Living Well

Dim lights. Sticky magazines. Unbearable wait times. Rushed appointments.

If you face any of these at your primary care doctor's office, it means patients aren't a priority. So it's time to ditch your doctor.

Turns out, there is a cure for a broken heart.

I'm not talking about some emotional issue. I'm talking about an exciting new breakthrough that can "regenerate" damaged heart tissue.

Air pollution causes type 2 diabetes.

You read that right. And now, thanks to the latest medical research out of St. Louis, we now know how many diabetes cases we can attribute to air pollution.

Even the baristas know about this new coffee study...

Last week, my researcher chatted with the barista at our local Starbucks. The topic turned to a brand-new study on the benefits of coffee, regardless of caffeine content. We love when health topics make the headlines... without misleading the public.

What does television volume have to do with dementia? More than you probably think...

It turns out that hearing loss, if not diagnosed and addressed with things like hearing aids, contributes to the development of dementia.

Ticks... Mosquitoes... Kissing bugs...

Summer is full of nasty insects. Mosquitoes are already eating us alive here in Baltimore. And as we wrote at the end of May, we're seeing a higher than average number of ticks this year.

"The itching was so bad, I wanted to cut off my arm..."

That's how a coworker recently described a flare-up of her chronic skin condition, eczema. She isn't alone in her agony, either. The skin condition made news last week when reports out of Hong Kong cited it as the reason a young woman killed her parents and herself.

The big E. coli scare isn't over yet...

Last month, we saw the spread of a strain of E. coli that contaminated romaine lettuce. Nearly 200 people fell ill and about half wound up in the hospital. Five folks died from the bacterial infection.

There's a killer in folks 65 and older that we don't talk about.

It's an epidemic that carries so much stigma, no one wants to talk about it. Doctors are reluctant to discuss it with patients and few senior centers do enough to raise awareness and provide support.

Doc's note: Today, I'm sharing an essay from famed political satirist P.J. O'Rourke. In a recent issue of his online magazine, American Consequences, P.J. explains why the world needs "B.S." degrees.

American Consequences is edited by P.J. and written by some of the smartest contrarian market analysts in the world. The best part is... it's 100% free. There's no subscription fee or "paywall" or anything like that. Sign up to start receiving issues right here.