It's official. The United States is switching from getting well to staying well. And the reason for this sudden burst of transformation: It's not only better to stay well than to get well -- it's cheaper.

As increasing numbers of America's workforce find themselves overweight with high blood pressure, blood...

This week the festival of Passover is being celebrated by Jews around the world. And though it is a major religious holiday, this post is about its health benefits.

The Seder is always the center of the holiday. Families get together from far and near. The word seder means order,...

A new article in the New England Journal of Medicine just came out showing that women who receive radiotherapy for breast cancer have a higher risk of ischemic heart disease.

The authors studied 2,168 women who had radiotherapy for breast cancer between 1958 and 2001 in Sweden and...

On Tuesday, Feb. 27, the FDA approved Osphena, a new drug for painful sex. It's a class of meds called selective estrogen receptor modulators, or SERMs, and is similar to other medications of this type, such as Tomoxifen and Raloxifene.

SERMs activate some tissues that are sensitive to estrogen --...

A local billboard had the following statement, "The first person to live to 150 has already been born."

I don't know if or when people will live to be 150, but I do know that living to be 100 is something that we can strive for. In fact, the...

One in 2 Americans is coping with a chronic disease, and many require rehabilitation. That's why I'm suggesting this year your New Year's resolution be "prehabilitation," a term defined by Wikipedia as, "a form of strength training, aims to prevent injuries before the actual occurrence."

It is almost impossible to comprehend the senselessness and loss resulting from the recent murders in Newtown, Conn. It has traumatized a community and the country. I would like to share the lyrics from a song I wrote a few years ago for a dear friend to be sung at...

There is a lot of buzz at the North Pole. Santa is hobbling around with a large, painful, swollen big toe that came on after eating a large burger and a beer. It happened rather quickly, and it has really made it hard to get in and out of his...

It's that time of year again. Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years are upon us, and along with them, the most weight-gaining window on the calendar. If you are trying to maintain your weight, it's a downright "dangerous" time.

According to the New England Journal of Medicine, people gain...

For many Americans, Thanksgiving is food, family and football. The meaning of the holiday, giving thanks, sometimes slips right by. I know I haven't always stopped to feel gratitude as much as I could. This year I'm particularly thankful for some things that I'd like to share with you.

Eight...

It's breast cancer awareness month, and it's good we have it. Breast cancer is now a very curable disease if found and treated early. And that's what this blog post is about: making sure you get tested and helping you determine your risk.

I want to tell you about...

The most common concerns expressed by my menopausal and postmenopausal patients are how easy it is to gain weight and how hard it is to lose weight. It's a real challenge, so much so that many women believe menopause causes a shift in the body that makes it impossible to...

I've just come back from the North American Menopause Society (NAMS) meeting and there were a lot of interesting presentations. This one is about a new treatment for women with hot flashes: Gabapentin-ER, which stands for "extended release."

Hot flashes affect about 75 percent of...

I attended the recent annual meeting of the North American Menopause Society (NAMS) in Orlando, Florida and interviewed the author of a new study intended to gain approval for a new variant of an antidepressant drug, paroxetine. The purpose of the study was to identify a new non-hormonal...

In honor of the upcoming North American Menopause Associating Annual Meeting (NAMS) I'd like to offer you a great read I came across from Wulf Utian, MD, NAMS founder and Professor Emeritus at Case Western Reserve. His new book is called Change Your Menopause: Why One Size Does...

Since September is Menopause Awareness Month, here is the first in a series of articles on menopause.

Many women worry that reaching menopause will tip their emotional wellbeing. Doctors typically blame estrogen, because estrogen levels drop in the years leading up to menopause -- the perimenopause -- and lower...

If you are in or near menopause and considering whether or not to take estrogen, in addition to hot flashes and low libido, it's time to include your risk of glaucoma with your doctor. A new article in the journal Menopause reviews data that shows low estrogen levels...

Do you have a parent who is getting older? My mom will be 88 years old this month. She's proud of her car, a huge 2000 Cadillac in mint condition with only 50,000 miles on it. Most of the time it sits in the garage of her condo where she...

The Olympics generate a lot of buzz about gold medals and perfect 10s. But in the Olympics of life, you only need seven for the gold.

Below are seven points I've been teaching my patients for years, and now the American Heart Association (AHA) has studied these...

For menopausal women, the No. 1 complaint 10 years into it is vaginal dryness. Vaginal dryness also affects millions of younger women as well. This month, J&J (Johnson and Johnson) was asked to recall more than 69,000 units of it's K-Y Liquibeads products after receiving more...