“Gifts from the Tooth Fairy”      If you are lucky, the kid in you shows up every now and then.  Recently, I told my mother that I had lost a tooth and was hoping the tooth fairy would trade…

“Bob Dylan and the Premature Obituary”      Bob Dylan’s recent nomination for the Nobel Prize was unique and interesting on many levels.  He was a pioneer of putting incredible lyrics and poetry to music, collecting many fans and devoted…

Flu Season Canceled Due to Strike      As our Pittsburgh Symphony season drags on in silence, whether it’s due to the musicians being on strike or management’s failure to properly manage their staff depending on your perspective, I wish…

The Lost Art of Touching       A recent visit to St. Clair’s Emergency Room for an incredibly painful rib injury was remarkable for one reason: besides the overnight ER staff being extremely professional and good at what they…

“The hard and stiff will be broken. The soft and supple will prevail. Whoever is stiff and inflexible is a disciple of death. Whoever is soft and yielding is a disciple of life.” – Chinese sage Lao-Tzu    2,500 years…

  Forget the Whale, Remember the Message      The age-old biblical story of Jonah being swallowed whole by a whale and living in his belly for 3 days is hard to imagine. With the stressors of today’s world, maybe…

             “Concussion” Star Reveals Secret to Success      Most of us would never have heard of pathologist, Dr. Bennet Omalu, had Will Smith not played him in the movie “Concussion”.   His studies, however, have…

   Got Belief Power?      Admit it, you probably believed in the tooth fairy, if Christian, Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny. Perhaps your history of beliefs isn’t so powerful after all.      Your health beliefs are huge in…

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Makes it Official: Life is a Struggle      The Tuesday, Aug 9, 2016 Pittsburgh Post-Gazette used the word “struggle” so many times that you would have thought a struggling writer wrote all of the columns. Pirates star Andrew…

     You have probably heard the old joke about 3 most commonly told lies. The joke could actually have over 30 answers, starting with “the check is in the mail”.  In health care there are 3 huge lies that…