'National Rotisserie Chicken Day'

National Rotisserie Chicken Day tickles our taste buds every June 2nd. It’s a special day for food lovers to enjoy a well-loved dish. People worldwide celebrate by cooking and eating this delicious chicken, known for its juicy flavor.

Each year, June 2 serves as a day for enjoying juicy, flavorful chicken and an opportunity to reflect on the culinary traditions that have shaped our eating habits. The celebration highlights how simple cooking methods can produce remarkable results.

From its origins at Boston Market to a favorite at Costco, rotisserie chickens have created a day celebrated by millions.

National Rotisserie Chicken Day connects us through our shared love for a classic, comfort food dish.



Read more here. . . .



Every year Phoenix Magazine publishes a guide featuring over 685 of the Valley’s best physicians. The doctors are selected through a peer-review survey. The theory is that medical professionals are the best qualified to judge medical professionals.

The survey asks the doctors to nominate those doctors who, in their judgement, are the best in their fields.

Once again, Dr. Lakin has been chosen as a TOP DOC among his peers.

Now standing at 22 years!

(2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2003, 2001)

Please join us in congratulating him!

June 2, 2024

COVID REMAINS LOW, BUT WE STILL SEE A FEW PEOPLE WITH COVID EVERY WEEK.

ALL DOING WELL.  BE PROACTIVE TO PREVENT NEED FOR HOSPITALIZATION.

• IF YOU DON’T WANT COVID FROM TRAVEL…. WEAR A MASK IN THE AIRPORT CROWDS AND ON THE AIRPLANE (UNTIL 10,000 FEET) …. THIS IS NOT AS ESSENTIAL AS IT WAS WHEN COVID WAS MORE PREVALENT…BUT IF YOU WANT TO AVOID INFECTIONS IN GENERAL DURING TRAVEL...IT’S A CONSIDERATION.

• EVEN SELECTIVE MASK USE WORKS WELL… SUCH AS ONLY IN CROWDED SPACES IN THE AIRPORT, AND DURING TRAVEL ‘TO’ YOUR DESTINATION, SO THAT YOU ARE NOT ILL DURING YOU VACATION/TRAVEL TIME.  LESS IMPORTANT WHEN YOU RETURN FROM VACATION.

• GET BOOSTED IF YOU HAVE NOT DONE SO…PARTICULARLY OVER AGE 65 WITH HEALTH ISSUES OR OVER 75 WITHOUT HEALTH ISSUES.  EVERY 6 MONTHS IS THE RECOMMENDATION FOR THIS GROUP. 

• IF YOU WERE BOOSTED IN SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER AND OVER AGE 65, ANOTHER BOOST IS WORTHWHILE THIS SPRING.  THAT SAID...IF YOU HAVE HAD COVID IN THE PAST 6 MONTHS YOU CAN HOLD ON BOOSTING FOR 6 MONTHS.

• FLU SEASON IS OVER… NO MORE FLU SHOTS THIS SEASON

• VERY LITTLE RSV IN THE VALLEY.

IF YOU THINK YOU HAVE A COLD OR RESPIRATORY INFECTION RIGHT NOW…. YOU MAY WELL HAVE COVID. PLEASE DO A COVID TEST TO CHECK AT HOME.  

ALMOST ALL DOING WELL, BUT WE ARE SEEING A FEW PEOPLE NEED THE HOSPITAL TO RECOVER. 

THE CURRENT COVID VACCINE IS AVAILABLE.

  IT IS KEEPING PEOPLE FROM HAVING A MORE DIFFICULT TIME WITH INFECTION AND KEEPING PEOPLE OUT OF THE HOSPITAL.

I RECOMMEND THE COVID BOOSTER GENERALLY FOR THOSE OVER 65. BUT……

• I HIGHLY RECOMMEND A BOOSTER FOR THOSE 80 & OLDER.

• I HIGHLY RECOMMEND THE BOOSTER FOR THOSE OVER 65 WITH HEART FAILURE, SIGNIFICANT LUNG CONDITIONS, AND DIABETES.

CONSIDER BOOSTING WITH THE NEW COVID VACCINE TO REDUCE RISK OF COVID AND TO REDUCE COVID SYMPTOM SEVERITY

WEST NILE SEASON IS COMING:

WEST NILE SEASON IS COMING.  PREPARE TO USE PROTECTION.

IF WE HEAR OF NEW CASES…WILL REPORT TO YOU.

NO WEST NILE REPORTED…. BUT PREPARE NOW BY GETTING YOUR MOSQUITO REPELLENT.

PLEASE USE MOSQUITO REPELLENT

WHEN IN HIGH EXPOSURE SITUATIONS.

ARIZONA IS THE PRIME USA LOCATION FOR WEST NILE DUE TO HIGH WEST NILE VIRUS LEVELS IN RAPTOR BIRDS WHO ARE IMMUNE TO WEST NILE ILLNESS, BUT NOT IMMUNE TO CARRYING THE VIRUS. THIS CAN RESULT IN ARIZONA MOSQUITOS WITH PARTICULARLY HIGH VIRUS LEVELS WHEN THEY BITE.

H5N1 INFLUENZA

THERE IS A LOT OF NEWS ABOUT THE ‘BIRD FLU’….H5N1, AS IT HAS BEEN FOUND IN LARGE QUANTITIES IN COWS MILK IN THE USA.  THIS IS NOT INFECTIOUS IN MILK, BUT IT DEMONSTRATES THAT THERE IS A GREAT DEAL OF THIS SUB-TYPE IN THE COUNTRY.

IT IS NOT A WORRY, BUT IS SOMETHING THAT IS TO BE MONITORED, AS WIDESPREAD INFECTION IN HUMANS WOULD CAUSE A VERY LARGE INFLUENZA OUTBREAK OR ANOTHER PANDEMIC…THIS TIME OF INFLUENZA.

THAT SAID, THE RISK REMAINS PRESENT BUT LOW.  WE SHOULD NOT BE WORRIED ABOUT THIS IN OUR DAY TO DAY LIVES, BUT WE WILL KEEP MONITORING AND KEEP YOU AWARE.

H5N1 IS A SUB-TYPE THAT IS DRAMATICALLY DIFFERENT FROM THE NORMALLY CIRCULATING FLU AND ALTHOUGH THERE WILL BE AN IMMUNIZATION FOR THIS IF IT BECOMES WIDESPREAD IN HUMANS, THERE IS LITTLE NATURAL IMMUNITY TO THIS FORM OF FLU AND IT IS FELT THAT H5N1 HAS THE POTENTIAL FOR PANDEMIC EFFECTS.

TOP PODCAST DONE WEEKLY

BY DR. MICHAEL OSTERHOLM

(UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA)  

He is a world-renowned epidemiologist who was credited with first elucidating TOXIC SHOCK SYNDROME in the 1980’s.

He provides comprehensive and understandable/actionable ideas related to COVID.

Dr. Osterholm Update: COVID-19 Podcast

May 30, 2024

https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/covid-19/episode-158-unfolding-saga

'An Unfolding Saga'

In "An Unfolding Saga," Dr. Osterholm and Chris Dall discuss the latest H5N1, COVID-19, and measles news. Dr. Osterholm also answers an ID query on influenza and shares the latest "This Week in Public Health History" segment.

According to Dr. Osterholm……

• GET YOUR LATEST AVAILABLE BOOSTER IF YOU HAVE NOT HAD COVID OR IT’S BEEN LONGER THAN 4 MONTHS SINCE YOU HAD COVID YOURSELF
• A GOOD MASK, N95 OF KN95, DOES HELP REDUCE TRANSMISSION…. USE IT AT HIGH-RISK LOCATIONS
• GOOD VENTILATION IN ROOMS/HOME/BUSINESSES IS A GREAT WAY TO PREVENT TRANSMISSION
• VACCINE, VACCINE, VACCINE…THIS IS OUR PROTECTION.  ALL VACCINES ARE EFFECTIVE AND WITH TIME WE ARE SEEING THAT THE J&J VACCINE IS PICKING UP STEAM AND GIVES SOLID LONG-TERM PROTECTION.
• BOOST, BOOST, BOOST…THIS WILL BE NECESSARY TO PREVENT RECURRING SURGE AND TO RAISE ANTIBODY LEVELS IN THOSE ALREADY SET WITH THE PRIMARY COVID VACCINE SERIES.
• ANTIGEN TESTING IS USEFUL, BUT OF LIMITED VALUE. DON’T DEPEND ON IT…BUT USE IT.

Know that unvaccinated remain a source of potential infection.  Avoiding unvaccinated persons will reduce your risk of COVID.

Even as national institutions struggle to coordinate meaningful trials for possible long COVID treatments, researchers continue to tally the damage. New findings suggest that the disease’s reach isn’t merely long—it’s still growing.

Three years after their initial bouts with COVID-19, patients who’d once been hospitalized with the virus remained at “significantly elevated” risk of death or worsening health from long COVID complications, according to a paper published May 30 in Nature Medicine.

Even among those whose initial cases didn’t require a hospital stay, the threat of long COVID and several of its associated issues remained real, the researchers found. And cumulatively, at three years, long COVID results in 91 disability-adjusted life years (DALY) per 1,000 people—DALYs being a measure as years lost to poor health or premature death. That is a higher incidence than either heart disease or cancer.

“People are developing new onset disease as the result of an infection that they had three years ago,” says Dr. Ziyad Al-Aly, a clinical epidemiologist at Washington University in St. Louis and lead author of the study. “It challenges the notion that these viruses are sort of self-contained or that, after the acute first phase, they become inconsequential.”



With more than 130,000 patients, the study is by far the largest so far to track the progress of the virus over a full three-year period. It expands on work by Al-Aly and others at the two-year mark that found patients had elevated risk for long COVID-related conditions that included diabetes, lung problems, fatigue, blood clots, and gastrointestinal and musculoskeletal disorders.

Read more here. . . .

After you received your COVID or any other vaccination outside our office, please let us know!

We would like to document this information into your chart.



What we need:

1. Your name
2. Name & date of vaccination received
3. Brand name
4. Lot number if available
5. Which dose you have received

**Email your vaccine info HERE

A second human case of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) A(H5) virus infection has been identified in the state of Michigan. This is the third human case associated with an ongoing multistate outbreak of A(H5N1) in U.S. dairy cows.

None of the three cases are associated with the others. As with the previous two cases (one in Texas, one in Michigan), the person is a dairy farm worker with exposure to infected cows, making this another instance of probable cow-to-person spread. This is the first human case of H5 in the United States to report more typical symptoms of acute respiratory illness associated with influenza virus infection, including A(H5N1) viruses. CDC continues to closely monitor available data from influenza surveillance systems , particularly in affected states, and there has been no sign of unusual influenza activity in people, including no increase in emergency room visits for influenza and no increase in laboratory detection of human influenza cases.

Based on the information available at this time, this case does not change CDC’s current A(H5N1) bird flu human health risk assessment for the U.S. general public because all three sporadic cases had direct contact with infected cows. Risk depends on exposure, and in this case, the relevant exposure is to infected animals.

The risk to members of the general public who do not have exposure to infected animals remains low. However, this development underscores the importance of recommended precautions in people with exposure to infected or potentially infected animals. People with close or prolonged, unprotected exposures to infected birds or other animals (including livestock), or to environments contaminated by infected birds or other infected animals, are at greater risk of infection and should take precautions.



Read more here. . . .

We Are Here to Take Care of Your Healthcare Needs.

We Are Here to Serve!

Our office is using all techniques to reduce exposure to a minimum during your visit. These include: 

·       Temperature checks of all patients and staff.

·       Masks for all people in the office.

·       Cleansing of hands and surfaces repeatedly.

·       Multiple Super-HEPA filters to filter out potential virus and particles in the office.

·       High Level UV light air cleansing in the office to eliminate bacteria and viruses in the air.

OUR OFFICE SCHEDULE

DOORS OPEN     

7AM - 4PM Monday through Thursday

7AM - 11AM Friday

IN OFFICE

APPOINTMENTS: MONDAY – THURSDAY

7AM – 11:15AM & 1PM – 3:30PM

APPOINTMENTS: FRIDAY

7AM – 10:30 AM

DR. LAKIN WILL CONTINUE ‘TELEHEALTH’ VISITS WITH FaceTime, WhatsApp or ZOOM WHEN NEEDED.

SUMMARY OF A COVID KIT & CHECK LIST:

This is what you should have at home to prepare for possible COVID, to monitor yourself if you were to get infected:

DIGITAL ORAL THERMOMETER: MANY BRANDS ARE FINE…HERE IS ONE EXAMPLE:

https://www.amazon.com/Digital-Thermometer-Reading-Waterproof-Indicator/dp/B087T3S4TR/ref=sr_1_6?dchild=1&keywords=THERMOMETER&qid=1597159324&sr=8-6

PULSE OXIMETER:  TO CHECK OXYGEN LEVELS. MANY BRANDS ARE FINE...HERE IS ONE EXAMPLE:

https://www.amazon.com/Innovo-Fingertip-Oximeter-Plethysmograph-Perfusion/dp/B07YVGZPRZ/ref=sr_1_20?dchild=1&keywords=PULSE+OXI&qid=1597159388&sr=8-20

OTHER ITEMS FROM THE HOME MEDICAL KIT:

·       TYLENOL, ADVIL, OR ALEVE

·       Sudafed 30mg tablets

·       Chlorpheniramine 4mg tablets

·       Robitussin DM syrup

·       Imodium AD

'Don't Eat Another Costco Rotisserie Chicken Until You Watch This'

If you’re craving a good rotisserie chicken, it’s hard to beat Costco.

After all, you can head to the bulk store and buy a whole rotisserie chicken for just $4.99, and it always tastes great.

Of course, you will likely find yourself buying a few other things while you’re there, because it’s quite challenging not to, but you’ll still be getting a good deal. While a lot of things seem too good to be true, Costco’s chicken is the real deal, and it’s not quite as unhealthy as you may think.

Make sure you don’t eat another Costco rotisserie chicken until you watch this.

Stay Safe!