Paul Turek, MD, Author at The Turek Clinic

We are the Walrus

Posted on November 22, 2010 by Paul Turek, MD

Admittedly, he was an unusual patient. It was not only his generous size (2700 lb) but also his lack of clear speech in any discernable language that distinguished him from others I’ve treated. But, like most other men (80%), he had a great idea of what to do to conceive, but had the timing all […]

Bringing Africa Home

Posted on November 13, 2010 by Paul Turek, MD

During medical school, I spent several months at Hopital a la Dantec in urban Dakar, Senegal, West Africa. I saw things the unimaginable and the unbelievable. The ravages of polio and typhoid, amoebic abcesses, and tumors growing in places that I did not think possible. Without much of modern technology, medicine was a high art […]

Bringing It Home

Posted on November 6, 2010 by Paul Turek, MD

The workday was winding down. I made a cup of tea and pulled up the dashboard on my computer to review the progress of my patients after surgery. Everyone was progressing beautifully…but one. He reported that his pain had increased over the last 2 days. So I called him on his cell phone: “John, it’s […]

The Orchid in the Arctic

Posted on October 30, 2010 by Paul Turek, MD

Imagine taking a tiny skin biopsy from the arm of a man who, even while you are taking it (which can’t be pleasant) offers you a warm, reassuring smile. For this man, getting poked and prodded is nothing—he is happy enough just to be alive and breathing. A second chance at life after surviving cancer […]

The Solitary Life

Posted on October 23, 2010 by Paul Turek, MD

He called me from rural northern California and the phone conversation went something like this: “Er… hello. I…I was wondering if you could help me.” “Sure, sir, how can I help you?” “Well…I’m single and haven’t dated in 20 years, but would really like to.” “I’m not so sure that I am the one […]

Weed Worries

Posted on October 17, 2010 by Paul Turek, MD

A good rule to follow in medicine when evaluating whether research should be translated into clinical care is “reproducibility.” Good research, that is research that is likely to end up as “true fact” in the long run, is reproducible…not just by the original researchers, but also (and more importantly) by others in the field. In […]

Let’s Go Fishing

Posted on October 2, 2010 by Paul Turek, MD

What’s 4000 years old and still alive and kicking? Traditional Chinese medicine. It’s a form of complimentary or alternative medicine that should be better integrated into our modern medicine healthcare toolbox in the future to keep America’s reproductive age men healthy. Why do I say this? Because I like to face facts. Currently, alternative medicine […]

Know Your Wooly Mammoths

Posted on September 25, 2010 by Paul Turek, MD

Whenever I mention to the media that “stress” is bad for male fertility and men’s health in general, they show images of snarling, bumper-to-bumper traffic with heat shimmering off of the asphalt. Sure, that works for stress. But that is not the half of it. Being stuck in traffic is a form of acute stress, […]

The Age of Aquarius

Posted on September 18, 2010 by Paul Turek, MD

It really seems like the moon is in seventh house, and that Jupiter is aligned with Mars. Why? Because our government gets it and want to know how it can help. Last week, I spoke at a stakeholder meeting about men’s reproductive health, held at the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) in Atlanta. You may […]

Where There’s Smoke

Posted on September 11, 2010 by Paul Turek, MD

Smoking is bad for men’s fertility. Not unexpected, you might add, since 1000 smokers die each day around the world from smoking related diseases. But what else is new? A lot. And this matters because 25 million men in America smoke. Along with 21 million women. Any other condition this common would certainly be considered […]