Not all tremors are signs of Parkinson’s disease
Shaking or tremors are rhythmic oscillations of a part of the body. It often involves the hands but not uncommonly can be in the head, mouth, voice, or foot. When in the hands it can be in one, or both.

What does vision have to do with autism?
For most of us, vision just works. We wake in the morning, open our eyes, and we don’t think much about our eyes (even if we use lenses to help with clarity of the images).

Getting and staying in shape for football
SCOTT FINLEY - Chiropractor

Vision can be adversely affected after a brain injury
Today’s article is for anyone who may have to cope with the effects of a brain injury, either personally or through the experience of someone close.

New studies indicate you are what your mother ate
DR. SCOTT FINLEY - Chiropractor

Getting the kind of health care that works for you
Today in medicine there is an overwhelmingly immense and constantly growing volume of knowledge about the human body and how it can break down into illness and disease. This vast collection of medical data has all but forced many practitioners to limit their practices to smaller and smaller areas of specialized knowledge.

Sometimes challenging science leads to advances
This week, rather than tell you in just a few words about something that might apply to a few readers, I thought I’d review a book that I think could be inspirational to all of us who work to be healthy and take care of ourselves. For those of you who choose to purchase the book, you’ll get to read a fascinating author.

Treating neck pain, headache and the jaw joint
Neck pain and headaches can be very disabling and can significantly alter a person’s normal pattern of living. Simple things like reading the newspaper, cooking, driving a car, and/or looking down when feeding a baby, can become almost intolerable.

Celebrating summer n What constitutes a serving of alcohol
As the “dog days” of summer quickly approach, many of us enjoy firing up the barbecue, sitting on our back porches and sipping a cold beer with friends and family. Alcohol consumption is a common part of the lifestyle of many individuals. However, the use of alcohol can drift to dependence and abuse.

Springtime brings increase in hay fever symptoms
It is finally springtime in Montana and we are all enjoying the beautiful weather. While it brings with it green grass and vibrant flowers, it also brings hay fever to many individuals. Hay fever, also known as seasonal allergic rhinitis, affects approximately one in 10 people at some time in their lives. It tends to run in families and is more common in people with asthma and eczema. It can also develop at any time in a person’s life.

Electronic health records improve quality of care
I have watched with trepidation the national discussion on electronic health records that has populated the airwaves since the time of the election. As any of my patients know, I am a strong supporter of electronic health records, but have felt that this discourse does not highlight the value of the record to the patient.

Some straight talk about the swine flu (H1N1) virus
Originally I was going to write about pink eye, but quickly changed my mind. Who cares about pink eye in the face of the growing panic over swine flu. With the number of cases worldwide reaching close to 900 and the death total at 20 (1 in the United States), it’s all anyone can talk about. Although those numbers are frightening, let’s put them in perspective. Officials indicate that so far symptoms are not any more severe than the yearly seasonal influenza. As of April 11, 2009, the total number of swab proven seasonal influenza cases in the United States alone numbered just over 25,000 and the number of pediatric deaths nationwide was 53, with deaths in the elderly numbering in the thousands. The World Health Organization reports that annual epidemics of seasonal flu worldwide affect over 3 million people with deaths greater than 250,000. Granted the emergence of a new strain of flu should be concerning and we should do everything possible to prevent the spread of the disease but compared to many diseases we deal with consistently, the risk is relatively low.

Thoracic Outlet Syndrome can have many causes
The thoracic outlet is a small space between the collarbone (clavicle) and the first rib. Thoracic outlet syndrome (TOS) is a group of disorders that involve compression, injury or irritation of the nerves, or blood vessels in the thoracic outlet. This can cause pain in the shoulders and neck and numbness in the fingers.

General surgeons handle a wide range of operations
I am often asked what types of surgery I perform as a general surgeon. The name “general surgeon” is a bit of a misnomer and is confusing to the general public. A more appropriate name might be abdominal surgeon. “General” implies that we do all types of surgery and don’t specialize in one area of the body. In reality, by far the most common surgeries I perform involve the abdomen or belly and consist of appendectomies, gallbladders, colon resections, hernias, and bowel obstructions. Abdominal surgeries may be done using laparoscopic or open techniques. Laparoscopy involves doing the surgery through very small incisions. General surgeons also perform breast biopsies and breast cancer surgeries such as mastectomies and lumpectomies. In addition, many patients are referred to general surgeons for office procedures such as removing skin cancers and sebaceous cysts, draining abscesses, banding hemorrhoids, removing moles, and performing vasectomies. General surgeons often manage wound care as well.

Appendicitis needs to be diagnosed, treated quickly
Appendicitis is a well known medical condition that requires urgent surgery. Historically, many normal appendices were removed due to inaccurate diagnoses, but this is less common today since advances in medical technology have made diagnosis easier to determine. Appendicitis is most common in the teens and 20s. It is less frequent in childhood and later adulthood. I rarely see appendicitis in people over the age of 55.

Four common ailments responsible for anal pain
People are often reluctant to bare their derriere to physicians when anal pain arises due to embarrassment. The patient’s history of anal pain and rectal bleeding often make diagnosing the problem easy. There are four common anal ailments that most physicians see in their practices. These include external thrombosed hemorrhoids, internal hemorrhoids, anal fissures, and perirectal abscesses.

Understanding Temporomandibular Joint Disorder TMD
Do you complain that it hurts when you chew, open wide to yawn or use your jaws? Do you have pain or soreness in front of the ear, in the jaw muscle, cheek, the teeth or the temples? Does your jaw make loud noises or get stuck or locked as you open your mouth? If so, you may have a temporomandibular joint disorder, or TMD.

Beware of abdominal pain signs and symptoms
Abdominal (stomach) pain is a common complaint that patients present with to their family physicians. It may be chronic in nature or acute requiring a visit to the emergency room. In evaluating a patient, the location and the characteristics of the abdominal pain often gives clues as to what is causing the pain. Pain that is a cramping intermittent pain is often related to the small intestines. Pain that is severe and incapacitating to a patient may indicate a perforation of the bowel. The location of constant pain may aid in determining the cause. The abdomen is divided into right upper quadrant RUQ, left lower quadrant LLQ, right lower quadrant RLQ, left upper quadrant LUQ, epigastric, pelvic, and periumbilical.

Eyewear important when enjoying outdoor activities
Spring is upon us and with spring comes ... a whole new year of fishing! In today’s article, I will give some advice on how to maximize your eye safety, comfort, clarity, and ultimately, your enjoyment of that fine pursuit that helps make living in the Bitterroot a dream come true for so many of us.

Neuropathy can have many underlying causes
Neuropathy is a condition where the nerves, usually furthest from the center of the body, do not work properly. It usually involves the feet first. Neuropathy is not a disease per se, but rather it is a set of symptoms and findings that are caused by something. It would be comparable to a rash. Certainly something abnormal, and not desirable, but not a diagnosis in and of itself. The treatment for neuropathy is ideally treating the underlying cause.

Alzheimer’s disease and dementia affect brain function
Dementia is a deterioration of the cognitive abilities of the brain. By cognitive we mean in a sense thinking, but it really involves most of the functioning of the brain that are not automatic, and much of what makes us human. Things that we often take for granted, such as speaking and comprehending language; calculating; planning; remembering; learning a new task; and abstract reasoning are all cognitive abilities. Although these may seem routine, and almost automatic, we use them all in the course of a single day. Simple tasks such as planning our day’s activities, going shopping, driving a car, making a meal require cognitive skills. It is when two or more of these skills stop working properly, and interfere with daily functioning that we say a dementia is present.

Parkinson’s disease usually treated with medication
Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a degenerative disease of the brain. In particular, certain areas of the brain where the chemical dopamine is produced deteriorate. It most commonly affects those in middle age, and the elderly, but can affect much younger age groups as well.

Neuroemotional Technique may be your saving grace
NET is a healing technique that explores the basic emotions of fear, anger, grief, and others—are a part of the normal response to everyday experiences. Generally, these emotional responses dissipate as the situation that triggers them resolves. For example, if you encounter a growling dog while you are walking down the street, you may feel fear. The fear, in this case, is part of the healthy emotional response that protects your survival, and it will normally dissipate when the threat is gone. However, sometimes there are factors that prevent the body from recovering from what was originally a healthy response. The result is a short-circuit or “glitch” in the nervous system, which can affect physical and mental well-being.

Multiple sclerosis can take many different forms
Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is an autoimmune disease of the central nervous system. This means that there is “something” that the body is doing to attack a part of itself. This something is not known. It is the focus of ongoing research.

Preventing arm and shoulder injuries in young baseball/softball athletes
Coach Gene Coleman with the Houston Astros teaches young people how to throw and prevent injuries on a regular basis.

Melanoma seen as the curse of the sun exposed
The first accredited mention of melanoma was by Hippocrates in the fifth century, B.C. The oldest finding of melanoma is in Peruvian mummies radiocarbon dated to 2,400 years ago. Examined in the 1960s, they were found to have melanoma of the skin with local tumors and bone metastasis. These mummies were found at high elevation and no doubt lived a life with significant sun exposure.

Headaches often treated by doctors of chiropractic
Headaches are more common in adults, although they may develop at any time in anyone. Approximately four out of five children have headaches at some point, but most are benign and self-resolving. In fact, many adults who suffer from headaches report having the first headache in childhood.

Appendicitis while pregnant poses risks
Appendicitis is the most common general surgical problem occurring in a pregnant patient. These two medical conditions occur together in one of every 1,500 pregnancies. The appendicitis can happen at any time during the pregnancy, but is slightly more common during the second trimester, which fortunately is a safer time to operate.

Examining the cause of the asthma epidemic
In the United States, asthma cases have increased by more than 60 percent since the early 1980s. And asthma-related deaths have doubled to 5,000 per year.

Don’t take arthritis lying down
Years ago, doctors hardly ever told rheumatoid arthritis patients to “go take a hike” or “go for a swim.” Arthritis was considered an inherent part of the aging process and a signal to a patient that it is time to slow down. However, not so any more. Recent research and clinical findings suggest that there is much more to life for arthritis patients than the traditional recommendations of bed rest and drug therapy.