Dr. Turek's Blog

Listen and Learn

Posted on by Paul Turek, MD

This week, I refused to perform a vasectomy on a patient of mine. That is, until he saw a doctor about his sky-high blood pressure. Thirty years old and a father of three, he is a productive, hardworking member of society who just happened to never have seen a doctor as an adult. Unusual? Not […]

A Sword with Two Edges

Posted on by Paul Turek, MD

  You may know what testosterone can do for your strength, but did you also know that it is a contraceptive? That’s right, taking any synthetic testosterone will reliably make you infertile. I’ve discussed the reason for this in other posts, but I’ll explain it again. Essentially, the brain drives the testicle to make sperm […]

https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/middle-age-caucasian-father-kissing-sleeping-1718038360

Babies…Naturally

Posted on by Paul Turek, MD

In the daily life of my fertility practice, I’ve noticed a trend lately as I help couples conceive a child: patients are less interested in using high levels of “assisted reproduction” to have children. In particular, they would like to avoid in vitro fertilization (IVF) and intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI), the Cadillac of all techniques. Even before they meet […]

Medicine Light

Posted on by Paul Turek, MD

Can prayer heal? Does touch matter in medicine? Long considered a nonrational part of Western medicine, these “lighter side” topics are now receiving close attention and study. I am reminded about distant healing on the anniversary of the death of a medical school classmate and friend Dr. Elisabeth Targ. As a psychiatrist, daughter of a […]

A Good Planet is Hard to Find

Posted on by Paul Turek, MD

Most couples in most countries will conceive within a year of trying. Families in the Ukraine take an average of 2.5 years, according to a new U.S. publication. Why? Radiation discharged from the ill-fated nuclear explosion at nearby Chernobyl in 1986 is the likely culprit. Male infertility is the consequence. We know that sperm production […]

Freud’s Vasectomy: Vasectomy Equals Rejuvenation?

Posted on by Paul Turek, MD

Analyze this (Courtesy: Shutterstock) Do you know why Sigmund Freud, esteemed psychoanalyst, had a vasectomy when he was 67 years old? How about writer William Butler Yeats having his vasectomy at 69 years of age? Were they that sexually active and worried about conceiving? God bless them if this were true! Believe it or not, a popular Austrian endocrinologist […]

Your Oldest Treasure

Posted on by Paul Turek, MD

What do you own that is 600 million years old? Your old suit? That little league baseball glove? Your cologne? In fact, every man possesses something that old, and believe it or not, it’s a gene. Not the clothing kind, but the kind you keep in your genome, in your chromosomes. We’ve talked about the […]

A Secret to Living Longer

Posted on by Paul Turek, MD

Up at dawn, and while waiting for a perfect, crumbling long board wave at Waikiki this past week, I recalled that Hawaiians live longer than the rest of Americans and wondered why. For some reason, life expectancy at birth in Hawaii is among the longest in the nation. Indeed, people born in Hawaii have a […]

Surfing is Life

Posted on by Paul Turek, MD

Legend has it that surfing began in the Hawaiian Islands hundreds of years ago. In the late 1800’s, it was introduced to the U.S. mainland by way of southern California. Duke Kahanamoku, an Olympic star in swimming from Hawaii, helped popularize the sport by traveling internationally and demonstrating his surfing style. He is credited with […]

The Sunny Side of a Broken Back

Posted on by Paul Turek, MD

I have a lot of patients in my practice who have broken their backs. Not figuratively by working so hard, but literally, by having spinal cord injuries. Some have been crushed by rolling logs, fallen from tall heights, been victims of shooting, dived into shallow pools or took an untoward jump while skiing or skateboarding. […]