AIMOVIG is a new monoclonal antibody preventive treatment for chronic and severe episodic migraine that appears to be effective and safe. This is the first new news in a long time in this field.
Opioid drugs, also called narcotics, are critical medications for relieving acute pain but more problematic when occasionally used for chronic pain. We describe new state regulations concerning opioid prescriptions and monitoring and how it affects you and our practice.
Spring is here, the apples and peaches are getting ready to blossom. It is pruning time, an exhausting but exhilarating period when I recommune with nature and, indirectly, with my role as caregiver and healer to people in Orchard Health Care.
Many recent articles on nutrition and dieting in various publications echoed what I have advised for several decades. I recap 10 of the major takeaways.
Various conditions that are heavily genetically driven, including high cholesterol, blood pressure, and adult diabetes, typically show up in force after age 50. By 55 we often realize we have biologically become our parents, the bad and the good.
Sleeping pills and tranquilizers are commonly requested, used, and appear needed, but there are cognitive and accident risks associated with these drugs. We need to try to find effective but safer alternative therapies.
In the midst of the marches against gun violence, the Boston Globe special section pointed out the 78% of Americans don’t own guns, but 3% of Americans own over half of all guns. We do some arithmetic with those numbers.
Boostrix is a new TdaP vaccine that has been approved for patients over 65 for protection against whooping cough. It’s another tool in the vaccine armamentarium.
Modest use of marijuana or alcohol is unlikely to be physically harmful, unlike heavy use. Teenagers should not use either. The recreational marijuana statute heightens the concern about how to protect teenagers from marijuana.
We will have Shingrix vaccine as of the end of March. It is highly effective. The cost is $175 for each of two shots. Insurance coverage not yet clear. You want to get this immunization this year.