Tips To Avoid A Daylight Saving Death!

This year brought the deflating news that Daylight Saving Time (where we lose an oh-so-painful hour of sleep) doesn’t even save energy. Looks like the savings in energy due to decreased light usage is more than offset by the increase in energy used for air conditioning. Sigh. But here’s the most important message to keep […]

What It Feels Like…To Put Your Doc On The Spot

It’s a busy Tuesday, so I grab a chart and speedwalk to the next patient at the homeless clinic. On the table sits a woman with this huge stiff tent of hair and a bad case of body lice. She’s rocking with her arms across her chest. She’s hearing voices. She hasn’t bathed in […]

Warning! Chain Email Health Hoax!

There’s a nasty kind of email floating around that sounds oh so wonderfully positive and hopeful. It’s titled “The Latest News From Johns Hopkins” (but there are probably other versions, using different prestigious health-institute names). The email takes the reader through a point-by-point, logical-sounding set of “facts” which inevitably lead to the conclusion that cancer […]

Toxic FEMAldehyde. What now?

Grim news for those people continuing to suffer from Hurricane Katrina–tests show that the FEMA trailers have high levels of formaldehyde, with the CDC urging FEMA to move families out of the trailers as soon as possible. This Newsweek article is a review of the issue. Unfortunately, no one seems to be rushing to answer […]

Black Future Month

Instead of Black History Month (which I love) I’m going to kick off something new–Black Future Month, focussed on the future health of African-Americans. As part of Black Future Month here at Doc Gurley (the only place it exists, so far), together we’re going to launch the 2008 Black Future Month Campaign. Read on for […]

Nine Practical Tips on How To Avoid A Death Like Heath Ledger’s

More heartbreak. The New York City Coroner announced today that Heath Ledger’s death was an accidental overdose. The word accidental is insider code for the fact that none of the blood levels of any one of his medicines was high enough to mean that Heath Ledger tried to kill himself–they were all in the range […]