Screen-caused migraines and more: Letters to the Editor — Sept. 22, 2024

Screen sick
Dr. Robert Fryer’s primer on migraines was nice (“Pain on the brain,” Sept. 16). Certainly hunger, dehydration, stress and lack of sleep are migraine triggers. But I believe he missed a major one: screens. After a decade of suffering from severe migraines, I was able to track through a headache diary that showed my main trigger is phone and computer screens. Today, in order to survive, I do not keep a cell phone, and I can’t look at a computer screen for more than 10-to-15 minutes per day due to eye damage from screens. I regularly preach to parents whose children are on a computer at school (and also on their phones) for eight hours a day and then doing homework on a computer to tell them take breaks every 20 minutes and to wear blue-light-blocking glasses. My eye doctor has also seen an increase in eye- and brain-pain disorders since screens have become indispensable.

B. Mantz, Princeton, N.J.

DEI doctor danger
Jay P. Greene exposes what is being taught to our future physicians in medical school, where diversity, equity and inclusion is apparently taking precedence over medical subjects (“Top Medical Schools Putting Politics First,” Post­Opinion, Sept. 16). Medical advances have been achieved by relying on evidence-based approaches to develop therapies. Where are the studies showing that poorer outcomes in certain ethnic groups are due to racism and not economic status? Have there been studies comparing outcomes in poor Caucasians versus poor African-Americans or affluent African-Americans versus affluent Caucasians? Is there any consideration of the fact that poorer outcomes in African-American women with breast cancer may be perhaps due to the fact that they have an increased incidence of triple-negative breast cancer, which carries a worse prognosis? Our medical schools must realize that their function is to produce competent, caring physicians, not political activists.

Seymour Cohen, Associate Clinical Professor of Medicine, Ichan School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, Manhattan

Kam’s Israel hate
I am so tired of hearing Vice President Kamala Harris ranting about a cease-fire in the Middle East conflict (“Kam’s Awful on Israel,” Adam Brodsky, PostOpinion, Sept. 19). All she’s concerned about is the dignity and self-determination of the Palestinian people. Israel left Gaza two decades ago — and left greenhouses and other equipment for the people of Gaza to improve their lives. The Palestinians elected Hamas as their government, and it is still in power. They determined their destination. How about demanding the return of the hostages, both living and deceased? It is almost a year since the invasion started. Vietnam has become a tourist attraction. Gaza could have been the same if their leaders had built up the area. It’s Hamas that has kept them in squalor. So it’s time for Harris to stop blaming Israel for the destruction of a terrorist group.

Sylvia Kane, Brooklyn

Pride challenge
Members of “Queers for Palestine” are impervious to reality (“Calling Out ‘Queers for Palestine,’ ” Editorial, Sept. 18). In addition to parading in Gaza or the West Bank, as Gregory T. Angelo brilliantly challenges them to do, “Queers for Palestine” should enter Hamas’ tunnels to discuss the cultural origins of homophobia in the Islamic world with the cowards who hold hostage, behead babies, rape, torture and execute women and men. I’m sure the Hamas-niks will welcome these allies with open arms.

David Rabinovitz, Brooklyn