A patient recently told me he noticed himself to be particularly randy when he had an outbreak of Herpes.

And that got me thinking. Read the rest of this post here »

 It’s always gratifying when you read some expert saying the same as what you’ve been telling your patients for years.

Dr. Stanley Schwartz, chief of Allergy and Rheumatology for Kaleida Health and the University of Buffalo says it always seems like this is the worst year ever for allergies.

It’s always seemed that way to me. Every year is “the very worst” - or at least that’s what those sniffley, snotty, sneezing patients who come demanding relief always say.

There is some justification this year after the wet spring, that is making everything bloom like crazy and produce an excess of what are really plant sperms - howdyoulike that up your nose?

And providing soggy damp conditions that those molds love so much - who then produce spores, that also cause allergies.

Painful to admit though, on one thing I am wrong. I have always told my patients “this is the most allergic place in the world”. Wrong.

The Asthma and allergy Foundation lists Knoxville, Tenn.; Louisville, Ky.; Charlotte, N.C.; and Chattanooga, Tenn.; as it’s “2011 spring allergy capitals”.

One criteria used in deciding this auspicious title is the number of allergy specialists per capita - which seems a little quirky. Maybe Chattanooga is particularly attractive to allergist. What if they are train buffs?

They’re all just there to catch the “Chattanooga Atchoo”?

Sorry, that’s a bit painful.

It’s been vile and humid all week and now it’s pissing rain all day long and I’m dragging and my back and neck are aching.

Maybe it’s because I got to work till 11 pm last night at the local free clinic because Dr S . . . . . . . .y was “no call/no show” once again. But I have to admit it is a distinct possibility that it’s really that I am “under the weather”.

Since Mrs. Gagg bought me a barometer/hygrometer/thermometer for Christmas I have been a student of atmospherics. And it really does seem that when the barometric pressure drops, you feel like shit.

There seems to be varying opinions among the pontificating experts about this. Some says it’s baloney. But Russians say your cognitive skills drop together with the barometric pressure. Another study claims people’s mood is better when it’s sunny - but sunny weather is associated with higher pressure.

Maybe it’s not that, or the anti- Seasonal Affective Disorder effect of the light. My suggestion is the sun just makes you think you’re back at that tiki bar sucking down Marguerites at the back of the beach.

Low pressure is often associated with humidity - which I think has an enervating effect. But there’s always some cantankerous old patient who tells you they know when it’s going to rain because their joints hurt.

Rheumatologist J. Hollander MD built a climate chamber (I picture a giant glass box with condensation and jungle growing and pygmies running around) and showed that humidity and low pressure combined are associated with increased joint pain and stiffness. But not either one independently.

I always tell my patients the fanciful hypothesis I have heard, that the reduced pressure allows the minute gas bubbles in the joint to expand and cause pain. Well it sounds good at least.

And when I’m tired and achy, I’m in no mood to listen to anyone’s objections to my hypotheses.