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South Macomb Internal Medicine

Warren, MI

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Nutrition and Preventative Medicine Go Hand In Hand!

December 3rd, 2020

By Dr. Scot Goldberg, MD

On our Facebook page and in our email newsletter we talk a lot about nutrition – especially on what we call “Foodie Fridays”, and as it relates to preventative medicine it’s a key element.  We found a recent article that explores the role of nutrition in fighting against COVID-19 which is obviously on everyone’s mind in these challenging times, but it can apply to anything since a healthy immune system can help you ward off plenty of illnesses!  We can help with diet – just ask us for a $25 gift certificate along with a copy of our nutritionist Nanette Cameron’s cookbook The Perfect Day for trying dietary services with her the first time for patients who have insurance coverage!  Here is the link to the article at News Medical:  Healthy diet plays vital role in warding off COVID-19

Nutrition and preventative medicine

SMIM is Focused on nutrition AND preventative medicine

So to be clear, we are very focused on preventative medicine all the way around – we have a page dedicated to it on our website, and we aim to help you! Regular well visits and open conversations with a healthcare team that cares about and gets to know you is the best way to stay well!  We don’t want you sick.  We want you to have success with your health and we want to use our knowledge and experience to help you prevent disease!  Do NOT wait until you are sick to start taking care of yourself – that approach really makes no sense.
Stay safe and be well!

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South Macomb Internal Medicine

28401 Hoover Rd.  Warren, Michigan 48093

Phone: (586) 276-7530

South Macomb Internal Medicine has been designated a Patient Centered Medical Home by Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan.

Join us on Facebook at facebook.com/SMIMdoc!

Feel free to click on the categories and keywords below to find more content as we add more to the website!

5 Little Tricks To Make Your Comfort Food Healthier!

October 9, 2020

By Nanette Cameron, RDN

We all love our comfort food.  You know the kind – the stuff that just makes you feel GOOD as you’re eating it.  And as you’re probably aware, some of these are not exactly the healthiest foods for your body.  So why are we drawn to eat things that are so unhealthy, and why do we crave them in certain seasons?

For example, in the fall we tend to eat a lot of foods that are higher in fat and carbohydrates such as mashed potatoes, pastas and stews.  Fall and winter months also bring less activity since it’s colder out and gets darker earlier and that can be a problem because we might be burning less calories.

Less activity + higher fat foods = weight gain.

So, let’s discuss 5 ways we can combat this formula and set ourselves up for healthier habits!

Comfort Food

5 Little Tricks To Make Your Comfort Food Healthier!

1)  Substitute mashed cauliflower for mashed potatoes.  You can find these in the frozen foods section and all you need to do is heat them up!  And while we’re at it, use either a little less (or no) butter or gravy or lower fat versions of these products.  You can make up for them by focusing on seasonings instead of just adding calories from fat.

2) Pasta – look for more whole grain or veggie based pastas.  You can usually find pastas made from whole grain, lentils, chick peas, zucchini, or spinach right there next to the regular old pastas, and this will add more nutritional value.  These pastas contain more fiber which will fill you up faster with more nutrition and you will east less.

3) Chili instead of stews.  Stews tend to have more fat from red meat and gravy, whereas chili especially when made with beans can still give you that hot and hearty comfort that you’re looking for with more fiber and less calories from fat. 

4) Soups – use broth based soups instead of cream.  There are several ways to accomplish this.  For starters add veggies, and then when you’re done adding veggies, add more veggies.  Creamy soups like broccoli cheddar or clam chowder are the biggest offenders and contain too many calories from fat.  You can make a really hearty soup with broth instead of cream by loading it up with carrots, celery, broccoli and even some riced cauliflower and it will be a hearty dish.  Also here’s a tip: Take a couple labels of your veggie soup, blend it and add it back to create that creamy texture that you love.

5) Apples.  Granted this can be applied to other fruits which you should eat more of, but in particular apples are abundant in Michigan in the fall and you can make them in many tasty and yes, healthy ways.  Apple pies can add more carb and fat calories.  Try cutting them up, sprinkling them with cinnamon, sautéing them in a skillet with maybe just a little cooking spray, and topping them with low fat cottage cheese or vanilla greek yogurt – YUM!  Or try this – slice an apple, place it in a baking dish, pour a half cup of diet Vernors over the apple and bake at 350 for 10 minutes…  DELISH (with a little Detroit flavor to boot)!!!  An apple bake per day keeps the doctor away (even though the doctors at South Macomb Internal Medicine are very nice hehe…)!

So how are YOU going to use these tips to make YOUR comfort food healthier?  Let us know, and enjoy!

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South Macomb Internal Medicine

28401 Hoover Rd.  Warren, Michigan 48093

Phone: (586) 276-7530

South Macomb Internal Medicine has been designated a Patient Centered Medical Home by Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan.

Join us on Facebook at facebook.com/SMIMdoc!

Feel free to click on the categories and keywords below to find more content as we add more to the website!

Thoughts On COVID-19 – Where We Are Now and Returning To Normal

September 9th, 2020

By Dr. Scot Goldberg

Thoughts On COVID-19

Thoughts On COVID-19

I have some thoughts on COVID-19 that I’d like to share today on September 9th, 2020.  We see, hear, and read many stories in the news about the numbers and the trends for cases of the coronavirus.  There are many ways to slice and dice this data but one of the distinctions I feel is important is the difference between “Cases confirmed” and “tested positive”.  They are not the same thing as currently the false positive rate (~5%) is actually higher than the true positive rate (~3%).  This would mean if you test positive you are actually more likely to NOT have contracted COVID than you are.

There also is a very high false negative rate (a recent JAMA article puts it at >20%), which to me suggests that all this testing just adds to all the confusion and angst and does little to select and quarantine those infected, especially in asymptomatic individuals.  Also, when I survey my hospital contacts I hear few if any new cases entering the emergency room.  Certainly we don’t have the over-burdening of precious resources, such as ICU beds or ventilators that we had at the height of the pandemic in April.   So while good hygiene such as keeping hands clean is always important and in these pandemic times following guidelines such as isolating the vulnerable, social distancing and wearing masks is also a good idea, it appears that the worst of the pandemic has left, much as it did after 6 weeks in 1918 and it is time to start returning to normal.

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South Macomb Internal Medicine

28401 Hoover Rd.  Warren, Michigan 48093

Phone: (586) 276-7530

South Macomb Internal Medicine has been designated a Patient Centered Medical Home by Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan.

Join us on Facebook at facebook.com/SMIMdoc!

If you liked this article you can click on the keywords below to find more content on our website by category and topic!

5 “Potential Reasons” Why You Have White Coat Syndrome…

September 3, 2020

You may or may not be familiar with white coat syndrome.  Here is a link to an article in Medical News Today defining what it is and why it shouldn’t just be completely ignored.  Hypertension isn’t something to mess around with.

Now having said that, we do know as it says in the article that the anxiety of being around doctors may indeed have something to do with a temporary spike in blood pressure.  Why is this?  We’re not all bad we swear….. hehe…

White Coat Syndrome

 

We did some extensive and “really good” research and came up with five reasons that could explain this phenomenon.

5 Reasons You Might Have White Coat Syndrome

1. Your doctor looks like this guy…

Yep that’s Jack Elam as Doctor Nikolas Van Helsing in the silly film Cannonball Run.  We wouldn’t blame you if he gave you a little anxiety…

2. Your mother has been reminding you every time you sit down to eat to take care of yourself because of the heart history in your family as she’s serving you a huge pot roast and encouraging you to take seconds and thirds followed by homemade pound cake.  By the time you get to the doctor you’re terrified.

3. Your doctor has a picture of Ohio Stadium in the lobby and you’re a Michigan grad.  Okay that’s not exactly white coat syndrome – more like scarlet and grey uniform syndrome… either way it makes your blood boil.

4. Your doctor’s office lobby has the same color scheme as the principal’s office did at your high school.

5. Your doctor’s scale has been way off the last 8 straight times you’ve stepped on it.  No really you swear it has.

 

And there they are – the 5 reasons that might explain your white coat syndrome!

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South Macomb Internal Medicine

28401 Hoover Rd.  Warren, Michigan 48093

Phone: (586) 276-7530

South Macomb Internal Medicine has been designated a Patient Centered Medical Home by Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan.

Join us on Facebook at facebook.com/SMIMdoc!

HIPAA and Medical Privacy in Simple Terms

What is HIPAA anyway?

HIPAA stands for Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. It is a law that was passed by the US Congress in 1996. The main goals of the HIPAA law are to:

  • make it easier for people to keep health insurance,
  • protect the confidentiality and security of healthcare information and
  • help the healthcare industry control administrative costs.

HIPAA is a comprehensive legislative act incorporating the requirements of several other legislative acts, including the Public Health Service Act, Employee Retirement Income Security Act, and more recently, the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act.

What is the HIPAA Privacy Rule?

The purposed of HIPAA—and probably the most well-known HIPAA issue among consumers—is the HIPAA Privacy Rule, which introduced restrictions what the allowable uses and disclosures of protected health information were, stipulating under what circumstances, consumers private health information could be shared. HIPAA also gave patients the right to access any of their health records and data on request. The HIPAA Privacy Rule applies all protected health information, whether it is electronic, written, or oral.

What does HIPAA require be kept private?

HIPAA designates certain information as Protected Health Information (PHI), which includes any individually identifiable information about your health status, health care that you have received, or payment for health care. The HIPAA Privacy Rule does not apply when your information is used as part of a larger set of data set and is not linked to you with any direct identifiers that connect information to you personally as a patient. The HIPAA Privacy Rule also allows the release of your medical files in order to coordinate treatment with other health care providers, for making payments, or other health care operations.

Covered Entities – Who Keeps the Information?

Only “covered entities” are required to abide by the HIPAA Privacy Rule. Covered entities include:

  • health care providers, such as doctors, psychologists, chiropractors, dentists, pharmacists, and nurses
  • medical establishments, such as hospitals, clinics, urgent care centers, and nursing homes
  • health plans, such as health insurance companies, HMOs, company health plans, and certain government programs that pay for health care, including Medicare and Medicaid
  • health care clearinghouses, such as organizations that work with converting health information into electronic format, such as software companies used by other covered entities

There are very many entities that  are not covered by HIPAA. One’s place of work, life insurance companies, workers’ compensation carriers, and most schools and school districts are not required to abide by HIPAA law. Furthermore, HIPAA does not apply to companies that collect your information through health tracking or activity tracking apps or devices. The HIPAA Privacy Rule also does not apply to any friend or family member who breaks the etiquette of confidentiality, to a coworker who overhears you talking on the phone, or to the people who find your confidential information disposed of in the trash.

Flu Vaccinations 101

How do flu vaccines work?

Flu vaccines cause antibodies to develop in the body, which provide protection against infection. It takes the antibodies approximately two weeks to develop. The vaccine contains a tiny amount of the virus that the body needs to fight. This tiny amount spurs the body to develop those antibodies.

Every year, the seasonal flu vaccine protects against the influenza viruses that are anticipated to be most common during the upcoming season based on scientific research.

Traditional flu vaccines are made to protect against three flu viruses;

1.    an influenza A (H1N1) virus,

2.    an influenza A (H3N2) virus,

3.    an influenza B virus.

Why should people get flu vaccinations?

People think of the flu quite lightly.  Actually, the flu is the Influenza virus and can be a potentially serious disease that can can lead to hospitalization or even death. The spread of the flu virus is seasonal and every season is different. The influenza infection can also affect people differently, some can be only slightly ill and some seriously.  Millions of people get infected with influenza every year and hundreds of thousands of people are hospitalized. Unfortunately tens of thousands of people die from flu-related causes every year. Vaccination has been shown to reduce the risk of flu illnesses, hospitalizations and flu-related death in children.

Are any of the available flu vaccines recommended over others?

Although there are various types of influenza vaccines, the Center for Disease Control doesn’t distinguish that one is better than another during the current flu season. Any licensed, age-appropriate influenza vaccine is recommended. This can change from year to year and it is advisable to check with the CDC or your physician’s office annually about the recommended age and type of vaccination.

Who should get vaccinated this season and who should not?

Typically it is recommended that everyone 6 months of age and older should get a flu vaccine every season. This recommendation has been in place since February 24, 2010 when the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) voted for “universal” flu vaccination in the United States to expand protection against the flu to more people. For example, people who are at high risk of serious complications from influenza are strongly urged to get a flu vaccination, as it may be very important to prevent influenza for them.

There are some instances when a flu vaccine is contraindicated, or not recommended, and some instances where a vaccination is strongly recommended. Different flu vaccines are approved for use in different age groups. In addition, some vaccines are not recommended for certain groups.  Furthermore, those who live with people with compromised immune systems, such as those undergoing chemotherapy or who have other reasons for a compromised immune system. Factors that can determine a person’s suitability for vaccination, or vaccination with a particular vaccine, include a person’s age, health (current and past) and any allergies to flu vaccine or its components.

If you are unsure whether or not to get a flu vaccine, ask your doctor.

When is the best time to get a flu vaccination?

Before the flu virus begins to spread in your area you should get a flu vaccination. It takes about two weeks after vaccination for antibodies that protect against flu to develop in the body. The CDC generally recommends that people get a flu vaccine by the end of October.  Vaccines are offered however, even into the month of January as they are considered beneficial throughout the season.

In cases where two vaccinations are required (with some children’s vaccines), it is best to vaccinate early as two to four weeks are required between the injections.