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…

Read More...

Dr. Greene’s Top Parenting Dos and Don’ts

Each day I see parents trying their best to do what’s right for their families, but no one has the perfect guidebook that tells parents what to do. Here are the top eight solvable problems that I advise parents to remedy today. 1. Do… Have confidence in your parenting style. Don’t… Worry about what your parents or the neighbors or your child’s teacher thinks about your parenting style. Create a parenting style that makes you…

Read More...

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…

Read More...

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…

Read More...