Was it losing weight? Spending more time with your family? Dragging your body to the gym? Reading more books? When's the last year you set a new year's resolution? And how far did you get before you broke it? And why are you so discouraged about trying again in 2013? We students in the medical field are required to study behavior change ...

The skin around the eyes is one of the first places that reveal a person's age. The delicate skin under the eyes that contains less subcutaneous fat becomes thinner with age. The unsightly age-related changes include dark circles, ''bags'' or swelling and puffiness, crepy skin under the eyes and ''crows' feet.'' Patients often complain that ...

Botulinum Toxin A is a protein and neurotoxin produced by the bacterium Clostridium botulinum. Botulium toxin can cause botulism, a serious, life-threatening illness in humans and animals. More patients are open to considering treatment with the toxin due to increased knowledge of benefits of its use. Botulinum toxin has been used for many ...

I was recently speaking with a group of students who will be graduating this year about their current clinical rotations and how things are going. Many of the students had been at at least one of their clinical sites since beginning their programs and were now feeling quite comfortable. Some students even stated that a nurse or two had asked ...

Lately it seems a rash (no pun intended) of patients have asked me how it was that they contracted their Staph infections. Some had MRSA, others MSSA. Some suffered from bacteremia, others osteomyelitis, and others still were challenged by skin/soft tissue infections in the form of painful and unsightly abscesses. Some had recently undergone ...

''America has spoken'' says Nick Cannon from America's Got Talent and the winner is: The American People! This is the feeling of many when the Supreme Court ruled that the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) is constitutional. Are the American people really winners? Absolutely! As the healthcare reform unfolds, nurse ...

The days of the Yellow Pages are long gone. When looking for a new medical provider, just like a restaurant, hairstylist or even a good handy man, we can simply jump onto one of the many popular search engines. Now, however, we not only have the world at our finger tips, we can also post reviews directly online for all to see. This includes ...

I don't know how many of my fellow NPs and PAs have seen and or heard about HBO's four-part documentary on obesity in America, The Weight of the Nation, but I can't recommend it enough: it is an awesome and totally relevant examination of health in the States. So many of the individuals profiled in this series were reminiscent of ...

A dear friend of mine recently informed me that her doctor confirmed she has melanoma. ''I have always been a ‘moley' person,'' she explained, and proceeded to tell me that her doctor had removed six to seven ''spots'' from various places on her body. The one on her right arm was where they discovered the melanoma. My heart sank; what do you ...

It was a sunny, warm afternoon. A great day to spend outdoors with the family. But Dad had not come home ... again. Then, the phone rang. Maybe it was him? But the voice was not his. ''I'm afraid that he has died,'' the voice whispered across the phone. They found him in a ditch, motionless, dirty ... and gone. ''I am sorry. He died from alcohol ...