But it’s the relationship with nurses in the immediate aftermath of a disaster and their ongoing care that often makes a major difference in a patient’s life.
According to an annual Gallup poll, nurses have been voted the most trusted profession for the 13th year in a row, surpassing doctors and police officers.
In fact, the American Association of Critical Care Nurses has posted on its website links for nurses who want to volunteer their services in the wake of the Oklahoma tornado disaster.

The Association’s National Teaching Institute & Critical Care Exposition and the Advanced Practice Institute is being held this week in Boston, where critical care nurses can update their knowledge and refine their skills.

“By virtue of their roles and the work they do, they care about patients as people and patients recognize that. And because of that patients trust nurses, which allows them to have privileged relationships with patients unlike other members of the health care team,” nurse Alice Benjamin said in a recent interview.

Benjamin, a nationally board certified Advanced Practice Nurse and Clinical Nurse Specialist at Cedars Sinai Medical Center in California, with more than 15 years experience specializing in cardiovascular health, said that for many patients, nurses become extended family. Nurses, she said, are asked the questions that some patients are afraid to ask their doctors and become privy to the back stories that provide critical information to assist in the patient’s care.

Nurses are also the extra ears and eyes when the doctor is not present and they provide the comforting touch that patients and their loved ones need in a time of crisis. Doctors seldom know the whole story and focus on the primary problem that appears to be at issue. It is the nurses who provide information on extenuating circumstances or other issues that may not present themselves, but are underlying problems for patients.

Benjamin, who is also the co-chair of the American Heart/Stroke Association’s Western States Region Health Equity Task Force, has extensive experience in various medical, surgical and even burn intensive care units caring for critically ill patients.

Conventional wisdom says men, especially black men, won’t go to the doctor until it’s too late to stop or reverse illness, but you couldn’t tell by the thousands of black men who showed up recently for the 10th annual Minority Men’s Health Fair at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio.

Dr. Charles Modlin, a kidney transplant surgeon, urologist and founder and director of the Minority Men’s Health Center of Cleveland, said he and hundreds of volunteers saw thousands of minority men receive free health screenings in an attempt to reduce health care disparities in the African American male population.

While the health fair was open to all people, officials targeted minority men because, on average, they have high mortality rates and poorer outcomes for a variety of health issues.

“These statistics don’t lie. When we look at the lifespan of African American males [about 8 years less than their white counterparts]….these health care disparities are a real phenomenon.  And we don’t have to accept the fact that these exist. There is something we can do about it,” said Modlin, one of fewer than two dozen African American transplant surgeons in the country.

In a YouTube video promoting this year’s health fair, actor Bill Cobbs urged men to attend the health screenings because “early detection is the greatest way to hope for a cure and beat these diseases.”

The researchers, Drs. Samuel Wood and Charles Runels , are encouraged by preliminary results from this simple office procedure that involves the injection of the blood platelet-derived growth factors (PDGFs) into the upper wall of the vagina and clitoris.

Wood and Runels presented their findings at the annual meeting of the A4M, the largest biomedicine convention in the country.

Wood is a renowned reproductive endocrinologist, stem cell scientist and fertility specialist. Runels is a cosmetic physician, endocrinologist and expert in the treatment of diabetes.

“The most important factor in the success of this procedure is the correct placement of the injections,” Wood said at the conference. “When injected into an area distinct from the traditionally defined ‘G-Spot,’ the response has been surprising, robust and consistent.”

Wood said that he and Runels decided to name the injection site the “O-Spot” and have trademarked the procedure as the “O-Shot” or “Orgasm Shot.”

The doctors said accurately identifying the O-Spot is critical to determining whether a woman is able to achieve a vaginal orgasm, something that is experienced by fewer than 20 percent of women and that 40 percent of all women experience some form of sexual dysfunction during their lifetimes.

Wood and Runels recommended that patients get a complete physical before seeking the O-Shot to rule out any other problems. They said that more than 20 years of use of PDGFs for other health issues indicated that the injections are safe to use and can be administered with nothing more than a local anesthetic and is associated with only minimal discomfort.
The O-Shot, however, has not been approved for general use and Wood and Runels cautioned that the injections should be provided only as part of a clinical research trial.

“We recognize that this data is preliminary and must be confirmed by rigorous scientific research before making it widely available to patients,” Wood said. “We are now initiating a multicenter clinical trial to definitely examine the effectiveness of this procedure.”

The shot costs $1,500, which includes what Wood calls a “comprehensive sexual dysfunction assessment” to screen for other contributing factors, and it’s not covered by insurance, the Florida Sun-Sentinel reported in February.

Wood told The Sun-Sentinel said he is simultaneously conducting a double-blind, placebo-controlled study on the shot’s effectiveness that will be peer-reviewed, even though that is not required and the technique is not subject to approval by the Food and Drug Administration.

“I’m not going to be involved in something that is not actively researched. We want to be really sure about it,” Wood said, adding that one reason the technique is proprietary is to ensure that only those professionals with the proper credentials and training are offering it. “We don’t want someone to take a good procedure and give it a bad name by doing it incorrectly.”

Wood also said that early studies showed that pre-menopausal women had a higher improved response rate than post-menopausal women whose sexual dysfunction may be exacerbated by low estrogen levels and other age-related issues.

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The 36-year-old twin brothers from Chicago are both OB/GYN physicians and recent contestants on “The Amazing Race.”

The pair do more than dispense health advice. They have had to practice what they preached in order to get ready for the grueling competition.

They stepped up their running routine, lifted weights and made other adjustments and prepared to push themselves out of their comfort zones.

The brothers were eliminated in the second stage of the race in February, but said they would not hesitate to do it again.

“We would do it again in a heartbeat. For the first 24 to 48 hours after we got home, that’s all I was thinking about,” Jamil Abdur-Rahman told The Hollywood Reporter.

“[We're moving, so] I didn’t even unpack my bag, and I told my mom I was going to leave it packed so one day I could do it again and redeem myself,” said brother Idries.

Both men said they were pretty fit before they were selected for the show, but they did tweak their routines.

“We were always pretty physically fit — we’re in the gym every day, and I do taekwondo,” Idries Abdur-Rahman told the Rush University Medical Center blog.

“One thing I would try to do was mental brain games late at night or early in the morning, just to get my mind used to being functional on little sleep. My brother and I took swimming lessons because we’re not the best in the water, and I took some stick shift classes — I hadn’t driven stick in quite some time.”

Jamil Abdur-Rahman said he typically runs 3 or 4 miles a day and his brother competed in a 15k (a little over 9 miles) several days before they left for the race.

Both men believe they are better for the experience.

“It sounds corny,” Jamil said, “but I think an experience like that almost makes you a better person. You realize that you had an opportunity to do something that most people will never get to do and so it makes you more appreciative. I don’t know if it’ll make us better doctors — maybe by default if we’re better people, we’ll be better doctors — but I’d say better people more than anything else.”

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Rodgers is director of the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases and oversees NKDEP (a program of the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK)) and recently led an initiative, Kidney Sundays, to help African Americans raise awareness of kidney disease in their local community and its link to other diseases seen disproportionately in the black community.

One out of every six African American adults has some sign of kidney disease and black Americans are more than three times as likely to develop kidney failure as white Americans. And 80 percent of new cases of kidney failure among black patients are directly tied to high blood pressure and diabetes.

In March, National Kidney Month, NKDEP, the American Diabetes Association’s Live Empowered Initiative and Chi Eta Phi, a national nursing sorority, sponsored Kidney Sundays, an event in churches around the country, providing kidney education sessions and blood pressure screenings for congregants.

In an interview with Brown Medicine, the alumni magazine of Brown University’s medical school, Rodgers credited his mother, a public health nurse, with showing him how personal intervention with patients could help them make better life choices.

“Many of my mother’s patients weren’t able to get to the clinic during the work week. She’d take it upon herself to visit them at their homes during the weekend,” Rodgers said in the interview.

“…I learned quite a bit this way. Her knowledge, compassion, and ability to get along with people went a long way in getting them to follow instructions, do follow-up.”

Further, Rodgers said, “I saw that diabetes, obesity, and kidney disease hit African Americans harder than others. This was my first exposure to the effects and interaction of genetics and the environment.”

After he lost three friends to sickle cell anemia, Rodgers focused on hematology – the study of blood disorders – and, subsequently, began to look at the interconnection between a number of ailments that affected black people disproportionately and he began to focus on ways to improve health outcomes for the community.

On NIDDK’s home page, Rodgers said making better choices, along with strides in research, can lead to better health outcomes.

“The research advances of the past 60 years have saved lives, improved quality of life, and laid the foundation for today’s progress,” Rodgers said in the statement. “Most often, these advances resulted not from dramatic breakthroughs but from the steady, incremental findings of persistent investigative study. That investment is now paying off in unprecedented scientific opportunities.”

For more information about Rodgers’ research or ways to address kidney disease, visit www.nkdep.nih.gov.

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When most people think of cosmetic surgery they think of Botox, facelifts and tummy tucks, but a great deal of cosmetic surgery is designed to address far more serious problems that affect people’s ability to simply look and feel healthy, particularly people who suffer from various types of alopecia and other ailments that cause major hair loss.
After personally experiencing a botched hair transplant surgery, Dr. Sanusi Umar decided to find ways to help others who suffered from major hair loss.

A certified dermatologist, Umar started his career as a surgeon in his native Nigeria. After coming to the U.S., he became a researcher in the field of infectious disease and won a fellowship and an invitation to present at the 1998 International AIDS Conference in Geneva, Switzerland and at the International AIDS Conference in Durban, South Africa in 2000. He returned to the U.S., completing a residency in dermatology in Los Angeles and currently is on the clinical faculty at UCLA.

When Umar began focusing on hair restoration, he focused his attention on finding alternatives to painful surgery and limitations of traditional treatments for hair replacement. He found that many alternative treatments were still in the developmental stages and were flawed, so he set to work designing a new, minimally invasive, transplant procedure.
It took two years, but Umar reached a breakthrough with his uGraft, a scapel-free, natural replacement, using body hair to conduct hair and eyebrow transplant. Because the procedure is minimally invasive, scarring and recovery time are minimized. The use of body hair also means the number of transplantable hairs is greatly increased and the hair follicles grow in a natural pattern from the first treatment.

“Traditional transplants rely on the available donor supply found on the back and sides of the head. In a good case, this would yield only 7,000-8,000 hairs,” Umar said in a statement. “A severely bald patient would have lost 50,000 hairs to become severely bald. Using only 7,000 hairs to do the job of 50,000 hairs is not a reasonable approach and when done, the result looks unacceptable. Using the uGraft technique that I developed, I am able to add hair from the beard and qualifying body hair to expand the available donor supply considerably, resulting in the credible restoration of these cases which are impossible to restore by any other method today.”

It may be thrilling when love makes your heart skip a beat, but under any other circumstance that may not be a good thing.

Sudden Cardiac Arrest (SCA), which differs from a heart attack, occurs when the heart stops beating abruptly and without warning. It is one of the leading causes of death in the U.S., claiming more than 350,000 lives a year.

Dr. Kevin L. Thomas of the Duke University Medical Center and the Association of Black Cardiologists wants African Americans, who are disproportionately affected by SCA, to talk to their doctors about prevention, early intervention and appropriate treatment.

According to research, more than 90 percent of Americans underestimate the percentage of people who die of sudden cardiac arrest. More than 60 percent of black Americans do not go to the doctor, even after they experience symptoms suggestive of heart problems and 90 percent of those surveyed say their doctors have never discussed SCA with them.
Thomas, who is spokesman for the Heart Rhythm Society’s “Arrest the Risk” campaign, said to prevent and recognize potential heart problems, patients should:

•    Live a healthy lifestyle—exercise, eat healthy, avoid smoking.
•    Know your family heart history, tell your doctor and ask for a referral to a specialist, such as an electrophysiologist (EP).
•    Treat and monitor all health conditions such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol and diabetes.
•    Control or stop abnormal heart rhythms through medication, ICDs or surgical procedures.

“They take medicines and they suffer side effects that they do not realize. The big downside is this causes esophageal cancer,” said Rosser, noting that chronic heartburn can now be treated with a new technology that uses magnets.

The former Morehouse School of Medicine surgery professor and a recognized national and international leader in minimally invasive surgery for over 20 years, has launched a community awareness project, Operation Bear Hug, that aims to get the message out to the public that there are ways to treat a chronic problem that many believe is just a part of everyday life.

The newest treatment, the Linx Reflux Management system, is a surgically implanted ring that limits the chances of acid reflux from reaching and damaging the esophagus. The Linx system is a newer ring design that improves upon an earlier system that had a higher complication rate.

Most people are aware of the common symptoms of heartburn, including chest pain, an acid taste in the mouth and nausea. Many symptoms are relieved, temporarily, by over-the-counter antacids. What health professionals refer to as “silent reflux,” however, is identified by symptoms that many patients don’t recognize, including asthma, postnasal drip, a persistent cough and a raspy or hoarse voice.

The most common treatment includes the use of acid blockers and avoiding alcohol, caffeine, chocolate, citrus and canned foods.

“The treatment of GERD usually follows a stair-step approach that goes from the simple to the complex,” Rosser, a surgeon at Celebration Hospital in Orlando, Fla., said in an article on the hospital’s website.

“Lifestyle changes and medicines make up the simple, less aggressive arm of the treatment options. If these fail, invasive treatment must be considered. There are degrees to the level of invasiveness ranging from endoscopic procedures that do not require incisions, all the way to procedures that require full-blown open surgery.”

Early diagnosis and treatment, however, are a patient’s best bet to recovery.

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Can acid reflex be cured with surgery? I’ve been on Nexium over 20 years.
Yes! Yes! Yes!
The Linx Reflux Management system is a great step in helping to treat this problem that impacts so many people and the Nissen Fundoplication done with the laparascope can be done and you are out of the hospital with both choices  often within 24 hours You have to be evaluated to know which one is for you At Celebration Hospital, Orlando Florida my home hospital my partner and I offer this treatment and people come from all over the world to be treated at this place of spiritual healing We would be glad to take care of you visit our website celebrationsurgeons.com.

I have chronIc acId reflux and I keep the worst taste in my mouth. I am on omeprazole, what helps?
God is tapping you on the shoulder and telling that Omeprazole is not the answer You need to be evaluated It would be a shame if you are being warned that something serious is wrong and you did not heed the warning.

I have had gerd for over three years. It got to the point where I was constantly clearing my throat all the time. I had the procedure fundoplication done in November and the problem still persists. What else can I do?
First it is important to have the proper work-up Your doctor needs to be asked if he did a 24 hour ph study, a manometry study and an endoscopy with a biopsy. Depending on the results of those studies we can just if reflux was the actual problem Frequently sinus drainage can cause your symptoms I would go back to your surgeon, he may have to repeat the studies to give you some idea of what is now going on.

I get heartburn every time that I eat jelly, chocolate, drink OJ, etc. and I use baking soda to kill the burning sensation in my chest. Is baking soda a bad remedy?
No but it’s a temporary entity. You may be helped by just changing you lifestyle but you need to be evaluated to make sure you have the kind of heartburn you can live with We are actually starting a screening campaign on April 25 at Celebration Hospital in Orlando, Florida call Operation Bear Hug. We are going to get our arms around the reflux problem by using technology to tell you if you have the disease as soon as possible by using telemedicine and other technologies.

What workup should I ask for?
Please go to my article on the Dr. Oz website or visit HERE to learn more. I have extended articles to give you all the details. But in a nutshell, first you need an upper endoscopy. Next a 24 hour ph test. Then an esophageal manometry.

 Some nights I wake up gasping for air with this burning fluid in my throat. What could it be?
Nocturnal reflux-reflux at night while lying down is a big alarm signal. The door between your stomach and food tube is total open You need to be evaluated as soon as possible.

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Dr. Robin Smith strikes most people as a woman who has it all together.

A noted TV personality and author of several books, including “Lies At The Altar – The Truth About Great Marriages” and “Inspirational Vitamins, A Guide To Personal Empowerment,” is best known for dispensing advice, not taking it.

But the psychologist, seminarian and motivational speaker had a secret she kept from the public. Contrary to all appearances that she had the perfect life, Smith felt empty and hungered for a better life.

In her new book, “Hungry – The Truth about Being Full,” Smith recounts a period in her life when she was overwhelmed by living up to others’ expectations and not finding fulfillment for herself.

In a recent interview, Smith said she was suffering from “emotional, spiritual and relational malnourishment.”

“Even though I looked alive and vital, the hourglass measuring the aliveness of my soul was swiftly draining to the bottom. I was losing my battle to be myself. I was in my prime. My career was taking off; I was surrounded by loving friends and family. Yet it felt like time was running out,” she writes in the book.

Smith said she wrote the book, using herself as an example, to show people how to find their true selves under all the layers of doubt, superficiality and life crises that keep them from fulfilling their dreams.

“This information can be used to build a healthy, rich and satisfying life.”

In an interview with Oprah.com about “Lies at the Altar,” Smith said it is not uncommon to find comfort in food when we have the blues, a down day, or a need to protect ourselves from bigger hurts.

But when the struggle is with food or relationships or money, the real culprit may be that we haven’t addressed our emotional hunger.

Many people find themselves in financial debt, for example, or struggling with overeating because they believe things or food will satisfy their hunger for approval.

She said it is important to learn how to control the emotions that lead to the bad habits; learn how to express concerns and fears in healthy ways; consult with a professional, whether it’s a money manager or a health professional, to get advice on coping mechanisms, and don’t expect an immediate fix. It takes time to change a habit, just as it took time to develop the behavior in the first place.

It is important, Smith said, that you understand what you are truly hungry for, not what you say you hungry for. Once you gain that clarity, you can find your way to satisfaction.

In writing “Hungry,” Smith said, she learned to take her own advice.

“I only learned after writing and completing ‘Hungry’ that I had to write this book to save my own life before it could benefit, help and offer healing to the lives of others. It is my heartfelt desire that ‘Hungry’ will empower, transform and liberate those in search of their authentic self and life.”

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When you have a medical emergency you may sometimes feel your problem is exacerbated by the long waits in the emergency room.

Unless you have a life-threatening wound or allergic reaction, an ER visit can take hours and the chaos around you can make a hospital seem like a scary rather than a healing place.

However, Dr. Myiesha Taylor, a Texas-based, board certified emergency medicine physician specialist and a fellow of the American College of Emergency Physicians, said there are several things you can do to improve your experience in the emergency room.

In an article for Atlanta Black Star, Taylor wrote that whenever possible, patients should try to time ER visits for around 4 a.m. or after 7 a.m. Things begin to slow down before dawn, but can get chaotic around 7 a.m., when most hospitals experience shift changes. Fridays during the day also tend to be better than waiting until the weekend.

It is always good to have a copy of your complete medical history and a list of all the medications and supplements you take, especially when you are traveling. It helps emergency room doctors and nurses to act quickly and efficiently if they can quickly size up your condition and know what medicines to administer or avoid. It also helps the doctor to fully consider all the possible emergency conditions that may exist based on your current complaint.

The emergency room is not a normal business situation, so understand that the medical staff is extremely busy and working under great stress. Being kind and polite and working to keep the environment calm is in everyone’s best interest.

Even though you are in a hospital, the ER does not always have the full array of blood tests, examinations or specialists on hand to diagnose and treat chronic illnesses. The emergency room really should not be a substitute for a doctor’s office. If your problem is not life-threatening, schedule an appointment with your regular physician or ask for a referral.

Taylor is far more than an ER specialist and her reach is global. She is president and founder of Artemis Medical Society, an international support group for women physicians of color. Artemis has nearly 2,500 members with representation in every major American city, and extends to South Africa, the United Kingdom, Italy, and the Caribbean.

Taylor is also a Doc McStuffins. Taylor and a group of black women physicians were the subjects of mini-profiles linked to the popular African American Disney character, Doc McStuffins, a little girl who aspires to be a doctor and “practices” on her toys.

Inspired by her grandmother and mother, both nurses, Taylor said she always wanted to help people protect their health.

“I know that I would not be a physician today if it was not for them,” she told Fort Worth Business Press, when she was named one of the Great Women of Texas 2012. “Both my grandmother and mother demonstrated great courage throughout their lives and instilled in me the understanding that we can overcome any circumstance that may appear throughout our lives.”

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