NY Times featured a story of a full-pledged doctor, Dr. Arnold Kim, who traded medicine to become a full-time blogger.
It had been a hobby — albeit a time-consuming one — while Dr. Kim earned his medical degree. He kept at it as he completed his medical training and began diagnosing patients’ kidney problems. Dr. Kim’s Web site now attracts more than 4.4 million people and 40 million page views a month, according to Quantcast, making it one of the most popular technology Web sites.
It is enough to make Dr. Kim hang up his stethoscope. This month he stopped practicing medicine and started blogging full time.
The story scares me because I have certain ideation sometimes (that is giving up medicine for blogging). I could pretty much relate to his story. In my case, I have been having a struggle in adjusting my time on my hospital duties and blogging since I know how lucrative blogging is. I actually have thought of quitting medicine and do full-time blogging instead. I was thinking that I could earn more if I have all the time to make posts regularly and create blogs to add up to my online earnings. Thank God, however, that I was still sane enough not to give up medicine for blogging. I still think that pursuing medicine will lead me to a much brighter and fulfilling career.
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Personal Blogging, Career, Life, Medicine, Personal
Stem cells have been considered as promising breakthrough as cancer treatments. Potential sources such as skin cells, bone marrow cells, etc., have been widely researched. It seems that there is addition to these sources as researchers from a biotechnology firm in Arizona discovered the endometrial regenerative cells.
Ethical issues have been raised regarding this new form of medical treatment.
Stem cells come from two main sources: embryos or adult tissues. Embryonic stem cells can give rise to virtually any cell type in the body, but they are controversial because conventional procedures for obtaining them involve the destruction of an embryo. Adult stem cells, such as those found in bone marrow, do not pose the same ethical concerns, but they have limited powers and collecting them can require invasive procedures.
While the new technique of reverting skin cells to an embryonic stem cell-like state promises to overcome the ethical dilemmas, this approach could come with safety concerns that make the cells too risky for use in humans. The technique for converting the skin cells involves using viruses to insert several genes, one of which is known to cause cancer.
Menstrual stem cells could turn out to be a happy medium between embryonic and adult stem cells, providing an ethically acceptable alternative that is readily accessible and appears to give rise to most of the major tissue types in the body.MSNBC
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Health, Medicine, Research, Technology Health, Medicine, New Treatments, Research, Technology
The American Institute for Cancer Research has released these eight guidelines for avoiding cancer. The last six are eating related:
- Be as lean as possible within the normal range of body weight
- Be physically active as part of everyday life
- Limit consumption of “energy-dense foods,” foods that are high in calories, fat and sugar. Avoid sugary drinks.
- Eat mostly foods of plant origin, including fruits, vegetables, whole grains and beans
- Limit intake of red meat and avoid processed meat
- Limit alcoholic drinks to one per day for women, two per day for men
- Limit consumption of salt. Avoid moldy grains or legumes
- Aim to meet nutritional needs through diet alone, without dietary supplement.
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Health, Medicine, Tips Cancer, Fitness, Health, Health Tips, Healthy Lifestyle, Medicine, Tips
Philadelphia doctors say “yes!”
A new interesting treatment is being tested by Philadelphia doctors to restore life and bring people back from the dead.
A cardiac arrest patient was saved by the new experimental treatment of chilled saline injection. Cooling pads are then wrapped around a patient. The body temperature is normally 98 degrees, but cooling brings it down to 92 degrees. Doctors keep it there for about 24 hours. This process is called intentional hypothermia. Accordingly, it decreases cellular injury when the cells are deprived of oxygen, so with less injury we are able to do a better job of getting people back.
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Health, Life, Medicine, Research Health, Health Tips, Life, Medicine, Research
The August 2007 Philippine Licensure Exam for Physicians is fast approaching. How do you prepare for it? Here are few tips you can follow:
1. Follow these tips from The House Officer’s Survival Guide: Rules, Laws, Lists and Other Medical Musings, by Lawrence Martin, M.D for It is written for doctors in training, but will also be of interest to medical students, and practicing physicians who must take recertifying exams.
2. Get good reviewers and focus on one study material per subject area. This way, you can concentrate more and it won’t take more of your time. Of course you will still need the “big” text books for clarification of some points you can’t understand while taking the review.
3. To attend to review center or not? Some successful passers do not advocate attending review center while others do. It would depend on the person’s preference.
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Education, Health, Medicine, Tips Board-Exam, Education, Health, How-To, howto, Legal-Medicine, Medical-Books, Medicine, Philippines, Study-Tips, Tips
Personal digital assistants (PDAs) or handheld computers, commonly known as palmtop computers, has evolved from simple organizers to being an e-book library plus several other uses. PDAs provided convenience to read and study your books anywhere. Recently released mobile phones also offer the convenience of storing e-books.
Where to find free e-books?
1. Memoware provides free ebook titles for your PDA. Memoware is a unique collection of thousands of documents (databases, literature, maps, technical references, lists, etc.) specially formatted to be easily added to your PalmOS device, Pocket PC, Windows CE, EPOC, Symbian or other handheld device. The documents available come in a variety of formats and cover a wide range of topics - from fiction to nonfictional.
Files are available in different file formats. Premium e-books titles are also available.
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Literature, Medicine, Tips Free-E-books, Free-Stuff, Literature, Medicine, Tips
NY Times featured a story of a full-pledged doctor, Dr. Arnold Kim, who traded medicine to become a full-time blogger.
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