Tag: health

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News News Feature

Why Planning for Retirement Is About More Than Money

Photo: Anukrati Omar | Unsplash

As you plan for retirement, it’s important to focus on having enough assets to live the life you want. Money and assets are just tools we use to express personal values and highlight what we view as important.

In the years leading up to retirement (or at any stage of life), be sure to focus on the things that will bring you joy, meaning, and fulfillment throughout the next chapter of life.

Health

You may have scrimped, saved, and invested your entire adult life to prepare for retirement, but what does it matter if you’re not healthy enough to enjoy your golden years? As you plan for your financial future, don’t forget to take care of your physical health.

Not only can a healthy lifestyle lead to a more fulfilling retirement but it can also help lower your retirement healthcare expenses and free up more money for enjoyable experiences. As an added potential benefit, your fitness journey may even lead to new hobbies as you transition into your retirement years.

Friends

It can be difficult to transition from the workforce, where you’re constantly surrounded by people, to a relatively solitary life. Social isolation can lead to multiple emotional and health-related issues, including depression, anxiety, and dementia. Even if you have a spouse to keep you company, you may benefit from spending time with friends outside your home.

In the years leading up to retirement, it’s important to start developing friendships with others. Consider seeking companionship through common interests. Perhaps you enjoy golfing, volunteering, or painting. Make an effort to connect with other people you encounter in these settings, and work to build some friendships prior to retiring.

Hobbies

Speaking of interests, retirees often find fulfillment by participating in hobbies. Have you always wanted to take up golf? Write a book? Try your hand at pickleball? Learn to throw a ceramic pot? Retirement is the time to do it! Don’t be afraid to put yourself out there and try something new. As you begin to explore new hobbies, try lots of new things and experiences — but don’t be afraid to quit quickly and try something new!

Purpose

Few retirees are done pursuing their goals after they leave the workforce. In fact, those who are most satisfied in retirement continue to have a clear sense of purpose in their lives — a mission that guides their actions. While it’s important to relax and have fun in retirement, it’s also important to find a sense of purpose and continue finding meaning in your daily life.

You may find purpose by continuing to work in retirement. Or perhaps you’re driven to volunteer with an organization that’s near and dear to your heart. Maybe your purpose comes from spending time with loved ones, caring for relatives, or teaching your grandchildren special skills.

It can be helpful to write down your purpose and view each action through the lens of “does this help me move toward my purpose or away from it?” You might be surprised how many decisions you make out of inertia or neglect and not in pursuit of your purpose!

Gratitude

Practicing gratitude can have a big impact on both your physical and emotional health. The benefits of gratitude include:

• Lower stress

• Improved sleep

• Lower blood pressure

• A stronger immune system

• An improved ability to identify and regulate emotions

• Higher emotional intelligence

• More positive feelings

• Better connections with others

To find more fulfillment in retirement, make an effort to regularly reflect on the people and things you’re grateful for. Be grateful for small things, such as the sun shining on your face, as well as big things, like the birth of a new grandchild. Taking time to recognize and appreciate the things that bring you joy can lead to a happier and more fulfilling life at any stage in your journey.

Gene Gard, CFA, CFP, CFT-I, is a Partner and Private Wealth Manager with Creative Planning. Creative Planning is one of the nation’s largest Registered Investment Advisory firms providing comprehensive wealth management services to ensure all elements of a client’s financial life are working together, including investments, taxes, estate planning, and risk management. For more information or to request a free, no-obligation consultation, visit CreativePlanning.com.

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At Large Opinion

What’s It All About?

Songwriter Burt Bacharach died last week at 94. His songs were mostly old-school paeans to romance — “Walk on By,” “The Look of Love,” “I Say a Little Prayer,” “This Guy’s in Love With You,” “Alfie,” to name just a few. Still, they popped up on the Top 40 charts for four decades, alongside the latest from the Stones, Donna Summer, Bruce Springsteen, the Temptations, the Cure, Elvis Costello, you name it. Bacharach left a musical legacy that made millions of people happy, even if only for three minutes at a time. You could do worse in this life.

I mention all this because I’ve been reading a lot about happiness lately, and the fact that we humans are essentially hard-wired for toxic or tonic thinking — stress or respite. It’s well-established now that how we process stress can either help our body heal or cause it to close itself off with anxiety.

I’m dealing with some health issues, so I’ve spent a lot of time recently consulting with Dr. Google. And even though my prognosis is pretty good, I still take heart from reading the vast trove of anecdotal “power of positive thinking” stories. These are genuine NIH medical histories, not hippie fantasies or Mexican-miracle-cures. For example, countless serious studies using placebos have demonstrated that if someone believes a medicine is helping, it will, even if it’s not medicine. Similarly, what were once considered “quack” remedies, including meditation and holistic practices, and even certain mushrooms long used in Chinese medicine, are now being tested with promising results. So that reishi mushroom tincture I take every morning couldn’t hurt, right?

Once, virtually every system of healing around the globe, from primitive jungle tribes to the kingdoms of Renaissance Europe, treated the mind and body as a whole. Then, 300 years ago or so, Western medicine started to see them as two distinct entities: The body came to be perceived more as a machine with replaceable, repairable, independent parts, with little medical connection to the mind’s influence. This led to great advances in surgery, trauma care, and pharmaceuticals, but it ignored the vital connections between mind and body, the recognition that the mind and body are not separate, but one. Our healthcare system is still primarily geared to medicate and operate, but thankfully the recognition of holistic strategies has also re-emerged.

So, back to the mind: If there are two options, what mental habits are tonic? And which are toxic? Meditation is probably the purest form of tonic thinking — just focusing on breathing and clearing one’s mind. Listening to music is tonic, as is any activity that gets your mind and body into a cohesive flow. As for toxic thinking? It’s dealing with stress. It’s worry. It’s tossing and turning at night over unpaid bills or that fight with your spouse or the pain in your chest that won’t subside. Learning to recognize stress and how to counter it is as medically necessary as remembering to take that evening cholesterol tablet.

In my, er, research, I rediscovered a book by Norman Cousins called Anatomy of an Illness. This book was a big deal in the 1960s, mainly because it was one of the first accounts of someone who ignored the medical establishment and succeeded in curing himself — and because Cousins was a well-known writer and the editor of the then-popular national magazine, Saturday Review. (I should add here that I was briefly managing editor at SR in the 1980s and had occasion to work with Cousins for a few months.)

At any rate, in 1964, Cousins was told he had ankylosing spondylitis — a crippling and irreversible disease — and should get his affairs in order. Faced with spending the short remainder of his life wasting away in a hospital room, Cousins checked into a hotel, and with the help of a sympathetic doctor, took massive amounts of vitamin C and spent hours every day watching comedies by the Marx Brothers and W.C. Fields and reading humorous books, his thesis being that laughter would free his brain from worry and negativity. It was a good call. His illness disappeared and his book became a huge bestseller, and he beat the raindrops falling on his head. You could do worse in this life, Alfie.

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At Large Opinion

Daze of Christmas Past

Photographerlondon | Dreamstime.com

It started with a backache in October. It seemed like a muscle pull or pinched nerve but it wouldn’t stop hurting. I went to two noted local clinics, each of which suggested different possible causes but offered no real relief from the pain. Finally, I tried acupuncture, which alleviated the symptoms enough that I thought maybe I’d turned the corner.

Then things got scary. On December 13th, I was walking my dogs when I noticed my left foot felt weak and a little floppy. I called my physician, Dr. Warren, and got an appointment for three days later. My wife Tatine accompanied me. After a brief check of my vitals and listening to me describe my symptoms, Warren said, “You’re going to the emergency room at Methodist right now.” And so the holiday festivities began.

After an hour, I was wheeled into a CT scan and then returned to a hallway to await results. Two hours later, the ER physician came out and said, quickly, “It’s cancer. You have a small mass in your chest. We’ll need to biopsy it and see what we’re dealing with.”

Well, merry dang Christmas. Tatine and I sat for a bit, like tornado survivors in a split-open house trailer. What the hell?

The next couple of days were a blur. Family and friends came and went and I put up a smile and a thumb. I then experienced the hospital’s panoply of tubular machines that inhale your body and look at its interior. The cacophonous MRI experience was an hour of bangs and audio distortion that I’ve yet to quite understand. But the good news was that the cancer seemed isolated to a single spot.

We began a series of meetings with doctors from cardiology, neurology, and oncology. The tumor was a thumb-sized growth that had attached to the front of my spine. The plan was for the neurologists to stabilize the spine from the backside with pins, and then when that was done, a treatment protocol for the tumor — once the biopsy came back and we knew what kind of cancer we were dealing with — would be created. So, on the fifth day of Christmas, I got major back surgery and a new Franken-spine. Two days later, the biopsy results indicated that I had a “curable” stage I lymphoma that could be treated with chemo over the next few months, a gift for which I’m obviously quite thankful.

The next three days were what I’ve come to recall as my “disco dreams” period. I was in the ICU and had access to a handy little pump that would allow me to give myself a nice pain-killing sedative every hour during the night. I was taking lots of other pills and the interaction was somewhat psychedelic. My sleep was full of flashing lights and rolling trains and groove music, interrupted on the hour, every hour, sadly, by nurses giving me meds, checking my vitals, taking my blood. My night visitors kept breaking up the party.

After ICU, I was moved to another room to begin my “plugged-in” phase, wherein bleeping tubes dripped medicines into my body and other tubes removed liquids from my body and I felt like a tank being simultaneously drained and filled.

Meanwhile, in the outside world, pipes were freezing, water was being boiled, blackouts were rolling. My family was gathering for meals and holiday rituals and I was watching movies on my laptop, my choices purely whimsical: My Man Godfrey, The Tender Bar, Slap Shot, The Man in the High Castle, some Harry Potter thing. I wanted out. Christmas was coming.

Christmas Eve arrived and after my family left, it was down to my favorite nurse Vitarn and me. I was feeling melancholy. We wished each other merry merry and I turned out the lights. (It was only later that I was gently told that “Vitarn” was really Vita, who signed her name on the white board as “Vita rn.”) Anyway, Vita and I had a lovely Christmas morning together, before Dr. Warren came in, checked me over, and said if neurology approved, I could go home.

By midday, I was good to go and stepping gingerly into the front seat of our car. I will not soon forget the odd pale daylight, how strange it felt being outside for the first time in 12 days, how quiet the traffic-less stretch of Union Avenue seemed to be on this, the strangest Christmas ever.

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News News Blog

We Have a Shot at Ending the Covid-19 Crisis. Let’s Get It Done.

(Credit: Daniel Schludi/Unsplash)

It is a difficult time to be a healthcare professional in the Mid-South. All of us have had to continuously change as we adapt to a different way of doing almost everything. The uncertainty spurred by the latest Covid-19 surge has created a stressful environment for most of us, and the distress of watching loved ones, friends, and neighbors get sick with the virus is something none of us want.

We are the leaders of Memphis’s top specialist clinics, including Gastro One, Medical Anesthesia Group, OrthoSouth, Semmes-Murphey Clinic, Stern Cardiovascular, West Cancer Center, McDonald Murrmann, Memphis Radiological, and Memphis OB/Gyn. For us, being trusted allies and advocates for patients is a core part of our missions.

In the same way our clinics deliver life-saving treatment and information to our patients on the operating table or in the office, we are urging our community members to protect themselves and to do their part in bringing this stage of the pandemic to a decisive end by getting vaccinated.

We certainly recognize the importance of individuals making informed choices about their care and treatment. However, our hospitals are filling up with patients infected with Covid-19, most of whom were never vaccinated. By getting the vaccine, you are protecting not only yourself but your family, co-workers, and the entire community. You are also helping to ensure that our healthcare facilities retain the capacity to care for patients who are seriously ill with other disorders.

We now know several facts about the vaccine. We know that it is very effective at preventing Covid-19. Although there can be minor side effects for some people such as chills, pain at the injection site, and headaches, overall the vaccine is a key factor, along with masking and social distancing, for controlling the spread of Covid-19.

Together, we urge you to roll up your sleeves for yourself, your family, your friends, and your loved ones. We encourage everyone to ask questions, to share worries, and to discuss doubts with their doctors or other trusted, reliable sources of information. This is how we will get our lives back and defeat Covid-19.

Let’s get it done, together.

Richard S. Aycock, MD, FACG  
Senior Vice President
Gastro One

Jordan Coffey, MD
President
Medical Anesthesia Group

Kevin T. Foley, MD, FACS 
Chairman
Semmes-Murphey Clinic

Steven Gubin, MD
President
Stern Cardiovascular

Sylvia Richey, MD
CMO
West Cancer Center

Aric Giddens, MD
President 
Memphis Ob/Gyn Association 

Mary McDonald, MD
Co-Founder
McDonald Murrmann Center for Wellness and Health

Hollis Halford, MD
President 
Memphis Radiological PC

Kenneth S. Weiss, MD 
Chairman
OrthoSouth

Categories
News Blog

University of Memphis Researchers Awarded Key Patents

The University of Memphis’ Office of Technology Transfer, housed out of the Division of Research & Innovation, received word that a number of patents submitted have been allowed by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, as well as internationally in Australia, Japan, and China.

Dipankar Dasgupta, a professor in Computer Science at the U of M and director of the Center for Information Assurance, was the lead designer on the patent, with assistance from Roy Arunava, Ghosh Debasis, and Kumar Nag Abhijit.

The patent, which is for “Adaptive Multi-Factor Authentication System with Multi-User Permission Strategy to Access Sensitive Information,” allows admin users the ability to give different permissions to other users based on their positions in a network. The goal of this system is to allow companies and government entities more control when handling sensitive data.

“Classified data breach and sensitive information leakage continues to be a major concern,” says Dasgupta. “We need a robust auditing mechanism of such information access, and the novelty of this innovation lies in combining adaptive multi-factor authentication to verify identity of the user and permission-based user access to sensitive information, providing end-to-end non-repudiated accountability in cyber systems.” 

The University of Memphis and SweetBio Inc. also received patent allowances from Australia and Japan, and an issued patent from China for their work in tissue regeneration. The patent for “Compositions and Methods for Enhancing Healing and Regeneration of Bone and Soft Tissue” lists Gary Bowlin, a professor of Biomedical Engineering, and Isaac Rodriguez, a former postdoctoral fellow in Biomedical Engineering and co-founder and chief science officer at SweetBio Inc., as the named inventors.

The patent outlines a technique in which soft and hard tissue could be regenerated using polymer, honey, and a synthetic filler. The invention is currently being commercialized by SweetBio, Inc. for wound-care applications.

“Honey has been used for millennia as a topical, short term, yet slightly messy material to treat wounds,” Says Rodriguez “These newly granted patents push the boundaries of how honey can be used for tissue regeneration both outside and inside the body.” 

More information on these patents as well as other work done by the Office of Technology Transfer can be found at the University of Memphis’ website.

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Cover Feature News

Exceptional Women in Medicine

Good health is the baseline. For everything. How we work, how we play, what we choose to eat, where (and how often) we travel. The Mid-South has an abundance of hospitals and clinics that exist for the shared mission of a thriving community: wellness. Within those institutions, though, are women who have made it their own life mission to heal the sick and keep those blessed with good health on the right path, regardless of life stage.

Let this year’s list of Exceptional Women in Medicine be your first resource should you be in need of care, be it a sprained wrist or lingering stomach discomfort. These specialists have been chosen among peers as the best in their field. Your good health is their baseline.

…

HOW THE EXCEPTIONAL WOMEN IN MEDICINE ARE CHOSEN

Castle Connolly Top Doctors is a healthcare research company and the official source for Top Doctors for the past 25 years. Castle Connolly’s established nomination survey, research, screening, and selection process, under the direction of an MD, involves many hundreds of thousands of physicians as well as academic medical centers, specialty hospitals, and regional and community hospitals all across the nation.

The online nominations process — located at castleconnolly.com/nominations — is open to all licensed physicians in America who are able to nominate physicians in any medical specialty and in any part of the country, as well as indicate whether the nominated physician is, in their opinion, among the best in their region in their medical specialty or among the best in the nation in their medical specialty. Once nominated, Castle Connolly’s physician-led team of researchers follow a rigorous screening process to select top doctors on both the national and regional levels.

Careful screening of doctors’ educational and professional experience is essential before final selection is made among those physicians most highly regarded by their peers. The result — we identify the top doctors in America and provide you, the consumer, with detailed information about their education, training, and special expertise in our paperback guides, national and regional magazine “Top Doctors” features, and online directories.

Doctors do not and cannot pay to be selected and profiled as Castle Connolly Top Doctors.

Physicians selected for inclusion in this magazine’s “Top Doctors” feature also appear online at castleconnolly.com, or in conjunction with other Castle Connolly Top Doctors databases online on other sites and/or in print. 

Castle Connolly was acquired by Everyday Health Group (EHG), one of the world’s most prominent digital healthcare companies, in late 2018. EHG, a recognized leader in patient and provider education, attracts an engaged audience of over 53 million health consumers and over 780,000 U.S. practicing physicians and clinicians to its premier health and wellness websites. EHG combines social listening data and analytics expertise to deliver highly personalized healthcare consumer content and effective patient engagement solutions. EHG’s vision is to drive better clinical and health outcomes through decision-making informed by highly relevant data and analytics. Healthcare professionals and consumers are empowered with trusted content and services through the Everyday Health Group’s flagship brands including Everyday Health®, What to Expect®, MedPage Today®, Health eCareers®, PRIME® Education, and our exclusive partnership with MayoClinic.org® and The Mayo Clinic Diet.® Everyday Health Group is a division of J2 Global Inc. (NASDAQ: JCOM), and is headquartered in New York City.

The Exceptional Women in Medicine (EWIM) award was created by Castle Connolly in order to recognize female physicians who are often underrepresented among award recipients from various aspects of medicine.

EWIM physicians have greatly contributed to healthcare through clinical care, research, community service, education, and/or leadership

EWIM physicians have made significant outreach efforts to underserved communities.

EWIM physicians improved health outcomes for issues specific to women, such as increased childbirth options, better diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer, heart disease in women, gender specific hip and knee replacements, etc.

…

Dr. Purvisha J. Patel, M.D.

Dermatology — Advanced Dermatology and Skin Cancer Associates

Born in London, Dr. Purvisha Patel spent most of her first 12 years in Wales before her parents — refugees from Uganda — seized an opportunity to run a motel in Hopkinsville, Kentucky. She spent her formative years in Ashland, Virginia, and attended the University of Virginia as both an undergraduate and medical student. She completed her dermatology training at the UT Health Science Center in Memphis, where she served her residency under Dr. William Rosenberg. (“Dr. Rosenberg was an amazing thinker,” says Patel. “He had skin-care lines and patents, which inspired my own career.”)

“As an immigrant family, [my parents] thought being a doctor was the ultimate career choice,” she says. “Seeing my parents work so hard, never having a vacation … you want to do whatever it takes to make them happy. I loved science, and I was good at it. I often took care of our grandparents, who would come and live with us. I was a caregiver, so doing medicine flowed naturally from that.”

Patel describes her decision to specialize in dermatology as a “eureka moment,” one that came with a serious dose of heartache. “My parents were thinking cardiology or neurosurgery, maybe pediatrics,” she says. “Nobody [in my family] really knew what dermatology was. But skin is the largest organ in the body. I feel like a Sherlock Holmes of medicine. I can tell if a patient is vitamin-deficient, if they have thyroid disease, diabetes, if they’re taking their medicine. I can see what people are doing for hobbies, if they’re swimming in a pool, what kind of pets they have. Before we had lab tests, this was medicine. Looking at a person’s body for signs and symptoms of disease.”

Patel’s father died at age 57 from skin cancer, just as she was choosing her specialty. “I chose to be a skin-cancer surgeon,” she reflects, “when my dad looked at me and asked, ‘You could have gotten rid of this before it spread?’ That’s how I knew. It was an easy decision.”

Dermatology offers about the closest thing a doctor can find to instant results. An ailment can be diagnosed, addressed, and often removed in a single visit. “A patient gets to see a disease go away,” Patel emphasizes, “and that’s really gratifying. We get to see the progress of treatment. It’s super fun.”

Reflecting on two decades as a dermatologist, Patel notes advances in technology — as with any field of medicine — but stands by the same general approach she studied at the turn of the century. “When it comes to skin cancer,” she explains, “the answer is to still take it out. The procedure I do most — micrographic surgery — is considered cutting-edge, but it hasn’t changed much since I left my training. When it comes to medicine, we’re using immunotherapies now for melanoma treatment. Science has changed the field, but it’s still kind of ancient in its roots.”

The coronavirus pandemic has and will impact dermatology, but Patel already sees progress in the area of remote treatment. “We’ve been utilizing telemedicine throughout the lockdown,” says Patel. “It has a good place in dermatology when it comes to follow-up visits, acne and rashes, or refilling prescriptions. Still, when doing a full skin exam — looking for skin cancer — seeing the person [in the same room] is the gold standard.” — Frank Murtaugh

…

Dr. Sylvia S. Richey, M.D.

Medical Oncology — West Cancer Center

As a young girl growing up in Birmingham, Dr. Sylvia Richey always knew she wanted to be a doctor. “Ever since I can remember, I was fixing and repairing my dolls,” she says, “and since my mother didn’t like the sight of blood, whenever anyone in the family needed a bandage, I took care of them. It seemed a natural path for me to take.”

A love of art history led her to a bachelor’s degree from Vanderbilt University, but she used her elective classes there to prepare her for study at the University of Alabama School of Medicine in Birmingham. Although she originally planned to specialize in pediatrics, a fellowship in medical oncology brought her to UT-Memphis. After additional training at the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, she returned here and joined the staff of West Cancer Center in 2005, where today she also serves as the associate medical director.

“What attracted me to oncology is that you are taking care of the whole patient and not just focusing on one organ,” she says. “To be effective, you have to treat cancer in the context of the rest of the body.”

In the 15 years since she’s been practicing, the most dramatic improvement in cancer treatment has been targeted therapy. “The sophistication of the molecular testing that we can do now really individualizes a patient’s treatment,” says Richey. “That approach didn’t exist years ago, but now it absolutely dictates how we treat every patient we see.” In the past, she explains, “Breast cancer was breast cancer. Now we know that not all breast cancers are the same, and so the treatment options are different for every patient.”

Richey has also witnessed many technological advances in her field, such as improvements in imaging, CT scans, and other diagnostic equipment. “We can find things earlier, which is great,” she says, “and surgeries have become less invasive, which is always better for the patient.”

In 2017, she took on a new role as director of the center’s Integrative Oncology Division, which is designed to address what patients can do for themselves during treatment. She likes this analogy: “If you think of cancer in someone’s body as a weed in their garden, the doctor is focusing on how to get rid of that weed, and we have to decide what weed killer to use,” she says. “But in the bigger picture, the patient has to take care of the whole garden, to make it as inhospitable as possible to that weed, so it won’t come back.”

The program addresses a patient’s spiritual and religious needs, shows them how to handle the psychological stress of a cancer diagnosis, and emphasizes the importance of nutrition, diet, and exercise. A new component is art therapy, where an artist works with patients during their “cancer journey.”

An integrated approach to therapy is key to the future of cancer treatment, says Richey. Also important is what she calls “survivorship” — how to get cancer patients back into society after they have recovered. That wasn’t always a concern years ago. “When I first started practicing,” she says, “our whole patient population would turn over every couple of years because patients were not long-term survivors. But now they are living longer, and I think that’s fantastic.” — Michael Finger

…

Allergy & Immunology

Dr. Christie F. Michael

UT Le Bonheur Pediatric Specialists

51 N. Dunlap St., Ste. 400

Memphis, TN 38105

Dr. D Betty Lew

UT Le Bonheur Pediatric Specialists

51 N. Dunlap St., Ste. 400

Memphis, TN 38105

Dr. Nora Daher

Daher Asthma & Allergy Clinic

2136 Exeter Rd.

Germantown, TN 38138

Cardiovascular Disease

Dr. Maureen A. Smithers

Sutherland Cardiology Clinic

7460 Wolf River Blvd.

Germantown, TN 38138

Child Neurology

Dr. Robin L. Morgan

Le Bonheur Outpatient Center

848 Adams Ave., Ste. 400

Memphis, TN 38103

Dr. Amy L. McGregor

UT Le Bonheur Pediatric Specialists

848 Adams Ave., Ste. L400

Memphis, TN 38103

Dr. Namrata S. Shah

UT Le Bonheur Pediatric Specialists

Neurology Clinic

Memphis, TN 38103

Clinical Genetics

Dr. Jewell C. Ward

UT Le Bonheur Pediatric Specialists

51 N. Dunlap St., Ste. 400

Memphis, TN 38105

Dermatology

Dr. Purvisha J. Patel

Advanced Dermatology & Skin Cancer Associates

7658 Poplar Pike

Germantown, TN 38138

Dr. F. Gwen Beard

Memphis Dermatology Clinic

1455 Union Ave.

Memphis, TN 38104

Dr. Malika Tuli

Mid-South Dermatology

6605 Stage Rd., Ste. 2

Barlett, TN 38134

Dr. Luella G. Churchwell

Dermatology East

1335 Cordova Cv.

Germantown, TN 38138

Dr. Robin H. Friedman-Musicante

Memphis Dermatology Clinic

1455 Union Ave.

Memphis, TN 38104

Dr. Teresa S. Wright

Le Bonheur Outpatient Center

848 Adams Ave., Ste. 400

Memphis, TN 38103

Dr. Frances K. Lawhead

Memphis Dermatology Clinic

1455 Union Ave.

Memphis, TN 38104

Developmental – Behavioral Pediatrics

Dr. Toni M. Whitaker

UT Le Bonheur Pediatric Specialists

Boling Center for Developmental Disabilities

Memphis, TN 38105

Diagnostic Radiology

Dr. Sue C. Kaste

St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital

Department of Diagnostic Imaging

Memphis, TN 38105

Family Medicine

Dr. Ericka L. Gunn-Hill

Jackson-Randle Family Healthcare

5142 Stage Rd., Ste. 100

Memphis, TN 38134

Dr. Aparna K. Murti

Methodist Medical Group

2589 Appling Rd., Ste. 101

Bartlett, TN 38133

Gynecologic Oncology

Dr. Linda M. Smiley

West Cancer Center

7945 Wolf River Blvd.

Memphis, TN 38138

Hematology

Dr. Patricia E. Adams-Graves

Regional One Health

Outpatient Center

Memphis, TN 38103

Internal Medicine

Dr. Joan Michelle Allmon

Aim Allmon Internal Medicine

526 Halle Park Dr.

Collierville, TN 38017

Dr. Natascha S. Thompson

UT Methodist Physicians

Primary Care

Cordova, TN 38018

Dr. Martha N. Taylor

Methodist Medical Group

7690 Wolf River Cir.

Germantown, TN 38138

Dr. Catherine R. Womack

UT Methodist Physicians

Primary Care

Cordova, TN 38018

Medical Oncology

Dr. Syvlia S. Richey

West Cancer Center

7945 Wolf River Blvd.

Germantown, TN 38138

Dr. Moon J. Fenton

West Cancer Center

Midtown Memphis Campus

Memphis, TN 38104

Dr. Carmel S. Verrier

West Cancer Center

7945 Wolf River Blvd.

Germantown, TN 38138

Nephrology

Dr. Lynn Ebaugh

East Memphis Nephrology

7640 Wolf River Cir., Fl. 2

Germantown, TN 38138

Neurology

Dr. Barbara Cape O’Brien

Neurology Clinic

8000 Centerview Pkwy., Ste. 300

Cordova, TN 38018

Dr. Rohini Bhole

UT Medical Group

1331 Union Ave., Fl. 11

Memphis, TN 38104

Obstetrics & Gynecology

Dr. Vanessa M. Givens

Women’s Health Specialists

7800 Wolf Trail Cv.

Germantown, TN 38138

Dr. Lanetta Anderson

Womens Physicians Group

7705 Poplar Ave., B Bldg. – Ste. 110

Memphis, TN 38138

Dr. Claudette J. Shephard

Regional One Health

Outpatient Center

Memphis, TN 38103

Dr. Heather Pearson Chauhan

Exceed Hormone Specialists

7512 Second St.

Germantown, TN 38138

Ophthalmology

Dr. Mary E. Hoehn

Hamilton Eye Institute

930 Madison Ave., Ste. 400

Memphis, TN 38103

Dr. M Cathleen Schanzer

VRF Eye Specialty Group

5350 Poplar Ave., Ste. 950

Memphis, TN 38119

Dr. Penny A. Asbell

Hamilton Eye Institute

930 Madison Ave., Ste. 400

Memphis, TN 38103

Dr. Natalie C. Kerr

Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital

49 N. Dunlap St., Fl. 3

Memphis, TN 38103

Hamilton Eye Institute

930 Madison Ave., Ste. 400

Memphis, TN 38103

Dr. Lauren C. Ditta

Hamilton Eye Institute

930 Madison Ave., Ste. 400

Memphis, TN 38103

Otolaryngology

Dr. Victoria L. Lim

Shea Clinic

6133 Poplar Pike

Memphis, TN 38119

Pediatric Endocrinology

Dr. Joan C. Han

UT Le Bonheur Pediatric Specialists

51 N. Dunlap St., Ste. 100

Memphis, TN 38105

Dr. Alicia M. Diaz-Thomas

UT Le Bonheur Pediatric Specialists

51 N. Dunlap St., Ste. 100

Memphis, TN 38105

Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital

49 N. Dunlap St., Fl. 3

Memphis, TN 38103

Pediatric Hematology- Oncology

Dr. Melody J. Cunningham

Le Bonheur Outpatient Center

848 Adams Ave., Ste. 400

Memphis, TN 38103

Pediatric Nephrology

Dr. Margaret C. Hastings

UT Le Bonheur Pediatric Specialists

51 N. Dunlap St., Ste. 400

Memphis, TN 38105

Pediatric Otolaryngology

Dr. Jennifer D. Mclevy

UT Le Bonheur Pediatric Specialists

51 N. Dunlap St., Ste. G10

Memphis, TN 38105

Pediatric Pulmonology

Dr. Patricia J. Dubin

UT Le Bonheur Pediatric Specialists

51 N. Dunlap St., Ste. 400

Memphis, TN 38105

Dr. Tonia E. Gardner

UT Le Bonheur Pediatric Specialists

51 N. Dunlap St., Fl. 4

Memphis, TN 38105

Pediatric Rheumatology

Dr. Linda K. Myers

UT Le Bonheur Pediatric Specialists

51 N. Dunlap St., Ste. 100

Memphis, TN 38105

Pediatric Surgery

Dr. Eunice Y. Huang

UT Le Bonheur Pediatric Specialists

51 N. Dunlap St., Fl. 2

Memphis, TN 38105

Pediatric Urology

Dr. Dana W. Giel

UT Le Bonheur Pediatric Specialists

51 N. Dunlap St., Ste. 100

Memphis, TN 38105

Pediatrics

Dr. Janet D. Geiger

River City Pediatrics

6401 Poplar Ave., Ste. 610

Memphis, TN 38119

Dr. Ellen J. Stecker

River City Pediatrics

6401 Poplar Ave., Ste. 610

Memphis, TN 38119

Dr. Elisha M. McCoy

UT Le Bonheur Pediatric Specialists

51 N. Dunlap St., Fl. 4

Memphis, TN 38105

Dr. Dawn H. Scott

Pediatric Consultants

51 N. Dunlap St., Ste. 310

Memphis, TN 38105

Plastic Surgery

Dr. Patricia L. Eby

Cosmetic Surgery Specialists of Memphis

6401 Poplar Ave., Ste. 360

Memphis, TN 38119

Pulmonary Disease

Dr. Amik Sodhi

UT Methodist Physicians

Pulmonology

Memphis, TN 38104

Radiation Oncology

Dr. Jenny Tibbs

Saint Francis Hospital

Dept. of Radiation Oncology

Memphis, TN 38119

Reproductive Endocrinology/Infertility

Dr. Amelia Bailey

Fertility Associates of Memphis

80 Humphreys Ctr., Ste. 307

Memphis, TN 38120

Surgery

Dr. Lindi Hanna Vanderwalde

Baptist Medical Group

Memphis Breast Care

Memphis, TN 38120

Dr. Alyssa D. Throckmorton

Baptist Medical Group

Memphis Breast Care

Memphis, TN 38120

Urogynecology/Female Pelvic Medicine & Reconstructive Surgery

Dr. Val Y. Vogt

The Conrad Pearson Clinic

1325 Wolf Park Dr., Ste. 102

Germantown, TN 38138

Categories
News News Blog

Christ Community Health Services Moves COVID-19 Drive-Through Testing Site

Monday, Christ Community Health Services announced that it would be moving its drive-through COVID-19 testing site to expand access to testing services.

As of Monday, August 31st, all drive-through testing is being done at 1720 RKS Commercial Cove. Testing will continue to take place Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Chief nursing and quality officer Shayla Williamson says the move will allow for more testing to be done.

“The move allows us to increase our ability to test up to 500 individuals daily. We are encouraging people to pre-register to help speed the testing process,” she says. “Those wishing to be tested are asked to text: Test2020 to 91999 or call Christ Community at 901-842-3160. The Lamar site will allow for limited testing of individuals who have not pre-registered.”

Christ Church began testing in early March and has tested over 20,000 individuals with drive through testing at their Third Street and Hickory Hills locations.

Categories
News News Blog

FedExForum Could Get City’s First Pod For Nursing Mothers

CREDIT: Mamava

Mamava

A lactation pod like this could soon be at the FedExForum

Memphis’ first lactation pod for nursing mothers could be coming to the FedExForum later this year.

The Shelby County Commission will vote later Monday on a resolution to purchase the pod from Mamava, a company that sells free standing lactation pods for mothers to pump or nurse in public.

Mamava strives to “transform the culture of breastfeeding, “making it more optimistic, realistic, accommodating, and inviting for all mamas.”

The approximate $25,000 pod that the county is considering purchasing will provide a safe, secure, non-bathroom location for mothers to pump or nurse.

The pod at the FedExForum would be the first in West Tennessee.

There are more than 450 Mamava pods around the county, including three in Tennessee. There are currently two in Nashville and one in Chattanooga.

Mamava


According to Mamava, Tennessee is a breastfeeding-positive state, meaning there is legislation that protects nursing mothers in the workplace and in other public places.

Employers are required to provide reasonable unpaid break time for mothers to pump each day under the law. Employers are also required to make reasonable efforts to provide a space, other than a toilet stall, for mothers to pump in private.

Under state law, women have the right to breastfeed in any location, public or private, where the mother and child are otherwise authorized to be present.” Mothers are also exempt from indecent exposure laws while breastfeeding.

If the commission passes the resolution, the pod will be installed before the start of the Grizzlies’ season this fall, serving as a pilot project.

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The commission’s effort is a part of Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris’ healthyShelby 19 campaign focusing on dietary, mental, and physical fitness.

The commission cites in the resolution that breastfeeding is a key first step to childhood obesity prevention. The idea is to support Shelby County mothers in breastfeeding in order to benefit the baby’s health and reduce overall healthcare costs.

The resolution is sponsored by Commissioners Tami Sawyer, Reginald Milton, and Brandon Morrison.

“It is exciting to be able to support mothers and babies at FedExForum, one of our busiest attractions.” Morrison said. “Research shows that breastfeeding is not only the healthiest option for infants, but actually saves on future health-related costs for both mother and baby.”

The Shelby County Health Department could also look to install additional pods on other county assets in the future.

Categories
Theater Theater Feature

Deep Subjects

Well is supposed to be an avant-garde “multi-character theatrical exploration of health and illness in the individual and the community.” I know this because Lisa Kron, the play’s author and main character, says so repeatedly throughout the show. Or, in the case of Theatre Memphis’ minimal and occasionally monotonous mounting of Well, the line is repeated by Kron’s surrogate, local actor Laurie Cook McIntosh, a solid stand-in for the acclaimed author and frequent solo performer. Cook McIntosh, a tiny but forceful redhead known for her range and versatility, begins the show by stepping into the soft, sheltering, center-stage spotlight and telling her audience plainly (with only the faintest hint of self- mockery) that Kron’s show isn’t a play in the traditional sense but something else entirely.

“This play is not about my mother and me,” she insists. But nobody will ever believe her. How can anyone believe that Well is a multi-character theatrical exploration making the unlikely comparison of racial integration in Michigan to allergies when dear old Mom is so obviously snoozing in a Laz-E-Boy recliner only a few feet away? And how can it not become a play about Lisa and her mother when Mom, though sick and slow-moving, winningly inserts herself into the storyline whenever Lisa allows her poetic license to interfere with the facts of her genuinely interesting life.

Martha Graber’s performance as Ann Kron, the mysteriously afflicted antiques dealer turned community organizer, is quietly assured. Her gentle impositions into her daughter’s stage life are full of complex ideas that refuse to be reshaped to fit her daughter’s script.

Speaking of reshaping: Almost everything Well has to say about the relationship between reality, art, and memory has been reflected in Christopher McCollum’s simple but effective set. It’s nothing more than a blue square painted on a black surface. It looks like the kind of nonrepresentational abstraction painter Mark Rothko was producing at the end of the 1950s. But the fully abstract space is wrecked by pieces of a hardwood floor invading one quadrant. These naturalistic set elements lead to a hyperrealistic sliver of Kron’s cluttered middle-class home that has been stuffed uncomfortably into a corner where it barely fits.

Well, although complete, is presented as Kron’s impression of an unraveling work-in-progress. Cook McIntosh’s best attempts to put her confused actors through their paces are undermined by Mom, who just wants to get everybody a Coke, dote on her talented daughter, and tell them stories about her hard-fighting days as a community organizer in Lansing, Michigan, where she was willing to buck popular opinion and do everything in her power to save her community from white flight. Supporting actors Emily Peckham, Lisa Lynch, Robert McIntosh, and Michael Higgenbottom play themselves as actors in Kron’s play as well as a variety of other grotesquely exaggerated characters who all eventually find Mom more interesting than the play.

Robert McIntosh, Laurie’s husband and frequent co-actor, is particularly affecting as a male nurse who can’t stop talking about the wonders of laxatives and enemas. Lynch is also effective as a high school bully who keeps wandering, uninvited, through Kron’s most vulnerable moments in her own play. It’s unfortunate, however, that the supporting cast too often adopts the sing-song pace and soothing, therapeutic voice of a radio psychologist, turning this otherwise engaging comedy into a lullaby.

Director Joanna Helming has done a superb job mixing Kron’s sometimes scattershot metaphors. She has not fared quite so well in presenting her vision in the round. The principal actors are sometimes blocked from view by the supporting actors, who line up like human shields between the audience and the action.

Critics have frequently, and accurately, compared Well to Six Characters in Search of an Author, Luigi Pirandello’s groundbreaking exercise in meta-theater. Like Six Characters, Well examines not only the subject matter at hand but also the limits of theatrical conventions. It takes a hard look at how easily storytelling can fail and fall apart and how faulty memories can sap all the richness from an otherwise compelling tale. Unlike Six Characters, which 87 years after its debut still feels edgy, Well comes off as a sweetly self-referential Hallmark special about mothers, daughters, allergies, and racial integration. It’s avant-garde lite.

At Theatre Memphis through April 20th

Categories
Food & Wine Food & Drink

Praise the Lard!

Here’s a fun exercise: When you take your pumpkin or apple pie to a Christmas potluck, tell the folks you made the crust with lard, even if you didn’t.

What is likely to happen next is a combination of (mainly) horror and disgust, mixed in with some fascination and even a dash of admiration. That’s because there are two universally accepted “truths” about lard: One is that lard is terrible for you, and the other is that it makes really, really flaky pie crusts and biscuits.

On the second truth, there is essentially no debate — although there is still a strong argument for the taste of butter over lard. The first truth, however, is a bit fuzzier.

Food writers Matt and Ted Lee, in their 2006 Lee Bros. Southern Cookbook, urge the use of some lard in pies and biscuits, and in a chapter on the subject, they make the basic case. Lard, they say, is nothing more than pure, rendered pig fat: “North America’s primary grease from the time European explorers introduced hogs to this continent until the middle of the 20th century.”

Since then, however, fear of fat has gone up as studies linked animal fats, cholesterol, and heart disease. As the Lee Brothers put it, “Today, most Americans would rather smoke unfiltered Camels while riding a motorcycle without a helmet than eat [lard].”

But the Lees point to newer studies which talk more about eating the right fat instead of no fat. On that score, quoting stats from the Department of Agriculture on saturated and unsaturated fat, they argue that “lard is no worse for you than butter, and they’re both a heck of a lot healthier than any of the processed, hydrogenated margarines and spreads.”

The Lees’ pie crust recipe has four tablespoons of butter and two tablespoons of lard, and it can be said from experience that the result is pretty amazing — as long as you warn your vegetarian or kosher friends ahead of time.

The thing about lard, though — and the Lees acknowledge this — is that the lard you get in stores is hydrogenated (therefore containing trans fats) and loaded with preservatives which at the least add off-flavors and at the worst have been identified as possible carcinogens.

That — as well as the decades-long problem with public perception — is probably why, if you call any restaurant or bakery in town, you get responses like, “Lard? Oh Lord, no!” Such was the hurried statement from an employee at the Pie Folks in Olive Branch. Backermann’s Bakery in Whiteville, which sells fried pies to Easy Way, says they use only vegetable shortening in their products.

Lard isn’t a four-letter word everywhere. Mexican cooks rely on it (and Mexican groceries usually have it), and in some places it’s even celebrated. In Ukraine, there’s a festival in honor of what they call salo. At one of the festivals, patrons ate a giant sandwich made with 80 pounds of lard.

While not yet spreading lard onto sandwiches, Americans may be coming back around to the stuff. There has been a wave of articles with headlines like, “Nothing beats lard for old-fashioned flavor” (Seattle Times, 2006); “Don’t let lard throw you into a tizzy” (San Francisco Chronicle, 2003); and “Heaven in a pie pan” (The New York Times, 2006). Famous chefs like Rick Bayless use it for baking and frying, the latter because it has a very high smoke point.

The thrust of these articles and many others is about the same as the Lee Brothers’ argument: Our health problems come more from bad fats and calories than anything lard has to offer; Crisco and other fake products (including commercial lard) are unhealthy; and what you really should try is real, fresh lard.

Ah, and there’s the greasy rub: Where on earth does one find real, fresh lard? In essence, since we couldn’t find anybody in Memphis who sells it, you have two options: mail-order and make-your-own.

Several places have online ordering of preservative-free lard: Dietrich’s Meats in Pennsylvania (610-756-6344, dietrichsmeats.com); Fiedler Family Farms in Indiana (812-836-4348, fiedlerfamilyfarms.com); and Linda J. Forristal, who calls herself Mother Linda and occasionally has some lard (momlinda@motherlindas.com).

There are instructions for various rendering methods all over the Internet, and since this reporter doesn’t own his own home, he has yet to try any of them. They boil down (pun intended) to some form of this: Get some pig fat, melt it, strain it, and cool what’s left, which is lard. In essence, bacon grease is lard as well, but not as recommended for these uses. Ideally, you want leaf lard, which comes from the kidney area; the usual backup (another pun), especially for frying, is fatback.

With some notice, Schnucks says they can get pork fat for about 99 cents a pound. Or check with the meat vendors at a farmer’s market.

All accounts agree on one thing, though: Your kitchen will smell like a breakfast diner when all is said and done.

Local connections, hands-on cooking, old-timey ingredients, taste over convenience, purity over preservatives — we just might be on the verge of a lard revolution!