How a Track Star’s Unexpected Diagnosis Made Her an Advocate for Colon Cancer Screening

If reducing your risk for colon cancer were an Olympic sport, Tonja Buford-Bailey could have won a medal. The 52-year-old former track star, who earned bronze for the 400-meter hurdles in the 1996 Olympics and now coaches other elite athletes, is in excellent physical shape. She drinks plenty of water. She’s never smoked. She eats [Continue Reading]

Ali Vise

Spring Break and Sexual Assault: How to Reduce Your Risk

Spring break can be a time to let loose and unwind from the rigors of the academic year. But it can also increase the risk of sexual assault for young people, who aren’t always on guard against danger in the midst of a party. Over half of women and almost a third of men in [Continue Reading]

Ali Vise

Ali Vise

Bouncing Back: Bridge City teen makes a remarkable recovery from a traumatic brain injury

By Jennifer Latson Addison Minter doesn’t remember the crash that almost killed her. In November, the 17-year-old was on her way home to Bridge City, Texas, after a private cheerleading lesson in Houston. It had been drizzling all day, and her family’s car hit a slick patch of road and hydroplaned into a retainer wall. [Continue Reading]

Ali Vise

The Tooth Fairy Makes Rounds

A little girl lost her first tooth in the middle of a sleep study. Then magic happened at the lab. When 6-year-old Lyric Thomas arrived at the Memorial Hermann Sleep Disorders Center at Westside one recent evening, she had a lot to talk about. She chatted nonstop with pediatric sleep technologist Kelli O’Leary about school, [Continue Reading]

Ali Vise

In Treating Spine Issues, Less Can Be More

When it comes to chronic neck and back pain, surgery is sometimes the best option. But it should be the last option, say James E. Showery, MD, and Cody Tillinghast, MD, assistant professors in the Department of Orthopedic Surgery at McGovern Medical School at UTHealth Houston and affiliated surgeons at Memorial Hermann | Rockets Orthopedic [Continue Reading]

Ali Vise