RENÉE BACHER

The filmmaker Gayle Kirschenbaum, whose documentary “Look At Us Now, Mother!” will have a one-week run on Long Island starting May 6, grew up thinking she had been born into the wrong family.

I used to scoff at overly involved parents. I never did my kids’ school projects or micromanaged their scuffles with friends. Within reason, I believed in letting my kids make their own mistakes and fight their own battles. But just before our eldest child, Hannah, began her senior year of high school, I watched the Excellence in Parenting Award slip through my fingers...

A child getting sick is every parent's worst nightmare, but by keeping vigilant and accepting the support of others, you and your family can get through this.

Fads, Fails and Fixes for Chronic Pain

From a simple sore throat or laryngitis to cancers of the head and neck, including oropharyngeal, laryngeal, esophageal, and pharyngeal, smoking tobacco causes many problems for patients, and their otolaryngologists are in a good position to help them quit.
February 2016
Tobacco smoking is an important risk factor for head and neck cancers, and smoking cigarettes increases the risk of head and neck cancer 15-fold, according to the American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery. Even...

A phase 3 clinical trial in which researchers treated lupus patients with blisibimod, a biologic treatment that inhibits B cell activating factor (BAFF), did not meet its primary endpoint, but did demonstrate evidence of possible efficacy.
Researcher Joan T. Merrill, MD, a member of the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation (OMRF) and OMRF professor of medicine at the University of Oklahoma, says that in a previous phase 2 clinical trial of this treatment, it appeared the sickest subset of pat...

Patients with a specific genetic predisposition for rheumatoid arthritis (RA) may want to take precautions when consuming certain types of meat, dairy and produce grown with cow manure, according to a new study out of the University of Central Florida (UCF) in Orlando.
The study, which assessed 100 RA patients, published in the journal Frontiers in Cellular and Infection Microbiology in January, linked the presence of the bacteria Mycobacterium avium subspecies paratuberculosis (MAP) with tri...

Excessive clutter in your home got you down? You’re not imagining it, and you’re not alone.
According to a recent study in the Journal of Environmental Psychology, “When clutter becomes excessive, it can threaten to physically and psychologically entrap a person in dysfunctional home environments which contribute to personal distress and feelings of displacement and alienation."
The study looked at 1,394 people, most of whom were American women in their mid-50s who had previously come to the ...

Even as we age, we need fresh ideas to inform our important decisions, whether it's making a career change, where to retire or what to do with the family business if the kids aren't interested. Brainstorming, a popular technique that can suppress the inner critic and welcome new possibilities, can fire up creativity and address challenges of all kinds.
Curious what's going on inside our heads while brainstorming? According to Gary Small, M.D., UCLA professor of psychiatry and aging and author...