Sometimes, the simplest tools in medicine are the ones that give us the most useful information.

Take the humble blood pressure machine, for example. It's been around for years, and it's cheap, compared with a lot of other medical devices. It's simple to use, and it doesn't require a...

Three weeks after the onset of the nuclear power plant disaster in Fukushima, Japan, many residents of the U.S. are fearful about the possible health effects of radiation traveling across the Pacific.

The Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS), an independent scientific research-based environmental advocacy group, has been...

Nearly a year after the BP oil spill, people living along the Gulf of Mexico are still feeling the effect of the disaster, the largest oil catastrophe in history. To learn more about the spill's health effects, I recently spoke with Dr. Gina Solomon, an Associate...

The U.S. government announced last month that it would resume deportations to Haiti, despite a cholera epidemic and political unrest. To learn more about the deportations, I recently spoke with Cheryl Little, Co-Founder and Executive Director of the Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center in Miami.

Q: Why...

Brenda Bryant learned she had breast cancer while she was sitting alone in her car in the parking lot of her grandson's day care center. It was early evening on a Friday two years ago, and her surgeon called to tell her the results of a biopsy. "He just gave...

To learn more about the current health situation in Haiti, I recently spoke with Dr. Andre Vulcain, co-director of the Justinien Hospital family medicine residency training program in Cap Haitien. Justinien Hospital is Haiti's second largest public hospital, and the residency is a collaborative program between the University of Miami...

At the age of 56, Jules Levin felt pretty invincible, despite being HIV positive. He went to the gym regularly and controlled his disease well by taking his antiretroviral medicines every day.

Then he slipped one day while on vacation and broke his wrist. He underwent an operation to...

Tobacco is the single biggest cause of preventable death and disability in the United States. But nicotine is highly addictive, and quitting the cigarette habit can be extremely tough. L.J., a 55 year old man who gave up smoking after 35 years, proves that it can be done. In L.J.'s...

Staying healthy is tough if you live in mold-infested housing, can't afford food or electricity, or are about to lose your home. The National Center for Medical Legal Partnership (NCMLP) brings together lawyers, doctors, nurses and social workers to help patients with problems that may have a legal...

Ivis Febus-Sampayo (center) with members of her immediate family (Courtesy, Ivis Febus-Sampayo)

The mole on Ivis Febus-Sampayo's face looked odd. But it wasn't until her son needed treatment for acne that she went to a dermatologist.

"As mothers, we're working, we're busy," she...

Six months after the earthquake in Haiti, I spoke with Dr. Herold Merisier, president of the South Florida chapter of the Association de Médecins Haïtiens a l'Étranger (Association of Haitian Physicians Abroad). Dr. Merisier earned his medical degree at the State University of Haiti and then trained...

Stanley Thornton, Colorectal Cancer Screening Advocate
(Courtesy, Stanley Thornton)

It's exceedingly uncommon for a healthy middle-aged man to walk into his doctor's office and demand a colonoscopy. But even though he lacked a family history, Stanley Thornton, an African-American...

When her gynecologist told her she had high blood pressure, Marie Alcindor had a simple solution: switch doctors. After all, she had gone to him for a different problem, and this was the first time he had ever checked her blood pressure. "He said, 'Oh my God, you're like a...

Whenever I diagnose a person with asthma or allergies, I usually ask a few questions about his or her living environment. Is there shag carpeting in the bedroom? Is the air conditioning filter changed every month? Is there evidence of roaches and other vermin?

I ask these questions because mold,...

It's hard for Cassandra Mathieu to describe her mother's cooking without mentioning the salt shaker.

"I remember my mother used to cook with seasoning salt, garlic salt and every kind of salt you can imagine," she said recently. "We grew up on salt."

Cassandra grew up fixing...

As someone who works with low-income patients, I have to scratch my head a bit at Senator Mitch McConnell's complaint that Dr. Donald Berwick shouldn't be appointed to run Medicare and Medicaid because he supports "rationed health care."

McConnell's opposition to Berwick purportedly stems from a statement Berwick made...

"Self-management" isn't a term doctors use much when they talk to patients about illnesses such as cancer or pneumonia. But when it comes to diabetes, self-management, with guidance from a medical professional, is key.

Diabetes is a chronic condition involving blood sugar that affects more than one in 10...

Every once in a while, there's a magazine piece that so encapsulates the key moral issues -- and irrationality -- of 21st Century medicine that it warrants designation as mandatory reading for anyone who interacts with patients. Atul Gawande has written some of these; so too has Slate medical columnist,...

By all accounts, Frances Vasquez ought to be a diabetic. Raised on a diet of fried steak, fried pork chops and lots of rice, her father, mother and two sisters suffered from the disease. At age 47, Frances herself was overweight and was already experiencing high blood sugar.

But...

One of the toughest parts of my job is seeing patients who don't take their medicines because they can't afford them. It happens frequently, and it's becoming more common as people lose their jobs and their health insurance. And for many conditions, like high blood pressure, not taking prescription medicines...