From Arthritis to Zoster

As springtime arrives, so do seasonal allergies. The form of seasonal allergy familiar to most people is allergic rhinitis, commonly known as “hay fever.” This condition is characterized by a constellation of signs and symptoms, including runny nose, itchy throat, sneezing, nasal and sinus congestion, and sometimes conjunctivitis.
Allergic rhinitis is a true atopic condition: it […]

Let’s face it…unless you’ve lived under a rock for the past ten years, you already know that over 60% of Americans are overweight or obese. On the basis of statistics alone, two out of every three people reading this page are struggling with their weight – maybe more, if you consider the bias introduced by […]

If we want to understand the myriad and mysterious ways of our immune systems, sometimes we have to connect the dots. For practitioners of Western medicine, that occasionally means throwing off the shackles of dogma and embracing a new concept.
Way back in the 1990s, while performing autopsies on individuals who died following heart attacks, scientists […]

With the recent eruption (and apparent subsidence) of the “not-swine-flu” (H1N1), there has no doubt been a lot of consternation surrounding the World Health Organization’s assignment of pandemic alert levels. Here’s an article I wrote about the 2009 version of pandemic phases, a’ la WHO:
http://diseases-viruses.suite101.com/article.cfm/pandemic_phases

From a Medscape Alert:
April 9, 2009 — Efalizumab (Raptiva, Genentech, Inc) is undergoing a voluntary, phased withdrawal in US markets because of a potential risk to patients of developing progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy (PML).
Efalizumab will no longer be available in the United States after June 8, 2009, and healthcare providers are being asked not to initiate […]