tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-343754652010-07-28T10:24:38.932-05:00This is a blog concerning health issues in the field of Dermatology and Cosmetic Surgery. From time to time socio-political issues will be discussed.Edward Lack MDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08193503261544058712noreply@blogger.comBlogger131125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34375465.post-46855958550180694972010-07-25T17:39:00.000-05:002010-07-25T17:39:03.974-05:00

Yahoo just released its current report: Best Hospitals (in the U.S.) 2010-11: the Honor Roll. There were no surprises although I believe I could find another 14 hospitals equally good. The list includes John Hopkins, Mayo Clinic- Rochester, Mass General, Cleveland Clinic and others; and much as I see the logic in this list I also see the perverse irrationality in its construction. For instance:

Edward Lack MDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08193503261544058712noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34375465.post-55432557694192463022010-07-15T13:55:00.003-05:002010-07-18T13:25:18.260-05:00

Sometimes it’s good to reflect on where we have been and where are we now. Sometimes it even leads to where are we going, but for this blog that will have to wait another day. I have practiced liposculpture since 1992 so I have seen the fads and the promises and the disappointments and mostly I have seen an incredible evolution in body contouring. For what must be first and foremost, the

Edward Lack MDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08193503261544058712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34375465.post-38064682693233681762010-06-29T21:17:00.000-05:002010-06-29T21:17:24.733-05:00

As my friend and mentor on Mad Money, Jim Cramer, likes to say: When the facts change, change your position. It is so easy to make fun of experts after they stake out a position that is tenuous at best, even when they are your colleagues. So it was when I took out my pen-cudgel and attacked the bandwagon proponents of Vitamin D. You know who they are. They are the doctors who have you come in

Edward Lack MDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08193503261544058712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34375465.post-21223970631913951682010-06-20T12:18:00.004-05:002010-06-20T12:23:49.155-05:00

A person cannot live without seeing with his eyes. A blind person is also a person but if you are not seen you are nothing.                                 Per Olov Enquist My appreciation to my wife for translating this beautiful piece of prose from her native Swedish. As you can “see” seeing with your physical eyes is not the subject of this man’s observation. Seeing with your heart and mind

Edward Lack MDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08193503261544058712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34375465.post-26520171218499658032010-06-09T11:26:00.000-05:002010-06-09T11:27:14.597-05:00

For the last decade fads and bogus claims have promised to remove or reduce stretch marks, wrinkled skin, scars, and cellulite without actual proof. These money-making schemes have brought riches to some entrepreneurs and little pleasure to patients who have opted to have a variety of creams, potions, and treatments applied to their faces, bodies, and especially thighs. At last the wait may now

Edward Lack MDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08193503261544058712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34375465.post-21063986326371449002010-05-25T20:16:00.000-05:002010-05-25T20:17:23.003-05:00

Peter (not his real name) developed a red spot on the tip of his nose 2 years ago. He is now 16 years old. Last week the spots became more red and formed 2 blisters. His mother took him to a board certified plastic surgeon. The surgeon told the mother he didn’t know what the lesion was but that he could cut it out. He advised them Peter would be left with a permanent scar on his nose.A 30 year

Edward Lack MDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08193503261544058712noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34375465.post-12224892255331502362010-05-11T23:21:00.000-05:002010-05-11T23:22:46.547-05:00

Baldness comes in various shapes and sizes, but when it appears on a woman’s head it is always bad. The problem is of such magnitude that doctors vacillate between dismissing female hair loss complaints and ordering a battery of tests they have little idea what to do with. An organized approach to the problem is necessary. In many cases hair loss can be slowed or stopped and in some cases it can

Edward Lack MDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08193503261544058712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34375465.post-38350132079442046612010-04-27T08:24:00.002-05:002010-04-27T08:28:24.691-05:00

Jim lies in a hospital bed clinging to life as I write this blog. Ten months ago he was diagnosed with severe mitral valve disease and advised to have surgery. Jim declined. As his health deteriorated he could no longer put off surgery. He had a choice of going to a community hospital or to a university hospital. He wanted to stay near home so he chose to stay in the community. The morning after

Edward Lack MDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08193503261544058712noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34375465.post-63953790433441880182010-04-09T22:29:00.001-05:002010-04-09T22:31:38.909-05:00

Hair presents a conundrum of conflicting problems to women. On the one hand they are troubled by loss of hair, any hair at any time. The presumption is that hair is flattering, youthful, and aggrandizing. At the opposite end of the spectrum women obsess about what to do with hair when they have it. Used incorrectly, as it is often worn by women, it works to their disadvantage (a bald man can

Edward Lack MDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08193503261544058712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34375465.post-58591608405614413412010-03-31T08:26:00.000-05:002010-03-31T08:27:03.011-05:00

Pan-facial atrophy. The 21st century word for the aging face. As fat and bone, muscle, and skin whither, the face shrinks and wrinkles. Most important, the face looks older. To my regret Google Tyra Banks and Sandra Bullock. What a shame these 2 lovely ladies don’t understand the gestalt they communicate with their newly minted gaunt appearance. It seems strange that in a country where our

Edward Lack MDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08193503261544058712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34375465.post-31537387858259231632010-03-24T10:43:00.001-05:002010-03-24T10:49:29.800-05:00

The poor prune. Delicious and rich looking as it may be it is saddled with epithets like “prune-face”, a “wrinkled grape”, and a prune every morning keeps you “regular”. For a fruit whose taste is enjoyed by so many the euphemisms seem dishearteningly displaced and not the least metaphoric. I mean, isn’t the image of the aging face wrinkled and collapsed? Don’t we think of the elderly as sweet

Edward Lack MDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08193503261544058712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34375465.post-25280203834624612272010-03-16T23:13:00.002-05:002010-03-16T23:18:38.840-05:00

Professor Higgins: “Why can’t a woman … be more like a man? Men are so faithful, gracious and nice. Men are so caring, sagacious and polite. So why can’t a woman … be more like a man?”This is another version of “Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus”. Perhaps more chauvinistic and without acknowledging biases, yet trying to understand the differences between the sexes. And yes, there are

Edward Lack MDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08193503261544058712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34375465.post-50810893292272811872010-03-10T09:07:00.003-06:002010-03-10T09:15:13.799-06:00

The Oscar show is always a fun-filled affair, although mostly boring to the television viewer. For me it is an insight into popular social trends in the US especially as regards appearance. Last year I noted that the producers kept the anorexic youth characterized with their not so young leader Angelina Jolie in the audience and instead featured mature women on stage sporting full faces and

Edward Lack MDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08193503261544058712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34375465.post-62643911088927453972010-03-01T22:23:00.002-06:002010-03-01T22:29:11.971-06:00

Neoadjuvant Therapy. Adjuvant Therapy. Learn these words. One or the other may save your life if you get cancer. I am largely alive today because I was one of the first participants in a clinical trial using neoadjuvant therapy to treat my pancreatic cancer in 2002. I will write more about that later.Neoadjuvant therapy can refer to treatments given to reduce tumor size or improve survival before

Edward Lack MDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08193503261544058712noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34375465.post-1342994507643763542010-02-17T07:35:00.001-06:002010-02-17T07:36:15.906-06:00

The Supreme Court of the State of Illinois struck down tort reform more than a week ago. There are several ramifications which doctors and patients in Illinois should understand.• Illinois will now move from one of the 5 most dangerous states in the union in which to practice medicine to the most dangerous state• Physicians will resume their egress from the state and within the next several years

Edward Lack MDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08193503261544058712noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34375465.post-38237040780541722492010-02-07T21:15:00.004-06:002010-02-07T21:20:30.507-06:00

My wife won’t let me have lunch with Liv Ullman. At least she won’t facilitate my having lunch with Liv Ullman. My wife is Swedish. Liv Ullman is Norwegian (almost the same). We will be visiting Swedish friends outside of Nice next summer. Liv Ullman lives outside of Nice. I have asked my wife to call her best friend to find someone who knows Liv Ullman and to invite her to have lunch with me.

Edward Lack MDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08193503261544058712noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34375465.post-28538933322781324252010-01-26T14:21:00.000-06:002010-01-26T14:22:34.048-06:00

The dichotomy in the hype of filler products for facial rejuvenation has confused physicians and made intelligent comparisons on the part of the public virtually impossible. In order to understand the confusion in marketing fillers I will divide the protagonists into 2 camps: the manufacturers and salons (medispas) vs. cosmetic surgeons which include sophisticated dermatologists, facial plastic

Edward Lack MDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08193503261544058712noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34375465.post-49218393682345771302010-01-21T10:19:00.000-06:002010-01-21T10:20:22.318-06:00

Skin of color is a term in dermatology referring to people other than Caucasian . It came about because of recognition of some of the unique characteristics of darker skinned people with regard to treating skin disease or signs of aging. For instance, a laser may cause lightening or darkening of skin color in a darker skinned patient and yet be perfectly safe for a white skinned

Edward Lack MDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08193503261544058712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34375465.post-18902320438895977732010-01-10T22:25:00.001-06:002010-01-10T22:27:07.513-06:00

I am not sure how many of the public noticed a provision in the proposed health reform legislation that would have placed a federal tax on cosmetic procedures. The provision was known as the Bo-TAX and it aroused a unified response from the medical community in general and organized medicine in particular. This proposed tax was a clear example of how out of touch the Congress is with the needs of

Edward Lack MDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08193503261544058712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34375465.post-33605624611170942382010-01-03T11:56:00.001-06:002010-01-03T12:09:58.751-06:00

On or about August 27, 2002 I awoke in the morning and went to work as usual. I did not know that my world as I knew it was about to change irrevocably. On a subliminal basis I knew that I had cancer of the soul. My marriage was in name only, my family dissipated, my work was my passion. I did not understand that in a few hours, a Kafkaesque moment, I would turn yellow and the cancer in my soul

Edward Lack MDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08193503261544058712noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34375465.post-18956112936307338242009-12-06T12:27:00.000-06:002009-12-06T12:28:39.831-06:00

One of the rewards of a career in medicine is getting to know people from many walks of life on an intimate basis. This is also true of meeting other doctors who possess many skills including intelligence, wit, perspicaciousness, verbal skills, and so on. I have enjoyed countless hours listening to great teachers lecture on everything from basic science to pathophysiology; from the psychology of

Edward Lack MDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08193503261544058712noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34375465.post-51598787830246884342009-11-30T22:34:00.000-06:002009-11-30T22:35:18.223-06:00

Today I saw a new patient. She is female, educated, economically stable, about 54 years old. Several months ago she sought treatment for spider veins on her legs. She went to a … laser clinic. The clinic treated her with some injections and some lasers and they burned her skin and her spider veins remained. So she decided what she needed to do was go to a … vein clinic. That doctor did a Doppler

Edward Lack MDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08193503261544058712noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34375465.post-74570365317877776012009-11-22T13:53:00.000-06:002009-11-22T13:54:36.339-06:00

Two thousand four hundred years or so ago, Cleopatra spent great amounts of effort preserving the legend of her infamous beauty. Such was her power that the succeeding Roman conquerors agreed to preserve her image in Egypt only after her nose was forcibly amputated from every remaining relic in her likeness. Cleopatra was apparently known for her mineral baths and one supposes her facial

Edward Lack MDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08193503261544058712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34375465.post-15720022293860838012009-11-14T10:03:00.001-06:002009-11-14T10:07:21.563-06:00

President Obama lost his initiative to reform health care in the United States when he abandoned his Midwest political base. As difficult as it is for Americans to understand the health care debate over the past year, it is virtually impossible for non-Americans to understand what has transpired. Consider the following:• The United States is the only country in the industrialized world without

Edward Lack MDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08193503261544058712noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34375465.post-38241753381400644342009-10-18T11:19:00.004-05:002009-10-18T11:42:21.522-05:00

The American Academy of Dermatology recommends that an adequate amount of vitamin D should be obtained from a healthy diet that includes foods naturally rich in vitamin D, foods/beverages fortified with vitamin D, and/or vitamin D supplements. Vitamin D should not be obtained from unprotected exposure to ultraviolet (UV) radiation.Epidemiologic studies suggest an association between low serum

Edward Lack MDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08193503261544058712noreply@blogger.com1