Conversations… | with Dr. Greene

Like other pediatricians across the United States, today I received an E-Breaking News Alert from the American Academy of Pediatrics concerning news about bisphenol A (BPA), a chemical used in many hard plastic products (including baby bottles and sippy cups) and in the lining of many metal cans (including cans of infant or toddler formula). [...]

Are you voting on Nov. 4th?

Think twice before picking up that remote if someone in your home has a cold! Researchers from the University of Virginia, armed with DNA swabs, did a CSI-like evidence hunt in the homes of 30 people with early cold symptoms. Where did they find the virus? The most reliable spot was on salt and pepper [...]

Thomas Jefferson had a radical notion: When the people are well-informed, they can be trusted to govern themselves. This powerful idea worked to end our rule by the King, but at the time it didn’t apply to slaves; it didn’t apply to women. It STILL doesn’t apply to patients.
I like that he used the word [...]

When the American Academy of Pediatrics came out with their recommendation against cold medicines for children under the age of 6, parents started searching for alternatives. The good news is that families have a number of alternatives to traditional over-the-counter decongestants, antihistamines and cough suppressants.
It’s worth remembering that what we think of as cold symptoms [...]

Last year an advisory panel of independent experts convened by the FDA recommended that the FDA ban popular over-the-counter oral decongestants, antihistamines and cough suppressants for children under the age of 6 with colds. Recently large drug companies have voluntarily decided to advise parents not to give these medicines to kids under 4.
I agree with [...]

Today at our annual meeting in Boston, the American Academy of Pediatrics doubled the recommended amount of vitamin D that children get each day to 400 IU, in response to mounting evidence of the life-long health benefits of getting plenty of the sunshine vitamin. I applaud this move, and have felt for some time that [...]

I just heard from Gary Kreps, Professor of Health Communication at George Mason University and e-patient pioneer, reporting about drastic cutbacks to the Cancer Information Service programs. Excellent up-to-date information is an important foundation for Participatory Medicine. The National Cancer Act mandated that the National Cancer Institute provide the latest cancer information to the general [...]

At Farm Aid 2008, Willie reminisced about his growing up in Abbott, Texas, where his family grew some of their own food in a small garden. He sees the local community model from his childhood as a workable solution to many of our larger problems of today. While I don’t see the short-term promise of [...]

Is a ceiling fan for the nursery a great baby gift? I love finding simple ways to protect kids, and fans may be exactly that – a way to protect babies from one of parents’ greatest fears: sudden infant death syndrome, or SIDS. Thankfully, SIDS cases have already dropped by more than half since 1992, [...]

There is an intense ongoing debate about the safety of bisphenol –A, or BPA, an ingredient found in many plastic products including many baby bottles and reusable water bottles. BPA acts like a hormone in the human body. More than 90 percent of us do have small amounts of BPA in our bodies. On the [...]