Tracking The Junk Food The World Eats After Dark People around the world show remarkable similarity in their daily eating habits: meals start off healthy in the morning, but get progressively worse throughout the day – until by nightfall we’re deep into junk food territory. Just take a look at these images from mobile startup Massive Health. I just downloaded this app and it’s very interesting.
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Tracking The Junk Food The World Eats After Dark

People around the world show remarkable similarity in their daily eating habits: meals start off healthy in the morning, but get progressively worse throughout the day – until by nightfall we’re deep into junk food territory. Just take a look at these images from mobile startup Massive Health. I just downloaded this app and it’s very interesting.

“Safe Sex for Seniors Is So Hot It Kinda Burns”

Interesting public service announcement for safe sex for seniors via Jezebel. While a very funny ad, this issue is really important. The older, free-love generation is continuing to enjoy an active — if not always healthy — sex life. In fact, cases of chlamydia and syphilis amongst those 55 or older have rocketed 60 percent since 2005 in South Florida.

In Central Florida, where The Villages and other retirement communities sprawl across several counties, reported cases of syphilis and chlamydia increased 71 percent among those 55 and older in that same period. And South Florida saw a 60 percent rise in those two sexually transmitted infections among the same age group, according to the Florida Department of Health.

Just because seniors are older and wiser doesn’t mean they’re not susceptible to the same diseases as everyone else.

When the Chef is Also a Doctor What a great marriage between public health and medicine. I wish I would’ve known about the Healthy Kitchens/ Healthy Lives conference. I would’ve loved to attend! Healthy cooking is one of my other hobbies, and I hope to incorporate it into my work as a physician as well.
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When the Chef is Also a Doctor

What a great marriage between public health and medicine. I wish I would’ve known about the Healthy Kitchens/ Healthy Lives conference. I would’ve loved to attend! Healthy cooking is one of my other hobbies, and I hope to incorporate it into my work as a physician as well.

Feb. 22/29 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association showed that women have higher mortality in MI and no chest pain. Women more often have no chest pain with a myocardial infarction and have a greater risk of dying in hospital than men do. Almost 40% more women had no chest pain at diagnosis, and they had a 42% higher inhospital mortality. The youngest women with MI were most likely to have no chest pain and also had the highest mortality. Note that the disparities between men and women existed in all age groups, but the magnitude of the differences diminished with increasing age, with the youngest women with MI most likely to have no chest pain and also the highest mortality. I did a presentation on the new AHA evidence-based guidelines for cardiovascular disease prevention in women in December. It is definitely worth a read to help guide your patients.
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Feb. 22/29 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association showed that women have higher mortality in MI and no chest pain.

  • Women more often have no chest pain with a myocardial infarction and have a greater risk of dying in hospital than men do.
  • Almost 40% more women had no chest pain at diagnosis, and they had a 42% higher inhospital mortality.
  • The youngest women with MI were most likely to have no chest pain and also had the highest mortality.
  • Note that the disparities between men and women existed in all age groups, but the magnitude of the differences diminished with increasing age, with the youngest women with MI most likely to have no chest pain and also the highest mortality.

I did a presentation on the new AHA evidence-based guidelines for cardiovascular disease prevention in women in December. It is definitely worth a read to help guide your patients.

Fat, unfit, unmotivated: Cardiologist, heal thyself

Practice what you preach: Better physician habits, better patient care

A recent study in Vancouver, showed that cardiologists are not living, eating, and acting like the kind of physicians who can truly motivate patients to improve their own health.

Dr. McCrindle reviewed studies looking at what factors influenced the likelihood of physicians counseling their patients about healthy behaviors, diet, and weight loss, citing data showing that physicians who had better health habits themselves were more likely to counsel patients about their habits.

Similarly, physicians who exercised regularly were more likely to recommend regular exercise in their patients, and among female doctors, those who practiced a health habit themselves or were currently attempting to improve a health habit were more likely to urge a similar behavior in the patients. Other studies clearly show that patients are more likely to be receptive to counseling if their physicians are normal weight or if they are open about their own healthy habits.

If we expect our patients to make health behavior changes (e.g., exercising, eating a healthy diet, reducing salt intake, etc.) to prevent disease or prevent the progression of their chronic illnesses, than docs should also set an example.

Healthy NYC school lunches!

NYC public school lunches… Ahead of the nation in the fight against childhood obesity. A great piece on healthy eating in NY public schools. It is possible to eat healthy at $2.67 a day and the food looked pretty yummy.

I am not really into NASCAR, but I think it’s really awesome that Jeff Gordon is now a spokesperson for Pertussis vaccine. Before I went to medical school while working in public health, I saw first hand the effects of an outbreak in 2005-2006 in San Diego. In one instance, a pediatric physician didn’t recognize that she had pertussis and still saw patients everyday, including babies in neonatal ICU. Over 200 people had to take antibiotics since they were exposed. This really shows how difficult it can be to recognize this “100-day” cough in an adult, yet it is both shocking and fatal for babies. Like most things, history repeats itself and unfortunately, California finds itself in an even worse outbreak of pertussis. This truly highlights the need for adults and adolescents to get their pertussis vaccine (now available combined with a Tetanus-diptheria booster). If you’re a parent, babysitter, or are around any children, it is especially important to get vaccinated. Off topic, 2 days until Step 1!
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I am not really into NASCAR, but I think it’s really awesome that Jeff Gordon is now a spokesperson for Pertussis vaccine. Before I went to medical school while working in public health, I saw first hand the effects of an outbreak in 2005-2006 in San Diego. In one instance, a pediatric physician didn’t recognize that she had pertussis and still saw patients everyday, including babies in neonatal ICU. Over 200 people had to take antibiotics since they were exposed. This really shows how difficult it can be to recognize this “100-day” cough in an adult, yet it is both shocking and fatal for babies.

Like most things, history repeats itself and unfortunately, California finds itself in an even worse outbreak of pertussis. This truly highlights the need for adults and adolescents to get their pertussis vaccine (now available combined with a Tetanus-diptheria booster). If you’re a parent, babysitter, or are around any children, it is especially important to get vaccinated.

Off topic, 2 days until Step 1!

Peepoo bags. Single-use, biodegradable bags with anti-pathogenic fertilizers. Really cool for only 2-3 cents a bag.
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Peepoo bags. Single-use, biodegradable bags with anti-pathogenic fertilizers. Really cool for only 2-3 cents a bag.

For the past week, I have been working at the Local Assistance Center (LAC) in Fallbrook. LACs were set up throughout the county as one-stop shops, so to speak, for people directly affected by the fires. Each center temporarily houses several agencies that help families with food stamps, Cal-Works, FEMA relief funds, advice from insurance claim adjusters and pick-up supplies from American Red Cross, as well as non-profit agencies such as Salvation Army, Catholic Charities, etc. LACs were set up to help families reclaim their lives after the fires. Many families waited for hours with their children to get through the long process to receive their EBT (Electronic Balance Transfer) cards with relief funds from FEMA. Families were also there waiting for free meals and disaster clean-up kits from the American Red Cross. This is but the start of the recovery process, which will take months, if not years.I volunteered to be reassigned at an LAC for the week, which meant 12-hour days and an hour-long commute directly into the areas devastated by fires. For the first time in awhile, I really felt like I was contributing to the effort and helping people in the way I expected to upon entering the field of public health.Driving toward the Fallbrook LAC on the first day, I was immediately taken aback by the startling devastation. A mix of ash and the remains of homes amidst the rubble and torched landscape surrounded me. Riding along a winding two-lane road through the hills, I saw many areas that were barely touched by the fires aside areas left as wastelands. Fingerprints remain of what once was, from the remains of a burned car to the skeletons of large trees withering from the destruction. This was the introduction to three long days of helping families navigate through the process of rebuilding.The most heart-wrenching part of the experience was spending Halloween at the LAC, my second day at work. Halloween is one of my favorite holidays and since I couldn’t give out candy, I picked up stickers of “fantasmas” for kids that were waiting with their parents to give kids some sort of semblance of normalcy. Except that this Halloween isn’t normal. Instead of kids walking happily in costume trick-or-treating, I saw the tired faces of kids from waiting impatiently all day with their parents, carrying cases of water or bleach.I drove home exhausted and crushed by what I had seen. I am grateful and glad that I could help, but I still left wishing I could do more.
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For the past week, I have been working at the Local Assistance Center (LAC) in Fallbrook. LACs were set up throughout the county as one-stop shops, so to speak, for people directly affected by the fires. Each center temporarily houses several agencies that help families with food stamps, Cal-Works, FEMA relief funds, advice from insurance claim adjusters and pick-up supplies from American Red Cross, as well as non-profit agencies such as Salvation Army, Catholic Charities, etc. LACs were set up to help families reclaim their lives after the fires. Many families waited for hours with their children to get through the long process to receive their EBT (Electronic Balance Transfer) cards with relief funds from FEMA. Families were also there waiting for free meals and disaster clean-up kits from the American Red Cross. This is but the start of the recovery process, which will take months, if not years.

I volunteered to be reassigned at an LAC for the week, which meant 12-hour days and an hour-long commute directly into the areas devastated by fires. For the first time in awhile, I really felt like I was contributing to the effort and helping people in the way I expected to upon entering the field of public health.

Driving toward the Fallbrook LAC on the first day, I was immediately taken aback by the startling devastation. A mix of ash and the remains of homes amidst the rubble and torched landscape surrounded me. Riding along a winding two-lane road through the hills, I saw many areas that were barely touched by the fires aside areas left as wastelands. Fingerprints remain of what once was, from the remains of a burned car to the skeletons of large trees withering from the destruction. This was the introduction to three long days of helping families navigate through the process of rebuilding.

The most heart-wrenching part of the experience was spending Halloween at the LAC, my second day at work. Halloween is one of my favorite holidays and since I couldn’t give out candy, I picked up stickers of “fantasmas” for kids that were waiting with their parents to give kids some sort of semblance of normalcy. Except that this Halloween isn’t normal. Instead of kids walking happily in costume trick-or-treating, I saw the tired faces of kids from waiting impatiently all day with their parents, carrying cases of water or bleach.

I drove home exhausted and crushed by what I had seen. I am grateful and glad that I could help, but I still left wishing I could do more.