriptions that can keep them from an emergency room […]
Health Mastery
Tenaciously Stubborn: How the good kind of stubbornness can actually save our lives By Kathleen Aharoni She kept returning to her gynecologist and insisting that she be checked again. Her doctor, though, kept telling her that her bloating and not feeling like her usual self were just symptoms of menopause. She persevered in her self-advocacy, […]
Oral Hygiene Myths
By Terri Yablonsky Stat Ever since Jessica Simpson admitted she cleaned her teeth by rubbing them on her shirt, myths about dental hygiene have sprung up. Despite what you may hear, there’s nothing better than old-fashioned brushing and flossing. Here are some of the best one-liners ever uttered from the dental chairs of doctors Samuel […]
Pharmfax: Is your PCAB certified?
By Alexander Lubischer You would never buy a used car without some reassurance that it’s not a lemon. Similarly, Ageology CEO Dr. Paul Savage advises that you should only take compounded medication from pharmacies certified by the Pharmacy Compounding Accreditation Board (PCAB). Think of it this way: PCAB is the Carfax of pharmacies. It’s Pharmfax. […]
A Perfect Baby Body
New program helps women restore their bodies after childbirth By Morgan Lord Childbirth brings with it plenty of joys—unconditional love, a new, impenetrable bond and all of that cuddle time. But giving birth can also mean a slew of not-so-joyous bodily changes for a new mother including bladder, bowel and sexual health issues. NorthShore University […]
The Dying Brain – Part 2
When brain dead means total death Read Part 1 Seventy-five years ago, the concept of brain death wasn’t even imagined. “It was only with the advent of successful mechanical ventilation and the advancement of critical-care tools and techniques that a patient could actually be systemically stable after developing the irreversible cessation of brain function,” says […]
A Healthy Night’s Sleep
Sleep deprivation contributes to obesity and diabetes A multidisciplinary team at the University of Chicago Medicine (UCM) has shown the first link at the cell level connecting sleep deprivation with a disruption of energy regulation in humans. This finding has important implications relative to two major health risks in modern society, obesity and diabetes. It […]
Immediate Care Clinics
Some maladies might not need the services (or the cost) of a hospital emergency room. The list below is compiled from sources and references cited in our “Access to Care” cover story along with a few others we have become aware of. The list is not exhaustive, but may be helpful in giving you some […]
Online Resources For Choosing a Hospital or Doctor
The Internet offers an array of websites designed to help patients evaluate doctors and hospitals. But which one is best? Here, Dr. Bruce Minsky, chief quality officer at the University of Chicago Medical Center, and Cynthia Barnard, director of quality strategies at Northwestern Memorial Hospital and chair of the Quality Measurement Advisory Task Force of […]
Common Diabetes Drug Linked to Better Ovarian Cancer Outcomes
Researchers at Mayo Clinic recently released the results of a new study linking the diabetes drug metformin to better outcomes for patients with ovarian cancer. This study, published online in the journal Cancer, found that diabetic ovarian cancer patients who took this drug had a better survival rate than those who did not take it. […]
The Dying Brain – Part 1
City hospitals team up to better understand brain death Over 99 percent of deaths are cardiac related. This means the heart stops; its monitor’s metronome-like beep flat lines. It’s what TV and movies have made us come to expect death to be like. Then there’s the other 1 percent of deaths, the ones caused by […]
Thursday’s Great American Smokeout
Tomorrow (November 15), marks the American Cancer Society’s 37th annual Great American Smokeout. This nationwide event occurs every year on the third Thursday of November. It challenges people to stop smoking by providing tools, education and support for smokers to help them quit. On the day of the Great American Smokeout, local volunteers throughout the […]
Sweet Technology
Living with and managing type 1 diabetes November is National Diabetes Awareness Month, and with over 8 percent of the population living with diabetes (according to the American Diabetes Association), it makes sense to stress the education of this disease. And this year, Illinois will amp up its awareness by making November 14 Illinois Diabetes […]
Halloween Safety Tips From Loyola University Health System
Halloween can be a wonderful time for families. But with all of the excitement that the holiday brings, it can be easy to let safety take a back seat. Dr. Bridget Boyd, a pediatric safety expert and assistant professor in the Department of Pediatrics at Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine, has compiled […]
New Study by Chicago Doctor May Help With Complicated Pregnancies
A new study, conducted by researchers at the University of Oklahoma, found that women whose water had broken prematurely, and whose babies were breech, had worse health outcomes for both the mother and child than those whose water broke prematurely but whose babies were not breech. This information could be crucial for doctors when they […]
Surprising Breast Cancer Research
Intriguing findings from this year’s breast cancer studies Researchers have been hard at work all year long, publishing a slew of breast cancer studies. We sifted through the pile and picked out the ones we found most interesting, just in time for Breast Cancer Awareness Month. One study published in June in the journal Cancer […]
McShane: Agent of Change
New specialist at University of Chicago Medicine works to clear things up on lesser-known disease Dr. Pamela McShane has been on staff as a pulmonary and critical care physician at the University of Chicago Medicine (UCM) only since January 2011, but she already has made important discoveries about an uncommon and often misdiagnosed disease: bronchiectasis. […]
An Education: Psychologist Uses Group Therapy to Help Teen Patients Understand Their Anxieties
Cathy*, a junior at a suburban public high school, has dealt with generalized anxiety disorder for years. A bright girl with a bright future, Cathy has landed several internships outside of school. She is active in after-school clubs and holds leadership positions within them. Following her freshman year, two summers ago, Cathy began seeing Dr. […]
The Possibility of Fewer Football Concussions
In the ongoing battle against the potential lifelong brain damage caused by concussions from contact sports, especially football, the 2012–2013 football season is seeing many changes in the amount, and type of contact allowed in the sport. From the NFL to pee-wee, doctors, youth organizations and league officials are making efforts to not only improve […]
Sickle Cell Awareness Month: Are You Aware?
Our writer admits ignorance and investigates to learn more What do you know about sickle cell disease? Or, what don’t you know? It could be a lot because there are many misconceptions and vagaries surrounding this disease. I certainly didn’t know much when I started researching it. One commonly made assumption (I made it) is […]
Take a Breather
Can meditation really help busy people? There is no denying it—we are busy. Overscheduled, multitasked and continuously taking on more than we can, or should, handle. And it’s taking a toll on our minds and bodies, making it difficult, if not impossible, to focus and stay sharp. Our busy lives can eventually lead to sheer […]
The Science of Birth
Infertility is not an absolute like it once was, but more research is needed When a couple of child-bearing age has not been able to get pregnant after having frequent unprotected sex for at least a year—or at least six months for women 35 and older—health professionals define this as infertility. Couples who are infertile define […]
Improve Your Chances of Childbirth
Dr. Jennifer Hirshfeld-Cytron, director of the fertility preservation program at the University of Illinois Hospital and Health Sciences System, points out that there are natural lifestyle ways for couples to boost their fertility. Smokers should quit their habit, and alcohol should be kept to a minimum. Men and women should maintain a healthy weight. “Obesity […]
Seeds of Cancer
Science indicates that cancer stem cells play a role in the recurrence of tumors; the challenge now is to find them In science, controversy arises from uncertainty. The role of cancer stem cells being used to treat and prevent tumors is still a far cry from certain. But new studies published early last month in […]
The Cost of Nutrition
School and community efforts help kids eat well on a budget For many families with school-aged children, the dreadful question during mealtime is chicken fingers or hot dogs? French fries or chips? What do you pack for lunch that will guarantee that your child will eat something so he or she isn’t starving by the […]
Parental Advisory
Helping your kids cope with trauma in real life On July 20, a masked gunman entered a midnight showing of The Dark Knight Rises in Aurora, Colorado, killing 12 people and wounding 58. A 6-year-old girl was among the massacred. Sixteen days later, six people were slain at a Sikh temple just outside of Milwaukee […]
Long Live Some of Us
Life expectancy in Cook County is a function of geography; access to grocery stores The health and longevity of Cook County residents varies dramatically, based on where they live, according to a report by the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies and Cook County Place Matters. The study titled, Place Matters for Health in […]
NorthShore Neurological Institute Gains Concussion Specialist
Monday, July 30, 2012 NorthShore University HealthSystem (NorthShore) announced today that Dr. Elizabeth Pieroth has joined the NorthShore Sports Concussion Program, further expanding NorthShore’s efforts to understand, treat and prevent concussions resulting from sports-related injuries. Pieroth is a founding partner of the Midwest Center for Concussion Care. She has been involved in assessing players of […]
Access to Care
In a shifting healthcare landscape, where do you find the best and most practical care? And how in the world do you pay for it? Healthcare is a complicated business. And an expensive one. But never before has it been this complex. The intricacies of our healthcare ecology have extended into nearly every other aspect of our society. […]
Going for Seconds
Complex medical issues may require more input than your doctor can provide. We tend to think of our doctor as having all the answers. We expect that he or she will know what’s wrong with us and know how to fix it. We expect this of our doctor, after all. We sometimes forget that science […]
Their Kind of Town
National medical institutions are coming to Chicago The Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, provides world-class healthcare, just a hop, skip and a jump away from the internationally respected institutions here at home. The resources at Mayo are often just what patients like Kevin Lue are looking for, and thousands of other Chicagoans make the pilgrimage […]