Recent Blog Articles
PTSD: How is treatment changing?
Virtual mental health care visits: Making them work for you
How healthy is sugar alcohol?
A bird flu primer: What to know and do
New urine test may help some men with elevated PSA avoid biopsy
Dupuytren's contracture of the hand
Why play? Early games build bonds and brain
Moving from couch to 5K
How — and why — to fit more fiber and fermented food into your meals
Tick season is expanding: Protect yourself against Lyme disease
Vaccinations Archive
Articles
Flu vaccine offers benefits to patients with heart failure
New research found that heart failure patients who had a flu shot had a 30% lower risk of hospitalization for cardiovascular disease, 16% lower risk of hospitalization for respiratory infections, and a 4% lower risk of hospitalization in general.
Are we prepared for epidemics?
Mosquitoes can transmit many viruses, such as, Zika, West Nile, dengue, and yellow fever.
Image: Thinkstock
Ask the Doctor
Q. Why is it that we suddenly have epidemics of things like Zika virus that we've never heard about, and that we have no treatments or vaccines for? It feels like we should be better prepared than we apparently are. This worries me more than terrorism.
Shaking off shingles
Shingles is a painful neurological condition that is more likely to attack as people age. Left untreated, it can increase risk for chronic pain, blindness, and other long-term health problems.
Passing your physical exam
The annual check-up is important for older men. Here is how to make the most out of your visit.
Men have a long reputation for avoiding check-ups, and that resistance tends not to soften when they are older.
"Many older men put off exams because they fear finding out something is wrong," says Dr. Suzanne Salamon, a geriatrician with Harvard-affiliated Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. "Also, many of today's baby boomers don't think they will have medical problems associated with age, so it can difficult for the 'younger older men,' like those in their 60s and early 70s, to see their doctor."
In the journals: Flu-fighting drugs don't prevent spread to others
If you start taking an antiviral medication after catching the flu, will it keep your family members from catching the bug, too? Maybe not, according to a study in The Journal of Infectious Diseases.
The prescription antivirals oseltamivir (Tamiflu) and zanamivir (Relenza) can cut a case of the flu short by suppressing the virus's overpowering urge to copy itself inside you. Less viral "shedding" by the body could, hypothetically, make it less likely that people who live in the same house will also get sick.
Recent Blog Articles
PTSD: How is treatment changing?
Virtual mental health care visits: Making them work for you
How healthy is sugar alcohol?
A bird flu primer: What to know and do
New urine test may help some men with elevated PSA avoid biopsy
Dupuytren's contracture of the hand
Why play? Early games build bonds and brain
Moving from couch to 5K
How — and why — to fit more fiber and fermented food into your meals
Tick season is expanding: Protect yourself against Lyme disease
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