Remembering Old Friends: Cars I have known and loved
The first car I bought and paid for on my own, after the divorce, was a 1992 maroon Toyota Corolla. I loved that car, and so did my children! The story of the Corolla is the story of my family.
Carol A Westbrook
Carol Westbrook MD, PhD is a Medical Oncologist with over 20 years of faculty experience and research at the University of Chicago, University of Illinois, and Boston University. She is a licensed medical oncologist, formerly at Geisinger Health Systems in Wilkes-Barre, PA. She has served on numerous federal advisory panels for cancer and genomics, and has authored over 100 scholarly articles, and three books , including Ask an Oncologist: Honest Answers to Difficult Questions about Cancer; To Your Health! The Beer Doctor on Good Beer, Good Times, and the Finer Things in Life; and Miss Victory, 1942. Now retired from clinical practice, she consults on medical-legal affairs, and is an author of the blog, Ask-an-Oncologist.com. Her email: dr.carol@ask-an-oncologist; twitter @Carolwestbrook1.
Do I Look Fat in These Genes?
Are you pleasantly plump? Rubinesque? Chubby? Weight-challenged? Or, to state it bluntly, just plain fat? …If you are among the 55% of Americans who are overweight, take heart. You now have an excuse: blame it on your genes. It seems obvious that obesity runs in families; fat people have fat children, who produce fat grandchildren… but there is more to it than merely being overfed by fat, over-eating parents… fat families may be that way because they have genes in common.
Bookworm
by Carol A. Westbrook I gave a signed copy of my new book about beer, “To Your Health!” to a couple of favorite bartenders and a bar owner, all of whom had been featured in a story or two in this book about beer. A few weeks later I asked each one how he enjoyed…
How to say “No” to your doctor: improving your health by decreasing your health care
by Carol A. Westbrook Has your doctor ever said to you, “You have too many doctors and are taking too many pills. It's time to cut back on both”? No? Well I have. Maybe it's time you brought it up with your doctors, too. Do you really need a dozen pills a day to keep…
Taking Standardized Tests in Middle Age: Examining the Doctor
by Carol A. Westbrook The single most important skill you need to practice medicine is the ability to pass multiple-choice exams. Most people saw their last standardized test when college or grad school ended. No so for us doctors– exam taking continues until retirement. The process begins with the high SAT score required for entry…
My Genome Report Card
Less than 100,000 people in the entire world have had their genome sequenced. I am now one of them. This is my genome report. Was it valuable? Absolutely. The value to me was not in learning what I have, but what I don’t have.
Does Beer Cause Cancer?
Is moderate beer drinking good for your health, as I have always maintained, or does it cause cancer? .. assuming that my readers are not alcoholics, the question that they are really asking is whether or not they are going to get cancer from low to moderate beer drinking. So what, then, are the facts? …Is beer drinking good for you? Or bad? Are you healthier if you drink, say, a beer or two per day, or are you worse off? We review some of the facts and myths about alcohol and your health.
My New Year’s Resolution: Getting to Know my Genome Sequence
In November I placed a package containing a small sample of my blood into a UPS drop box. It is a fait accompli. I’m going to get my Genome Sequenced! No doubt you are wondering why I wanted to do this. The short answer — because I can. Why did I do this and what do I hope to learn? Read on.
Homo Erectus, or I Married a Ham
by Carol A. Westbrook My husband loves big erections. Don't get me wrong, I'm not speaking here about Viagra, I'm talking about tall towers made of metal, long wires strung high in the sky, and tall antennas protruding from car roofs. He loves anything that broadcasts or receives those elusive radio waves, the bigger the…
Third World Medicine in a First World Town
by Carol A. Westbrook On Wednesday evenings, I volunteer at a free clinic. For a few hours I become a primary care doc in an urban setting, instead of a high-priced oncologist in a modern medical center. Our clinic, The Care and Concern Clinic, in Pittston, PA, opens weekly at 5:30 pm, and closes when…
On Being A Beer Snob
by Carol A Westbrook The late Kingsley Amis, a noted authority on drink and a beer-lover himself, acknowledged that “the best wine is much better than the best beer,” but also pointed out that “wine is a lot of trouble, requiring energy and forethought.” He might be pleased today to find that beer, which requires…
The Bystander Effect in Medical Care. Why Do I Have So Many Doctors Not Taking Care of Me?
by Carol A Westbrook In a recent editorial in the New England Journal of Medicine1, Drs. Stavert and Lott used the tem, “The Bystander Effect,” to describe a new health care phenomenon, in which multiple physicians participate in the care of a patient, while none acknowledges primary responsibility for managing it. In their example, a…
How Energy Independence Will Solve the Obesity Epidemic
by Carol A Westbrook Obesity has become an epidemic. Over 55% American adults are overweight. We have always regarded this as a self-imposed condition, blaming gluttony, lack of discipline, or a sedentary lifestyle. But as a number of recent books have pointed out, it is not how we eat, but what we eat that causes…
Cancer Research Today
by Carol Westbrook The Golden Age of cancer research is here. The Human Genome program provided rapid sequencing tools and large databases to be mined, computers are larger and faster than ever, advances in equipment and robotics make high-throughput experiments possible, the info web permits quick literature searches…. and so on. Cancer patients are out…