409- Working With Your Healthcare Provider
Working with your healthcare provider can help make managing your condition easier A partnership between a patient and healthcare provider is essential when managing all chronic illnesses. Because the time spent with your healthcare provider is both limited and valuable, you can maximize it by following some simple guidelines before and after the visit. Learn […]
421- Personal Daily Diary for All GI Disorders
Using a Personal Daily Symptom Diary for 2–4 weeks can help you learn more about how your body may be reacting to certain things in your life, such as diet, exercise, stress, and sleep. A Daily Diary aims to help you better understand your gastrointestinal (GI) illness. When you keep a detailed record of stool […]
411 How to Qualify for Social Security Benefits
Gastrointestinal (GI) disorders are more common than people think. Even though almost everyone has occasional bouts of GI issues, thousands of people have chronic and severe GI disorders that can make it impossible for them to work. If you have worked in the past but can’t work now because of a GI disorder that you expect to last a year or more, you can file a […]
Globus
Globus (Latin for globe or ball) is the sensation of a lump or ball in the throat, typically felt in the throat at the level of the Adam’s apple. It is commonly experienced with an intense emotional experience such as stress. The “globus response” is a common human experience. It seems equally prevalent in men […]
508-Globus: “It Brings a Lump To Your Throat”
Who has not experienced a lump or ball in the throat with an intense emotional experience? Typically, the sensation of globus is felt in the throat at the level of the Adam’s apple. Reviewed and updated 2009.
116 – Doctor – Patient Communication
Functional GI disorders present a special challenge to the doctor-patient interaction for several reasons. First, functional GI disorders are characterized, in most cases, by vague symptoms of variable intensity. Many times, these symptoms involve the most intimate anatomic areas of the body. The sensitivity of these issues can complicate the task for the patient who needs to express them in terms that the physician can interpret to formulate a diagnosis. Secondly, the physician is hampered by the absence of obvious structural lesions that often lessens the likelihood of devising a specific medical intervention that is successful. In some cases, the physician’s own anxiety can be increased by the lack of a symptom complex that leads to well-understood disease entity, such as parasites or lactose intolerance. This deficiency, in turn, often leads both physician and patient to over-investigate the symptoms. So what are the ingredients that comprise successful doctor-patient communication about the functional GI disorders?
215- Problems with Doctors That Interfere with Treatment
The placebo effect can enhance therapy, and promote a successful relationship between healer and patient. However, a treatment administered by a healer may also have a bad effect. Any treatment may have a predictable risk, but a nocebo effect denotes worsening beyond the known risk – the adverse effect of a failed therapeutic relationship. This can result in sub-optimal health care. An examination of its causes and ways to avoid it are discussed.
221- The Medical History: How to Help Your Doctor Help You
The most important interaction between patient and doctor is the medical history. Through listening to the story of the patient’s illness and asking relevant questions, a physician may often make a diagnosis, or at least begin to understand the nature and location of the complaint. A few easy steps can help make this process more efficient leading to prompt, more precise diagnosis and treatment. Revised January 2012.
231 – Can Intense Exercise Lead to GI Symptoms?
Can exercise be linked to GI symptoms such as diarrhea or heartburn? This article will help you understand how exercise and associated factors can influence the GI tract.
206 -Health Reporting in the Media: What to Believe?
Most people learn of medical progress through the media. Yet this news is often unhelpful. Exaggerated cures, contradictions, and plainly misleading information can do harm. The problem is not science, but how journalists report it, and how the public interprets it. This essay aims to help readers make sense of health news. Reviewed 2009.
