Columns
The Long Road Back
Burns, emotional scars linger long after the body has healed. It was late, almost midnight, a few nights before Thanksgiving. Heather Whiles, then 20, home for the holiday from Columbia University, was cruising down Route 125 on her way from North Andover to Boston to see a friend. She was sober, but tired, and fell…
For many with cancer the problem is fatigue
You might think, to hear about Dr. Wendy S. Harpham’s life, that it’s perfectly obvious why she’s always exhausted. For one thing, she and her husband run a very busy household in Dallas with three kids, ages 8, 10, and 12.For another, she’s written four books on cancer since 1992 – much easier, she says,…
Herb found to aid mild depression
Karin Taylor, 58, a tax accountant in Toronto, was stumped. She had a good marriage, two “wonderful kids,” and a job she loved. “I had no reason whatsoever to feel depressed,” she says. “Yet there it was.” Sure, she was aware in the back of her mind of her family history of depression, including three…
Don’t wait for allergy to hit; strike first
There may still be patches of snow smothering your crocuses, but believe it or not, springtime allergy season is only about 10 days away – and for some poor souls it’s already begun. But you may be able to head off trouble before it starts.At least that’s the current thinking of allergy specialists, who say…
How music tunes our mental strings
Music fills the days at the John Eliot Elementary School in Needham. When recess is over a teacher may put something soothing on the classroom CD or tape player, perhaps a Baroque piece whose steady rhythm evokes the 60 beats a minute of a heart at peace. When kids study the solar system and make…
People, and pets, touting arthritis remedy
Dr. Margaret Slater, a veterinarian and epidemiologist at Texas A & M University, gives the stuff to all her loved ones, two-footed and four-footed, who suffer from arthritis. “My dog, my horse, my mother and her dog are all benefitting from it,” she says with a chuckle. Dr. David Hungerford, chief of orthopedics at the…
Should you take that test?
For people with no symptoms routine screening can have a downside. A little over a week ago, a group of cancer gurus, having pondered 40 studies on the potential value of screening men for prostate cancer, ended up much like a hung jury. The preponderance of the evidence, they concluded, simply did not show, as…
The rush is now on to Echinacea
The Cheyenne used it for sore gums, the Comanches, for toothaches and sore throats. Other Native Americans kept it on hand for snakebites or syphilis. Modern Americans seem to love the stuff, too, even if we can’t pronounce it. In fact, echinacea – that’s eck-in-EH-shia – is now the top selling herbal remedy in health…
Lymphedema finally getting some attention
Marianne Lynnworth, 66, a writer and former geographer, isn’t sure why she got lymphedema, though she thinks a case of frostbite when she was a teenager probably touched off a hereditary tendency to the disease. But she sure does know what a struggle it’s been for the last 52 years. Sometimes, the swelling makes her…
It’s enough to make you crazy
Maybe your boss is driving you crazy. Or it’s dawning on you that your husband is acting just like your alcoholic father. Maybe you can’t find a mate, or can’t commit when you do. Maybe you hear voices, or think about suicide. Or get so scared you can’t leave home. Or so depressed you can’t…
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