Dr. Ben Kim's blog

Originally published in April 2010

In my book, any smoothie that's worth writing about starts with ripe bananas. You can use room temperature or frozen banana slices - both impart natural creaminess like no other fruit can.

Before we get started, here's a quick look at how I like to store bananas: Read more

A study published in the American journal Cancer found that people who frequently had some types of dental X-rays in the past had an increased risk of a meningioma, the most common type of brain tumor.

It should be noted that their data was from a time when radiation doses with typical X-rays were higher than they are today, given that many dentists are moving from traditional film to digital images. Read more

Originally published in March 2009

In the wake of the tragic passing of actress Natasha Richardson, I'd like to share a few details on head injuries that everyone should know about.

Based on what I've read in several newspaper reports, Natasha Richardson died from an epidural hematoma, which medical professionals will tell you is one of the most frightening conditions around because it can be caused by a low force blow to the head, and also because initially, there may be no signs to indicate that a serious injury has occurred. Read more

Over the holidays, we had a chance to visit some old friends at their new Mixed Martial Arts facility just north of Toronto. We had a great time catching up while our boys tore up their massive gym (there's just something that works about letting kids loose in a wide open space covered with premium gym mats). Read more

CAREX Canada is a multidisciplinary team of researchers based at the University of British Columbia that is developing estimates of the number of Canadians exposed to known probable and possible carcinogens in workplace and community environments. The goal is to help develop exposure reduction strategies and cancer prevention programs.

Below, you'll find a list of twelve cancer-causing agents that affect the highest numbers of Canadian workers: Read more

Just wanted to elaborate on this topic to address some of the more common questions that I've received in response to my post on why you shouldn't use soap to clean your anus or urethral opening.

Mucous membranes line the following areas of your body: Read more

If you have tight hip flexors, you can expect to have problems with your hip joints and lower back, if not now, then almost certainly at some point in the future.

Your hip flexors are a group of muscles that enable you to bring your knee up towards your trunk. Though several muscles contribute to this action, the two primary players are your iliacus and psoas major, which come together to form the extremely strong ilipsoas tendon, which attaches your hip flexor muscles to your thigh bone. Read more

Pink eye - also known as conjunctivitis - is sometimes accompanied by what appears to be a pimple in the white portion (sclera) of the eye.

Conjunctivitis often looks far worse than it is for the simple reason that you have a close-up look at inflamed and ruptured vessels. All that redness and mishmash of engorged blood vessels looks just as bad under your skin when you experience a bruise, but with a bruise, you don't actually see the goriness. Read more

In early 2011, a fellow tennis player in Barrie, Caitlyn Lawrence, now a university student in South Carolina, asked me to participate in a career-related Q&A for a class project. I thought that some of the following would be useful to others considering a career in health care. - Ben Kim Read more

As a follow-up to my outline of the three most important determinants of cardiovascular health, this post reviews six reliable measures of how healthy your heart is. Read more