Category Archives: Medicine
Hormone replacement therapy and dementia risk among postmenopausal women
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 6th September 2026Written by Neil Kurtzman | 6th September 2026 Hormone replacement therapy and dementia risk among postmenopausal women: Identifying responsive subgroups in the UK Biobank is a study published in Alzheimer’s & Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer’s Association. This large observational study found that hormone replacement therapy (HRT) was associated with a modestly lower hazard…
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Cannabis Use Disorder in American Adults
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 28th August 2026In December 2025, President Trump issued Executive Order 14370, declaring it federal policy to increase medical marijuana and cannabidiol (CBD) research and directing the Attorney General to expedite the movement of marijuana from Schedule I to Schedule III. The order stated that marijuana has credible scientific support for pain, medically related anorexia, and nausea and…
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Polymyalgia Rheumatica
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 19th August 2026Polymyalgia rheumatica (PMR) is an inflammatory disorder that occurs almost entirely in people over the age of 50. Its name is somewhat misleading: although it literally means “rheumatic pain in many muscles,” the muscles themselves are not primarily diseased. Much of the inflammation appears to involve structures around the joints, including bursae and tendons, particularly…
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Cyclospora in the Salad Bowl
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 18th July 2026The United States is experiencing an unusually large outbreak of cyclosporiasis, a prolonged diarrheal illness caused by the microscopic parasite Cyclospora cayetanensis. Although the disease is rarely fatal, it can produce weeks of watery diarrhea, fatigue, anorexia, abdominal distress, volume contraction, and weight loss. Its tendency to disappear briefly and then return makes it particularly…
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Vaccinating Honeybees and Shrimp
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 12th June 2026The idea of vaccinating honeybees and shrimp would have sounded like science fiction only a few years ago. Both animals are invertebrates, lacking the sophisticated antibody-based immune systems that make vaccination possible in humans, dogs, cattle, and other vertebrates. Yet recent research has shown that even these seemingly simple creatures possess forms of immune memory…
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Increasing Use of Nurse Practitioners
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 19th May 2026A recent article in the Wall Street Journal focuses on the increasing use of nurse practitioners (NPs) and physician assistants (PAs) in filling patient care gaps in our medical system. There are now 461,000 NP active, an increase in 61% since 2019. They function in much the same way as do family practitioners; the same…
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Hantavirus – A Primer
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 15th May 2026The recent outbreak of Hantavirus infections aboard the Dutch expedition cruise ship MV Hondius, which had been sailing from Ushuaia through the South Atlantic toward the Canary Islands, combined with the painful memory of the COVID pandemic, has raised public awareness and fear to levels probably beyond the boundary of reality. Below are a few…
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New Blood Pressure Guidelines for Older Americans
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 18th March 2026In the 2025 American Heart Association/American College of Cardiology hypertension guideline, management of hypertension in adults ≥65 years has shifted from an age-based to a risk-based approach. Unlike prior guidance, age alone no longer mandates pharmacologic therapy for stage 1 hypertension (130–139/80–89 mm Hg). Instead, treatment is recommended if the patient has ≥7.5% 10-year cardiovascular…
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Cancer Statistics 2026
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 14th January 2026Every January the American Cancer Society releases the latest data about cancer in the United States. The full report can be downloaded below. As is typical for the society their press release highlights the increase in cancer survival. Below is a quotation from an article in the lay press: The five-year cancer survival rate in…
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New Insight Into the Cause of Lupus
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 9th January 2026Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE) is a chronic autoimmune disease where the immune system attacks healthy tissues and organs, causing widespread inflammation affecting skin, joints, kidneys, heart, lungs, and brain, with symptoms like fatigue, fever, rashes (especially a butterfly-shaped facial rash), joint pain, and mouth sores that vary in severity and occur in flares and remissions,…
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