Most patients over 65 don’t want life expectancy discussions

An online survey conducted in 2016 of a nationally representative group of 878 adults ages 65 and older found 59.4% did not want to talk about their life expectancy. Presented with a hypothetical situation that they were not immediately dying but had a shortened life expectancy, 59.9% indicated life expectancy discussions should not be initiated

Weeding out the ‘good’ and ‘bad’ of probiotics for our patients

Dr. Hecht is Professor of Medicine and Microbiology/Immunology and Chief, Gastroenterology and Nutrition at Loyola University Chicago.  She is the former President of the American Gastroenterological Association. In a guest commentary in cooperation between the American Gastroenterological Association and Healio, Dr. Hecht offers advice on how health care professionals can best discuss probiotics with their patients. See the article

Crohn’s & Colitis Congress 2019 in Las Vegas

Assessing which care guideline to follow can be a challenge for many providers who care for patients with inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD). To help IBD health care professionals navigate these complexities, the 2019 Crohn’s & Colitis Congress® will focus its opening session on How to Make Sense of Care Guidelines. See Dr. David Rubin from the University

No single test identifies reflux as the etiology for extra-esophageal symptoms.

It is well recognized that reflux can be causal in subgroups of patients with chest and ENT symptoms like asthma, cough, hoarseness, sore throat, sinusitis, and ear pain. However, the possibility of reflux as the cause for a variety of ENT symptoms is both overestimated and often abused. In fact, the cause of extraesophageal symptoms