AskTheDoctor.com is a website which allows you to ask a Doctor any medical question for free or you can browse through many questions already answered.
Monday, January 30, 2012
Repetitive Strain Injury (RSI) due to smartphone use
The number of questions our free medical Q & A website AskTheDoctor.com gets related to Repetitive Strain Injury (RSI) is growing largely over the last few years, especially with more people getting smartphones and texting more. The number of patients we physically see at our family practice due to RSI has also become a very large number as well. Remember to practice stretching exercises on your wrist and thumbs at least a couple times per week in order to prevent RSI. Try and avoid over texting if you can.
Sincerely,
AskTheDoctor.com Team
Wednesday, January 18, 2012
Cell phone doctor?
Thursday, January 12, 2012
AskTheDoctor.com's Pink Eye Prevention Tips
Pink eye is more common in children but the advice is equally applicable for adults and children. Groups exposed to cigarette smoke and contact lens wearers are at higher risk.
In terms of pink eye, we have to discuss primary prevention (protecting yourself from getting it) and secondary prevention (preventing it from spreading in the house once someone has it). The rules are the same in both cases
1/ wash hands regularly with soap and running water
2/ Avoid sharing personal items such as hand towels and face cloths
3/ Discourage eye rubbing and touching - especially when kids have colds or other respiratory infections.
Glaucoma Awarness Month
January is National Glaucoma Awareness Month.
Glaucoma is the leading cause of preventable blindness. Moreover, among African American and Latino populations, glaucoma is the leading cause of blindness, and it is more prevalent. Glaucoma is 6 to 8 times more common in African Americans than Caucasians.
Over 2.2 million Americans, and over 60 million people worldwide, have glaucoma. Experts estimate that half of them don't know they have it. Combined with our aging population, we can see an epidemic of blindness looming if we don't raise awareness about the importance of regular eye examinations to preserve vision.
Since there are no symptoms and once vision is lost, it's permanent. As much as 40% of vision can be lost without a person noticing.
Tuesday, January 10, 2012
When is the best time to do a breast exam?
The best time to do a self-breast exam is 10-14 days after the last menstrual period (Day 1 of previous period). It is during this time the hormones are at its lowest levels so real masses (not lumpy lobules) can be detected. When doing a self breast exam, raise your hand above your head then using the other hand, feel for masses on the breasts. Do the same for the other breast. Breast cancer in your age group is very rare but it does happen. However, benign (non-cancerous) breast masses are common in women from all age groups. To be sure, have it checked by a doctor so a proper breast exam can be done and from there, a decision whether or not to do an imaging procedure (mammogram or ultrasound) can be made.
click here to see the question
Monday, January 9, 2012
Stretching Everyday good for your body
Cardiovascular activity really important first thing in the morning
Sunday, January 8, 2012
The best activity to do in winter to keep fit and healthy
The winner is...........
Cross-Country Skiing
A great winter activity to help you strengthen those muscles and burn lots of calories at the same time. Its a great activity you can enjoy even with the kids. Studies show people at an average weight of between 140-170 pounds can burn an average of 600-700 calories in just 1 hour of cross-country skiing.
Thursday, January 5, 2012
Medical information more popular than Facebook?
The demand for online medical advice continues to grow as there are many popular websites out such as WebMD.com, Everydayhealth.com and AskTheDoctor.com
These websites will continue to grow as the younger internet using generation will require more healthcare attention.
Research shows that by 2015, there could be as many as 40,000 medical information websites in the United States alone.
Lets face it, people these days want to get everything online...first it was shopping, now its even health advice.
AskTheDoctor.com in the news
San Francisco Chronicle
Stanford University
Sarasota Herald-Tribune
Wednesday, January 4, 2012
Doctor's Recommended: Healing Change of Seasons Chicken Soup Recipe
Herbal Ingredients
1. Codonopsis root: This herb is thought to help tonify and strengthen “qi” energy and helps to build blood and nourish body fluids.
2. Astragalus root: Astragalus is a root thought to helps strengthen protective defenses, strengthen qi energy, nourish the spleen, and tonify the blood and lungs
3. Dioscorea (Chinese yam) root: Dioscorea is a herb believed to tonify and balances the lungs and the kidneys.
4. Chinese Lycii berries: Lycii berries is believed to strengthen the liver and the kidneys.
Instructions
1. Fill a large stock pot with water (2-4L). Add the above herbs to the pot and place the lid on. Bring to a boil and simmer for 2 hours. If the water level boils down, add water to refill if necessary.
2. Using a slotted spoon, or strainer, remove the herbs from the pot. You can drink it as a broth, use it as a base for soup recipes, or place it in a mug or thermos and sip it throughout the day.
To make the chicken soup, you need:
• 1L organic homemade chicken broth
• 2 organic free range chicken breasts – cooked ( I bake mine) and shredded
• 2 cups of chopped green cabbage
• 2 celery stalks – chopped
• 2 carrots – chopped
• 1 small onion diced
• 2 tsp fresh ginger
• 3 cloves of garlic – chopped
• 1 cup of fresh parsely
• 1 tbsp of fresh rosmary
• 2 bay leaves
• add salt and pepper as needed for taste – especially to cover up the taste of the herbs
Instructions:
1. Bake you chicken breasts for 40 mins at 350F – take out of the oven and allow to cool and shred
2. Sautee garlic, onions and ginger for 3 mins in a little olive oil (for flavour, not too much!)
3. Add shredded chicken – mix
4. Add all the vegetables and mix for about 3 mins
5. Add about 2 tsps of sea salt
6. Add Change of Season Soup, Chicken Stock and Bay Leaves
7. Bring to a boil and simmer for about 1.5 hours – slowly add additional salt and pepper until desired taste is reached
8. Add Parsley and Rosmary and simmer for another 30 min
I love pouring this soup over some freshly made brown rice – makes for a hearty meal!
Enjoy!
How AskTheDoctor.com Continues To Be Free
We wanted to start off this post by addressing a couple concerns our users have had.
Recently here at AskTheDoctor.com we have gotten some emails and feedback from our users that they would like to see our website not post the answers on the world wide web. We do keep the answers anonymous but we must publish them to create content. The reason we are able to keep the website free is because of the content being created.
Let me break it down as follows:
1. Without content there will be no advertisers on our website.
2. Without advertisers, there will be no money coming to AskTheDoctor.com
3. Without money, there will be no doctors working for the website (nobody works well and for free for long term and trust me we have tried this out for the last few years)
4. Without doctors, there will be nobody to answer users questions.
As you can see us posting the answers anonymously is very important to the building of a large medical library of questions and the continued growth of the website so we can keep offering this free service. Remember 100% of advertising income goes into paying back all the doctors who are answering questions.
I hope we have been able to answer any of our users concerns with this post. Feel free to visit our website and send us a message with any comments or concerns you may have.
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Just another quick reminder that our top 10 physician recommended things to do in the new year list is out as well!