Just a few months ago, my brother welcomed his newborn son to the world. Imagine the differences between his experience and the experience my own father had when we were born. Case in point: When my mom was delivering me in the hospital, my dad had no idea how to help during labor. Flustered and...Continue reading
Pro Football Player By Day And Health Advocate By Night
As a professional football player, Dominique Easley (defensive tackle for New England Patriots) is used to being in pain. But his sister, Destinee, wasn’t. When she was 11, she developed fibromyalgia, a condition that affects more than 12 million Americans. It causes muscle or skeletal pain throughout the body, as well as exhaustion, problems with...Continue reading
Ghost Mothers and Ghost Lovers
Editor’s note: This post is part 3 in a 3 part series on the Mother-Son dynamic. Click here for the other posts in the series. The child who finds out, all too abruptly and too soon, that he cannot count on his mother’s strength to be there for him . . . feels he has only...
Beards: Kiss of Death or Secret of Success?
Some biologists speculate that by sporting a beard, a man is advertising that his immune system is so healthy that he can carry around colonies of germs with no ill effects. A heavily bristled face gives women their scratchy, sexy fix but may offer some reassurance that the hair they’re nuzzling is still relatively sanitary–or...Continue reading
This Is What Serious Illness Does to You
This is what serious illness does to you. Once you’ve survived a dance with Mr. D (Bonus points if you get the musical reference), your life becomes a tango between symptoms, causes, and your medical history. My story: In August of 2012, I had a major embolism. How major? Picture three or four fuzzy golf...Continue reading
Are Urologists Losing It?
Let me get this straight. Twenty-five years ago, Urologists popularized a blood test for the early detection of a silent but very common and deadly cancer. With this tool in hand, called the PSA test, hundreds of millions of men have been screened worldwide since, changing the face of this cancer on the planet as...Continue reading
Prostate Cancer Detection and Diagnosis: Where Are We Now?
Prostate cancer is the second most common cancer in American men after skin cancer. In 2015 alone, there will be an estimated 220,800 new cases of prostate cancer, with a new case occurring every 2.4 minutes.[1] Prostate cancer can be a serious disease, but a majority of men diagnosed don’t actually die from prostate cancer,...
Oncotype DX
A new genetic test has recently become available called Oncotype DX. The test is made by Genomic Health and will now be available at Dr. Samadi’s Prostate Cancer Center in New York City. What is Oncotype DX? The Oncotype DX prostate cancer test is a biopsy-based genetic test that can be combined with other measures...Continue reading
Passivity
Editor’s note: This post is part 2 in a 3 part series on the Mother-Son dynamic. Click here for the other posts in the series. For the ordinary man is passive. . . . So far from endeavoring to influence the future, he simply lies down and lets things happen to him. —George Orwell Passivity can...
Testosterone, Sex and You
How many times have you heard “enough is enough.” After you’ve told too many silly jokes? As a kid insisting on ice cream on a hot summer afternoon? Well, it may also be true for how the male hormone testosterone works on your body. More Is Not More But there’s also a corollary: “more is...Continue reading