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Inflammation: the brain on fire

A patient came in very upset. She was suffering from headaches and joint pains. She had been to various physicians and had several tests done. She was told that her pain was due to her mood disorder. She felt that she wasn’t being taken seriously, that her doctors wrote it off as “all in her head”. The reality is that mental illnesses can make you physically ill, and physical illnesses can trigger a psychiatric illness. The common pathway is inflammation Inflammation is your body’s response to insult and injury. It is normal and necessary. It’s when a part of your…

Dementia. Darn, it’s on the tip of my tongue

I’ve noticed an alarming thing lately, although I should not be surprised. My patients are growing older. Teenagers I was helping with their self-destructive behaviours two decades ago are now anxious mothers. Anxious mothers whom I met 20 years ago are now looking at retirement. It shouldn’t be surprising; I am getting older too. So is the rest of the world. Life expectancy has been steadily increasing worldwide over the last two decades. This is largely due to better infant survival in poorer countries and less cardiovascular and infectious events in richer countries. The world life expectancy is 71.8 years,…

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