Suicide has touched my life in a number of ways in the past five years. I have been involved with supporting families whose teens have attempted and even been successful at suicide. When I was in the final year of my master's degree, two young adults in my town ended...
With a count of more than 300 rampage shootings in the US since the start of 2022, we need to take some time to mourn our losses, our wounded and scarred, our traumatized, and the ones that fell through the cracks. But after the mourning, we need to take a serious...
One of my favorite ads growing up showed two pairs of jeans, one on a person thin and trim. The other pair exploding from the wearer's weight. It read, “Being overweight is not genetic, but it does show up in your jeans!” This is a powerful image that can be used to...
Medications aren’t magical. They are based on science. In basic pharmacology I was taught that medication brings relief to patients using a “lock and key” method. When the right key is inserted into the correct lock – voila! Relief ensues. For anyone who has ever...
One of the “last frontiers” in medicine is the mind. Medicine today now understands much of the plumbing and mechanics of the body. Understanding the impact of emotions, food, and external stimuli on our long term-health and mental health lags behind. Clinical trials...
We are hard-wired to like sweet things, and there’s a good reason for this. Breast milk is sweet, and this is thought to be by design - to make sure that we are driven to consume enough fuel to keep our body alive. When we consume sugar, it is converted in the body...
There are many times in life that we choose to mask ourselves, to put on a facade, if you will, of who we are. Sometimes it's from peer pressure. Other times for financial gain. Sometimes it's simply for love or even safety. Whatever the reason, although it may serve...
As a child, snow was always a blessing, it meant that school would be canceled and my best friend and I could spend time playing in the snow. I noticed as I got older that it has a different meaning. Now I associate it with runny noses, rampant flu, and icy roads. I...
Warning: this article addresses the topic of sexual abuse and may be triggering for sensitive readers. I was raised in a classic “out-of-town” day school. In my home town we weren’t flush with Orthodox Jews, they were few in number, and possibly that’s why each member...
When we think about supplements critical for our health, depending on our stage in life, there are many things that may come to mind. For example, most women of child-bearing age know that Folic Acid is important for healthy pregnancies. Science has shown that there...