The Patient, Square in the Middle of Doctors’ Blind Spot

Guest Post By Alan Greene, MD Participatory Medicine and the e-Patient Right before our eyes there’s a dark hole in what we see. Not only don’t we see some of what’s right in front of our face, but we don’t even notice the gap. Our illusion of a seamless visual world is so strong that scientists used to think that the spot where our optic nerve enters the back of each eye gave us our…

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Saving the Planet, One Diaper at a Time

By Alan Greene, MD As a father and pediatrician, I’ve changed many diapers-enough to teach me that diapers are a daily reminder that as humans we deplete resources as we consume, and we make messes with our waste. Those landfill diapers that are so easily tossed into the trash are clearly a major ecological issue. But what about the energy, water, and often chlorine involved in laundering cloth diapers? Comparing the environmental impact of different…

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Back Up Your Child’s Diet

By Alan Greene, MD You know that it is wise to back up your computer’s hard drive; I recommend backing up your child’s food drive with a daily multivitamin/mineral supplement. This simple habit could improve your child’s health and even intelligence. I’ll explain briefly why I feel strongly about this: For young babies, breast milk provides an ideal food. The match between their complex nutritional needs and the milk that moms make is spectacular. In…

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