Author: Aaron

Can’t remember the last time your family ate dinner together around the kitchen table? Is the TV a guest at every meal? Do you let your kids skip breakfast? Do you insist that everyone clean their plate? These are just a few of the reasons children struggle with overeating and weight gain today. It’s within your power to make easy lifestyle changes for the health of your family.

No MCATs required! The 2016 spring session of Washington University School of Medicine’s Mini-Med School (MMS) is now open for registration. MMS is now in its 17th year and is still considered one of St. Louis’ best kept secrets!

Your eight-year-old daughter seems excessively shy and has trouble separating from you. It’s been a constant struggle for years, and it is not getting better as she gets older. You’re worried she is missing out on activities other kids her age enjoy. She might be suffering from an anxiety disorder — the most common form of mental illness in children.

We are living in a digitally connected world with many of us constantly texting, typing on tablets and playing video games. Bending your head to text, type or play can put extra stress on the neck – causing what some doctors are now calling texting neck.

Until recently, very few people had ever heard of the Zika virus — unfortunately, this is no longer the case. Zika is a virus transmitted by the Aedes mosquito and likely can have life-long consequences for an unborn child.

Have you been suffering in silence with a pelvic floor disorder (PFD)? Are you looking for answers to questions you’ve been too embarrassed to ask? You are invited to a free educational event aimed to help women understand PFDs and empower them to pursue individualized solutions for improved quality of life.

Why are female athletes up to nine times more likely to experience an anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury than their male counterparts? The reasons lie in the physical differences between male and females — these differences can put greater stress on a female athlete’s knees during sports that involve quick changes in direction, resulting in more ACL injuries.

A sudden nosebleed can be quite alarming. Often they arise from a small grouping of blood vessels in the front part of the septum, the wall that separates the right and left sides of the nose. This area of the nose is the first to receive the inhaled air, causing dryness to develop and producing crusts that can lead to bleeding.

Washington University attracts some of the finest medical professionals in the entire country. When you select Washington University Medical Center for your health care, you not only receive treatment from one specialist, but have the benefit of collaboration by medical fellows, residents and medical students. The more brain power – the better for you.

You can’t remember exactly when you started feeling sick, but you’ve been working with new chemicals at your job over the past several weeks, and wonder if they might be the cause of your symptoms that include headaches and fatigue. Your primary care doctor suspects this might be the case, but can’t confirm it.

Losing weight is not easy. Washington University weight-loss specialists are dedicated to the management of excessive weight. We offer medical weight management programs, traditional bariatric surgery and the recently FDA- approved non-surgical intragastric balloon system. How do you know which one is right for you? Being an educated patient is the first step in making your decision.

For the vast majority of the population, hearing loss is part of the natural aging process. In some cases, a person can have a higher frequency hearing loss that may progress to the point where hearing aids are no longer helpful because they do not provide enough amplification. Cochlear implants for adults are able to restore hearing and give back the gift of communication.

That walk in the woods a few weeks ago might have given you something other than fresh air and exercise. It has recently been discovered that bites from a certain type of tick may make someone allergic to red meat.

Looking for a Best Doctor? Congratulations to the Washington University physicians that have been placed on the Best Doctors List in America for 2015. Of the 1,400 physicians on the list, one out of every three Best Doctors in St. Louis is a Washington University Physician.

Months of careful planning have resulted in a brand new Washington University Physicians website – designed to be informative and easy-to-use. We hope you will take time to explore and make yourself familiar with everything our new and improved site has to offer.

Everyone knows regular exercise is the key to staying in shape, but not many people know how important professional facials are for maintaining healthy skin. Like any fitness regimen, skin care must be done on a regular basis to be effective. A single facial won’t give you a long-lasting result, but the effect from regular facials and consistent application of the right products will last for years.

Youth baseball season is in full swing. However, it now seems that the competitive nature of the sport drives young baseball players to compete year-round. The result? An increased risk for overuse injuries — especially in baseball pitchers.

Your teenager has a new habit – e-cigarettes. Over the past few years, a new generation of American teens has taken up these battery-powered smoking devices who see them as fashionable accessories and a clean, “safe” way to indulge in a grown-up habit. Are e-cigarettes a harmless fun fad or a teen health risk?

It can happen to any woman. Your symptoms included heavy or irregular bleeding and pressure in the lower abdomen. On exam your doctor detects an enlarged uterus and further tests (ultrasound, MRI or CT scan) shows uterine fibroids. You may even be anemic, with low blood counts.

Many people have bunions – the unsightly and sometimes painful bump on one or both big toes. Most people can live with bunions pain-free, but for others, bunions are progressive and can lead to excruciating pain.

Vaccinations against life-threatening diseases are one of the greatest public health achievements in history. Yet, even today, one in four children in the United States is not fully vaccinated.

Bright red blood in your stool, on the toilet paper, or in the toilet water can be alarming, and may well be due to hemorrhoids, but other conditions may be the cause, some potentially serious. About half the United States population has experienced problems with hemorrhoids by age 50, but because other anorectal problems have similar symptoms, it is important to see your doctor any time bleeding from the rectum occurs.

A concussion is an injury caused by a blow or jolt to the head that disrupts the function of the brain. It can cause irreparable damage to anyone – changing a life forever. Washington University now has a specialized clinic for evaluation and treatment of concussions.

Your son thought the stiffness in his hip would go away, so he kept playing competitive soccer. After several weeks, it was even too painful for him to flex his hip beyond a right angle. What could cause a healthy young athlete to be so disabled with hip pain? His orthopedist suspected your son might have hip impingement, a condition that commonly affects active adolescents and young adults.

You’ve had a stress electrocardiogram (EKG) and now your doctor wants you to get a stress echocardiogram (echo). You’re wondering about the difference between the two tests and why you need both.

The doctor says you are a candidate for home dialysis and would like you to consider it. In-home dialysis provides many advantages to traditional outpatient dialysis treatments.

A parent’s initial fear when a child complains about a sore throat is usually, could it be strep? Here is some helpful information when you hear “Mommy, daddy — my throat hurts.”

Is that really your face in that photo? Today’s pictures are now posted, shared and liked in a matter of seconds – and you might not recognize the online version of yourself. It may be time to freshen your appearance for the sake of your personal, as well as professional image.

The strands, particles and specks that drift through your line of vision can be annoying. They are commonly referred to as “floaters” and typically related to age-related changes in the eye.

Cholesterol levels are some of the most important numbers you need to know for heart health. It is recommended that these levels should be measured at least once every five years for everyone over the age of 20.

The bad news is that you’ve just been told you have a small cancer on your prostate. The good news is that because of improvements in biopsy techniques, for some men it is now possible to destroy only the cancerous part of the prostate.

Most people assume numbness or tingling in their fingers means they have carpal tunnel syndrome — but that is not always the case. If your symptoms include a loss of sensation in half of your ring finger and all of little finger, you most likely have cubital tunnel syndrome.

If you notice your hands are shaky when pouring a cup of coffee, holding a bridge hand or combing your hair, you may leap to the conclusion you are in the early stages of Parkinson disease. But actually, essential tremor is the most common form of abnormal trembling — primarily of the hands.

It would be reasonable to assume that nagging groin pain is due to a pulled muscle. You don’t remember what you did, but what else could be causing the pain? However, recurrent episodes of groin pain, or pain that gets worse over time, might be the result of an underlying hip problem.

Your nagging wrist pain is interfering with simple activities. Normal everyday movements you previously took for granted – pinching, gripping, twisting – are now very painful. The weakness and discomfort are most likely caused by an inflammation of the wrist tendons at the base of your thumb.