It’s getting harder and harder to tell the difference between the real presidential debates and “Saturday Night Live’s” satirical version of them. The election has crossed a line. We are not watching a political exchange any longer; we are watching a new reality show that has somehow managed to carry a braying donkey into the […]
Every 19 minutes, someone dies in this country from an opioid overdose. Many of these are from prescription pain medicine, but overdose deaths have also soared among users of psychiatric sedatives such as Xanax and Klonopin. Far too many people stumbled into their addictions unintentionally — just average citizens who initially got hooked on medicine […]
I got my first lesson about the dangers of acetaminophen back in 1980, from a physician specializing in sports injuries. Like many other broke students in the 1980s, I did housework in exchange for a room in a private home. This one just happened to be owned by a doctor and his family. His attitude […]
The American Public Health Association (APHA) has long recognized that guns are not just a political or civil rights issue; they are a public health issue. There is more gun violence in the US than in any other country in the world. According to a comparison between comparable nations done by the APHA, 80% of […]
Summer is here and Dr. Michael Zola is expecting company. With warm weather comes overexertion and sports injuries; this is the time most of us think of going to a chiropractor. But in a recent interview, I learned there is a lot more to this branch of healing than “cracking” bones. Dr. Zola has been […]
In modern day America, if we have a problem we usually go see a doctor or visit the drugstore. But in olden days, people had to take care of themselves. Every settlement or town had an intuitive, wise healer who became the local gatherer of liniments and lore. Back in the 1880s, my own grandmother […]
For years, the primary aim of health care reform has been to make insurance affordable for everyone. The assumption was that a lack of access to medical care is behind our country’s dismal standing in overall health. But another possibility is forming like a ghostly spectre above the huddled masses yearning to be well: There’s […]
Type the word “cleanse” into any search engine and splat! a glitzy array of advertisements will gush out of cyberspace with the force of an exploding soda bottle. A cleanse craze seems to sweep the country every spring, and there is no scarcity of celebrities to endorse them. It seems to make sense on an […]
I remember a class discussion in fifth grade. The teacher at our suburban middle school was talking about “poor people” and the challenges they faced. A kid from an affluent family raised his hand and interrupted. “My dad says poor people have what they deserve. If they worked harder, they wouldn’t be poor.” Most of […]
We are at a tricky crossroads in drug history. Along with opening the door to promising medical treatments, marijuana is poised to become the next legal recreational drug in Rhode Island. Therein the problem lies. Because of the relative safety of pot compared to pharmaceuticals, street drugs and alcohol (no deaths from its use have ever been recorded), […]