Copyright 2008 The New York Sun Wed, 18 Jun 2008 16:39:25 -0400 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Judy Foreman :: Stories from The New York Sun http://www.nysun.com/authors/Judy+Foreman istoll@nysun.com (Ira Stoll) webmaster@nysun.com en-us JUDY FOREMAN http://www.nysun.com/health-fitness/animal-hospitality/17847/ Mon, 1 Aug 2005 00:00:00 EST After decades of writing about medicine, I finally found the (nearly) perfect hospital. It was a gloomy Sunday afternoon last month. My little guy couldn't tell me what was wrong, but his breathing was labored, he wouldn't eat, and he could barely walk. I took him to the emergency room, where the young doctor left no doubt that he was dying. Congestive heart failure, she said. Pneumonia, too. They took him straight to the intensive care unit. His cardiologist, Dr. Nancy Laste, began giving him... JUDY FOREMAN http://www.nysun.com/health-fitness/back-in-action/17510/ Mon, 25 Jul 2005 00:00:00 EST For decades, people with lower-back pain were often told there was only one real solution to their misery: spinal fusion, in which two or more bony vertebrae are surgically "welded" together in hopes of reducing pain and stabilizing the back. The trouble is, there has never been compelling evidence that this works well, partly because new problems, such as stiffness and increased pressure above and below the fused vertebrae often occur. And the risks are serious - life-threatening bleeding and... JUDY FOREMAN http://www.nysun.com/health-fitness/is-your-food-container-poisoning-you/15729/ Mon, 20 Jun 2005 00:00:00 EST Priscilla Ellis, 61, a psychologist and mediator in Jamaica Plain, Mass., was suspicious the minute she opened the mass e-mail. And with good reason. It was an old e-rumor that has picked up steam recently, alleging that microwaving food in plastic containers releases dioxin, a carcinogen, or cancer-causing agent. The e-mail noted that the warning about dioxin had been sent out in a newsletter from Johns Hopkins, the medical institution in Baltimore, Md., and that similar information was "being... JUDY FOREMAN http://www.nysun.com/health-fitness/make-no-bones-about-it/14255/ Mon, 23 May 2005 00:00:00 EST Millions of American women are being diagnosed with osteopenia, which is not truly a disease, and many are told to take medication they may not need to prevent broken bones they might never get. At the same time, millions of others are never properly diagnosed - or treated - for osteoporosis, a serious condition that can lead to potentially devastating fractures. The widespread confusion about what degree of bone loss really is a red flag for future broken bones and what is simply a sign of... JUDY FOREMAN http://www.nysun.com/health-fitness/pain-relief-from-pins/11636/ Mon, 4 Apr 2005 00:00:00 EST The ancient Chinese technique of sticking needles into the skin to relieve pain, nausea, and many other ills never fails to make me feel better. Sometimes, my longtime acupuncturist gently pokes needles into my chronically tight lower back. At other appointments, she focuses on my pesky sinuses. Still other days - the best ones – the goal is a general tune-up of my qi (pronounced "chee"), the Chinese term for vital (and sometimes, not vital enough) energy. I always leave feeling more mellow and... JUDY FOREMAN http://www.nysun.com/health-fitness/eating-your-way-to-mental-health/10543/ Mon, 14 Mar 2005 00:00:00 EST Feeling depressed? Ask not what your parents did or didn't do when you were a child. Ask yourself what you had for dinner last night, and the night before, and the night before that. For half a dozen years now, the evidence has been growing that omega-3 fatty acids, the kind found in fatty fish like salmon, sardines, and tuna, can help prevent and treat depression. Rich in EPA (eicosapentaenoic acid) and DHA (docosahexaenoic acid), these are among the "good" oils that have long been known to... JUDY FOREMAN http://www.nysun.com/health-fitness/eyes-wide-open-when-they-shouldnt-be/9190/ Mon, 14 Feb 2005 00:00:00 EST Seven years ago, Carol Weihrer, a flutist and office administrator, had her right eye removed. Ms. Weihrer had been living in pain from a severely scratched cornea for years and had already undergone 17 surgeries to try to fix it. Just before she was given general anesthesia, she remembers feeling relieved that her trauma would soon be over. Suddenly, she woke up hearing disco music and thinking, "I must be done." The next thing she said she heard was someone saying, "'Cut deeper. Pull harder.'... JUDY FOREMAN http://www.nysun.com/health-fitness/they-want-me-to-exercise-how-long/8852/ Mon, 7 Feb 2005 00:00:00 EST This column is for everyone who hates to exercise, or would like to exercise - sort of - but really, truly, deeply believes they don't have enough time or just can't do it. First, if you're in this category, take heart: You're not alone. Two-thirds of Americans are now overweight or obese, according to government figures, and more than half do not get enough physical activity - and that's according to the old, wimpier guidelines. Two weeks ago, federal health officials upped the ante, issuing... JUDY FOREMAN http://www.nysun.com/health-fitness/problem-no-one-wants-to-talk-about/8160/ Mon, 24 Jan 2005 00:00:00 EST Bladder problems, long a nuisance and source of embarrassment to millions of Americans, are now being recognized as a problem with serious medical consequences as well. An estimated 33 million Americans - 11% of the population - have "overactive bladder," which includes both a strong urge to urinate without actual leakage, and "urge incontinence," in which that strong urge is accompanied by leakage. It's now clear that people with overactive bladders have 2.5 times the risk of falling as people... JUDY FOREMAN http://www.nysun.com/health-fitness/more-than-meets-the-eye/7121/ Mon, 3 Jan 2005 00:00:00 EST As part of its anti-terrorism effort, the federal government is considering a plan to install X-ray machines in airports - not just to screen carry-on bags, as it does already, but to scan passengers themselves. The technology has proven itself in prisons and among customs and border-protection agents who use it to search for drugs, illegal weapons, and contraband. But the idea of using it on 700 million American air passengers a year is generating privacy concerns from civil libertarians - and... JUDY FOREMAN http://www.nysun.com/health-fitness/ill-effects-of-stress/6555/ Mon, 20 Dec 2004 00:00:00 EST In a study released three weeks ago, California scientists announced they had found the first direct link between emotional stress and cellular changes associated with premature aging. The study, which was widely praised by other researchers, strengthens the popular belief that emotional stress may have serious medical consequences. It is also consistent with the idea that stress-reducing practices such as yoga, meditation, jogging, or any version of the "relaxation response" may reduce the... JUDY FOREMAN http://www.nysun.com/health-fitness/understanding-alcoholism/5491/ Mon, 29 Nov 2004 00:00:00 EST People used to debate whether alcoholism was a disease or a moral failing. Now research demonstrates that it is a disease, and one with a strong genetic component. At least 50% of the vulnerability to alcoholism is now believed to be triggered by genetics, and the other 50% by environment, such as living in a culture where heavy drinking is endemic. It has also become increasingly clear that many genes play a role in alcoholism and that genes can work both ways - with some protecting people... JUDY FOREMAN http://www.nysun.com/health-fitness/digital-doctors/5204/ Mon, 22 Nov 2004 00:00:00 EST Every day, millions of Americans are bombarded with health information through direct-to-consumer drug ads on TV. Millions more go online to research a new diagnosis, search for treatments, or simply cruise Web sites devoted to health. In the month of September alone, 51.9 million Americans - or 33% of all people who use the Internet - visited health-related Web sites, according to Com-Score Media Matrix, a Reston, Va.-based research firm that tracks Internet use. The trouble is, much of the... JUDY FOREMAN http://www.nysun.com/health-fitness/agony-of-not-knowing/4846/ Mon, 15 Nov 2004 00:00:00 EST Last summer, a 55-year-old teacher from Dover, Mass., had a CT scan that showed a suspicious mass on her left ovary, but the test wasn't conclusive. So her gynecologist ordered an MRI, which the patient, who did not want her name published, had on a Wednesday. The lab technicians told her it would take a day or so to get the results. Worried that the mass might be ovarian cancer, the patient called her gynecologist on Thursday. And Friday. "I couldn't reach her. I kept getting her secretary,"... Judy Foreman http://www.nysun.com/health-fitness/yoga-feels-good-but-is-it-good-for-you/1918/ Mon, 20 Sep 2004 00:00:00 EST Off and on for about 35 years now, I have been standing on my head, as well as sitting cross-legged breathing through one nostril at a time, and - my favorite - lying flat on my back, utterly relaxed, in the so-called "corpse pose." I am, in other words, one of the 15 million Americans who, according to a Harris Interactive Service Poll done in 2003 for Yoga Journal, have fallen in love with this ancient Indian practice that's part meditation, part exercise. To the cognoscenti - and our numbers... JUDY FOREMAN http://www.nysun.com/health-fitness/sugar-spice-everything-nice/1638/ Mon, 13 Sep 2004 00:00:00 EST A common spice already enjoyed by many Americans appears to lower blood sugar and cholesterol, a potential boon to millions of people with diabetes and millions of others with high cholesterol. The spice is cinnamon. In a paper published in December in Diabetes Care, researchers from the Beltsville Human Nutrition Research Center in Maryland, part of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, reported on a small, but encouraging study of 60 people with Type 2 diabetes in Pakistan. It showed that as...