The Weekly Check-Up Podcast

Managing a long-term illness is an ongoing process of adaptation, daily management, and resilience. It is a marathon, not a sprint; a journey, not a destination. It challenges the all-too-American notion of fixing the problem, and instead focuses on ... more

In his farewell address as president on January 17, 1961, Eisenhower warned his countrymen of what he called "the military-industrial complex," a huge and permanent armaments industry that had acquired great political and economic power. He was conce... more

In the 19th century, Chinese railroad laborers brought a host of traditional medicines to our shores, among which was the oil of the Chinese water snake to treat inflammation and arthritis. An American, Clark Stanley, commercialized the concept of bo... more

You know them, you’ve seen them, you may even use them. They’re WMD-wearable medical devices like the FitBit, the Apple Watch, and the Aura ring, and the one-inch square discs affixed on people’s upper arms monitoring blood glucose or delivering medi... more

The innumerable songs of heartache by female artists that top the R&B, Rock and Country music charts tell of the emotional heartbreak of lost love. But the literal, physical broken heart is a profoundly underappreciated aspect of women’s health. Hear... more

One hundred years ago, medical researchers noted that upper-body obesity was associated with high blood sugar (diabetes), high blood pressure (hypertension), and hardening of the arteries (atherosclerosis.) Fifty years later the term "metabolic syndr... more

The eye's posterior chamber, from the back of the lens through the gel-like vitreous humor to the retina’s neural network and blood vessels, is a marvel of biologic engineering. It translates light into electrical impulses, enabling vision. Age and d... more

The roots of urgent care trace back to the industrial clinics of the early 20th century designed to treat injured workers quickly and minimize downtime. The urgent care model re-emerged in the 1970s as a response to overcrowded emergency departments ... more