Conversations… | with Dr. Greene

Men and women born in 1970 - now in their mid-30s . already are being diagnosed with malignant melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer. Shockingly, these young adults are being diagnosed with melanoma at the same rate as the elderly who were born in 1930 and who didn’t start developing melanoma until their 50s, […]

The World Health Organization estimates that about 100,000 children each year are born with congenital rubella syndrome (CRS), a major cause of severe birth defects such as blindness, deafness, heart disease, and mental retardation. When pregnant mothers get rubella, a highly contagious otherwise-minor illness, the results for their babies can be devastating. Most of the […]

The breezy television ads for certain steroid-free eczema treatments have always bothered me. While they don.t say anything untrue, they do incorrectly imply that this treatment is gentler and safer than the more commonly used hydrocortisone. In March 2005 the United States FDA issued a public health advisory about a potential cancer risk from the […]

I was diagnosed with hay fever and asthma as a child, but outgrew them both. Researchers at McMaster University followed more than 1,000 children born in New Zealand in the early 1970.s. About 1/3 of those who had outgrown asthma by their 18th birthdays experienced a relapse of their asthma symptoms as young adults, according […]

Tobacco contains many compounds capable of damaging DNA and causing cancer. When a woman smokes during pregnancy, tobacco compounds from Mom.s bloodstream slip across the placenta. They can be found both in fetal blood and in the amniotic fluid that bathes the baby inside and out. We.ve known for some time that smoking during pregnancy […]

Whether or not your child leaves a doctor.s visit with an antibiotic prescription sometimes depends on who your doctor is as much as it depends on your child.s illness. Antibiotics were among the most important inventions of the 20th century, but their very success has led to overuse. The situation is improving year by year, […]