Harvard Health Blog
Read posts from experts at Harvard Health Publishing covering a variety of health topics and perspectives on medical news.
It’s especially important for children to get flu shots, both because the flu can hit the young with particular severity, and because of the potential to pass the illness to others.
“It’s a definite that you’re all going to screw up, but it’s not a definite that any of you will learn from that,” declared one of our medical school instructors, years ago. “Cultivate the attitude that allows you to own your mistakes, and then, not repeat them.”
New research has shaken up a time-honored strategy for treating advanced prostate cancer that’s begun to metastasize, or spread. Doctors ordinarily treat these cases with systemic therapies designed to kill off metastatic tumors appearing throughout the body. But they don’t use local therapy to treat the primary tumor in the prostate. That’s because the primary tumor — unlike the metastases that it spawns — is rarely lethal. So doctors have been reluctant to give local therapy, such as radiation to the prostate or surgery to remove the organ, if it’s not going to improve the odds of survival.
Last month, I took a 7.5-mile hike near Harper’s Ferry National Historical Park in West Virginia. Thanks to a nearly 1,900 foot-elevation gain, my hike definitely gave me a good cardiovascular workout. But there may be some additional health benefits of hiking, as I learned from Dr. Aaron L. Baggish, associate director of the Cardiovascular Performance Program at Harvard-affiliated Massachusetts General Hospital.
Teens don’t exercise enough, and with a third of U.S. adults classified as obese, it’s important that exercise is encouraged in children and teens. Starting healthy habits when they’re young keeps kids healthy into adulthood. Studies show that obese adults rarely lose the weight, so it’s better to keep the weight off in the first place. A lot has to do with our biology but also our lifestyle, and we can change the latter. So let’s get our children and teens moving.
These desks allow you to work at your “desk job” while standing rather than sitting in a chair. They can be custom built (for thousands of dollars) or you can convert a regular desk into a standing desk at no cost by elevating your computer — one of my colleagues simply placed his computer on a stack of books. Sales of standing desks have soared in recent years; in many cases their sales have far outpaced those of conventional desks.
A study questions whether CPAP helps to slow the progression of coronary artery disease in those who already have it, but use of the device has still been shown to have quality of life and other health benefits in those with sleep apnea.
A study suggests that a new approach to baby-led weaning is safe and has some benefits. With parent supervision, babies can feed themselves solids without a spoon — foods that they can pick up and get into their mouths, but that are also low risk for choking. Benefits of this approach include babies starting solids when they’re ready rather than when parents are ready and babies learn early to be in charge of what and how much they eat.
When I was a doctor in training I was involved in a very sad case, the unexpected death of a patient, a woman in her fifties who had diabetes.* She had been seen in the clinic and diagnosed with pneumonia only two days before her passing. The diagnosis was correct, as well as the prescribed antibiotics. But she had been sent home, and her condition deteriorated quickly. By the time her family brought her into the emergency room, she was in septic shock.
Thank goodness for pediatricians. No matter what time of night, they answer the calls of frantic parents who are worried about sick children. I’ve made a few of those 4 a.m. calls myself to our pediatrician (an angel named Katherine), who calmly directed us to go to the hospital on one occasion, or give the baby a tepid bath on another. It’s been a sort of triage that has guided us to making the right decision. And that’s how of I think of the new trend in medicine called virtual visits.
I once took care of an elderly patient who wasn’t particularly interested in some of the preventive measures I was recommending. He liked to say “you gotta die of something.” True enough. But that’s no reason to ignore measures that could prevent deaths, especially the “low-hanging fruit” such as automobile accidents.
It’s surprisingly easy to give a child an incorrect dosage of liquid medication, and many parents do. When giving medication to a child, be sure you understand the instructions and use a medication syringe rather than a dosing cup. Take the extra time to read and think, and ask questions. These simple steps can make all the difference.
Last year Daniel Fells, a tight end for the New York Giants, was hospitalized with a bad infection in his foot known as MRSA, which stands for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. It is a drug-resistant form of staph. The infection didn’t respond to antibiotics, and at one point there was talk of needing to amputate the affected foot. After multiple surgeries, doctors were finally able to clear out the infection, but it is unlikely Fells will ever play football again.
The new book Organize Your Emotions, Optimize Your Life proposes that the human psyche has nine life forces speaking as our “inner voices,” each with its own agenda and emotions. Learning to listen and respond to those voices can help you shift your stress to a sense of balance.
Jet lag is a big topic of conversation here this week as faculty and students return to the campus after a long holiday. It’s understandable. When we travel long distances across several time zones, few of us can survive the trip without feeling a little out of whack. Those flying back from the west coast or overseas may be dogged by the symptoms of jet lag — fatigue, insomnia, digestive upsets, and headaches — for several days as they get back to work. According to Dr. Charles A. Czeisler, director of the Division of Sleep Medicine at Harvard Medical School, jet lag is due to a misalignment between the external environment and the internal clock in the brain that drives our daily performance, alertness, and ability to sleep.
Chances are you’ve seen one of these ads in your local newspaper or on television: “Do you suffer from (insert common medical condition here)? Would you like to participate in a research study to evaluate a new treatment?” Many people are curious about such studies but hesitate to take the next step.
Many women may plan to start using birth control at their six-week postpartum checkup, but as many as 40% of women do not go to a follow-up appointment. The American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists advocates for offering women the option of long-acting, implantable contraceptives in the period immediately following giving birth, before leaving the hospital. It’s safe, effective, and eliminates the need for an outpatient visit during a hectic time. Making postpartum contraception easily available and a covered benefit is essential to reduce unintended pregnancy and rapid, repeat pregnancy rates.
It’s hard to ignore migraine pain. This throbbing headache can last for hours or even days. Although it affects more than 36 million Americans between the ages of 15 and 55, the exact cause of migraines is still largely unknown.
A recent study showed that behavioral activation can be an effective alternative to cognitive behavioral therapy for treating depression. This type of therapy emphasizes engaging in activities that can improve mental health, for example, connecting with people. Its advantage is that it takes less time and is less expensive to train people in behavioral activation so it may mean more therapists available at lower cost.
Unintentional opioid overdose is now the leading cause of accidental death in the United States. These drugs are prescribed to patients to help relieve pain, but overdoses happen because opioids can also depress breathing, sometimes stopping it altogether. But naloxone, also called Narcan, can help reverse the effects of an overdose. If doctors prescribe naloxone at the same time as opioids, overdose deaths may decrease.
Harvard Medical School authors have written a new book entitled Organize your Emotions, Optimize Your Life, that explains a way to frame how your mind processes a range of emotions. An adult version of the children’s movie Inside Out, the book proposes that the human psyche has nine inner “voices.” By addressing the distinct needs, agendas, and emotions people can better address life challenges, big and small. In this post we apply this model to getting your kids back to school in a positive and productive way.
While there are more than 100 types of arthritis, osteoarthritis is by far the most common. It’s the age-related, “wear-and-tear” type of arthritis that affects almost everyone fortunate enough to live a long life, affecting up to 80% of older adults. Fortunately, symptoms may be mild. But for those in whom symptoms are severe, treatment can make a big difference.
A study found that parents of newborns frequently do not follow safe sleep guidelines for their babies even though it’s likely they are familiar with them. The most common mistake is putting blankets or other items in a baby’s crib, but cribs should be empty. While it’s hard to imagine sleeping on a bare mattress, babies really don’t need bedding. And it’s not worth risking your baby’s life for the sake of a blanket.
In late spring of this year, researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published a troubling data analysis of suicides in the United States. Between 1999 and 2014, suicide rates increased by 24%, in both males and females, and in all age groups studied. While deaths due to disease are declining, suicides are increasing. Right now, suicide is one of the 10 leading causes of death overall in the United States and in every age group from ages 10 to 64.
