Liver cancer may be less well-known than other cancer types, but it is the fifth most common cancer in the world. And despite progress in other fields, liver cancer is one of the few cancers whose rate in the United States is continuing to rise. Liver cancer, whose medical term is hepatocellular carcinoma, is tumor that starts in the liver and can spread to other organs if left untreated.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, preventive health guidelines advocate routine testing by age range to maintain good health. These tests include childhood immunizations, well child visits, annual physicals for adults, flu shots, cholesterol screening, screening mammograms, prostate exams, colonoscopy and more! Many people get frightened or nervous about going for medical tests or procedures, and waiting for results may create even more stress. (more…)
We all know that it is easier to learn a new language or musical instrument as a child rather than in adulthood. At no other time in life does the surrounding environment so potently shape brain function – from basic motor skills and sensation to higher cognitive processes like language – than it does during childhood. This experience-dependent process occurs at distinct time windows called “critical periods”, which are times of great opportunity but also of great vulnerability for the developing brain. Early disruption of proper sensory or social experiences will result in mis-wired circuits that will respond sub-optimally to normal experiences in the future. Comparable effects are also seen for the development of vision, where if a child’s binocular vision is compromised and not corrected before the age of eight, amblyopia (‘lazy eye’) is permanent and irreversible.
Many of you may have seen articles in the press recently about a “new” treatment for allergies: sublingual immunotherapy (SLIT), which has been available in Europe for more than 50 years and used in the United States for 45 years. Like allergy shots, it gives the patient the same small amount of allergen to reprogram the body to become less allergic. (more…)
At Mount Sinai Beth Israel, we place every healthy, full-term baby skin to skin (baby naked, not wrapped in a blanket) with his or her mother immediately after birth. The skin-to-skin contact warms the baby and stimulates the release of oxytocin and prolactin—the hormones responsible for milk production—in the mother.
The more skin-to-skin contact a mother has with her baby, the more stable (heart rate, breathing, body temperature, blood pressure) baby is, and the more breast milk mother makes. Babies who are held skin to skin cry very infrequently, and so do not lose body heat. Babies held skin to skin also have stable blood sugar levels, preventing the need for supplemental milk. (more…)