I am on a mission to have more joy. After watching Mission: Joy, the documentary film about experiencing joy during troubled times, I was very curious about research that has been done about joy. I had no idea people were studying joy! As a health care provider, I wonder what I can do to help…
Category: Healthy Habits
Habits that contribute to health and well-being.
Finding Joy in Troubled Times – Mission:Joy
This is probably the most exciting thing I have ever written about! I must first share with you that I have been going through some pretty tough times. For most of 2021, I have been asking myself, “how can I find happiness and joy in my life when outside circumstances are dark and difficult?” My…
Sitting is the new smoking
The new year is a time when we often think about our health and lifestyle and make new goals for the coming year; it’s a natural thing to do, right? Well, not to disappoint, I want to share with you some alarming information about why some are saying that sitting is the new smoking. In…
6 things I learned while traveling
I’ve just returned from some time off. In fact, I finally made a trip to my favorite place in Baja, Mexico, a trip that we had cancelled three times due to COVID. I had some real concerns about going: COVID for sure, and even just the process of getting there. Face it, air travel has…
The Ins and Outs of Diverticulitis
Little did I know when I experienced my fist episode of diverticulitis years ago that it would later change my health and my life in a dramatic way. Repeated episodes of diverticulitis requiring treatment with multiple antibiotics led to me having recurrent c diff infections. Yet, diverticulitis is not an uncommon problem. Today let’s look…
Making the most of your clinic visit
The practice of medicine is so different today from what it used to be. There is so much pressure on providers to see volumes of patients, so many new medications and treatments and conditions to know. With the average medical visit lasting 15-18 minutes, how can you ensure that you are making the most of…
The problem of sludge
My life lately has been filled with sludge. Not that sticky icky thick stuff like out of a crankcase, but the time-sucking, demeaning and engineered-to-demoralize type of bureaucratic red tape stuff. I know you have been subjected to sludge, too. We all have. Cass Sunstein recently dubbed the name “sludge” for this kind of stuff….
Antibiotic Stewardship Matters
For many years I had discussions with my patients about how we as health care providers needed to be good stewards of antibiotic use. It usually came in the context of explaining to a patient why I thought they didn’t need an antibiotic for their condition. Little did I know that that I would develop…
What’s the deal with sourdough?
Who doesn’t love a good chewy sourdough? I sure do. I’ve made sourdough bread off and on for years. Like many, I revived this practice during the pandemic. Heck I was home, why not? And I always liked creating a starter from the wild yeast and bacteria living in the forest around me. I thought…
Post infectious irritable bowel syndrome (PIIBS) after c diff
When I was battling c diff infection, I joined a support group online. Since I have healed I follow the group and offer such support as I can. One thing I have noticed is the very common experience of abdominal symptoms that occur after infection has been treated. To be clear, these symptoms feel like…