Like most healthcare workers, I was thrilled when I was eligible to receive the COVID-19 vaccine. I’ve been involved in COVID-19 patient care since the very start of the pandemic in the US, and I had seen what this virus can do to people. We all felt incredibly helpless against this incredibly contagious bug.

With time, experience, and study, we’ve learned which treatments help and which don’t. Even more importantly, we now have vaccines.

The Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna mRNA vaccines — tested in about 18,600 and 15,000 participants, respectively — were the first available in the US via emergency FDA authorization. They remain the most effective. Trials showed about 95% efficacy in preventing symptomatic COVID-19 infection after two doses.

More importantly, no one — not one participant — who caught COVID-19 after receiving either of these vaccines died, or even got sick enough to be hospitalized. And the numbers of … Read the rest

Acne affects millions of Americans each year and impacts people of all skin tones, yet acne can pose special challenges in people with darker skin. In darker skin, one pimple or breakout can cause dark marks, scars, or even keloids (scar tissue that continues to grow larger than the original scar) that last for months to years afterward. Those affected are left searching for the secrets to treatment — or better yet, prevention. In this post we discuss how acne and similar or related conditions may be treated, and sometimes prevented, in people with darker skin.

Acne triggers release of melanin

Melanin, the same molecule that pigments our skin and hair and protects us from the damaging ultraviolet rays of the sun, can also protect our skin from inflammation. When the skin gets inflamed from acne (or from harsh acne products), our skin releases melanin. This can result in … Read the rest

Headaches come in lots of varieties, and some are easily recognizable. A migraine classically causes throbbing, pounding pain that lasts for hours — sometimes even days — on one side of the head. A tension headache usually feels like a tight band squeezing around your noggin. And a sinus headache shows up as pressure on one side of the face, behind the nose, or above one eye when you have a sinus infection.

Some headaches, however, aren’t as well-known.

What’s happening to me?

When less familiar headache pain strikes, the symptoms or patterns may be puzzling, or even frightening.

For example, a thunderclap headache (also called “the worst headache of your life”) causes sudden, intense, debilitating pain that can last for an hour or a week.

Here are five other unusual headaches.

1. Orgasmic headache. Some people experience the sudden onset of a severe head pain similar to that of a

… Read the rest

It’s safe to say that 2020 gave us more than enough to cry about. Yet even prior to last year, it seems that we were crying fairly often. Researchers note that, on average, American women cry 3.5 times each month, while American men cry about 1.9 times each month. These figures may take some of us by surprise, especially as our society has often looked at crying — particularly by men — as a sign of weakness and lack of emotional stamina.

Health benefits of crying

As a phenomenon that is unique to humans, crying is a natural response to a range of emotions, from deep sadness and grief to extreme happiness and joy. But is crying good for your health? The answer appears to be yes. Medical benefits of crying have been known as far back as the Classical era. Thinkers and physicians of ancient Greece and Rome posited … Read the rest

In times like these, it can feel wrong to feel happy. There is so much suffering in the world that appreciating the goodness that still exists can seem unempathic, if not altogether futile. A landmark study on happiness often mentioned at dinner parties and social gatherings (when we had those things) considered how people react to intense, sudden changes to their circumstances. The researchers found that people who had recently won the lottery were no happier after some time had passed than people who had experienced severe trauma that paralyzed their lower bodies. It’s a testament to stubbornness as our common lot in life — and the resilience we also share.

The lottery winners seemed to lose their ability to find joy in mundane aspects of their lives, while the survivors of trauma had a different experience entirely: they focused more on idealized memories of their past, perhaps at the … Read the rest

As COVID-19 vaccines roll out across the US, many grandparents — including one co-author of this blog post — are thrilled to hold out their arms for a jab. In some parts of the country, these vaccinations began as early as mid-January. By mid-February, legions of energized and relieved seniors were trading selfie shots of their newly vaccinated arms.

Grandparents, like other seniors, wanted the vaccine to keep themselves safe. However, there was another compelling reason: the desire to hug grandchildren. Ellen Glazer, LICSW, asked fellow grandparents in different states — some of whom live minutes away from grandchildren and some who are separated by continents — what they look forward to once fully vaccinated.

Below, Amy Sherman, MD, an infectious disease specialist and instructor in medicine at Harvard Medical School, weighs in on a number of hopes and questions — some very specific, and some that can help everyone. … Read the rest