smoking and covid-19

Smoking and COVID-19: What You Need to Know

Concierge Medicine, Disease, Healthy Living

The annual Great American Smokeout is set for this week, November 19. So our concierge doctors thought this would be a good time to look into what we know about the combined effects of smoking and COVID-19.

This is especially important because there has been some confusing information on the effects of cigarette smoking on the disease, with some early reports even suggesting that cigarette smokers who contract COVID-19 actually fare better than non-smokers. Subsequent studies have found the opposite: that smoking increases the risk that the virus causes more damage in smokers.

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safely celebrate holidays

How to Celebrate the Holidays Safely

Concierge Medicine, Disease, Healthy Living, Holiday Safety, Lifestyle

As we head into the holidays, our concierge doctors are concerned that pandemic fatigue might tempt people to throw caution to the winds and just celebrate, starting with Thanksgiving.

The fact is, we’re all fed up with the “new normal.” People want more than anything to return to the way our lives were before this scourge attacked the world early this year. Pandemic fatigue is not only real, it’s totally understandable.

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Halloween Safety

Is Trick-or-Treating Safe This Year?

Children, Holiday Safety

From a small Celtic festival in the British isles around 2,000 years ago, Halloween has morphed into an annual tradition of costumes, parties, haunted houses, and, above all, door-to-door trick-or-treating. According to a recent Harris Poll, 80 percent of those surveyed said handing out treats on Halloween is their favorite way to celebrate the holiday.

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flu shot twindemic

Flu Shots Can Help Avert a ‘Twindemic’

Concierge Medicine, Disease, Health Basics, Healthy Living, Preventative Health, Vaccinations

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends all adults and children older than six months receive a flu shot by the end of this month. The CDC says it takes at least two weeks for the vaccine to become effective. Then it won’t reach its peak effectiveness until another week after that. And children who are being vaccinated for the first time need two vaccines spaced a month apart to become fully protected.

Therefore, our concierge doctors suggest you get your flu shot for the 2020-21 influenza season as soon as possible. While there have been scattered reports of shortages around the country, The Washington Post recently reported a record number of flu vaccine doses—between 194 million and 198 million—have been ordered. Because the vaccine is shipped in stages, more is on the way.

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help insomnia

Weighted Blankets May Help with Insomnia

Healthy Living, Lifestyle

Our concierge doctors note the stress resulting from the coronavirus pandemic affects large portions of our population. This has manifested in many ways, including a sharp increase in insomnia.

Even without the pandemic, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) estimates that between 30 and 40 percent of the population experiences insomnia regularly. A 2005 National Sleep Foundation (NSF) poll showed more than half of respondents reported experiencing insomnia at least a few nights a week in the past year. Thirty-three percent said they had insomnia every night or nearly every night for the past year.

And since the advent of the pandemic, prescriptions for sleep medications are up 15 percent, according to pharmacy benefit manager Express Scripts. The UCLA Sleep Disorders Center reports insomnia complaints have soared 20-30 percent.

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overcome chronic conditions

Healthy Habits Can Conquer Chronic Medical Conditions

Disease, Health Basics, Healthy Living, Lifestyle

We’ve heard a great deal lately about how those with chronic conditions—diabetes, high blood pressure, and obesity—are more likely to become sicker when exposed to the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19. Even leaving aside the coronavirus, many individuals have thought that having multiple chronic medical conditions such as those or others (cancer, asthma, coronary artery disease, and so forth) doomed them to a premature death.

But our concierge doctors have recently come across some good news for those people. It turns out that healthy lifestyle habits can overcome multiple types of chronic conditions and help extend your life.

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e. coli

Take Care with Leafy Greens

Healthy Living, Nutrition

Our concierge doctors absolutely recommend a diet high in vegetables, especially leafy greens, for optimal health. But a new study released this month highlights a problem with this otherwise beneficial food: E. coli.

The report, published in the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases, found leafy greens are a common source of food-borne illnesses. It notes that they’ve been implicated in 40 outbreaks of a serious strain of E. coli between 2009 and 2018. These outbreaks resulted in 1,212 illnesses, 420 hospitalizations, and eight deaths.

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coronavirus symptoms

One More Reason to Avoid COVID-19 Infection

Disease, News

“I feel like an old person; I’m only 46,” a bank examiner from Brooklyn, told the New York Post recently. “I don’t wish this on my worst enemy.” She contracted the virus March 23, and still experiences body aches, hot flashes, arthritis and her hair has been falling out in clumps.

As some people toss around phrases like “herd immunity” (the notion that the virus should spread through the population to eventually produce a general immunity) and blithely attend “covid parties” hoping to achieve the same effect, our concierge doctors thought we’d explore one of the lesser-known risks involved in that type of thinking.

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