The American Journal of Medicine Blog

As states legalize medical and recreational use of marijuana, hospitals are seeing an increase in inpatients who are marijuana users. The most common co-morbidities among marijuana users are psychiatric disease and alcoholism. There has been an increase in older, sicker patients using cannabis, most likely due to the advent of medical marijuana in many states. […]

Is insomnia linked to poor glycemic control? In this study, people who habitually slept less than seven hours per night had elevated glucose levels, as measured by morning oral glucose tolerance test. In this video, American Journal of Medicine Editor-in-Chief Dr. Joseph Alpert explains the clinical implications of the findings. Read the Research: Habitual and Recent […]

Does testosterone supplementation impact heart disease risk? The March 2017 issue of the American Journal of Medicine includes a new meta-analysis that looks at the use of testosterone supplements and cardiovascular disease risk. In this video Dr. Joseph S. Alpert talks about testosterone supplements and risk. Read the Research: Cardiovascular Risks of Exogenous Testosterone Use […]

In the world of high-tech medicine, the digital rectal exam still has a place. In this current study, researchers showed that performing the digital rectal exam on patients with acute gastrointestinal bleeding provided valuable clinical information. American Journal of Medicine Editor-in-Chief Dr. Joseph S. Alpert explains the clinical implications of this research. (Get out your exam […]

Targeted temperature management — lowering a person’s body temperature– has been recommended as an integrated part of postresuscitation care after out-of-hospital cardiac arrest, but is it safe? In this video, Dr. Joseph S. Alpert, AJM editor-in-chief, talks about new research on temperature management. Read the research: The Extent of Myocardial Injury During Prolonged Targeted Temperature […]

We examined how habitual sleep duration interacts with recent sleep (2 nights) to predict morning oral glucose tolerance test results. We hypothesized that short habitual and recent sleep durations would be additive for poor glucose control. Methods A biracial population of adults (n = 1559) without known diabetes and recruited from the workforce of 2 urban […]