I was in Boston during the enormous Beijing sandstorms a week ago, but I’m still seeing its effects in my clinic. People are still coming in with severe coughing, bronchitis and pneumonia, and many are proving unusually hard to treat. What happened to make this so severe? And is there any way to avoid the …

One of my favorite social groups, the Beijing Healthcare Forum, has just announced their next meeting for this Wednesday night at Gingko. This forum meets once or twice a month and is a cool mixture of Chinese and laowai interested in health care. It’s free and open to all. This time they talk tobacco with …

Boy, I’m away for only a week and find out I’ve missed on so much! I really, really don’t want to have to be such a downer already, but it seems that not just one, but three food safety scandals have been making the newsrounds in China these last two weeks. And as a family/community …

A few weeks ago an 8-year old patient stumped me with a wonderfully refreshing question: is it bad to crack your knuckles? Well, these common-sense questions aren’t taught in medical school, so I dug around and found the answers. First, from the Naked Scientists Discussion Forum is a description of what actually makes the popping sound: The …

Last week I had a post discussing immune-boosting foods. Here’s a semi-followup, discussing a nice article from the New York Time’s always informative Well Blog. This time they review The 11 Best Foods You Aren’t Eating. These foods all have an underlying similarity in terms of good nutrition and immune-boosting properties; many also taste really good …

There’s been quite a shift in official recommendations regarding the popular PSA blood test. As most men know, this is by far the most popular screening test for prostate cancer. The problem, as I’ve mentioned before, is that the PSA test is not only poor at finding real cancers, it’s also bad at creating many …

There’s been a lot of recent press regarding plastics and their possible effects on health. Many parents know about the 2007-8 recalls of baby bottles made of polycarbonate plastic Bisphenol A (BPA). This was mostly in response to newer studies, including a review in JAMA, showing an association (but not causation) between BPA exposure and …

I’ve mentioned many times the excellent website by the Hong Kong Centre for Food Safety, with their enormous collection of bilingual PDFs. They also have a very readable monthly newsletter which I recommend to all. Below are some snippets from their latest issues. You can download all the newsletters here. Microwaves and Food Safety How safe …

The website WebMD is a bit too commercial for me to consider as my first-line source, but they often have informative articles that at least provide a good starting point for research and discussion. I wanted to share their recent slideshow on immune-boosting foods. It’s a quick review of 15 foods that have particularly good …

Here’s a fun topic; what can we do to prevent wrinkles? It may be a “fluffy” doctor topic but it certainly is relevant to people. So, let’s review what actually works; maybe you’ll save yourself a lot of money after reading this. There’s a nice review of the best treatments for aging skin from the …

A few weeks ago I wrote a popular piece regarding brain exercise, detailing the exciting research showing how keeping your brain stimulated as we age can literally improve your memory. One underlying concept was to always stray from your comfort zone and challenge yourself to new situations and ideas. Another way is with simple brain …

Milk thistle is a common plant that has long been regarded useful for protecting the liver; many take it to fight chronic hepatitis or cirrhosis.  A lot of people also take milk thistle simply to “de-toxify” and keep their liver healthy. But how well does it really work? As usual with herbal supplements, evidence-based data can …