Dr. Joyce Stevens has been a physician with the Michigan Health Specialists Group since March 2007. She is Board Certified by the American Board of Family Practice and is a member of the American Academy of Family Practice. While she specializes in women and children, she most enjoys treating families as a whole. “I see everybody,” she says with a smile. “I like helping people – a variety of people – I like getting them healthy.”

Did you know that 60,000 individuals with autism live in Michigan? Did you know that there are 1,000 school-aged children in Genesee County with autism? What is Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)? “ASD is a complex developmental disability that typically appears during the first three years of life and is the result of a neurological disorder that affects normal brain function,” explains Anne Haley, Director of the Autism Support & Resource Center in Burton. Typically, both children and adults with ASD show difficulties in verbal and non-verbal communication, social interactions, and leisure or play activities. Autism affects each individual differently and at varying degrees.

What are GMOs? According to Green America, a national non-profit dedicated to growing the green economy for people and the planet, Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) are plants or animals created through the gene-splicing techniques of biotechnology (also called genetic engineering, or GE). This experimental technology merges DNA from different species, creating unstable combinations of plant, animal, bacterial and viral genes that cannot occur in nature or in traditional crossbreeding. More and more foods and products are being genetically engineered or contain genetically-engineered ingredients.

Are you stressed out? If so, you are not alone. Everyone experiences stress at some time in their life.

When we become elderly or ill, it often can become a taxing effort to leave our home independently and safely to obtain medical services. At one point in time, many health care services could only be offered to a patient in a hospital, inpatient facility, or in a doctor’s office. Many of these medical services can now be provided in the comfort of your own home and are typically less expensive than the inpatient setting. In fact, with many insurance providers, such as Medicare, private home care is covered at 100 percent, if certain criteria are met.

It’s been called “cabin fever” or the “winter blahs” – a seasonal depression many people experience during the winter months. Most get over it, but about ten percent of all depression is SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder), a serious depressive condition that requires intervention.

Imagine the many choices you can make in life are taken away from you. Do you give up, or do you fight? You fight, of course. When faced with one of the most difficult situations a human being could ever endure – cancer – we should all react the same way: fight it! At least, Mallory Turchi likes to think so.

Rocco Wentworth, son of John and Jennifer Wentworth, is your typical six-year-old boy. He attends kindergarten at St. John’s in Fenton. He plays hockey, basketball and soccer. “He’s wild and full of energy,” says his father with a smile. “But he’s also very compassionate and loving to his little sister.” Rocco loves to swim and just recently started playing tennis, which he seems to have a knack for. And of course, much like any other six-year-old, he loves to play video games.

Stress is something that everyone experiences to varying degrees throughout their lives. Stress was originally defined in 1936 by one of the first researchers in the field, Dr. Hans Selye as, “the non-specific response of the body to any demand for change.” This really encompasses many aspects of our lives, positive and negative.

There are many causes of headaches – entire medical books have been written on the subject. In my practice, I see many people who are seeking help to figure out what is making their head throb so badly. Naturally, their biggest concerns are things like brain tumors and strokes. Once they have those things checked out, get negative results and find out they are not dying, the question still remains: why does their head ache so much?