Health websites can be a source of valuable health information. Let's look deeper beyond the obvious:

- Should we believe and trust everything that we read on health websites?

- How do we know what we read is truly accurate? Are there a hidden agenda within an article?

- Could the article overly emphasize one aspect of health finding to promote its own product?

- How can we be a smart reader to get the most out of our health articles found on the Internet?

These are some thoughts that came across my mind after I had a patient (that I recently saw in my office) who showed me a printout of an article he had read from the Internet. He wanted me to change his medical regimen. This proves how vulnerable the public is because some people can truly believe everything they read.

Stress can affect our physical/mental health and enjoyment of life in profound ways. While many wish to reduce stress in their lives, people today are busier, move at a faster pace, and try to accomplish more professionally and personally than ever before. It became such a part of our culture that for some, unless they are overlooked- they feel they are underachieving. Over 75% of all doctor's office visits are for stress-related complains. If excessive, in a patient that may already have an underlying minor heart condition such as mild blockages in the heart vessels, it can lead to Sudden Cardiac Death.

Some of this increased pace is due to our new technological advances. The advent of smartphones, computers, Internet and email were supposed to make our lives easier and provide us with more leisure time. It has been the opposite. Rather than relaxing during the day or while driving the car, people are making calls, answering calls and returning calls. At work, we try to keep pace with lightening speeds of all our electronic "helpers."

How does stress affect our health? It mainly depends as to the personality type. People respond to stress in a different manner. There are those that let it out- and those that hold it in.

Dr. Allen is a multiple specialist physician born in the United States. His late parents were a urologist (father) and a registered nurse (mother). Dr. Allen grew up on a farm and shares a passion for animals. He was seriously thinking to become a veterinarian. Thus, he went to University of California and obtained a B.S. in zoology in 1982. Eventually, he switched his orientation and enrolled in medical school. He earned his medical degree in 1986 from Northwestern University-Feinberg School of Medicine, in Chicago. He subsequently did his general surgery and urology residency at the University of Iowa Hospital and Clinics in Iowa City, Iowa. He specialized in urologic oncology and was the awarded chief resident in 1991. Hence, he became a urologist who specialized in cancerous diseases of the urinary tract. He coordinated efforts with State Boards and Pennsylvania Health Departments in order to assure patient safety. As of 1986, he provided acute and chronic care in response to life-threatening medical emergencies, routine healthcare and patient education. He conveyed three successful practices. 

In 1998, an unfortunate accident occurred while Dr. Allen was operating on an elderly patient who had a large kidney tumor amongst other medical complications. During the removal of the patient’s kidney, Dr. Allen’s life dramatically changed in a split-second (after years of hard work) and he had a near-death experience. He got electrocuted by a cautery device used to seal off blood vessels. He suffered a traumatic brain injury (including memory loss, concussion, chronic lethargy…) and had to get the appropriate health professionals to help treat his condition. It was a very difficult road. As a patient, Dr. Allen was prescribed multiple medications (taking a total of 36 pills per day), which created side effects. He suffered many other injuries, including hand and arm nerve damage, heart damage, and post-traumatic stress disorder, to name a few. He also experienced petit mal seizures, his left arm muscles atrophied almost to the bone, etc. It took him years to recover. He needed to go through physiotherapy and psychology sessions among the many treatments.

Max, a computer analyst, comes to the office complaining of worsening shortness of breath, leg swelling, and fatigue. Maria, a housewife, ends up in the hospital with a massive heart attack that leaves her bed bound on intravenous medications to keep her alive. Sandra, a former nurse, ends up with an infection that ends up damaging her heart valve; she has rapid heartbeat and shortness of breath. All three of these patients have one common endpoint. They all ended up with a diagnosis of Heart Failure.

What leads to heart failure and Congestive Heart Failure? Different causes can lead to heart failure. It might be valve disease, muscle weakness caused by a virus. Occasionally it is drug-induced. Sometimes it comes after a heart attack. This leads to shortness of breath with walking or lying down. There might be swelling in the legs. One might feel rapid heartbeat, as it has to compensate for being weak. At times, one may simply feel fatigued.

Max ends up getting a heart transplant, Maria ends up receiving a semi artificial heart or a Ventricular Assist Device called Heartmate2, and Sandra ends up with a new valve. All three have extended their lives and are able to continue to enjoy their lives with their families.

Dr. Suneel Dhand, M.D. is board certified in Internal Medicine. He was born in London and grew up in Windsor, England. His parents emigrated from Punjab, India in the 1960s. He studied medicine at Cardiff University, and then came to the United States to pursue residency training. Hence, he completed his internal medicine residency in Maryland, and now works in Massachusetts.

Dr. Dhand developed an interest in preventive medicine, health and well-being, which inspired him to write about the topic. High Percentage Wellness Steps: Natural, Proven, Everyday Steps to Improve Your Health & Well-being was his first book, with profits going to a number of health-related causes, involving humanitarian relief, medical research, and other special projects for those suffering from terrible illnesses. Some of these include the Red Cross, Make a Wish Foundation, and organizations devoted to cancer, cardiovascular, and neurological research.

Dr. Dhand’s first book covers many subjects including the importance of eating a healthy diet, to other diverse health-related aspects of life . For instance, he exposes the consequences (including the economic impact) of lack of sleep, stress, etc. He also wrote about the pros of daily regular sit-down meals with the family daily. In addition, the book gives great advice to encourage people who are not really into physical activities. About mental health, according to his observations, Dr. Dhand thinks that Western culture deals with stress in a more solitary and individual way, strongly relying on medications like anti-depressants. In the East, there is more focus on family support systems to help anyone work their way through difficult times in life. Reading Dr. Dhand’s first book was like attending a lecture by a physician, it was very informative. It was also interesting to discover the views of a physician who had an Eastern background and a holistic approach which was embraced in the past by thinkers such as Socrates. In fact, the World Health Organization defines health as “a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being”, and not merely as the absence of disease or infirmity.

According to the American Heart Association, every minute in the U.S., someone's wife, mother, daughter or sister dies from heart disease, stroke or another type of cardiovascular disease (CVD). More than one in three women is living with CVD, including nearly half of all African-American women and 34 percent of white females. Albeit heart disease death rates among males have decreased steadily over the last 25 years, rates among women have fallen at a slower rate.
There are circumstances linked to heart problems that are unique to women. A recent study (conducted last year by The European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC)) showed that the risk of a heart attack for a woman who’s had at least one stillbirth was 3.5 times higher than for women who’d had none. Those who have experienced more than three spontaneous miscarriages had a fivefold increase in their likelihood of having a heart attack.

Furthermore, like men, women are not immune to stress impacting their heart health. A recent 10-year Harvard study (http://www.health.harvard.edu) found that women with high-stress jobs had a 40 percent higher risk of having some kind of heart disease, along with an 88 percent higher likelihood of experiencing a heart attack.

An estimated 300,000 deaths per year are attributed to Obesity. The risk of death rises with increasing weight. Individuals that are obese defined as Body Mass Index more than 30, have a 50-100% increased risk of premature death from all causes, compared to individuals with a healthy weight. The prevalence of Obesity is 35% in United States.

Let us examine the negative effects of obesity on our health:

Heart Disease

. Obesity can raise the incidence heart disease including heart failure, angina, and cardiac death
. High blood pressure is twice as common in obese individuals than in those who maintain a healthy weight
. It can lead to abnormal cholesterol levels which can cause arterial blockages

Diabetes

. An average weight gain of 15 pounds can increase a person’s risk of developing type 2 Diabetes to twice that of individuals without the gain.
. over 80 percent of patients with diabetes are obese

Heart disease is the number one cause of mortality in United States for both men and women. According to the American Heart Association, at least 60,800,000 people in this country suffer from some form of heart disease.

Heart disease still ranks higher in mortality even If one combines all cancer death together.  When is the best time to prevent and treat heart disease?  Fifty percent of time, the first sign of a heart attack is sudden cardiac death. The best time to treat would be before we even develop fat build up in our arteries. Parents have to be educated so that they can help prevent heart disease in their children and to start doing so at a very young age. Autopsies that were done on Korean War veterans with an average age of 21 has shown significant fat build up within their arteries even at this age.

Researchers from Centers for Disease Control (CDC) looked at the data from National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) over the past decade. The emphasis was to assess how many adolescents were at risk for future heart disease. They assessed at the main risk factors such as high blood pressure, High LDL cholesterol, and diabetes. Some of these findings were disturbing: one in four adolescents has diabetes up by 10 percent from the prior decade. 25% have more than two risk factors for heart disease, 20% have high blood pressure, and 33% were overweight and obese of which Mexican American boys and girls and African American girls are disproportionately affected.  Over the past three decades, the prevalence of obesity in children 6 to 11 years of age has increased from 4% to more than 20%. Obesity which is defined a BMI (Body Mass Index) of more than 30, has shown to increase the incidence of diabetes, cardiovascular disease, asthma, cancer, degenerative joint disease and many others.

There is emerging awareness and concern today, as more women now die from coronary disease in this country each year than do men. In fact, when women show up with their first heart attack, 52 percent of them die from sudden cardiac death –- men, 42 percent. This is true even if women don’t have significant blockages in their vessels.

Some of the explanation behind this is that the disease has actually progressed further without a woman necessarily being aware of it. This is partly because women don’t seek out cardiology doctors as much as men do. Plus, when many doctors see female patients, even they don’t treat them as aggressively as they do men. They underutilize the American Heart Association guidelines for treating women, which at the moment are identical for both sexes.

Women’s predisposition toward heart disease is not only a new perception for many doctors, it also contradicts the expectations of most women, who are generally more concerned about cancer than heart disease. This is despite statistics that show for women, one out of every 2.6 deaths in the U.S. is due to heart disease, while one out of every 4.6 females that dies is because of cancer.

Walking in the black vacuum, looking at the blue-white planet Earth more than two hundred miles below, would be a reverie for many children around the world. This dream became a reality for Dr. Bernard A. Harris Jr. on February 9, 1995 during Black History Month, when he glided out the gate of the space shuttle Discovery. This wonderful accomplishment made him the first African-American to walk in space. Actually, he flew on the space shuttle twice in the nineties. Dr. Harris’ story is the epiphany of the American dream, an amazing upward socio-economical mobility.

Dr. Bernard Anthony Harris, Jr. M.D., M.B.A., F.A.C.P was born on June 26, 1956 in Temple, Texas. He grew up on the Navajo Nation during his formative years. Dr. Harris left the reserve later with his family and graduated from Sam Houston High School in San Antonio, Texas, in 1974, where he was actively involved in science fairs, book clubs and other academic activities. He obtained a B.S. degree in biology from University of Houston in 1978, and got his Doctorate of medicine (MD) degree from Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center School of Medicine in 1982. Dr. Harris did his residency in internal medicine at the Mayo Clinic in 1985. He later received a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from the University of Houston Clear Lake. The physician did a National Research Council Fellowship in Endocrinology at NASA's Ames Research Center in 1987.

Dr. Manshadi MD, FACC, FSCAI, FAHA, FACP is among the top American cardiologists. The physician is an Interventional Cardiologist who treats patients from prevention to intervention. He is a CMA (California Medical Association) member since 2001. He is a Board-Certified physician with the American Board of Interventional Cardiology, American Board of Cardiology. He combines private practice with Academic Medicine. Presently, he serves as Associate Clinical Professor at UC Davis Medical Center and as Clinical Professor at University of the Pacific among other positions. In addition, he is the Chair of Media Relations for American College of Cardiology, California Chapter. The multi-faceted physician is licensed and certified in nuclear medicine, a subspecialty of radiology. In this regard, he is a member of the American Board of Nuclear Cardiology. It is noteworthy to mention that in his practice, he likes to use innovative tests. If you want to know more about Dr. Manshadi, you can click here: Dr. Ramin Manshadi-Cardiologist. Dr. Manshadi is our health columnist and will be available to answer your questions. You can e-mail him at [email protected].

His official website: www.DrManshadi.com

        Clinton congratulating Dr.  Alvy for an Award for Enhancing the Status of Parents, National Parents' Day, Oval Office, 1995

Dr. Kerby T. Alvy Ph.D has decades of experience in clinical child psychology.  His approach focuses on preventing child abuse, drug abuse, juvenile delinquency and other problems--often intertwined--in which parent-child relationships are deemed a crucial factor.  It is important to note that 2 million kids were abused and neglected in the U.S. in 2008 (1).  Thus, Dr.  Alvy, an advocate of the welfare of children, is the executive director of the Center for the Improvement of Child Caring (CICC), based in North Hollywood, California.  The Center provides help to more than 20, 000 parents a year.  Dr. Alvy lends his expertise on child rearing on a regular basis to government and civic bodies.  He also appears on television and radio programs on child, family and parent training issues. In addition, he serves as a consultant to governmental agencies, corporations, news departments, film and television companies on these matters. He is a frequent keynote speaker and workshop leader at events nationwide.

Over the years, Dr.  Alvy has created, delivered and disseminated model parent training programs. All of the activities and projects of the CICC are designed to bring coherence and strength to the nationwide Effective Parenting Movement in order to improve the overall quality of parenting in the United States.  He and his organization work primarily with African-American and Latino children.

Dr. Alvy has been a Principal Investigator on research projects sponsored by the National Institute of Mental Health, the National Institute on Drug Abuse, and the U.S. Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.  He designed and advocated a federal government-led effective parenting initiative which he presented at a White House Briefing in December 2006.

Dr. Alvy has founded and directed several community service projects to increase parental effectiveness and reduce child abuse, drug abuse, juvenile delinquency, school failure and gang involvement. His projects have gained the support of various state and local funding agencies, and the support of over 75 private foundations and corporations, including the Ford Foundation, AT&T, Xerox, Annenberg, Mattel and Hearst.

Dr. Alvin Francis Poussaint MD was born in East Harlem (NY) in a family of eight children.  His ancestors were from Guadeloupe and New York City.  His parents were Harriet Johnston Poussaint, a homemaker, and Christopher Poussaint, who worked as a printer and typographer. Dr. Poussaint is a renowned authority, an eminent dedicated psychiatrist and teacher, part of the American intelligentsia.  He is also a prolific author. In addition to co-authoring Come On People, Dr. Poussaint is co-author of Raising Black Children and Lay My Burden Down: Unraveling the Mental Health Crisis Among African Americans. He closely collaborated with Dr. Bill Cosby Ed.D on several of his best-selling books.  Dr. Poussaint’s books should be translated into other languages (French, Spanish, Creole, etc).

He is a man of courage, philanthropy and a veteran of the civil rights movement.  From 1965 to 1967, he was Southern Field Director of the Medical Committee for Human Rights in Jackson, Mississippi, selflessly providing medical care to civil rights workers and aiding in the desegregation of health facilities throughout the South.  He is the former chair of the board of directors of PUSH  for Excellence.  He also served as one of Rev. Jesse Jackson's advisers in the 1984 presidential campaign.

Dr. Jennifer Caudle is the woman that you want your daughter to become.  The word "impressive" doesn't do justice to what you see when you study the life of Dr. Jennifer Caudle. As if being a physician isn't already a powerful achievement, Dr. Caudle is also a highly-accomplished cellist (she performs with orchestras in cities around the U.S) and also Miss Iowa 1999-2000. After speaking with Dr. Caudle [a cum laude graduate of Princeton University] at length, I got the sense that she values the idea of having a life worth living, and is determined to also give back to her community in the process.   She has pursued excellence for her entire life and brings much-needed expertise to the African American community, particularly on matters of health and education.  The child of two teachers (one being a high school principal), Dr. Caudle reflects the discipline and educational excellence that represents the very best of what the black community has to offer.  The physician is not a one-trick human being, and she also shows us that we can do anything we put our minds to.  [This interview was conducted in February 2011]. 

 [This interview is the 2011 version which was posted previously on our webmag]

Dr.  Turner MD is a general surgeon and assistant professor of surgery at the University of Maryland School of Medicine.  She is an associate program director for the General Surgery Residency Program at the University of Maryland Medical Centre. She serves as chair of the Surgical Caucus of the American Medical Association (AMA) Young Physicians Section and is a member of the Editorial Board of Surgical News. Her academic interests include teaching and training paradigms for medical students and residents in open and laparoscopic surgery.

Dr.  Turner received her medical degree at Bowman Gray School of Medicine, Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina and completed her surgical residency at Howard University Hospital.  Throughout her residency, she was a senior staff fellow at the National Institutes of Health, National Heart, Lung & Blood Institute, Laboratory of Kidney and Electrolyte Metabolism.  Dr.  Turner’s fellowship training was in minimally invasive and laparoscopic surgery at Mount Sinai Medical Center & Weill-Cornell University School of Medicine in New York.

Dr. Turner's clinical practice focuses on minimallyinvasive/laparoscopic, gastrointestinal and endocrine surgery. She has a diverse research background, including studying nitric oxide and the kidneys. In organized medicine, Dr. Turner has held the position of resident on the general surgery RRC and was the resident member on the AMA Council on Scientific Affairs.  Given her considerable experience in her field, we asked Dr. Turner what was her best operation and why. “This is a tough question to answer.  I guess, I would say that every operation has a different scenario which is exciting.  It happens that I have to deal with trauma patients, life and death situations.

I enjoy using new techniques (such as laparoscopy when we first tried it) which have not been employed before.  I like that kind of challenge and opportunity.  There are specific patients which resonate with you”.