“I would have thought more people would tell their doctors,” says Dr. Nina Sanford on her findings that 29 percent of cancer patients using alternative medicine during treatment don’t disclose its use. Dr. Sanford is an assistant professor of radiation oncology at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, and she is lead author of a study just published (April 2019) … [Read more...]
How to Use Twitter to Make the Most of Your Conference Experience
We are just days away from the annual meeting of the American Academy of Neurology (AAN), being held in Philadelphia this year. But we are already weeks into the buzz about it on Twitter. The hashtag for the conference, #AANAM, started showing up in early April in tweets from organizers, speakers, and future attendees. Here is one: The author of this tweet, David Evans, … [Read more...]
Can Video Games Improve Rehabilitation Prospects After Stroke?
When the Pokémon Go game launched a few years back, there was much talk about the possibility of it creating healthy habits by getting kids moving around in the outdoors. But Pokémon Go seems to have gone the way of most video games—a fun distraction at best, a dangerous habit at worst. But the idea of video games providing health benefits isn’t dead, and in fact, new research … [Read more...]
Doing No Harm in the World of Disease-Modifying Treatments
Primum Non Nocere. In practice, “First do no harm” might be more accurately stated “First do no relative harm.” Medications have side effects and surgeries have complications, but an ethical physician counsels a patient on a course of treatment in which the benefits outweigh the risks. Neurologists who prescribe disease-modifying therapies (DMT) for multiple sclerosis (MS) … [Read more...]
Rallying for Nutrition Education in Med School and Beyond
“Looking at food to improve and maintain our health, and to prevent disease, is especially relevant to neurology,” says neurologist Vanessa Baute, MD, associate director of education at the Center for Integrative Medicine at Wake Forest Baptist Hospital in North Carolina. “I'm passionate about education. I think that training people in nutrition is really the key, and it’s done … [Read more...]