Human Interest
    13 hours ago

    NON-TRADITIONAL MED STUDENTS

    The reference for this DrGOpines.com post made a statement I find somewhat surprising! It stated that 57% of current medical…
    Drugs & Medications
    2 days ago

    NEW IDEAS FOR HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE

    As I’ve written many times previously, procedures, protocols, and treatments in medical care change constantly. Medical research publications are filled…
    Heart Disease
    3 days ago

    CHEST PAIN? HOW BEST TO EVALUATE

    I don’t think I would call it “a raging debate,” but there certainly is disagreement about how best to evaluate…
    Heart Disease
    4 days ago

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    The information that follows may be as important as any previously reported here! I’m referring to a 2021 recommendation from…
    End of life Issues
    7 days ago

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    Preventive Medicine
    1 week ago

    EXERCISE SEEMS TO HELP EVERYTHING!

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    NEW IDEAS ABOUT STATIN TREATMENT

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    1 week ago

    ANTIHISTAMINES DISCOURAGED IN CHILDREN

    Nearly everyone has taken an antihistamine at some time in their life. Antihistamines  have dozens of uses and as such…
    Human Interest
    2 weeks ago

    A PATTERN FOR OUR LIVES

    By the time you read this article, we will have already passed the first day of March. The first two…
    Preventive Medicine
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    PILLARS OF LIFESTYLE

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    Human Interest
    2 weeks ago

    WHAT’S HAPPENED TO PHYSICIAN PRESTIGE?

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    HOSPITAL CREDENTIALING NOT AUTOMATIC

    HOSPITAL CREDENTIALING NOT AUTOMATIC To become a member of a hospital medical staff, a physician must undergo a thorough investigative…
    Cancer
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    FINDING HEART DISEASE BEFORE IT’S TOO LATE!

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    NEW DROPS FOR OLD EYES

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    STATINS HAVE FEW SIDE EFFECTS

    The Lancet is the leading medical journal in Great Britain. Actually, it’s one of the most respected medical journals in…
    Human Interest
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    MEDICAL SCHOOL SYNDROME: TEMPORARY HYPOCHONDRIA

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    SOME BLOOD TESTS ARE OBSOLETE

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    RECENT CLINICAL PEARLS

    Several articles ago, I mentioned “clinical pearls” as a tool used in medical education. Many such pearls are in the…
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    THE QUIRKS OF MEDICAL EDUCATION

    Medical education is phenomenon unto itself. It is filled with nuances that make it distinctive in  character and personality, as…
    Human Interest
    February 10, 2026

    DON’T SLEEP WITH THE LIGHT ON

    Human beings were made to be awake and active during the daytime, and to sleep and rest at night. That…
    Aging
    February 9, 2026

    IS TIGHT BLOOD SUGAR CONTROL GOOD FOR SENIORS?

    Diabetes comes in two forms, Type I and Type II. They are both horrible diseases and in so many ways…
    Heart Disease
    February 6, 2026

    hsCRP: BETTER THAN CHOLESTEROL

    C-Reactive Protein, or CRP, is a substance produced by the liver in response to the presence of a serious infection…
    A Day in the Life Scenarios
    February 5, 2026

    KNOW YOUR LIMITS

    When I was in medical school, it seemed like my friends and family immediately thought I knew everything every other…

      COVID-19
      October 27, 2025

      MEDICAL “MISINFORMATION”

      I fear I may be “wading into shark-infested waters” when I approach the subject in the title of this article.…
      COVID-19
      September 23, 2025

      LONG COVID STILL AFFECTING DOCTORS, NURSES

      The serious, deadly phase of the COVID-19 pandemic has ended along with the frequency of acute cases. It’s been over…
      COVID-19
      September 3, 2025

      VACCINES PROTECT CHILDREN AND ADOLESCENTS

      COVID-19 and the vaccines developed to combat it did more to erode trust in old, well-established, standard vaccines than any…
      Cancer
      July 27, 2025

      COVID-19, VITAMIN D, CANCER, GLP-1’S, HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE

      MEDICAL NEWS BRIEFS #29 COVID-19 has a greater effect on kidneys than pneumonia: Natural aging causes a gradual decline in…
      COVID-19
      September 16, 2023

      CDC RECOMMENDS ALL AMERICANS 6 MONTHS AND OLDER RECEIVE AT LEAST ONE DOSE OF UPDATED COVID-19 VACCINE

      The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently approved “reformulated” COVID vaccines by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna. That prompted a CDC Advisory…
      COVID-19
      March 18, 2023

      MOST COVID-19 DEATHS WORLDWIDE WERE AMONG OLDER PEOPLE.

      The high mortality rate from COVID-19 among the elderly was a fact everyone knew, but a lot of people ignored.…
      Preventive Medicine
      January 18, 2023

      STROKE AND PFIZER VACCINE

      Have you heard the latest about the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 booster? There’s always something, you know! This time, there are serious…
      Healthcare Policy
      December 26, 2022

      LIFE EXPECTANCY LOWERED—AGAIN!

      The CDC just announced the life expectancy of Americans recently dropped to a 25-year low. People born in 2021 have…
      COVID-19
      May 27, 2022

      mRNA VACCINE EFFICACY

      Who really knows how effective mRNA vaccines are for COVID-19. All degrees of outrageous claims about them are made back…
      COVID-19
      February 4, 2022

      MONOCLONAL ANTIBODIES: What are they? What do they do?

      This is a difficult subject to write about. Difficult because to understand it, you must possess basic knowledge of the…
      COVID-19
      January 23, 2022

      “COVID-19 VACCINE BOOSTERS SAVE LIVES”

      Yes, they really do! And The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) is proud to report that fact. Two…
      COVID-19
      January 5, 2022

      COVID-19 VACCINE-MYOCARDITIS LINK INSIGNIFICANT

      Last summer, there was a lot of fuss about a link between mRNA vaccines for COVID-19 and the occurrence of…
      COVID-19
      October 11, 2021

      NATURAL IMMUNITY TO COVID-19: IS IT A REALITY?

      Why can’t today’s viruses play fair? Why can’t viruses like SARS-CoV-2 behave like the viruses of old—the varicella-zoster virus or…
      COVID-19
      September 28, 2021

      PFIZER COVID-19 VACCINE AND MYOCARDITIS

      In July, I wrote a blog about the incidence of myocarditis in young males after vaccination with Pfizer/BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine.…
      COVID-19
      September 17, 2021

      COVID-19 VACCINATION AND CIVIL LIBERTIES

      I’m having a bit of trouble with the current attitude of a lot of people. I’m referring to the 80…
      COVID-19
      August 15, 2021

      VACCINE HESITANCY: WHY PEOPLE REFUSE COVID-19 VACCINE

      I’m old enough to remember what life was like before vaccines. As a child I had measles, mumps, and chicken…
      COVID-19
      July 12, 2021

      MYOCARDITIS AFTER COVID-19 VACCINE

      Much ado has been made on cable news programs about the adverse effects attributed to COVID-19 vaccines. In particular, there…
      COVID-19
      March 6, 2021

      SIX COVID-19 VACCINES IN PHASE III TRIALS

      We’ve heard repeatedly about the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines for COVID-19. Those are the two vaccines in use locally; if…
      COVID-19
      March 5, 2021

      ALLERGIC REACTIONS TO PFIZER-BIONTECH VACCINE

      Today’s media seems to have difficulty reporting the good news that comes from developments in the COVID-19 pandemic. Such is…
      COVID-19
      January 12, 2021

      COVID-19 VACCINE: MY EXPERIENCE

      The Maricopa County (Arizona) Health Department began administering COVID-19 vaccine in late December. Maricopa County has the bulk of the…
      COVID-19
      December 5, 2020

      AT-HOME COVID-19 TESTING

      These days news travels fast so you may already know the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved the…
      COVID-19
      November 21, 2020

      PFIZER COVID-19 VACCINE 90% (95%) EFFECTIVE!

      By now you’ve surely heard the good news about the COVID-19 vaccine being developed by Pfizer Pharmaceutical Company in collaboration…
      COVID-19
      July 5, 2020

      HERD IMMUNITY? What’s That?

      Lately, there have been many references to the term HERD IMMUNITY. Public health officials use it in their communications about…

      CARDIOVASCULAR DISEASES

        Diabetes
        October 8, 2024

        MEDICAL NEWS BRIEFS #20

        Rates of Sudden Death After Heart Attack (Myocardial Infarction): After an acute heart attack (myocardial infarction), sudden death rates have…
        Blood Diseases
        July 28, 2020

        BLOOD TRANSFUSIONS ARE MORE THAN JUST BLOOD!

        Donating blood is a good-hearted thing to do. In medical school, I did it 2 or 3 times a year,…
        Preventive Medicine
        June 22, 2022

        CAROTID STENOSIS AND STROKE

        Carotid stenosis is a narrowing of the artery in the neck that sends blood to the brain. When blood flow…
        Heart Disease
        December 10, 2025

        THE WATCHMAN PROCEDURE

        I’m starting this post “right off the bat” with my opinion. “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” That’s a…
        Diabetes
        October 21, 2024

        MEDICAL NEWS BRIEFS #22

        There are three (3) categories of Blood Pressure: New European guidelines for high blood pressure (HBP), hypertension define three categories.…
        Preventive Medicine
        September 6, 2022

        LET’S PUT STATINS IN THE WATER!

        I have written 7 blogs about statins, and I suspect you’re beginning to tire of my persistence. I love statins!…
        Heart Disease
        October 19, 2020

        PREVENTION OF CARDIOVASCULAR DISEASE: Decades of Learning and Progress!

        For decades, Cardiovascular Disease (CVD), and heart disease, in particular, has been the number one killer of American adults. Heart…
        Preventive Medicine
        March 5, 2022

        IBUPROFEN vs. TYLENOL. EGGS GET GOOD PRESS!

        EGGS DON’T INCREASE CARDIOVASCULAR DISEASE Two recent anecdotes from American Family Physician, the scientific journal of The American Academy Of…
        Heart Disease
        August 21, 2020

        ATRIAL FIBRILLATION: Does it affect Length of life?

        That question and several others were answered recently by information reported in a study reported in the British Medical Journal…
        Heart Disease
        June 26, 2021

        CORONARY CALCIUM SCORING TEST: Should you have one?

        For decades physicians have been searching for the ideal, non-invasive test to diagnose coronary artery disease early enough to prevent…
        Heart Disease
        October 14, 2024

        WHAT DO I DO ABOUT PALPITATIONS?

        As unsettling as they may be, palpitations aren’t necessarily a bad thing! Palpitation is the common term applied to that…
        Drugs & Medications
        July 24, 2025

        LIPITOR: THIRTY YEARS OF BENEFIT

        Lipitor (atorvastatin) has been in use in the U.S. since 1997 (28.5 years). It has been one of the most…
        Heart Disease
        4 days ago

        STABLE CHEST PAIN? CCTA IS YOUR ANSWER

        The information that follows may be as important as any previously reported here! I’m referring to a 2021 recommendation from…
        Heart Disease
        August 3, 2022

        HEART TRANSPLANT: FINDING DONORS IS DAUNTING!

        A heart transplant is unquestionably the most serious operation a human can have. Removing a person’s heart is a terminal…
        Preventive Medicine
        March 19, 2023

        FRUITS AND VEGGIES IN YOUR DIET

        If you’ve ever watched “My 600-lb Life” on The Learning Channel (TLC) you are familiar with the comments I’m about…
        Heart Disease
        3 weeks ago

        FINDING HEART DISEASE BEFORE IT’S TOO LATE!

        Many years ago, I was troubled by a situation involving a man in his 30’s who had every indication he…
        Drugs & Medications
        January 2, 2025

        MEDICAL NEWS BRIEFS #26

        Losing weight does not improve health. Really? Yes. Losing weight via GLP-1 receptor agonist drugs will improve your BMI (Body…
        Drugs & Medications
        August 2, 2025

        BLOOD PRESSURE TARGET LEVELS EASED

        If you have high blood pressure and you’re worried about the effect it is having on your kidneys, you may…
        Heart Disease
        3 days ago

        CHEST PAIN? HOW BEST TO EVALUATE

        I don’t think I would call it “a raging debate,” but there certainly is disagreement about how best to evaluate…
        Drugs & Medications
        November 6, 2025

        POST-MI BETA BLOCKER USE SHOULD CEASE

        On August 6, 2025, DrGOpines.com posted an article titled “Post-MI Beta Blockers Questioned.” In it, the routine prescribing of Beta…
        Drugs & Medications
        October 16, 2022

        STATINS ARE “MIRACLE DRUGS!”

        I’m going to beat the statins drum once again! Very few drugs have had the impact on cardiovascular disease than…
        Preventive Medicine
        April 30, 2022

        QUICK NOTES FROM DR G OPINES DrGOpines.com

        DrGOpines.com ONYCHOMYCOSIS: Do your grandkids tease you about your ugly toenails? Do you avoid going barefoot because you’re embarrassed by…
        Preventive Medicine
        September 9, 2022

        DO STATINS CAUSE MUSCLE PAIN AND WEAKNESS?

        It’s statins again!  This time it has to do with muscle pain and weakness patients attribute to statin therapy. A…
        Preventive Medicine
        September 5, 2022

        DIABETES, MUSCLE PAIN, ANTIBIOTICS, HEART & INTESTINAL DISEASE

        AMERICAN ACADEMY OF FAMILY PHYSICIANS RESEARCH ARTICLES 2021 Many practicing physicians and family medicine residents in training are interested in…
        Drugs & Medications
        November 3, 2025

        LYRICA INCREASES RISK OF HEART FAILURE

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        DAY-IN-THE-LIFE SCENARIOS

          A Day in the Life Scenarios
          4 weeks ago

          THE QUIRKS OF MEDICAL EDUCATION

          Medical education is phenomenon unto itself. It is filled with nuances that make it distinctive in  character and personality, as…
          A Day in the Life Scenarios
          February 5, 2026

          KNOW YOUR LIMITS

          When I was in medical school, it seemed like my friends and family immediately thought I knew everything every other…
          A Day in the Life Scenarios
          February 4, 2026

          SOME DOCTORS JUST NEVER RETIRE

          What in the world is it with some doctors? I’m referring to the legion of doctors who practice well beyond…
          A Day in the Life Scenarios
          December 5, 2025

          EMPATHY: THE PATH TO BETTER OUTCOMES

          Sympathy is a word we can all define and use correctly in a sentence. It’s an expression of the feelings…
          A Day in the Life Scenarios
          December 3, 2025

          RURAL HEALTHCARE SUFFERING PHYSICIAN DRAIN

          We’ve all heard stories or read articles about small towns and rural communities who have such serious need for medical…
          A Day in the Life Scenarios
          April 7, 2025

          WHAT’S THE BIG DEAL ABOUT PHYSICIAN INCOME?

          In addition to physician happiness, the Medscape survey quoted previously also questioned participants about lifestyle. Within this category were inquiries…

          YOUR WELLNESS MATTERS

            August 8, 2025

            FASTING FOR BLOODWORK IS OUTDATED

            Here’s something that might brighten your day. “It really doesn’t matter if you’re stomach is empty” [when you have blood…
            July 5, 2024

            PRIORITIES IN GERIATRIC CARE

            In spite of statistics that show the average life expectancy of Americans has been declining over the past 5-10 years,…
            January 9, 2024

            WHITE TEETH

            Many people today have a significant focus on personal appearance. You might not think so from the way segments of…
            September 1, 2023

            MEDICAL NEWS BRIEFS NO. 5

            Cancer Among Younger Americans is Increasing    A study published on JAMA Network Open using data from the National Cancer…
            August 25, 2023

            WATER FLUORIDATION, CREST TOOTHPASTE

            There’s little or no disagreement with the statement that fluoridation of community drinking water supplies has been one of public…
            August 5, 2023

            MORE ABOUT SUGAR IN OUR DIET

            Recently, I reported information that certain amounts of sugar in our diet were tied directly to increased risk of a…
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