Vita Dermatology Blog

What Are Shingles?

If you are over 60, chances are that your doctor has immunized you with the shingles vaccine or counseled you to get it. At least that is what the folks at the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta hope will happen. But even the best laid medical plans go awry in our world of managed care, cost shifting, and vaccine phobia.

Suffering From Rosacea?

Are you a flusher? A blusher? Tired of that chronic redness on your face or your adult acne? You may very well have a treatable condition called rosacea.

Rosacea, or the “Curse of the Celts” as it is historically known, tends to plague those of northern European heritage unequally higher than other backgrounds. It is a dirt-common disease that is just beginning to be understood by modern medicine.

It is said that "chronic itch is the skin equivalent to pain." Itching disrupts sleep, limits your activities, diminishes your concentration and generally is quite maddening. We will scratch, claw and tear up our skin to satisfy that annoying itch sensation. It is poorly understood by modern medicine but the burden on patients is very real and taxing to even the most stoic of individuals. A psychological component complicates its definition and study, as just thinking about itchy things can cause you to itch.

So You Think Your Moles Look Fine?

You have heard the message by now: Melanoma is deadly. You also probably know that it is the fastest growing cancer in the United States and that one American every hour dies from melanoma. Millimeter for millimeter, it is the deadliest cancer. Rather than bore you with statistics on this horrid disease, allow me to share with you some fascinating background on it you may not have heard before.

As P.T. Barnum said, “There is a sucker born every minute.” Perhaps nothing speaks better to the validity of this than the multi-billion dollar industry for hair loss. We are all suckers for our hair. It defines us. We groom and style it to communicate different messages to others. We color, twist, braid, clip, and even spike it. It is a sign of virility, youth, and strength.

I see men in my office every day. Most come in under their own volition while many are dragged in by wives and girlfriends. We don’t like to admit it, but we have many of the same skin concerns as women: odd-shaped blemishes; hair in the all wrong places; skin ravaged by the passage of years brought on by a lifestyle that perhaps wasn’t very healthy. We don’t feel like the person looking back at us in the mirror.