The Open Patient tells the stories of two brain cancer patients, Steven Keating and Liz Salmi, and their experiences with accessing and sharing their medical data. Great insights into the power of making data accessible to patients and empowering them to lead their care with that data.
First off, why does this happen? Basically, your sympathetic nervous system kicks your body into fight-or-flight mode. That releases a cascade of chemicals all over your body, one consequence of which is the blood vessels in your face dilating (amongst other heart-pounding, eye-opening, stomach-churning effects). There are typically two ways this gets triggered: You’re scared of the situation you’re in […]
Google is rolling out new search tools aimed at your medical symptom queries. Search results will return a list of related conditions and, for some symptoms, a description along with self-treatment options and info to help you decide when it’s time to see a doctor (other than Dr. Google). They’ve also been working with Harvard Medical […]
Scientists have long puzzled over why some species of birds, with their teeny tiny bird brains, are able to solve complex problems, create tools, recognize their own reflection, find their way home without GPS, form lasting monogamous partnerships, sing, understand causal relationships, and make long-term decisions about resources–all things that you, with your grotesquely oversized adult primate brain, […]
It’s very popular in OCD patient communities, and in mental health communities in general, to get stuck on labeling superficial symptoms. But it becomes just another way to practice the judging and categorizing and discriminating that can fuel so many compulsions. A more effective approach to support recovery from OCD is to understand (and eliminate) the compulsive […]
Mark: What has helped the most with taking care of your mental health? Josie: I find this question difficult to answer because I can’t think of a singular entity that has helped my mental health the most overall, I think different issues are helped by different things. I suppose if I had to narrow it […]
Serotonin is a beautifully named neurotransmitter that plays many important roles in our lives. There’s so much of it floating around in our bodies. Lots in our brains. Even more in our guts (along with that burrito you ate for lunch). But that serotonin might not be doing what you think it’s doing. Serotonin is […]
Recent research from the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston, published in the American Journal of Physiology — Gastrointestinal and Liver Physiology, links early-life stress with increased norepinephrine in the upper gut, potentially leading to indigestion and anxiety problems later in life (in rats). Press release. Study (Full text PDF). Basically, what they showed is […]