Health & Beauty Features

Ultra-safe radiation

Monmouth Medical Center has a full-time radiation safety officer dedicated to making sure diagnostic procedures involving radiation are performed under conditions of optimal safety.

Gut doctors

Gastroenterologists and surgeons collaborate for better patient care.

Goodbye, back pain

Elizabeth Maldonado had tried all kinds of medical treatments for the chronic back pain that had plagued her since 2005. She saw pain-management specialists who injected her spine with medications and prescribed oral narcotics. After three years of this, she was no better. In fact, she was worse.

Beating ‘the widow maker’

It’s said that just before you die, your whole life flashes before your eyes. But for a local physician who recently suffered a major heart attack, the flashbacks that came before he underwent lifesaving treatment at Monmouth Medical Center dated back just 13 years—to the birth of his son.

Kids’ doctors find the right place

Teenagers are famous for clamming up when an adult asks questions. But time and again the adolescents Keren Phillips, M.D., sees in the Monmouth Family Health Center prove they didn’t get the memo.

Tough joints

Talk about irony. Aron M. Green, M.D., orthopedic surgeon, had just finished his fellowship. “My first month on the job, I badly sprained my ankle running on an unfamiliar trail.”

Tired of being tired?

After eight hours in bed, you still dread the morning alarm clock. You’re sleeping long enough, but not well enough, and you’re ready to nod off at quiet moments during the day. If this sounds all too familiar, you may have a sleep disorder.

Pregnancy ‘rules’: fact or fiction

What's a mom-to-be to do? Myths abound about what’s safe and what’s unsafe when you’re pregnant, and yesterday’s conventional wisdom is sometimes debunked by today’s science.

Pinpointing cancer cells

Its name sounds like a science-fiction movie, but it’s real. One of the latest weapons in the battle against cancer, the CyberKnife combines sci-fi–like radiation technology with computer-guided imagery to destroy tumors without surgery.

The right place for same-day procedures

These days, an ever-growing number of operations are performed on a same-day basis, with no overnight hospital stay. And many Americans are choosing to have these procedures not in hospitals, but in outpatient facilities known as ambulatory surgery centers, or ASCs.

Stop schoolyard bullying

Don't think of bullying as a benign, "boys will be boys" situation. Bullies come in both sexes, and there's nothing harmless about true bullying. The regular targeting of a youngster for abuse is a form of emotional violence that can have serious consequences. Fortunately, parents can take some concrete steps to help children deal with bullying:

On-the-clock workouts

In a time crunch? Star trainer Jessie Pavelka suggests 10-,20-, 30- and 60-minute routines.

Shake up your exercise routine

Have you fallen into an exercise rut? If so, you may benefit from “surprising” your muscles with a change in your workout routine.

Fad or fact?

These 5 Ballyhooed remedies are all the rage, but do they really live up to their claims?

10 ways to beat headaches

In the Middle Ages, the Arab surgeon and medical writer Albucasis recommended one of two treatments for severe headaches: applying a hot iron to the site of the pain or inserting a piece of garlic into an incision on the temple. Thankfully, today's treatments are a lot easier to take-and a great deal more effective.

Battling genetic diseases

The baby was in grave danger, no doubt about it. Debra-Lynn Day-Salvatore, M.D., Ph.D., director of the Institute for Genetic Medicine at Saint Peter's University Hospital, remembers the infant she saw 10 years ago as if it were yesterday.

Voice of empathy

The journey that took Tabiri Chukunta from a small Nigerian village to his present role as director of community outreach for Saint Peter's Healthcare System has all the makings of a modern Odyssey, and perhaps its key moment was the day he "died."