Health

Spin Control

Vertigo isn’t just the stuff of Hitchcock thrillers—it’s a debilitating disease, as Dallas radio talk show host Kevin McCarthy found out the hard way.

Pale by Comparison

“Michael Jackson’s disease” sounds like a punch line, but the pigment-robbing skin disorder is no joke. Just ask Dallas County commissioner John Wiley Price.

Smooth Operator

You might say Tarek Souryal is the most important Dallas Maverick: He doesn’t score or rebound, but he reconstructs million-dollar ankles and knees, and that makes him a real team player.

The Real Medical Crisis

For reformers of the nations health-care system, ground zero may be Dallas’ Parkland Memorial Hospital, where the crush of uninsured patients with non-urgent complaints is affecting everyone’s care.

Texas Twenty: Linda Aguilar-Bryan and Joseph Bryan

After a decade of lab work at Baylor College of Medicine, this husband-and-wife team has solved the mystery of hyperinsulinism.

A New Low

Across the state, kids are getting seriously messed up on a dirt-cheap downer from Mexico.

Silicone City

From invention to litigation, the breast implant has done more for Houston’s economy—and its psyche—than anything since oil.

By Mimi Swartz

Mimi Swartz

Mimi Swartz is a staff writer based in Houston.

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Bad Medicine

By vetoing the Patient Protection Act, Gearge W. Bush put cost before care.

A Perfect Mess

Can a suburban Dallas house-wife who suffers from obsessive-compulsive disorder ever overcome her fears? She doubts it.

Roe v. World

Twenty-five years after Norma McCorvey joined the flight to legalize abortion, the battle is still raging—and so is she.

Walk, Don’t Run

After years of arguing that vigorous activity is a key to good health, Kenneth Cooper is exercising his right to change his mind.

Playing Doctor

Not What the Doctor Ordered

How an old-fashioned Texas physician fought the takeover of modern medicine by heartless insurance companies—and lost.

By Mimi Swartz

Mimi Swartz

Mimi Swartz is a staff writer based in Houston.

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Hunger Pains

Without constant care, victims of an obscure genetic disorder would eat themselves to death.

Love and Death on the Third Floor

She was the princess who wore Tiffany perfume. He was the middle-class guy who raced cars. But when they met on the cystic fibrosis wing of a Dallas hospital, romance bloomed.

By Skip Hollandsworth

Skip Hollandsworth

Skip Hollandsworth specializes in long-form narratives.

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Altered State

A year after a grand mal seizure left me convulsing on the floor, I’m still finding my way back into everyday life.

Running Rabid

Five years ago, rabies was rare in South Texas. Now nearly three hundred animals have died and the epidemic is not abating.

By Jan Reid

Jan Reid

Jan Reid was a senior editor at Texas Monthly and also contributed to Esquire, GQ, Slate, Men’s Journal, Men’s Health, and the New York Times.

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Essay: Myth-O-Maniacs

Twenty years ago, we were two-steppers. Now we’re twelve-steppers, thanks to a set of self-help gurus.

By Mimi Swartz

Mimi Swartz

Mimi Swartz is a staff writer based in Houston.

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Last Rights

My son ended his life after three years of madness and unbearable depression. Who am I to say he did the wrong thing?

Heartless Behavior

Cardiologists Per and Peter Langsjoen sounded a warning.

By Patricia Sharpe

Patricia Sharpe

Patricia Sharpe writes a regular restaurant column, Pat’s Pick, for Texas Monthly.

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Rescue Mission

The politics of trauma.

Flight for Your Life

When a few minutes matter, an EMS helicopter can make the difference between life and death.

Hazardous Duty

My father loved his job at a Gulf Coast oil refinery. In fact, he loved it to death.

Light My Fire

After struggling to give up smoking, I have come to a compromise: Never smoke more than one cigarette—at a time.

Can Kids On Drugs Be Saved?

Drug treatment seldom works: at many centers, greedy entrepreneurs prey on frightened parents and troubled kids. But one teenager’s parents decided to take one last, desperate step: they sent their son to the toughest program in Texas.

By Skip Hollandsworth

Skip Hollandsworth

Skip Hollandsworth specializes in long-form narratives.

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Dad’s Last Home

It was the hardest decision I ever had to make. Had the time come to put my father in a nursing home?

Medicine and Miracles

After learning that he had cancer, the author began a search for a cure that took him far beyond medical expertise.

Dying for a Heart

For Ted Segal of Waco, the problem wasn’t getting a heart transplant; it was finding a donor. The delay was killing him.

This Can’t Be Happening to Me

From the look on my doctor’s face, I knew the results of the biopsy. The lump in my breast was cancer.

The Booming Business of AIDS

For some entrepreneurs, the dark cloud of AIDS has proved to have a silver lining

By Patricia Sharpe

Patricia Sharpe

Patricia Sharpe writes a regular restaurant column, Pat’s Pick, for Texas Monthly.

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The Coronary Bypass

In Texas, survivors of this life-and-death operation wear their scars like medals of honor.

Touch Me, Feel Me, Heal Me!

I was curious when I found that three of my friends had delved into the mysteries of psychic surgery. After three “bloody operations” of my own, I knew what it was all about. About $30 a minute.

The Faulty Cure

Houston is famous for medical cures. But when British rock star Ronnie Lane came to town with a crippling disease and $1 million for research, all he got was crippling legal problems.

Confessions of an Aging Pothead

I smoked marijuana all day every day for several years. It took me almost a year to quit—and now I wonder if I’ll ever get straight.

Texas Primer: Cedar Fever

When cedars start to mate, Texans start to suffer.

By Patricia Sharpe

Patricia Sharpe

Patricia Sharpe writes a regular restaurant column, Pat’s Pick, for Texas Monthly.

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The Silver Lining

Age is a matter of mind. If you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter.

Leaving the Bottle Behind

Like any disease, alcoholism has specific symptoms. Like many religions, drying-out programs require abstinence, blind faith, and confession.

My Life as a Drunk

It may be hard to believe that you can drink two fifths a day and not only function but function well. But I did it. For a while.

Why I Hate Lamaze

New parents, beware! The only thing I got out of my six Lamaze classes was permission to enter the delivery room with my wife.

All the Better to See You With, My Dear

Are eye surgeons miraculously changing the lives of folks with glasses as thick as Coke-bottle bottoms, or are they just making themselves rich ?

The Death Shift

The three-to-eleven evening shift, Bexar County Hospital, San Antonio: nurse Genene Jones was on duty in the pediatric intensive care unit, and for months babies kept having mysterious—sometimes fatal—emergencies. Why?

So You Don’t Like The Way You Look?

To a plastic surgeon, your face is just the beginning.

Fangs

Now is the time to unlearn everything you’ve ever heard about snakebite.

Extreme Unctuousness

Without embalming you can have a simple, inexpensive funeral. That’s just what Texas morticians don’t want.

The Cancer Belt

In the southeast corner of Texas, more people get cancer than anywhere else in the state. Why?

Passing On

In her darkest, final hours, a young mother turns to a new kind of medical care for help.

Little Boy Lost

Being autistic nearly ruined Michael Shipley’s life, but his parents sent him to a state mental hospital. Then Michael’s life was ruined for good.

The Finish Line

As a doctor, Tony Seidenberg has become accustomed to death. Only this time it is different: he is the one who is dying.

The Crack-Up

You learn one clear and not so very grim lesson by looking death in the face.

Life Got You Down? Getting Nowhere? Wishing for Wealth? For Success? For Happiness?

My friend, you have come to the right place.