Treating Barrett’s esophagus: Feel the burn!

Tom wrote this …
Almost everyone knows what it feels like to have heartburn and acid reflux.  Fortunately, it’s just an occasional thing for most of us.
But for some people this can be a frequent, even daily, occurrence. Medication solves the problem for some, but a small number go on to develop a condition called Barrett’s [...]

Can you hear me now?

Stephanie wrote this…
Boy, was it easy for me to roll over this morning and hit the snooze button on the alarm.  However, not all of us have that luxury.
Each morning, for years, Stephanie Sjoblad’s two boys, from an early age, would run into her bedroom, grab her  hearing aids off the nightstand, and hand them [...]

Eat for one, avoid pregnancy complications

There is more medical evidence that “eating for two” is a wicked fallacy.
Alison Stuebe, M.D., in obstetrics and gynecology, found in a review study that women were more likely to gain too much weight during pregnancy if they consumed extra calories, fried foods and dairy products.
And? So? Yeah? Isn’t this … obvious?
Sure it is. So [...]

A big day for Patrick

Tom wrote this …
Today a young man from Uganda named Patrick Kahuma walked out of North Carolina Children’s Hospital with more vim and vigor than he’s ever felt before.

Patrick was born with two heart problems  — an extremely narrow pulmonary valve and a hole in the heart that never closed — [...]

UNC’s Cynthia Bulik to be on Dr. Phil show today

Tom wrote this …
This will be short and sweet, really more of a tweet.
In fact, it is a tweet. Or at least it started out in life as one.
Yesterday I posted this tweet on UNC Health Care’s Twitter site. Today, with slight modification, I present it here for your information, edification and reading pleasure:
UNC’s Dr. [...]

First in U.S. procedure being performed at UNC today

Tom wrote this …
First thing this morning, perhaps even as I type, UNC’s Dr. Mark Farber is performing the first in the U.S. placement of a medical device called the Zenith Low Profile Endovascular Graft.
This device, made by Cook Medical, is used to treat abdominal aortic aneurysms.  Cook received conditional approval from the FDA in [...]

Unintended consequences: eating disorder messages might trigger the disorder

Clinton wrote this …
The NY Times Well Blog, written by Tara Parker-Pope, posed an intriguing question today: do books intended to educate people about the dangers of eating disorders, specifically anorexia, motivate people to be anorexic?
The troubling truth is that there are people for whom a preventive message triggers the very behavior the information is [...]

Mother’s helper: UNC inpatient unit cares for mothers with postpartum depression, a first in the US

Ten-month-old Max is a round and healthy and happy baby boy, clearly devoted to his mother, Clarke … and to Cheerios.
And Clarke is clearly devoted to her son, but the first few months of pregnancy were not as smooth as she hoped for. When Max was 3 months old Clarke began losing sleep and feeling [...]

New UNC study refines link between autism and brain size

Tom wrote this …
Autism researchers at UNC and elsewhere have known for years now that young children with autism tend to have slightly larger brains than children without autism. They call this phenomenon “brain overgrowth,” and think it’s something that starts happening after birth, during the first year of life.
Now this week a new UNC [...]