Often a small daily dose of practicing gratitude will make such a difference. When you start feeling down or thinking you’re having a terrible week or month, see if you can, even if for a few minutes, look at the glass as being half full instead of half empty. Start feeling thankful for things you have right now. A best friend or a supportive family? Food to put on the table? Loved ones, little ones or furry ones around to give you a hug when needed or pat you in the back or to chat with you when you need to talk? (Or lick your face or brush by your legs, depending on your pet) How about that ..read more

Cardiovascular and other circulatory disorders include coronary artery disease, disease of the veins (i.e. peripheral vein disease) and arteries outside of heart, heart rhythm disorders, valvular heart disease, heart failure, and congenital heart disease. Among diseases of arteries outside the heart is stroke, where basically there’s a blockage in the blood supplying a part of the brain or when blood vessel in the brain bursts. Then there are other conditions that often go hand to hand with heart disease, such as diabetes and chronic kidney disease. What are the key risk factor for heart disea ..read more

The Alpha variant was first detected in the United Kingdom and we first saw it in US in December 2020. It spread considerably faster than the original virus. The Beta variant, first detected in South Africa also at the end of the year and it was detected in the US towards end of January 2021. The gamma variant was first seen in the US from travelers from Brazil in January 2021. The Delta variant, which was first detected in India, has already become the most dominant variant of the virus in United States. The new delta variant is a lot more contagious. It spreads more than 200x faster than the ..read more

Men are more likely to die earlier than women. On average, men live about 5 years less than women in the US, i.e. 76 years vs. 81 years (CDC), and this trend is global. There could be many reasons for such a disparity. For example, although it may seem that women are more likely to get diagnosed with stress-related disorders, this very well could be due to men being less likely to seek care to get timely diagnoses and treatment. Men also more frequently engage in substance abuse, avoid regular health checkups. Some of it could possibly be the result of the stereotype of a male: “be a man, toug ..read more

Physical activity doesn’t necessarily mean running, jogging, or doing crossfit. It can simply be a brisk walk. Regular physical activity It strengthen your muscles and bones gives your heart exercise releases feel good hormones to your body Regular physical activity helps decrease risk of: Cardiovascular disease Blood pressure Diabetes (type 2) Stroke Cancer Dementia and Alzheimer’s Weight gain, Obesity Anxiety and Depression And overall mortality risk All the while improving balance and cognition and providing a better quality of life and sense of well being! Walking a brisk pace of 2.5 m ..read more

This is very true. I recall that as I was interviewing for a fee for service primary care job, I very vividly recall the hospital administration giving me the tour saying I’d need to see about 30 patients a day to break even for them. I was very very fortunate in that in the following weeks I discovered the existence of direct primary care (DPC) and saved myself before being sucked into this corporation of medicine that manipulates PCPs into being hamsters running their wheels to churn out patients in and out. What do you do when you get 7 minutes with a patient? Do you get to educate on healt ..read more

Why the picture above? That’s the dinner I was lucky to have with my family on New Year’s Eve. Every dish on there is very healthy. If a few may not appear as healthy, extra yet easy steps were taken in the making (by the very talented cook, not myself) to ensure healthier ingredients were used, such as use of plant based mayo vs regular mayo. Eating healthier isn’t more difficult. I honestly think having a condition arise due to unhealthy eating is more difficult to experience as opposed to making healthier choices while shopping for groceries, preparing meals or ordering when eating out. Eat ..read more

Q. Tell us about Birmingham Direct Primary Care and how it’s different than other primary care clinics? Birmingham Direct Primary Care (Birmingham DPC) is a family medicine clinic providing comprehensive medical care to patients of all ages, ranging from newborns to the elderly. What makes our clinic unique is that we use a membership-based model that allows me to provide direct and individualized care for my patients as opposed to the complicated, insurance-dictated practice operations that limit patients’ time and access to their primary care doctors. Our patients get unlimited, no-rush clin ..read more

Q. How does your clinic help small businesses? If an employer is currently not offering any kind of health benefit for his or her employees, just for starters this would be a very affordable way to give access to primary care by enrolling their employees in our clinic. Then acquiring a level-funded insurance plan built around the dpc clinic or a health-cost sharing community plan will help protect against the more costly, unforeseen or catastrophic medical expenses. Q. You mentioned savings. If a small business is already offering health insurance to their employees, is this not an extra cost ..read more