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    SPINAL MANIPULATION FOR LOW BACK PAIN

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    Human Interest
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    THE LOCAL MEDICAL DOCTOR (LMD) HAS COME A LONG WAY

    The Indiana University School of Medicine in the 1960’s was in Indianapolis, the capitol city in the geographic center of…
    Human Interest
    5 days ago

    INDIANA FOOTBALL CELEBRATION

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    NEW SIDE EFFECTS OF GLP-1’S

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    Cancer
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    CANCER SURVIVAL IMPROVING

    Current estimates by The American Cancer Society (ACS) state that 2 million Americans are “living with cancer.” The ACS is…
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    COMBINATION DRUGS FOR HIGH BP

    I have written this many times before, but policies and protocols in medicine are always changing. After several years of…
    Drugs & Medications
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    TREATING ACUTE MIGRAINE PAIN

    Patients who suffer the misery of migraine headaches are given a special designation that sufferers of other diseases do not…
    Human Interest
    2 weeks ago

    EXTORTING A PHYSICIAN! REALLY?

    Apparently, the state of America’s moral and ethical standards has declined to the point where it’s now not uncommon for…
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    3 weeks ago

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    Infectious Diseases
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    2026 FLU SEASON

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    OSTEOPATHS REPLACING MD’S IN FAMILY MEDICINE

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    NEW NON-OPIOID PAIN MEDICATION

    Blowing up drug running boats in the Caribbean is one way to fight the opioid crisis, but developing a safe…
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    PROTON PUMP INHIBITORS AND NSAID’S

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    PPI’S NOT WITHOUT RISKS

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    Preventive Medicine
    4 weeks ago

    PREMENSTRUAL SYNDROME

    It’s called premenstrual syndrome, or PMS, and every woman who has had a menstrual period knows what I’m talking about…
    Drugs & Medications
    December 30, 2025

    LIFESTYLE AND GLP-1’S

    Not too surprisingly, the American Heart Association (AHA) has endorsed the use of GLP-1 receptor agonists for weight loss, control…
    Drugs & Medications
    December 29, 2025

    WARFARIN AND RAT POISON

    Warfarin (Coumadin) is the most widely prescribed oral anticoagulant in North America. Worldwide it has been the standard of care…
    Human Interest
    December 23, 2025

    THE ROSE BOWL: INDIANA vs. ALABAMA

    Nothing has been the same since Saturday, December 6th when the Indiana University Hoosier football team defeated THE Ohio State…
    Urogenital
    December 22, 2025

    THE KIDNEY STONE HAS PASSED

    Hallelujah! The kidney stone has passed! The pain that caused me to visit the Emergency Room Wednesday, December 17 has…
    Human Interest
    December 19, 2025

    THE BUSIEST TIME OF THE YEAR!

    Thanksgiving. Christmas. New Years Eve. New Years Day. Birthdays. Concerts. Holiday gatherings. These are just some of the dozens of…
    Human Interest
    December 18, 2025

    TODAY, I WAS A PATIENT

    I awoke this morning at 5:45 am. Why so early? I don’t know, but after sitting on the side of…

      COVID-19
      October 27, 2025

      MEDICAL “MISINFORMATION”

      I fear I may be “wading into shark-infested waters” when I approach the subject in the title of this article.…
      COVID-19
      September 23, 2025

      LONG COVID STILL AFFECTING DOCTORS, NURSES

      The serious, deadly phase of the COVID-19 pandemic has ended along with the frequency of acute cases. It’s been over…
      COVID-19
      September 3, 2025

      VACCINES PROTECT CHILDREN AND ADOLESCENTS

      COVID-19 and the vaccines developed to combat it did more to erode trust in old, well-established, standard vaccines than any…
      Cancer
      July 27, 2025

      COVID-19, VITAMIN D, CANCER, GLP-1’S, HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE

      MEDICAL NEWS BRIEFS #29 COVID-19 has a greater effect on kidneys than pneumonia: Natural aging causes a gradual decline in…
      COVID-19
      September 16, 2023

      CDC RECOMMENDS ALL AMERICANS 6 MONTHS AND OLDER RECEIVE AT LEAST ONE DOSE OF UPDATED COVID-19 VACCINE

      The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently approved “reformulated” COVID vaccines by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna. That prompted a CDC Advisory…
      COVID-19
      March 18, 2023

      MOST COVID-19 DEATHS WORLDWIDE WERE AMONG OLDER PEOPLE.

      The high mortality rate from COVID-19 among the elderly was a fact everyone knew, but a lot of people ignored.…
      Preventive Medicine
      January 18, 2023

      STROKE AND PFIZER VACCINE

      Have you heard the latest about the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 booster? There’s always something, you know! This time, there are serious…
      Healthcare Policy
      December 26, 2022

      LIFE EXPECTANCY LOWERED—AGAIN!

      The CDC just announced the life expectancy of Americans recently dropped to a 25-year low. People born in 2021 have…
      COVID-19
      May 27, 2022

      mRNA VACCINE EFFICACY

      Who really knows how effective mRNA vaccines are for COVID-19. All degrees of outrageous claims about them are made back…
      COVID-19
      February 4, 2022

      MONOCLONAL ANTIBODIES: What are they? What do they do?

      This is a difficult subject to write about. Difficult because to understand it, you must possess basic knowledge of the…
      COVID-19
      January 23, 2022

      “COVID-19 VACCINE BOOSTERS SAVE LIVES”

      Yes, they really do! And The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) is proud to report that fact. Two…
      COVID-19
      January 5, 2022

      COVID-19 VACCINE-MYOCARDITIS LINK INSIGNIFICANT

      Last summer, there was a lot of fuss about a link between mRNA vaccines for COVID-19 and the occurrence of…
      COVID-19
      October 11, 2021

      NATURAL IMMUNITY TO COVID-19: IS IT A REALITY?

      Why can’t today’s viruses play fair? Why can’t viruses like SARS-CoV-2 behave like the viruses of old—the varicella-zoster virus or…
      COVID-19
      September 28, 2021

      PFIZER COVID-19 VACCINE AND MYOCARDITIS

      In July, I wrote a blog about the incidence of myocarditis in young males after vaccination with Pfizer/BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine.…
      COVID-19
      September 17, 2021

      COVID-19 VACCINATION AND CIVIL LIBERTIES

      I’m having a bit of trouble with the current attitude of a lot of people. I’m referring to the 80…
      COVID-19
      August 15, 2021

      VACCINE HESITANCY: WHY PEOPLE REFUSE COVID-19 VACCINE

      I’m old enough to remember what life was like before vaccines. As a child I had measles, mumps, and chicken…
      COVID-19
      July 12, 2021

      MYOCARDITIS AFTER COVID-19 VACCINE

      Much ado has been made on cable news programs about the adverse effects attributed to COVID-19 vaccines. In particular, there…
      COVID-19
      March 6, 2021

      SIX COVID-19 VACCINES IN PHASE III TRIALS

      We’ve heard repeatedly about the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines for COVID-19. Those are the two vaccines in use locally; if…
      COVID-19
      March 5, 2021

      ALLERGIC REACTIONS TO PFIZER-BIONTECH VACCINE

      Today’s media seems to have difficulty reporting the good news that comes from developments in the COVID-19 pandemic. Such is…
      COVID-19
      January 12, 2021

      COVID-19 VACCINE: MY EXPERIENCE

      The Maricopa County (Arizona) Health Department began administering COVID-19 vaccine in late December. Maricopa County has the bulk of the…
      COVID-19
      December 5, 2020

      AT-HOME COVID-19 TESTING

      These days news travels fast so you may already know the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved the…
      COVID-19
      November 21, 2020

      PFIZER COVID-19 VACCINE 90% (95%) EFFECTIVE!

      By now you’ve surely heard the good news about the COVID-19 vaccine being developed by Pfizer Pharmaceutical Company in collaboration…
      COVID-19
      July 5, 2020

      HERD IMMUNITY? What’s That?

      Lately, there have been many references to the term HERD IMMUNITY. Public health officials use it in their communications about…

      CARDIOVASCULAR DISEASES

        Preventive Medicine
        August 5, 2022

        BREAKFAST HELPS US LIVE LONGER!

        It used to be said, breakfast is the “most important meal of the day.” “They” said eating a good breakfast…
        Heart Disease
        June 28, 2018

        Passing Out is Scary!

        Passing Out: By “passing out” I don’t mean leaving the theater, but instead I mean losing consciousness. The fancy name…
        Preventive Medicine
        September 21, 2022

        TOO MUCH HDL-CHOLESTEROL?

        For decades we’ve been told about the cardio-protective benefits of the “good cholesterol,” High Density Lipoprotein Cholesterol (HDL-C). We were…
        Drugs & Medications
        December 25, 2023

        ANTI-ARRHYTHMIC DRUGS AFTER ABLATION: DO THEY HELP?

        If you’re one of the ever-increasing number of folks who have undergone ablation for atrial fibrillation, you may be wondering,…
        Drugs & Medications
        November 3, 2025

        LYRICA INCREASES RISK OF HEART FAILURE

        This article pertains only to patients who take Lyrica (pregabalin) and are over age 65. If you don’t fall in…
        Heart Disease
        August 8, 2018

        CHOLESTEROL: What is it and how does it cause harm?

        Everyone has heard of cholesterol. Everyone has cholesterol. Everyone should worry about cholesterol. But what is it, why do we…
        Blood Diseases
        July 28, 2020

        BLOOD TRANSFUSIONS ARE MORE THAN JUST BLOOD!

        Donating blood is a good-hearted thing to do. In medical school, I did it 2 or 3 times a year,…
        Heart Disease
        September 17, 2020

        ATRIAL FIBRILLATION: Benefit of Early Rhythm Control

        In the past, the emphasis for treatment of Atrial Fibrillation focused on control of the heart rate. A rapid heart…
        Diabetes
        October 8, 2024

        MEDICAL NEWS BRIEFS #20

        Rates of Sudden Death After Heart Attack (Myocardial Infarction): After an acute heart attack (myocardial infarction), sudden death rates have…
        Aging
        January 20, 2020

        THE USE OF STATINS IN THE ELDERLY

        For some people, the use of statins continues to be a concern. Concern, not because they don’t do what they’re…
        Heart Disease
        October 19, 2020

        PREVENTION OF CARDIOVASCULAR DISEASE: Decades of Learning and Progress!

        For decades, Cardiovascular Disease (CVD), and heart disease, in particular, has been the number one killer of American adults. Heart…
        Preventive Medicine
        March 5, 2022

        IBUPROFEN vs. TYLENOL. EGGS GET GOOD PRESS!

        EGGS DON’T INCREASE CARDIOVASCULAR DISEASE Two recent anecdotes from American Family Physician, the scientific journal of The American Academy Of…
        Heart Disease
        September 21, 2023

        WOMEN WITH ATRIAL FIBRILLATION MORE LIKELY TO EXPERIENCE COGNITIVE IMPAIRMENT THAN MEN

        As I’ve reported before, it seems like atrial fibrillation exists in epidemic proportion. If you don’t know someone who has…
        Heart Disease
        August 8, 2021

        DRUG OPTIONS FOR TREATING CHOLESTEROL AND REDUCING CARDIOVASCULAR RISK

        A subject I’ve blogged about several times is cholesterol. The biochemistry of cholesterol, it’s clinical significance, and guidelines for treatment…
        Drugs & Medications
        December 8, 2024

        NEW APPROACH TO TREATING HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE

        For decades, the “step-wise care” approach to treating high blood pressure (HBP) was in vogue. This approach recommended starting with…
        Diabetes
        July 30, 2023

        MORE ABOUT SUGAR IN OUR DIET

        Recently, I reported information that certain amounts of sugar in our diet were tied directly to increased risk of a…
        Preventive Medicine
        April 24, 2021

        EXERCISING TO PREVENT HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE

        Ever since I can remember, moderate intensity Aerobic exercise has been recommended by the American Heart Association and the American…
        Preventive Medicine
        September 9, 2022

        DO STATINS CAUSE MUSCLE PAIN AND WEAKNESS?

        It’s statins again!  This time it has to do with muscle pain and weakness patients attribute to statin therapy. A…
        Preventive Medicine
        January 11, 2022

        ALCOHOL AND ATRIAL FIBRILLATION

        We hear conflicting messages about alcohol all the time. Some people praise it’s medicinal virtues while others continually point out…
        Heart Disease
        June 25, 2020

        SYSTOLIC BLOOD PRESSURE AND HEART DISEASE

        We’ve known for decades that high blood pressure and heart disease go hand in hand. The higher a patient’s blood…
        Heart Disease
        February 24, 2021

        HEART ATTACKS IN WOMEN: Are They Really Different?

        For many years, the mantra has been that heart attacks in women are different; they are harder to diagnose, the…
        Drugs & Medications
        August 2, 2025

        BLOOD PRESSURE TARGET LEVELS EASED

        If you have high blood pressure and you’re worried about the effect it is having on your kidneys, you may…
        Heart Disease
        July 5, 2023

        AN AD WORTH WATCHING!

        I never thought I would say this, but there’s an ad on TV I think everyone over age 50 should…
        Heart Disease
        July 28, 2023

        POSTMENOPAUSAL WOMEN BEWARE!

        After menopause, women have a lot of health problems to worry about. Besides hot flashes, night sweats, mood swings, and…
        Preventive Medicine
        April 30, 2022

        QUICK NOTES FROM DR G OPINES DrGOpines.com

        DrGOpines.com ONYCHOMYCOSIS: Do your grandkids tease you about your ugly toenails? Do you avoid going barefoot because you’re embarrassed by…

        DAY-IN-THE-LIFE SCENARIOS

          A Day in the Life Scenarios
          December 5, 2025

          EMPATHY: THE PATH TO BETTER OUTCOMES

          Sympathy is a word we can all define and use correctly in a sentence. It’s an expression of the feelings…
          A Day in the Life Scenarios
          December 3, 2025

          RURAL HEALTHCARE SUFFERING PHYSICIAN DRAIN

          We’ve all heard stories or read articles about small towns and rural communities who have such serious need for medical…
          A Day in the Life Scenarios
          April 7, 2025

          WHAT’S THE BIG DEAL ABOUT PHYSICIAN INCOME?

          In addition to physician happiness, the Medscape survey quoted previously also questioned participants about lifestyle. Within this category were inquiries…
          A Day in the Life Scenarios
          April 5, 2025

          PHYSICIAN LIFESTYLE AND HAPPINESS SURVEY

          For some reason, professional organizations are overly concerned about physicians’ lifestyles and whether they are a happy lot. Surveys on…
          A Day in the Life Scenarios
          December 10, 2024

          DOES YOUR DOCTOR TALK TO YOU?

          Does your doctor talk to you? Oh, sure he asks you why you came to see him and how long…
          A Day in the Life Scenarios
          September 2, 2024

          ANNUAL PHYSICIAN SURVEY

          In the current issue of Medical Economics magazine, the editors present their “95th” annual “Physicians Report.” Every year, they conduct…

          YOUR WELLNESS MATTERS

            August 8, 2025

            FASTING FOR BLOODWORK IS OUTDATED

            Here’s something that might brighten your day. “It really doesn’t matter if you’re stomach is empty” [when you have blood…
            July 5, 2024

            PRIORITIES IN GERIATRIC CARE

            In spite of statistics that show the average life expectancy of Americans has been declining over the past 5-10 years,…
            January 9, 2024

            WHITE TEETH

            Many people today have a significant focus on personal appearance. You might not think so from the way segments of…
            September 1, 2023

            MEDICAL NEWS BRIEFS NO. 5

            Cancer Among Younger Americans is Increasing    A study published on JAMA Network Open using data from the National Cancer…
            August 25, 2023

            WATER FLUORIDATION, CREST TOOTHPASTE

            There’s little or no disagreement with the statement that fluoridation of community drinking water supplies has been one of public…
            August 5, 2023

            MORE ABOUT SUGAR IN OUR DIET

            Recently, I reported information that certain amounts of sugar in our diet were tied directly to increased risk of a…
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