Health & Lifestyle

The Vineyard Community Pregnancy Center exists to help pregnant teens and new moms and dads of all ages with all the steps related to pregnancy and early-child care and health. The Vineyard Community Pregnancy Center is the latest in a string of services being provided by the Vineyard Community Center in Queen Creek, AZ.   

Last month, Dr. Drew Pinsky inspired everyone who attended the notMYkid luncheon with his candid, thoughtful, and powerful message. If you were there, you know it was one of the best educational events notMYkid has had the privilege of hosting, and we are so grateful you shared the experience with us. Dr. Drew filled the room with so many thought-provoking points, many of you have asked us to send a recap to share with your friends and family.  If you were unable to attend, we appreciate you taking the time to read this and passing it forward. 

Influenza season has officially started in Pinal County. The first case of influenza for this season has been identified in a male resident from the Apache Junction area. This case was mild and the individual did not need to be hospitalized. 

October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month and Banner Desert Cancer Center in Mesa invites the public to come out and learn more about the signs and symptoms of breast cancer during their annual Breast Cancer Awareness Event. 

The maxim, “breastfeeding is the way to go!” was drummed in early in my pediatric training and it remains a scientific fact to date.

A portal just as is suggested by the Latin derivative, is basically a gateway or access into some space or situation. Enter, the 21st Century! with yet another new technology: A Patient Portal. Alas! Patients can now enter and see aspects of their own health records online! Technology and the sometimes friction laden-ride with the practice of medicine may have found a perfect fit.  Medicine today as an art form has many antecedents from the past, from Hippocrates through the Renaissance and the post WWII era that still shape many aspects of patient care and health care delivery and research.

Tom Shanley calls himself a political junkie. Or at least that’s what he used to be. For the past year, he has been having dif­ficulty remembering things, like names and dates, even words. “I find myself more and more lacking in conversation because I can’t think of a word that’s as simple as my name,” the 79­year- old San Tan Valley man told the Inde­pendent during a phone interview. “I’m a political junkie and now I can’t remember what I want to tell the guy I’m arguing with over certain points. It’s frustrating.”

The parents of, 4 year old Sally are concerned about the stuttering they observed a few months ago in their daughter. The stuttering hasn’t improved despite efforts to correct and help the child overcome the stutter whenever it arises. Language and Speech problems in the pre-school age group have become one of the most common problems we face in primary care pediatrics. There is a garden variety of potential neuro-developmental problems that may manifest as different forms of speech or language disorders.

Prevention is better than cure! This often told precept is widely accepted in many settings but it oddly doesn’t enjoy the same courtesy with childhood immunizations in our experience.

CAM is an acronym for complimentary alternative medicine. The arm of the National Institute of Health (NIH) dedicated to providing information on CAM therapeutic options, and evidence for efficacy defines CAM as a group of diverse medical and health care systems, practices, and products that are not generally considered part of conventional medicine. Conventional medicine is medicine as practiced by holders of M.D., D.O. degrees and by other allied health professionals, such as physical therapists, physician assistants, registered dieticians, psychologists, and registered nurses. 

Parenting is a joyful and rewarding experience and the appearance of a concern in the newborn can be very distressing. We frequently encounter parental concerns themed on crying and suspicions of colic in newborns. This post on Infantile colic is the first of two addressing this concern commonly seen in about 1:5 newborns. The most widely used definition of colic is set in the rule of threes.  Here seriously fussy babies cried for more than 3 hours a day, more than 3 days a week, and for longer than 3 weeks. This cascade of events is Illustrated below. 

Early Detection Almost Always Means Faster Recovery, Lower Overall Cost

Children are not small-sized adults; newborn infants certainly have their own peculiar body functions that distinguish them from older children as well. We’ll look at the key body function of breathing and sleep in infants in this article, after all some authorities have estimated about a third of the average human life time is spent sleeping.

There’s a lot of information regarding the benefits of exercise on the body, of course on weight loss, adipose (fat) tissue, lean muscle mass, metabolism, even on long-term health and preventing disease. What’s not often emphasized is the affect exercise has on another very important aspect of the human body. The brain.

Oral cancer occurs in approximately 30,000 Americans each year, according to the American Cancer Society. There are many different factors that can raise your risk of developing oral cancer, especially tobacco and alcohol use. More than 95 percent of all oral cancers are found in people older than the age of 45, but it can occur at any age. It has been on the rise with the recent discovery of the link between HPV and oral cancer.