Stayin’ Alive is more than just a song title. It’s what we all want to do, and with the best quality of life possible. There is no particular victory in a long life that is spent in the hospital or hooked up to machines that make it possible to do nothing more than stare at four walls.
This week marks the anniversary of one of the better reminders about how to live long and prosper: the Great American Smokeout (GASO), observed on the third Thursday of November. Yes, it’s still a thing more than 40
years after its introduction, making it one of the longestrunning public health campaigns ever.
Surveys show that most smokers want to quit and intent to eventually. Why not this week? Quitting has immediate benefits: lower blood pressure, better circulation, and reduced risks of bad things like heart disease and cancer. And as challenging as quitting is for some, there have never been as many sources of support and assistance as there are today. (Try 1-800-QUIT-NOW or Smokefree.gov)
If the struggle is real, it’s definitely worthwhile: smoking is the leading cause of preventable death in America, linked to around 480,000 deaths every year.
If you smoke and want to quit but aren’t quite ready this week, here are two suggestions: in the spirit of GASO, quit for one day, just to prove you can do it; and mark your calendar for January 1, the perfect day to launch a new year and your new approach to staying alive.
PARENTHOOD
by Dr. Warren Umansky, PhD
The son of a friend of yours is 23 years old and spends his day in his room playing videogames at home. He has no job and does not go to school. You have heard lots of stories similar to this: Young adults who stay at their parents’ home and do nothing but play games. You worry that this might be the future for your young children. What do you do?
A. You already spend a lot of time with your children talking about their future. You ask often what they want to do after high school and talk about productive options: go to a technical college, join the military, attend the university, get a good job with a career ladder.
B. Your child talks about being a “YouTuber”, which seems like a good way of making money. He is good at playing videogames. You’re comfortable that he won’t just sit at home after he finishes high school and play games and not make money.
C. You limit gaming and electronics at home during the school week. You make sure your children are engaged in healthy activities in and out of school.
D. If you provide a good model of playing games just some of the day and tell your children that they need to do some chores, that is enough.
If you answered:
A. Children who have a vision for their future are likely to be productive adults. You are preparing your children to look ahead, to think about what they would like to do as adults, to explore the many opportunities available. You can explore these while sitting around the dinner table and while driving around, seeing how people work and talking about what’s behind the businesses, highways, bridges, utilities, hospitals, and post offices that you see, for example.
B. Making money as a “YouTuber”, like becoming a professional athlete, is a fantasy for all but the very most talented and skillful children. You certainly can nurture these skills in your children, but there needs to be a more realistic backup plan. “YouTubers” who make money doing it have something very special to offer that will make people want to watch --thousands of people.
C. Together with A, you are doing the best job of exposing your children to healthy thinking and healthy doing. Evidence is building that children who have limited access to electronics are learning better and engaging in healthier and more productive activities. This is likely to point them in a direction of successful adulthood, as you as a parent surely want for your children.
D. A recent systemic review of research concluded that “Parents’ use of technology in their child’s presence was negatively associated with cognitive and psychosocial outcomes and screen time. . .”. Also, giving children responsibilities beginning at a early age (making their bed in the morning, putting their dirty dishes in the sink or dishwasher, picking up after themselves, helping with folding laundry and putting away clothes, etc.) sets your children on a good path.
Dr. Umansky has a child behavioral health practice in Augusta.
THOUGHTS ABOUT THOUGHTS THOUGHTS
“I’M ALREADY DEAD” COTARD’S SYNDROME
Editor’s note: Written by local mental healthcare professionals, this series explores how people may think and act when affected by common and not-so-common mental health conditions.
“I stopped eating because corpses don’t need food,” said David, a 58-year-old retired teacher. “My organs have already decayed. I shouldn’t even be talking — I’m not alive.”
David’s words may sound like something from a horror film, but for him, they were a lived reality. He was experiencing Cotard’s Syndrome, a rare psychiatric condition in which a person genuinely believes they are dead, no longer exist, or that parts of their body are missing or decaying.
What is Cotard’s Syndrome?
Also known as Cotard Delusion or Walking Corpse Syndrome, Cotard’s Syndrome is a rare neuropsychiatric condition most often seen in the context of severe depression or psychotic illness.
Individuals with this disorder hold fixed, false beliefs that they are dead, decomposing, or have lost their organs, blood, or soul. Some may paradoxically believe they are immortal or cannot die.
The condition was first described in 1880 by French neurologist Jules Cotard, who called it le délire des négations — the “delusion of negation.”
Signs and Symptoms
• Persistent belief of being dead, empty, or non-existent
• Denial of body parts or vital organs (“My heart doesn’t beat” or “My stomach has rotted”)
• Feelings of guilt, worthlessness, or hopelessness
• Severe depression or anxiety
• Neglect of personal care—refusal to eat, bathe, or seek medical attention
• Social withdrawal and detachment from reality
• Risk of self-harm or suicide, as individuals may believe death is irrelevant
What Causes Cotard’s Syndrome?
While the exact cause is unknown, research suggests multiple contributing factors:
• Biological: Irregularities in brain regions that control emotion and self-perception, often in the frontal and parietal lobes
• Psychiatric: Commonly linked to major depressive disorder, bipolar disorder, or schizophrenia
• Neurological: Can appear after brain injury, stroke, epilepsy, or dementia
• Medication or substance effects: Certain drugs or medical conditions may trigger symptoms in vulnerable individuals
Treatment and Management
Because Cotard’s Syndrome is almost always a symptom of another mental health or neurological condition, treatment focuses on both the underlying illness and the
delusional belief itself.
Treatment options include:
• Antidepressant and antipsychotic medications – To stabilize mood and reduce delusional thinking
• Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT) – Shown to be highly effective, particularly when symptoms are severe or life-threatening
• Psychotherapy – Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and supportive therapy to rebuild connection to reality and self-identity
• Comprehensive medical care – Hydration, nutrition, and safety monitoring are crucial when self-care declines
Family involvement and integrated behavioral-medical support greatly improve outcomes.
Prognosis
With early recognition and appropriate treatment, many individuals experience full or partial recovery.
However, untreated Cotard’s Syndrome can lead to serious medical complications, including starvation, dehydration, or suicide.
Ongoing therapy and psychiatric support are often needed to prevent relapse and rebuild functioning and self-esteem.
Debunking Common Misconceptions
1. “It’s just severe depression.”
While depression is often present, Cotard’s Syndrome involves fixed, psychotic delusions — not merely feelings of emptiness or despair.
2. “People with Cotard’s Syndrome are dangerous.” They are rarely a danger to others, but they may neglect or harm themselves due to their false beliefs.
3. “It only affects older adults.”
Although more common in middle or late adulthood, cases have been reported in adolescents and young adults.
Need Support?
Integrated Psych Solutions (IPS) provides comprehensive inpatient and outpatient mental health services, with or without a referral, to help patients and their families progress through the care journey. To make an appointment, call 706-204-1366 or visit integratedpsych.care.
EATINGSEASON
If you have been a faithful reader of the Medical Examiner for awhile, you might remember the frog picture on page one. It was our front cover a little more than 7 years ago. Many things have changed since 2018, but Eating Season is not one of them.
Of course, as we noted back then, everyone knows it really isn’t Eating Season. It’s actually Overeating Season. There is a difference. Really, we celebrate Eating Season all year, and if we’re being honest, most of us will admit we celebrate a little more than we should.
But the coming weeks, unlike any other time of year, will include countless events where food and eating are the main attraction. Some of them might be major events, like family dinners with more food than an entire African village sees in a week and a half. Others can be pretty minor, like co-workers, vendors and drug reps bringing in goodies to the office day after day for weeks, punctuated by an official holiday party luncheon serving lots more food than we normally eat. Overeating Season offers food at every turn, culminating in the second Sunday in February when we celebrate a unique national holiday centered around eating (mainly junk food) and watching TV.
With this weeks-long event looming on the near horizon, the Medical Examiner is offering as a public service to our health-minded readership a number of salubrious suggestions to help us all navigate the minefield ahead without having to just give in, break the bathroom scale, be forced to replace our entire wardrobe, experience a bloat factor of 8.6, or suffer from a precipitous drop in self esteem.
These might seem like no-brainers, but if that’s what they really were, holiday overeating would be a rarity, and it certainly is not. So don’t expect earthshaking revelations to follow...more like reminders of what we already know. For instance:
• Control portion sizes In fact, a good motto is to consider what goes on your plate as individual taste tests. A bite is enough, not an entire serving, particularly in situations where there are many foods offered. There is no rule that says you have to sample everything offered. It’s ok to pass up some options.
• Don’t “save up” In other words, don’t skip lunch (or even worse, breakfast and lunch) so that you can splurge at dinner later on. It’s far better to carefully control what you have for breakfast and lunch rather than complete fasting, which often leads to overindulging when you finally can eat.
• Watch out for liquid calories Soft drinks, holiday cocktails and eggnog, spiked or otherwise, can quickly and deceptively add up in the calorie department. While it might not be realistic to avoid all holiday libations, remember to regularly alternate those drinks with good old water. You cannot go wrong with water. Alcohol can simultaneously elevate weight and lower inhibitions, making overeating more likely.
• Plan ahead Many people like to start the new year by working on resolutions they’ve made, and weight loss is one of the most common. Why make reaching the goal more difficult by gaining weight right before you try to lose weight?
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WHY DO WOMEN LIVE LONGER?
This is a question that is somewhat understudied. Many public health experts don’t like that the disparity between men’s and women’s overall life expectancies seems to be almost a given, as though there was some underlying biological reason that we can’t do anything about. In some quarters it’s the equivalent of men generally having larger body size than women. Nothing can be done about that; in the same way, we simply expect men to die younger. It is accepted as normal and inevitable.
Other medical researchers look at the typical answers for men’s shorter lives — dying on average 5.3 years earlier than women as of 2023 figures — and they feel like the answers are too superficial and concenient. Tops among them, what could be broadly categorized as misbehavior. Men tend to smoke more, drink more, and engage in riskier activities than women, whether that’s in dangerous jobs, aggressive driving, or in violent and high-risk sports. In fact, by one tally there were 222,698 preventable injuryrelated deaths in the U.S. in 2023, and men made up more than two-thirds of that total. Men also, at least in stereotypes, are reluctant to go to the doctor for routine or even acute matters.
Various efforts have helped improve the gender gap in deaths. OSHA safety regulations, for example, have protected men more than women, since the vast majority of workplace fatalities involve men.
Overall, there is no biological reason for the disparities in life expectancies of men and women. That’s another way of saying that the imbalance can be reduced or even eliminated. It has been done before.
A century ago the difference in life expectancies between men and women was a single year. Even with all the combat deaths of World War II, the 1943 gap was just two years. But there began a steady 30-year increase in the death gap, peaking at 7.8 years in 1979. There has been a general downward trend since, resulting in today’s 5.3 year shortfall for men. Maybe it can someday return to 1. Or even less +
www.AugustaRx.com
Who is this?
s you might surmise from her photograph, this lady lived in a completely different era, a time and place where women had to jump lofty hurdles that men didn’t have thrown up in their paths. Many professional women of her day had to wear their hair short and even dress like a man.
But this woman, Sara Josephine Baker, managed to succeed rather spectacularly in the male-dominated world of her day, pioneering public health initiatives that no one had even thought of before, much less implemented.
Born in Poughkeepsie, New York, in 1873, she had no particular medical aspirations until the sudden and unexpected death of her father, an attorney, when she was 16, leaving the family with no means of support. Sara made the decision to pursue a medical career, believing it to be a secure and stable profession, even though her own family was skeptical of the whole idea of women doctors.
Undeterred, Baker enrolled in the New York Infirmary Medical College founded by noted Blackwell sisters, Elizabeth and Emily. She graduated second in her class in 1898, then began a year-long internship in Boston at the New England Hospital for Women and Children. After launching her own private practice back in New York, she passed a test to become an inspector in the city’s Department of Health. She focused her efforts on the city’s poorest and youngest inhabitants, both of whom had appallingly high mortality rates. In fact, one of her most remembered quotes was made to a New York Times reporter soon after the United States entered World War I. It is “six times safer to be a soldier in the trenches of France,” she told him, ”than to be a baby born in the United States.” Nutrition and hygiene were two areas of special concern, so Baker taught basics of hygiene and even invented an inexpensive infant formula. Many babies were delivered by midwives, and Baker persuaded New York City officials to license and train (for free) midwives as a means of ensuring high standards of quality care.
Another of her revolutionary ideas was the creation of Little Mothers Leagues to train girls age 12 and older in basic infant care. From a practical and realistic standpoint, educating siblings to care for younger brothers and sisters allowed mothers to go back to work without their children suffering neglect, a key issue for family health and financial security.
One of her most radical principles was one she described as ridiculously simple: “The way to keep people from dying was to keep them from falling ill. Healthy people don’t die. It sounds like a completely witless remark, but at that time it was a startling idea.”
Baker achieved many firsts. She was the first woman to head the city’s new Bureau of Child Hygiene; the first woman to earn a doctorate in public health from New York University and Bellevue Hospital Medical College (today NYU School of Medicine); she was a special consultant to the League of Nations on child health issues.
And there was one more thing. See “Who is this?” (p. 5) +
Middle Age
BY J.B. COLLUM
It feels like I am hearing more and more about middle-aged and even older folks picking up side hustles or even changing careers altogether. What I happen to hear doesn’t necesarily mean this is happening more often; it could very well be that it’s just somethig on my mind lately. The whole thing could be likened to the so-called “Summer of the Shark” in 2001 when the actual number of shark attacks was no higher than surrounding years, but intense media coverage of it made it seem like it was a shark feeding frenzy. I’ve been considering finding a side-hustle myself, and so have a couple of my friends in the same age demographic as me, so it is on my mind and I therefore notice it more.
but I could do better.
{ { I haveforquestions you
So that’s a good part of why I’m looking around, and next comes the how. My buddy Chuck, just gave his notice at work and is going into business for himself in a partnership with his brother-in-law. It is an exciting and scary time for him in his late fifties, but he is focusing on the exciting part. He made me promise to pray for him to be successful, and I have. I will ask the same for him when I make my leap.
Why am I considering a possible side gig? Lots of reasons. Here are a few:
• Have you watched the news? AI is causing a severe reduction in demand for my field of software development. I used to get at least a call or email every week with real interest in my skills somewhere else. I pretended not to like it, but it was always flattering. Now the only calls or texts I get about jobs are scam work-from-home jobs that just waste my time. You know the type, “work from home on your own schedule and make from $200-$2000 per week.” Yeah, right. Sure.
• I’ve spent almost all of my 44+ working years sitting at a desk. That’s not healthy. When you sit all day at a desk, you need to find some way to get the exercise you need, whereas when you have an active job, you may not need to. I spent a few of the early years of my working life in more active jobs where I traveled around town and fixed issues for customers or installed new things. I enjoyed that more than sitting at a desk all day and when I got home, I still had mental energy to tackle tasks at home. I wasn’t emotionally and mentally spent. Of course, I don’t have the physical stamina now I had back then, but part of that isn’t just due to age, but a lack of activity.
• With the untimely passing of my cousin a few weeks ago, it made me examine my life more closely as to whether I am truly happy or not, and the answer was, sort of,
Besides prayer, a big part of the how for me is that my new emphasis on being healthy is already paying dividends. I’ve lost 15 pounds, I feel much better, and my glucose levels are way down. I have more energy. As this has been happening, I can see how it would be possible for me to have a more physical job. I don’t mean I am going to start digging ditches or anything that vigorous, but I can now realisitcally see myself doing more than sitting in a reclined office chair staring at giant screens surrounding me.
Don’t mistake my meaning. I still do enjoy doing my job sitting at a desk and I do still love to write, but I just want more and I want to do it longer, as in living longer, and being more active all-around, including my work, and that seems like one way to do that.
Before you get all worried that I will stop writing this column, don’t, because I love it and it is therapy for me. That should ease the mind of my 11 or 12 fans out there. You can rest easy my friends.
Enough about me. How about you? Have any of you taken the risk of changing careers later in life? How did it go? Was it all you hoped for or did you regret it? I’d really appreciate hearing from you at the email address at the end of my column here. I look forward to reading your answers. Until then, take good care of yourselves and each other.
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J.B. Collum, author of this column and Special Forces Parenting, is a local novelist, humorist and columnist who wants to be Mark Twain when he grows up. He may be reached at johnbcollum@ gmail.com
Special Forces Parenting
I thought it was time for some fun in this issue. Long-t ime readers of my “Adventures in Middle Age” column probably remember times when I’ve borrowed a little bit from Jeff Foxworthy and his “If you… you might be a redneck” routine with a twist, but I am pretty sure this is the first time I’ve done it for this column. Let’s get right into it.
If you’re unfazed by wanton destruction in your home that looks like a tornado ran through followed by a herd of angry buffalo—as long as it was perpetrated by a cute little bundle of specialness in human form— then you might be a special needs parent. If you prepare at least two different options for each meal of the day so that your kid will eat something, and especially if that one thing is pretty much the same thing every meal (with one exception I will share later), then you might be a special needs parent.
If you go through enough sets of sheets to supply the sails for the entire fleet of ships at the Battle of Trafalgar, and most of them have an irregular-shaped yellow splotch on them that isn’t part of a flag design—and you are fine with it—then you might be a special needs parent.
If friends and family have stopped answering your calls, so you had to get a burner phone to find a babysitter or even just to talk to them, then you might be a special needs parent.
If you often have to explain numerous bruises, cuts, scrapes, and even bite marks to people so they won’t call the cops on your spouse assuming it’s abuse—and you laugh it off—you might be a special needs parent.
If your grocer has your regular allotment of diapers waiting for you on a pallet jack when you arrive at the store, and you gladly sign the loan documents to acquire them, you might be a special needs parent.
If cashiers see you in their checkout aisle with your usual purse overflowing with coupons and they suddenly decide they need to take a break or maybe even quit, you might be a special needs parent.
If you need to see an ophthalmologist because you fear your eyes might not come back down the next time you roll them at a well-meaning person who tries to tell you how you should have handled your child’s behavior (based on their zero level of experience with special needs children), then
you might be a special needs parent.
If your child suddenly decides that the food you made for them is vile and deserves only to be thrown against the wall or floor—despite it being the only thing they would eat for the preceding six months— and you just shake it off and try the next fifteen items you hope will work, then you might be a special needs parent.
If you wait in line for half an hour or more for something you are really looking forward to, and you finally get inside, and that is the precise moment your child decides they’ve had enough and need to get out of there—and you just grin and bear it—then you might be a special needs parent.
If you’ve spent more than an hour running errands in clothing that has enough pee on it to cause people to give you a wide berth at the store—because you already used your spare pants and your backup spare pants on this trip—then you might be a special needs parent.
All that said, if you occasionally find yourself, despite successfully putting up with all the difficulties in your life with your special one with great aplomb… If you have managed to ignore the know-italls and uncaring individuals who look at you with disdain because of your kid and how you’re managing a situation… If you have kept a level head and not let it bother you… If you’ve done all that, but then one day you’ve had enough and you fantasize about dealing with them like Godzilla deals with his antagonists—then you are just human.
Don’t let it worry you, unless you start actually laying out plans for how you are going to do it. Then see a therapist! I cannot condone stomping people flat, even if it may seem like they deserve it at times. After all, that makes for very messy shoes—not that you aren’t already used to that, though.
Wait, where was I? Oh yeah—don’t do it! Violence isn’t the answer!
Okay, I think we have covered our legal warnings. To summarize:
Getting angry sometimes? Understandable.
Hurting people? Not okay.
Fantasizing about it? Probably okay, but your mileage may vary. Check with your therapist or spiritual counselor.
What I’m really trying to say here is that if you are putting up with all of these issues and more, but you do it anyway—even if it sometimes seems too much and you sometimes don’t handle everything exactly the right or best way—don’t sweat it. See the humor in it. Humor helps. It acts like a buffer or a cushion.
The fact that you are managing it at all makes you worthy of admiration. Don’t beat yourself up. Build yourself up. You are like those special forces soldiers who put up with an immense amount of discomfort, deprivation, and constant danger while on a mission—and who live for helping and protecting their teammates.
You should be proud of yourself. This isn’t for wimps. +
Who is this?
Not everyone in healthcare can be Florence Nightingale, right? Despite the long-running series on page 4, there are clunkers in medicine, and we will examine some of them in this series. Unfortunately, there’s enough material to keep this side of the page going for a while.
This woman was not a doctor, a nurse, a midwife, or any other brand of healthcare provider, yet she has a noted place in medical fame. Correction: medical infamy.
Mary Mallon looks harmless enough, even pleasant, but her actions saddled her with a notorious nickname that virtually everyone has heard of: Typhoid Mary.
She became the first documented case of a person who carried a potentially lethal communicable disease (in this case, typhoid), and yet was completely asymptomatic.
Armchair historians and medical ethics experts alike continue to debate Mallon’s legacy. Given that she infected close acquaintances everywhere she went and disappeared immediately upon a typhoid outbreak of her own doing, she had to have known the mayhem she was causing. With a trail of up to 50 deaths in her wake, she would certainly qualify as a mass murderer. On the other hand, even doctors who examined her reported that she seemed to be in perfect health, and she told every single person who examined her that she felt fine; she refused to believe that she was a carrier of anything. Furthermore, a “sick” person who wasn’t “sick” was at that time an unknown phenomenon in medical science, and germ theory was still a new and not universally accepted principle.
New York City’s Department of Health became something of a detective agency in their hunt for Mallon, a very elusive fugitive. Commissioner George Soper had a new assistant named Sara Josephine Baker (See “Who is this?” p. 4). Soper gave Baker the assignment of tracking Mallon down and obtaining blood and urine samples. Locating the Irish cook was the easy part; after several failed attempts to convince Mallon to cooperate, Baker showed up at Mallon’s house one morning in March 1907 accompanied by four policemen. Upon opening the door Mallon lunged at Baker with a carving fork and vanished into the streets. More police were pressed into service and hours of searching ensued. When she was finally found, it took five officers to get her into a waiting ambulance, kicking and screaming. Baker had the unenviable task of riding in the back with her, an experience she compared to being in a cage with an angry lion.
The woman known as Typhoid Mary escaped from custody and quarantine repeatedly, and other times was voluntarily released upon promising that she would not work in food preparation and would report in for testing every three months. She broke every promise.
She was finally placed into medical custody for good in 1915, maintaining two fundamental personal truths until her dying day in 1938: 1.) she was perfectly healthy; and 2.) she vowed to escape one more time, and when she did she would kill Baker. That never happened.
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I WAS THINKING by
Pat Tante
THE UNCOMMON COLD
Oh, no! It’s Thanksgiving and I have “come down” with a cold – runny nose and all the trimmings. Why couldn’t I have gotten it two weeks ago when it rained all week or the week before when we could not get four people together to play tennis?
Or, how about the day I had my semi-annual med check and the doc could have prescribed something besides an ineffective overthe-counter (maybe this will help) drug?
Two days ago the symptoms began to appear. Of course, I was in denial. “This can’t be a cold, can it? Just a scratchy throat, right?” But just in case, what do I have to ward it off? I looked in my medical cabinet – hmmm. There’s lysine, vitamin C, zinc lozenges (I always thought that a funny word.)
Which reminds me of another story. One time I was out of town and felt a cold coming on (not coming down). I bought a box of zinc lozenges to ward it off and sucked one after the other all day, not realizing until the next day that my
Like this
sense of taste was totally overcome by the zinc. Who knew that was a thing?
Conversely, it has been determined, by the AMA or ASPCA or somebody, that patients who have lost their sense of taste may have a zinc deficiency and may benefit from a therapeutic dose of zinc. What?
Supposedly, taking zinc early might shorten your cold by a day or so. Very scientific, yes? No.
Let’s talk about lysine AKA L-lysine since I’ve already mentioned it. It’s an amino acid that is not made by the body that can reduce severity of cold sores (aptly named) to which I am prone.
So let’s take that too. Then there’s vitamin C, a potent anti-oxidant immune booster, high doses of which shorten the duration of cold symptoms. I put it in the pile. So, I should be over this in twenty-four hours. I feel on the road to recovery already.
As I surveyed what I had dug out of the cabinet, I realized that there was nothing for my sneezing, runny nose, fever, sore throat, cough and headache.
Hey, it’s Thanksgiving! I have a pie to bake and eggs to devil (my small contribution to my sister’s Thanksgiving table).
Off to Walgreens – wearing my mask (I just happened to have several, you know).
I found the cold meds aisle – probably the longest in the whole store. First off I noticed that for every name brand (which are so often touted on television that the guy with a stuffy nose feels like a good friend), there is a matching store brand –usually much cheaper.
So, I peruse the offerings, trying to keep my nose from dripping onto the shelf. I’m reading the boxes trying to decide which one lists my particular cold symptoms: headache-check, fever-check, cough-check, loosens mucus-check? No! Mine definitely needs tightening (drip). Keep looking. Okay, I think I have found one that can solve most of my current problems. I reach for the cheaper store brand, but questions runs through my head. I’m sick.
Should I take a chance that the store brand might be (horrors) sub-standard or even ineffective? Is someone checking on this?
I’ve got a pie to bake! Pick something! I grab a box – store brand – my frugal nature took over.
I get home, pour a glass of water, ready for relief. Wait! Oh, no! I’ve brought home the Do Not Take Until Bedtime formula.
THE MECHANICS OF ADDICTION
When a baby is born, sometimes the baby turns yellow. This is neonatal jaundice. That is because the newborn’s liver cannot conjugate bilirubin. Prior to birth, the mother’s liver did the job while the baby’s liver was developing. If the baby’s liver does not “turn on” and conjugate bilirubin at birth, the baby’s life expectancy is greatly shortened and mental retardation is almost a certainty.
Decades ago we learned to place such a child under ultraviolet light (Bili-Light) in the nursery and give small doses of phenobarbital. The introduction of phenobarbital induces the liver to “turn on” the enzymatic pathway to conjugate bilirubin. Once the liver begins conjugating bilirubin, it stays “turned on” and does not need kick-starting again.
While the body is able to heal itself from many disorders and injuries, other disorders are lifelong. Once someone develops diabetes mellitus, it’s permanent, although we can manage it well with diet, exercise, numerous oral medications, and insulin.
In certain drug depen-
dent disorders (alcohol, nicotine, opioids, etc.), once the addiction process begins, it is permanent. No one can truthfully say, “I used to be an alcoholic.”
Modern medicine can manage these disorders and help the patient return his life to near-normal. However, we do not have a cure. That is why many people who have had addictions or dependencies upon alcohol, nicotine, pain pills, etc. are prone to relapse.
Proper medical management can return those to near-normal lifestyles. But just as diabetics must avoid overloads of sugar, patients who become dependent or addicted to certain drugs must avoid exposure to the same demon that possessed them before prior to treatment.
While it is the primary responsibility of the patient to maintain his own good health, it falls upon the family and friends to help keep such patients away from temptations and the pitfalls of re-exposure.
Many years ago, a relative of mine became addicted to alcohol in her late 40’s. She had never drunk before, but encountered it
BASED ON A TRUE STORY
(most of the time)
A series by Bad Billy Laveau
in social settings with a new group of friends. She had an executive position in a financial institution. Eventually her work production suffered. I brought her to my house and kept her for 2 weeks of drying-out … which involved all sorts of shakes and horrors and hallucinations.
She did not drink any alcohol for 2 years. While at the beach one summer, her husband thought he was offering her a treat and a reward for her abstinence, and handed her one beer with the strict reservation that she could only have that one.
The Demons of Craving leapt from the darkness and seized her soul. The next week, her yardman began bringing her alcohol on the sly. Within a month her work levels suffered again.
Again, I brought her to my house for drying-out.
That was 30 years ago. She has not had a drink since.
She is a strong person. Still, she is an alcoholic and will be forever. The demons are still lurking about.
Substance addiction or dependency, regardless of the specific name, is a lifelong disease in most cases. It must be treated as such. Frankly, this may require lifelong medication to prevent relapses.
Such is the case in Opioid Use Disorder (OUD) and the present day pain pill problem. Suboxone can control craving. However, if Suboxone is quickly withdrawn, the relapse rate in 2 years is near 80%. Insulin control of diabetes mellitus is the same. Once the blood glucose is controlled with insulin, withdrawal of insulin will result in return of full blown diabetes mel-
litus.
Suboxone for Opioid Use Disorder is used by US physicians who have the DEA “X number license” to use Suboxone treatment. They have specialized and extensive training.
We have a growing epidemic of Opioid Use Disorder and the government limits how many patients a qualified physician can treat to get them off opioids. Does that make sense to you?
I do not have a solution to this problem. I wish I did. If you know someone who has a similar problem, friend or family, be very supportive and help them all you can. And get them to a doctor trained to manage their permanent illness.
Lord knows they need your help.
10 WAYS TO BE HAPPY
There are plenty of reasons in today’s world to be unhappy. But that’s not an enjoyable way to go through life. Here are 10 scientifically proven ways to enhance your personal enjoyment and happiness.
1. Live near your job – a short commute is worth more than a big house. As Harvard psychologist Daniel Gilbert put it, “Driving in traffic is a different kind of hell every day.”
2. Spend time with friends and family – don’t regret it on your deathbed. “The only thing that really matters in life are your relationships with other people.”
3. Exercise more - Exercise has been proven to be an effective strategy for overcoming even depression.
4. Sleep more – How well (and how long) you sleep will affect how you feel when you wake up, which can improve your whole day.
5. Go outside – One study found that spending 20 minutes outside in good weather boosted positive mood.
6. Help others – It may seem counterintuitive, but science has proved that to make yourself feel happier, you should help others.
7. Smile – A study found that workers who fake smile throughout the day worsen their mood and withdraw from work, affecting productivity. But workers who smile as a result of cultivating positive thoughts improve their mood.
8. Plan a trip – You don’t have to actually go. Even lanning a vacation or just a break from work can improve happiness. Vacation anticipation boosted happiness for eight weeks.
9. Meditate – Meditation literally clears your mind and calms you down, it’s been often proven to be an effective way to live a happier life.
10. Be thankful – Gratitude increased study participants’ happiness and life satisfaction, while decreasing depressive symptoms. +
The Heart of Hometown Dermatology
CRASH COURSE
More Americans have died on US roads since 2000 than in World Wars I & II combined
One of the benefits for the Aiken-Augusta area as the site of the world headquarters of the Medical Examiner is the existence of our life-saving teams of roving traffic reporters.
Of course, we can’t hold a candle to the late great George Weiss of WBBQ fame (Mobile One), the rhyming Honey Schorr Mobile 4, or any of the others. Back in the day, WBBQ enjoyed a greater market share (a measure of the percentage of people listening to the radio who were tuned in to a given station) than any other radio station in the country. By far. When any one of the many ‘BBQ spotters driving around monitoring traffic saw a crash or some other traffic obstruction, it was immediately broadcast live, in real time. It was quite a production.
in the rearview mirror and saw the car behind him also go through, although the light was probably red by then (there was a pretty good gap between him and the car behind him).
That the next vehicle also sailed through wasn’t all that surprising. What was was seeing not one but two more vehicles run the red after that. Counting our guy (who really could have stopped if he had to), that made four cars that went through after the light turned yellow, probably three of those on the red.
IT IS A MAJOR COMMUNITY-WIDE SAFETY ISSUE
Again, we do not bring this cautionary tale to your attention because it is shocking. We bring it to your attention because it is not shocking. Running red lights is the new normal.
I WAS AFRAID I WOULDN’T DIE
A bonus article by Bad Billy Laveau
COVID ran through the world like starving rats in a cheese factory. The US got more than our fair share. It was political as well as medical. We were forced to wear mask that did not work. Take questionable vaccines that might have been harmful, but profitable for drug companies. I had 5 jabs and lived right through 3 episodes of COVID.
Now I have lathery, tingling of the skin, chilly feelings, and aching joints periodically. My get-up-and-go has got up and went. Fortunately, I do not have brain fog as many of my friends complain about. True, I am not fast as I used to be. Einstein and Hawking need not worry that I am in their category. When I do text messages, my fingers have near terminal dyslexia. Used to, I typed 80 words per minute. Now, I make 20 mistakes a minute.
But why do I feel the way I do? Most likely, Post Viral Asthenia (PVA) (G93.31, ICD10 code) which is probably rampant right now is our “advanced maturity” society. (That sounds better than senior citizens or old codgers.). The bad news is: historically, it last 4-6 weeks. The good news is: it is not life threatening nor unbearable.
If you have no other complicating conditions, PVA is bothersome, worrisome, irritating, and no fun. You have to adjust to doing less, sleeping more, eating properly, take multiple vitamin (Including D3) and remaining hydrated. Make sure you have proper protein intake.
Our traffic spotters are a little different. For starters, we don’t have a radio station. Nor do they focus on individual wrecks and specific bottlenecks.
We look for general trends, particularly ones that threaten the health and safety of area drivers. Having said that, if we did have a radio station, we would be broadcasting alerts and warnings all the time. There is no shortage of disturbing trends that feature driving that, frankly, is nothing short of outrageous.
Here’s a specific example, and we only relate it here because it is not a specific example; it’s more like a general example of something we see dozens of times every day in our patrols.
This week one of our roving reporters was driving down a major thoroughfare. Which one doesn’t matter because it could be literally any main CSRA roadway. At almost the last possible moment, the traffic light he was approaching turned yellow. He says he could have stopped, but it would have been a hard stop, like slamming on the brakes, so he continued through the intersection. He looked
There are variations. It isn’t always follow the leader as in the example above. Another report from this week was about an intersection where our traffic spotter had been sitting at a red light for a while. The light eventually went green, and miracle of miracles, the intersection cleared and traffic was starting to cross when a single stray car shot across the intersection at high speed. It must have been close to a five full seconds since the light had turned red for that car.
That is outrageous. But conversely, it’s more or less ho-hum normal too.
Yes, it’s all fun and games until someone is killed or injured. In 2023, 1,086 people were killed in red-light-runner crashes and around 165,000 others were injured. Sadder still is the fact that about half of the victims are not the violators themselves; they are other drivers, passengers, pedestrians, and cyclists. Red light running is the #1 cause of urban crashes and it’s getting worse: in 2019 there were “only” 850 people killed in red-light crashes. Running lights is a major safety issue. Will you do your part to put it to a stop? +
Energy level is typically inadequate to get sufficient exercise or sun exposure. Social life tends to taper off. All this leads to depression, certainly a bad thing. Agitation occurs as a result sometimes. That does not bode well for those within earshot.
Remember: Just because you feel crappy and ill, you are not the center of the world. Lie a little bit about “feeling better each day.” That is how you manage those obligated to be around you. Your family will love you for it later when they find out how bad PVA could have been.
Your family or significant others should adjust to doing more for you while you do less. If you don’t feel like doing something, let them do it.
You can take over again at a later date. For years you can regale them whenever they have some malady: Now you can say: Let me tell you, I have a real case back in ‘25. First, I thought I was gonna die. Back then I was afraid I might not die and get out of all that misery. Fortunately, I was tough enough to make it through.
Most PVA goes undiagnosed because patients are “not sick enough” to spend a day in a doctor’s office full of sick and contagious patients.
Recovery will be minuscule and daily. Barely noticeable on some days.
Don’t overdo it. Relapses are rare, but do occur and are deleterious.
How am I doing? A little better each day, truly. Not doing much other than filling my bird feeders. My daughter had me over to her house for a ribeye steak. She live 2 miles away and knows that if I refuse a ribeye, it is time to hit the morticians on the speed dial. I ate half and brought the other half home for lunch today.
Maybe I should not over do this “getting well” too fast. She cleaned up my place a bit a couple days ago. Got my mail. Took out the trash. I am not sure I want to give up that too quickly.
TRYTHISDISH
WHITE CHICKEN CHILI
A warm and flavorful chili recipe that’s perfect for adding a little zest to a cold winter’s day!
• 1 jalapeño peppers; cut in half and seeds removed
• 1 poblano pepper; cut in half and seeds removed
• 4 tomatillos; paper skins removed and cut in half
• ¼ cup cilantro; rough chop
• 1 Large sweet onion, chopped
• 4 cloves garlic (minced)
• 1 tablespoon chili powder
• 1 large or 2 small zucchini; chopped
• 2 cans reduced-sodium Great Northern Beans; drained and rinsed
• 4 cups of reduced sodium chicken
• Juice of one lime
• Cilantro (optional garnish)
If using raw chicken, trim all visible fat from the chicken and season with spice blend and set aside. Place the peppers, tomatillos, and cilantro in a blender with about 2 tablespoons water. Blend until smooth and set aside. Add the onion to the slow cooker place the seasoned chicken, or leftover shredded chicken plus seasoning, on top of the onions. Add the garlic, chili powder, zucchini, beans, broth and tomatillo sauce. Cook on high for 6 hours or low for 8 hours. Once done, remove the chicken from the slow cooker and shred the chicken (unless you used the
leftover already shredded). Add the chicken back to the slow cooker and combine. Serve with lime juice and cilantro.
Percent Daily Value: 35% Vitamin C, 8% Iron, 6% Vitamin A, 2% Vitamin A
Diabetes Exchanges: 1 Starch, 3 Lean Meats, ½ Vegetable
trying to whittle down the balance on our printing bill. A free press isn’t free. Who knew? Here is a link to visit for details: https://gofund.me/6b0e99951, visit Facebook.com/AugustaRX, or mail a contribution to PO Box 397, Augusta GA 30903
single dollar helps and is appreciated.
It’s none of my business, but I thought you were on a diet. That’s right. Why? So? Well, you normally have just one cookie.
ACROSS
1. Urban’s opposite
6. Maj. CSRA employer
9. State most well known for its official vegetable?
14. Uneven; jagged 15. Twitch
16. TV, newspapers, etc, etc
17. Outlaw
19. Factory
20. The San Francisco Giants retired his number “4.”
I just watched you eat six cookies. Oh, I can explain. Those were Slim Oreos.
CAPTION THIS
Check out our new reader contest on p. 16 Write your most appropriate, clever, or funny caption to the photo shown for a chance to win whatever cool swag we decide to give away!
Email your entry to Dan@AugustaRx.com
DEADLINE TO ENTER: 5:00 PM FRIDAY, NOV. 28, 2025 We’ll announce the winner in our next issue!
32. Expire
33. Black _____
35. George, founder of WBBQ
37. Brain ___
39. Patch in Aiken
40. Brain activity meas.
41. Old horse
42. It follows “The Monroe”
44. Athens univ.
47. By election time, each party will have just one
50. Hancock County seat
52. _________ Way
54. Small, light sword
55. Chooses by ballot
56. Sofa
58. Famous twins
59. Born
61. US Secretary of State, 1961-69
62. Capital of Norway
63. Word repeated before in and out
65. Mild oath of annoyance
69. Rap doctor
DIRECTIONS: Every line, vertical and horizontal, and all nine 9-square boxes must each contain the numbers 1 though 9. Solution on page 14.
DIRECTIONS: Recreate a timeless nugget of wisdom by using the letters in each vertical column to fill the boxes above them. Once any letter is used, cross it out in the lower half of the puzzle. Letters may be used only once. Black squares indicate spaces between words, and words may extend onto a second line.
on page 14.
Use the letters provided at bottom to create words to solve the puzzle above. All the listed letters following #1 are the first letters of the various words; the letters following #2 are the second letters of each word, and so on. Try solving words with letter clues or numbers with minimal choices listed. A sample is shown. Solution on page 14.
— Jean de La Fontaine
THEBESTMEDICINE
ha... ha...
Awoman goes to prison for her weekly visit with her incarcerated husband. On the way out, she starts to say something to a guard, stops herself, then changes her mind again and speaks up.
“You people should be ashamed of yourselves, working these people to the bone like you do. Every time I visit my husband he’s exhausted.”
“Exhausted?” says the surprised officer. “Ma’am, all your hsband does is eat, sleep and lay around in his cell.”
“I don’t believe you,” said the woman. “I believe my husband, and he told me he’s been working on some tunnel project for months.”
Moe: Two fish are sitting in a tank...
Joe: Right, right, I know that joke. One fish turns to the other and asks, “Do you how to drive this thing?” That is the dumbest joke ever.
Moe: Ok then, I have another one.
Joe: Fire away.
Moe: Two soldiers are sitting in a tank. They both drown.
Moe: Have you ever been to a Rainforest Cafe?
Joe: Yeah, a few times, why?
Moe: I think they take the rainforest theme way too far.
Joe: Like how?
Moe: I was sitting in one of them one time eating my lunch and they bulldozed 40% of the place.
Moe: Are you interested in space?
Joe: A little.
Moe: You know that constellation they call Orion’s Belt? That’s a waist of space.
Joe: That’s also a pretty bad joke.
Moe: Maybe three stars?
Moe: Apparently NASA is launching a mission to an alien planet to say they are sorry for crash-landing probes there.
Joe: This is the first I’ve heard about it. What mission is that?
Moe: They’re calling it Apollo G.
Moe: I think our government has gone stark raving crazy. Especially the DOJ!
Joe: Why the Department of Justice?
Moe: Have you noticed how often they use black highlighters? Duh!
Moe: Supposedly the number 666 signifies all that is evil.
Joe: If that’s true, then 25.81 is the root of all evil.
Staring at my phone all day has certainly had no Effect on ME!
By popular demand we’re making at-cost subscriptions available for the convenience of our readers. If you live beyond the Aiken-Augusta area, or miss issues between doctor’s appointments — don’t you hate it when that happens? — we’ll command your mail carrier to bring every issue to your house!
NAME ADDRESS
CITY STATE ZIP
Choose six months for $26 or one year for $48 . Mail this completed form with payment to Augusta Medical Examiner, PO Box 397, Augusta GA 30903- 0397
Dear Advice Doctor,
The Advice Doctor
I recently applied for a job, and miracle of miracles, I was called in for not one, not two, but three interviews, the last one just a couple days ago. They said they would notify me either way within a week. I was gung-ho for this job beforehand, and it’s still more or less attractive, but the more I get to know this company, the more I have this vague gut feeling that it’s not the greatest place to work. If they offer me the job, what do you think I should do?
There is a life maxim that I think about often. It is simple but profound. It goes something like this: ignore problems now and you will surely face them later on.
We can’t simply bury our head in the sand and hope a problem will disappear simply because we ignore it. In fact, usually what happens is the exact opposite. Ignoring a problem can make it worse.
In the specific situation you’re dealing with, ignoring your gut feelings could be a huge mistake. Granted, some of the red flags might seem minor, but gastrointestinal issues have a way of turning into nagging chronic problems that can be serious.
Take heartburn as an example. It’s common and can be treated with OTC meds, so it might seem to be more of a nuisance than a serious medical issue. But unrelenting acid reflux is not normal and the reasons for it should be identified and addressed. It could be caused by a hiatal hernia; the acid can damage the esophagus, leading to more severe problems. In short, it should not be ignored.
Another gut feeling that suggests a doctor visit is in order: chronic abdominal pain. Ditto for persistent changes in bowel habits like diarrhea or constipation, unexplained weight loss, loss of appetite, or frequent severe bloated feelings.
The body communicates with us very effectively when something isn’t running the way it should. It’s depending on us to listen and get help. You say your feelings are “vague,” and that’s good. Perhaps things are not at an acute stage yet, and hopefully will get better on their own. But if not, take action. You might prevent a simple problem from getting worse.
— Not feeling it like I was + Dear Not Feeling It,
I hope this answers your question.
Do you have a question for The Advice Doctor about life, love, personal relationships, career, raising children, or any other important topic? Send it to News@AugustaRx.com. Replies will be provided only in the Examiner.
READERS: YOU DECIDE! Please vote for your favorite! Email us the number you think should be the winning caption! Dan@AugustaRx.com
When I hear 67 for the hundredth time!!!!
7. What people think people with OCD look like when they see something off-center.
8. Bells Palsy don’t wait for selfies.
9. No one told me I couldn’t use nail glue for my new eyelashes.
CAPTIONTHIS CAPTION THIS
10. When that one friend starts fishing for compliments.
CONTEST RULES: To be perfectly honest — and this is embarrassing to admit — we’re
PROFESSIONAL DIRECTORY
ACUPUNCTURE
Dr. Eric Sherrell, DACM, LAC Augusta Acupuncture Clinic 4141 Columbia Road
706-888-0707 www.AcuClinicGA.com
CHIROPRACTIC
DERMATOLOGY
Georgia Dermatology & Skin Cancer Center 2283 Wrightsboro Rd. (at Johns Road) Augusta 30904 706-733-3373 www.GaDerm.com SKIN CANCER CENTER
DEVELOPMENTAL PEDIATRICS
Parks Pharmacy 437 Georgia Ave. N. Augusta 29841 803-279-7450 www.parkspharmacy.com PHARMACY
Evans Chiropractic Health Center Dr. William M. Rice 108 SRP Drive, Suite A 706-860-4001 www.evanschiro.net
Karen L. Carter, MD 1303 D’Antignac St, Suite 2100 Augusta 30901
Steppingstones to Recovery 2610 Commons Blvd. Augusta 30909 706-733-1935
Jason H. Lee, DMD 116 Davis Road Augusta 30907
706-860-4048 Floss ‘em or lose ‘em!
HAVE YOU HEARD?
HEARING ASSOCIATES OF SOUTH CAROLINA welcomes patients from South Carolina and Georgia
NORTH AUGUSTA
105 E Hugh St., Suite 103 North Augusta, SC 29841 (803) 441-3937
AIKEN
39-A Varden Drive Aiken, SC 29803 (803) 641-6104
AikenHearing.com
Celebrating 20 years of giving sound advice to our friends and neighbors
Write your most appropriate, clever, or funny caption to the photo shown for a chance to win whatever cool swag we decide to give away.
Email your entry to Dan@AugustaRx.com
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IT’SYOURTURN!
Your turn for what? To tell the tale of your medical experiences for “Everybody Has a Story.” If it was up to us, this feature would be in every issue of the Medical Examiner. After all, everybody has a story of something health- or medicine-related, and lots of people have many stories. Send your interesting (or even semiinteresting) stories to the Medical Examiner, PO Box 397, Augusta, GA 30903 or e-mail to Dan@AugustaRx.com. See our “No Rules Rules” below. Thanks!
“My leg was broken in three places.”
“Now THAT hurt!”
“The cause was a mystery for a long time.”
“I retired from medicine seven years ago.”
“This was on my second day in Afghanistan.”
“We had triplets.”
“I lost 23 pounds.”
“He was just two when he died.”
“The smoke detector woke me up.”
“I sure learned my lesson.”
“They took me to the hospital by helicopter.”
“I thought, ‘Well, this is it’.”
“He doesn’t remember a thing.”
“And that’s when I fell.”
“At first I thought it was something I ate.”
“OUCH!” NOTHING SEEMED TO HELP, UNTIL ... “I’m not supposed to be alive.”
