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Baltimore magazine
Ask The Expert: Fresh Take
Tips to improve your nutrition during the summer.
Top Doctors
The main lobby of The Johns Hopkins Hospital’s new Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Na
Top Doctors 2012
SNEAK PEAK: Feeling under the weather? Here are 378 great physicians in 63 specialties, all chosen by their peers as the best in the region.
Silent Threat
More and more children are suffering with food allergies and doctors don't know why.

Imagine there's a time bomb attached to your child, one that could go off at any time and cause him or her life-threatening harm. That kind of knowledge would change the way your family lives and be a cause of constant stress. That's what life is like for Warren and Sari Alperstein since they discovered their oldest son, Ryan, has food allergies. Ryan, now 7, is allergic to milk and was...

Mushroom Magic
Two Hopkins doctors give cancer patients one last escape.

There are lots of medical studies underway at any given time in the medical research mecca that is Baltimore. But two Johns Hopkins psychologists are looking for volunteers for a study that's both unusual and that sounds, at first blush, barely legal: They're recruiting cancer patients who are willing to take the hallucinogen psilocybin in order to have a life-affirming mystical experience....

When Death Gives Life
Organ donation can be both tragic and inspiring. The Living Legacy Foundation knows that all too well.

The first thing Kim Ricci did was put her hand on Brian’s chest. She felt it immediately, the diligent thump. Lub-dup, lub-dup, lub-dup. It was the heart of her daughter, Heather Ann Ricci, a smart, mischievous 10-year-old from Bel Air, now living inside a sturdy teenager from North Carolina named Brian Avery.

“It was so strange, so surreal,” says Kim. “I felt like I had to touch him...

Lord of the Loos
Associate professor Steven Soifer isn't afraid of toilet talk.

When you're away from home and nature calls, it can be challenging to find a clean, well-lighted place in which to answer.

But one Baltimore-based organization is on a mission to change that. The nonprofit American Restroom Association is dedicated to promoting the availability of sanitary, safe, and well-designed public restrooms across America.

"My vision is that ARA becomes...

Dose of Reality
An ABC News documentary shows the more personal side of Hopkins.

In this age of so-called reality television, it is refreshing to see a gripping documentary air in primetime on ABC—especially one set in our own backyard.

Hopkins, a six-part series that begins June 26, chronicles the lives of patients, doctors, and residents at our famed Johns Hopkins Hospital. Unlike the 2000 documentary Hopkins 24/7, this time ABC News decided to focus more on the...

Tick Wars
For those suffering with persistent Lyme disease, the treatments are few, and the controversies are many.

Perhaps it's not surprising that Carol Siegmeister got Lyme disease. The 71-year-old Pikesville resident is an avid gardener and she sees deer in her neighbrhood often enough: "Donner and Blitzen live in my backyard," she says. What is surprising is that Siegmeister went through an approved treatment for the disease but never got well.

When first bitten, she thought the bumps on her...

Brain Gain
Dr. Majid Fotuhi says that keeping your brain healthy just takes a little practice.

Just because your brain can't hop on a treadmill doesn't mean it can't exercise, says Dr. Majid Fotuhi.

"Through physical and mental activities, people can keep their brain and memory in good shape and ward off Alzheimer's," he says.

Fotuhi, the director of the Center for Memory and Brain Health at LifeBridge Health Brain and Spine Institute, is the co-author (with Will Shortz...

Healthy Approach
Say goodbye to fluorescent lights and industrial green. Hospital centers have gotten a facelift.

When Kimberly Brown goes to the new Cancer Institute at St. Joseph Medical Center to receive her weekly chemotherapy treatments for breast cancer, she says she actually looks forward to her visits.

It wasn't always that way.

"When I had my first treatment last October, all the patients were in beds in one room," recalls Brown, a supervisor for Arbitron, Inc. "There were...

Partners In Pain
A small band of specialists is making a big difference for thousands of patients suffering from chronic pain.

Erin Kelly's problems started after her cesarean section.

Then 20, Kelly delivered a healthy baby boy, but was subsequently diagnosed with endometriosis and pelvic adhesive disease, which causes a buildup of scar tissue in the abdomen and pelvis. The abdominal pain that accompanied her condition was debilitating, and lasted 15 years. She missed work, underwent 10 surgeries—including...

Health
Get ready to clear the air: Maryland's smoking ban goes into effect February 1.

New York City bar owner Michael Sinensky wishes Baltimore lots of luck as Maryland enacts its new smoking ban this month.

“Whoever thought of the law was probably a non-smoker,” says Sinensky, owner of Manhattan’s Village Pourhouse and Proof Bar & Lounge. He’s happy to recount the drama he’s encountered as a business owner since New York State enacted a ban in 2003.

It’s not...

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