All posts tagged "Ask the Expert"

  • Baby Genetics

    Photo © Elena Derevtsova   QUESTION: My husband and I are trying to conceive and would like to know if the baby will take after my husband’s features or mine.   ANSWER: It depends on which genes...

    • Posted November 29, 2010
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  • Reinventing yourself

      Whether you arrived here to work, study, or simply have an adventure, your time in Japan offers the ultimate opportunity to reinvent yourself.  But why bother?Like many accomplished professionals, you may have embarked upon your career...

    • Posted September 28, 2010
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  • Baby questions

    Photo © Elena Derevtsova   1. I didn’t know I was pregnant until my 8th week.  I had taken analgesics on various occasions. What steps should I take to ensure that baby is developing normally? It is...

    • Posted August 30, 2010
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  • Fibromyalgia: another view

    Photo © Elena Derevtsova   As a general practitioner, hardly a day goes by when I don’t see at least one patient with a painful condition affecting the moving parts of the body.  Such patients come to...

    • Posted June 28, 2010
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  • Hooked on the ‘Book

    The sun is out, the heat is on, and the eager go surfing - the web, that is. The cyber world is the hippest spot for Generations X and Y to hang out and socialize. Learn what's...

    • Posted June 28, 2010
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  • The baby blues

    QUESTION: Four weeks ago, a good friend of mine delivered her first baby, a girl. I have visited with her several times since the delivery and have noticed that she seems less active than I was after...

    • Posted February 27, 2010
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  • Too much of a good thing?

    Photo © Elena Derevstova   It is remarkable that a great deal of medical activity these days is directed not towards the treatment of illness, but to prevent disorders which may never happen. The Bible has some...

    • Posted February 27, 2010
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  • Are you SAD in the festive season?

    Photo © Elena Derevstova   One sometimes wonders if they think of the acronym first, then make up a disease name to fit. SAD means ‘seasonal affective disorder’, more simply known as winter depression or ‘winter blues’....

    • Posted December 29, 2009
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  • Time out

    QUESTION I know it is common for couples to have disagreements, but it seems that with my husband and I, we often escalate the conversation into a full-on shouting match. In the end, we are both feeling...

    • Posted December 29, 2009
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  • Man in crisis

    QUESTION I am a foreign dad in his early 50s, a science teacher by profession, twice divorced and am in the middle of an emotional, financial, and psychological crisis. I have enormous debts to pay, no job security, and...

    • Posted November 28, 2009
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  • How not to stop smoking

    Photo © Elena Derevstova   If you are a smoker trying, i.e., failing, to stop, what help is ‘out there’?   The orthodox approach, promulgated by the medical profession, is curiously called ‘nicotine replacement therapy’. Does this...

    • Posted October 31, 2009
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  • Company health checks

    Photo © Elena Derevstova   If you are a salaried employee in Japan, you will find that once a year you are required to take time off from your job to attend a local clinic to have...

    • Posted October 1, 2009
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  • Moving to Japan

    QUESTION “We will be moving to Japan soon and have heard that there are many stresses of living in a Japanese community. Do you have any advice?”  – Branson family   A lot of what you will...

    • Posted August 31, 2009
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  • The itch that rashes

    Atopic dermatitis (eczema) was so described by a French dermatologist, Leonard Jacquet, over 100 years ago.  It was thought the skin-changes in this common, childhood condition resulted from scratching.  The word atopy (from the Greek atopos, meaning...

    • Posted August 31, 2009
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  • Student’s self-esteem

      QUESTION: My 12-year-old son is in his second year of middle school. He has always been shy. On his fourth day of his first year in middle school, he had a very intense altercation with his...

    • Posted July 26, 2009
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  • Your child and life’s reality

    QUESTION: I am a divorced mother of a 16-year-old daughter. I am very concerned that she has no “real” friends and spends too much time on the computer blogging  when not doing school work.  I  suspect that...

    • Posted June 30, 2009
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  • What is Swine Flu?

    According to the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC for short), it is an influenza-like illness, that is, a fever with a cough or sore throat, caused by the H1N1 influenza A virus.  The illness...

    • Posted June 30, 2009
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  • Private investigations

      What problem areas do most patients see you about? When I meet with clients for the first time, part of my role is to act as a detective, to look beyond the current distress to see...

    • Posted December 25, 2008
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  • Journey to the center of the universe

    What makes your preschooler "tick"

    • Posted April 30, 2008
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