For much of my medical career, we have measured health with numbers. Blood pressure. Blood sugar. Cholesterol. Creatinine. Ejection fraction. Body mass index. They matter
We sometimes wear sleeplessness as a badge of honor. “I only need four hours.” “I’ll sleep when I retire.” “I can catch up this weekend.”
As physicians, we are trained to take a history. Before treating the patient before us, we ask: What happened before? When did it begin? What
There is a wonderfully reassuring feature of ordinary vasovagal fainting. The patient wakes up. And that is also what makes syncope dangerous. Because once someone
As physicians, we spend much of our professional lives controlling risk factors one patient at a time. Stop smoking. Control blood pressure. Lower cholesterol. Exercise.
In medicine, we are trained to identify the patient. Sometimes that is not as straightforward as it seems. An elderly woman comes to clinic with
There is something deeply reassuring about seeing floodwater finally recede. After days of anxiety, families return home, roads reopen and cleanup begins. We naturally feel
Every rainy season, we Filipinos prepare almost instinctively. We check the weather forecast, bring out the umbrellas, clear the gutters, and brace ourselves for flooded
In medicine, the foundational directive is primum non nocere—first, do no harm. In public health and economic development, this mandate must be extended to national
Medicine has become remarkably successful at treating heart attacks, diabetes, kidney failure, and strokes. Yet we often overlook the common pathway leading to these conditions.
