RENÉE BACHER

Waco Ear, Nose & Throat was approved and funded for a federal Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan through a local bank in the nick of time to help save the practice. Unfortunately, not every private practice has been fortunate enough to obtain funds through the loan program created by the CARES Act passed by Congress in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. The CARES Act allotted $349 billion initially, with a second round of $310 billion, to help keep small businesses in the U.S. afloat...

Japanese pediatrician Tomisaku Kawasaki, MD, who identified an inflammatory syndrome that affects children, died on June 5 in Tokyo. He was 95.

Born Feb. 7, 1925, in Tokyo, Dr. Kawasaki graduated from medical school at what is now Chiba University in Chiba, Japan, in 1948 and worked as staff pediatrician at the Red Cross Hospital in suburban Tokyo. It was there in 1961 that he saw his first patient with the disease that would eventually bear his name....

By now we know we should be wearing face masks to protect others from potentially deadly infection when we leave the house. But face masks can be hot, and they can irritate the skin, fog glasses, make it difficult for some to breathe and create a world without smiles. It also can be difficult for people who have hearing loss to communicate when mouths are covered, muffling voices and hiding facial expressions...

Health care workers in COVID-19 hot spots across America are caring for, and often losing, not just patients they had never met before but also friends, family and, in some cases, colleagues with whom they have been fighting medical battles side by side. And that can be both physically and emotionally exhausting.

For some people, feelings of anxiety, uncertainty and sadness have grown persistent during the COVID-19 pandemic, as the outbreak has kept many of us confined to our homes and separated from friends and family — and the world as we know it has been upended.
But how do you know whether what you're experiencing is a normal reaction to a bad situation or clinical depression that should be treated?
"The blues come and go. They don't last for two weeks,” says Vaile Wright, a clinical psychologist ...

Your feet are the foundation of your body. When your feet hurt, it can affect muscles, bones, joints and nerves in other parts of your body, causing knee pain, back pain and even headaches.

According to the American Orthopaedic Foot & Ankle Society, there should be no pain in the average foot. And yet, eight out of 10 Americans surveyed say they have experienced foot pain from trauma, disease or poorly fitting footwear.

The world can be a cold, cruel place, especially in the dead of winter. But your bedroom can be a beautiful respite from it all, providing sanctuary on lazy days and giving you the good night’s sleep you need and deserve.

People with autoimmune disorders — including several types of arthritis, inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), lupus and multiple sclerosis (MS) — can also develop swelling and inflammation in the middle section of the eyes that can destroy eye tissue.
Sometimes this results in an uncommon but serious eye disease called uveitis, which can cause significant vision loss, says Alan G. Palestine, M.D., professor of ophthalmology and rheumatology at the University of Colorado School of Medicine and ch...

Ever wonder what role physician regulators—rheumatologists, in particular—perform at the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA)?
“I am not sure that many practicing rheumatologists know there are clinicians who work for the FDA,” says rheumatologist Nadia Habal, MD, a medical officer in the Division of Pulmonary, Allergy, and Rheumatology Products at the FDA. “It would be nice for them to know that we have an essential role here in many capacities.”
Reviewing New Drugs
Clinicians review and ev...

Little kids, little problems; big kids, big problems they said. And they were right — especially when it comes to reining in bigger kids during a pandemic.
Struggling to keep your children in the house as, city by city, America locks down to flatten the coronavirus curve? David S. Boisoneau, MD, feels your pain...

Give yourself a bucket list, but try to make sure the accomplishments you're seeking are realistic

Researchers say Facebook is an easy distraction for those who are running on insufficient sleep.

Can’t find the hours in a day to log your daily 10,000 steps for good health? Good news: A new study shows that walking as few as 4,400 steps per day was significantly related to lower mortality and that those rates continued to decrease with more steps, leveling off at approximately 7,500 steps per day. The study, “Association of Step Volume and Intensity With All-Cause Mortality in Older Women,” was recently published in JAMA Internal Medicine (2019;179:1105-1112).