Columns

Driving through Polson, I am reminded of all the times in high school when I was told how devastating the drug issue was in our town. Naturally, I used to think these drugs were the cause of the ubiquitous poverty within our community. However, I cannot help but think this causal relationship is reversed. Carl Hart, professor of neuroscience and psychology at Columbia University, notes that addiction “has almost nothing to do with the drugs themselves… (and) has much more to do with our psychosocial environment.” Thus, instead of drugs causing psychosocial pain, it is poor psychosocial health that leads to drug dependence and misuse. If this is the case, why is Lake...

As I sit here writing this, there’s a bit of dirt still under my fingernails. The spring bug has bit me, and I decided it was time to start my planting for this year.  With my luck, it’ll be snowing as you read this.  To be honest, the spring bug has been under my skin for months ...

The internet-undeniably the backbone of our modern world – it influences our banking, communication, shopping, and entertainment. In the last decades, we, as consumers, are increasingly reliant on the internet. The majority of us receive this service through some sort of cable or tower-based wireless s...

Capping Montana’s double digit property tax increases on homeowners would seem a no-brainer issue for legislative candidates. Not so. The focus of Republicans and Democrats alike is on protecting the cash flow to government and placating moneyed special interests. The bi-partisan Revenue Interim Commit...

 I wanted a kayak. It was a simple request I repeated repeatedly. I talked about how we would go kayaking this summer on the lake. We’d have a blast making family memories while building our triceps and getting a tan. I communicated as clearly as I could, in English, which is the language they spe...

I had a breakthrough yesterday — and I don’t mean metaphorically. Wars rage, countless humans suffer, the rich get richer, life goes on. I still have my morning coffee. But not yesterday. What happened — about 5 a.m. — was a fleeting insight into life beyond its small certaintie...

The older people in our nursing homes have a problem. The state puts people on Medicaid and promises them services, and then doesn’t pay those who provide these services at a rate that is commensurate to the actual costs. Seventy five percent of those in our nursing home are on Medicaid and down to the...

Salty snacks? Sweet snacks? What’s your choice? I tend to gravitate towards salty. I am not alone in this preference as evidenced by the 36.89 billion-dollar-a-year savory snack industry in the US. Chief among these snacks is the humble potato chip. Scanning through any supermarket, among the plethora ...

Last weekend I dove headfirst down a deep rabbit hole. And, as those of us with rabbit hole experience can attest, once you hop in there is no going back. It started innocently enough, as most rabbit hole ventures do. I recently got a haircut and have decided to embrace my naturally wavy/curly, albeit fin...

Spring is often about the renewal of life. This “spring feeling” is even more robust as the cases of COVID-19 receded, and our lives around Lake County are moving back to their regular pace. Still, as physicians, we cannot forget what we have gone through over the last two years. We have taken ca...