Prevention Practice Pearls

Winter Tips for Optimal Skin Health

By Erik Goldman

With a surface area of more than 20 square feet, and a weight comprising roughly 15% of a person’s total mass, the skin is the body’s largest organ. It is the place where the inside meets the outside world, and vice versa. Because conventional medicine has divided the body into departments or “ologies,” primary care […]

Fine-Tuning the Digestive Symphony

By Russell Jaffe, MD, Contributing Writer

I like to think of digestion as a magnificent symphony in which a diverse array of organs, bacteria, and biochemicals work in concert to transform the foods we eat into the nutrients and energy we need. If any instrument is out of tune, the music suffers. This notion of the digestive system as an orchestra […]

A 5% Investment in Self-Care Gives Big Health Payoffs

By Erik Goldman

Many people think “getting healthy” requires a total lifestyle overhaul, a major investment of time and money, and a lot of work.  Too often, those expectations solidify into an insurmountable obstacle, people feel intimidated, and consequently they never set out on the journey to better health. The truth is, devoting just 5% of the day […]

Addressing the Repair Deficits That Underlie Chronic Pain

By Russell Jaffe, MD, Contributing Writer

Roughly one in five people suffers from chronic pain of some sort. It is one of the leading causes of disability, reduced productivity, and escalating medical care costs.  While pain is often multifactorial, there’s a lot we as clinicians can do to help our chronic pain patients once we understand the relationship between inflammation, repair […]

Helping Patients Heed COVID’s Wake-Up Call

By Russell Jaffe, MD, Contributing Writer

We are nearly two years into the COVID-19 pandemic. Now, more than ever, it’s worth looking into what goes on in the body and how the immune system works in critical situations like COVID-19. The pandemic has certainly put the functioning of the immune system to test, but it has also brought to light the […]

Rethinking Osteoporosis

By Russell Jaffe, MD, PhD, Contributing Writer

Osteoporosis is often called “The Silent Killer,” because in and of itself, it has no symptoms and most people who have it are quite unaware that they are losing bone until they experience a fracture. As we all know, a major fracture in advanced age raises the risk for a wide range of sometimes deadly comorbidities. […]

Platelets: How to Keep Them In the “Goldilocks” Zone

By Russell Jaffe, MD, Contributing Writer

Platelets may be tiny—on average they’re about 20% of the diameter of red blood cells—but they have huge impact on our health and wellbeing. Beyond their obvious role in blood clotting and wound healing, they are also important players in the immune system. More than we realize, optimal health depends on the platelets doing their […]

Providing Help at the Intersection of Pain Place & Depression Boulevard

By Russell Jaffe, MD

Depression, anxiety, and chronic pain frequently co-occur, though the connection between them is not always apparent at the outset. While most people experience physical pain at some point in their lives, in those with depression or anxiety, pain can become particularly intense and hard to treat. People suffering from depression, for example, tend to experience more severe […]

Remote Patient Monitoring: From Luxury to Necessity

By Russell Jaffe, MD, Contributing Writer

Patient self-assessment tools, along with remote consultation technologies, have evolved rapidly over the last decade. Until recently, they’ve been considered luxuries for highly motivated patients and future-forward clinicians. In the post-COVID world, where many physicians have closed their clinics and patients are deferring all but the most essential in-person visits, telemedicine and remote monitoring are […]

Ten Tips for Boosting Immunity & Building Resilience

By Russell Jaffe, MD, Contributing Writer

Immune system health, while not the only determinant, is certainly one of the most important factors in determining how someone will fare if exposed to this virus. Here are 10 ways to boost immune defense, support tissue repair systems, and reduce the risk of infection and illness.