Gerry Litton and his wife, Carol, live in Oakland with six cats—and one other fuzzy addition that has crept into Litton’s life over the years: hearing loss.

Jessica Nutik Zitter, M.D., is an attending physician at Alameda Health System’s Highland Hospital in Oakland and specializes in palliative care. But to the world she’s known as an expert on the one thing that most people don’t want to think about: death.

Our annual directory of the best doctors in the East Bay features 249 physicians in 60 specialties.

The hospital landscape in Alameda County looks very different these days.

Berkeley graphic designer Jessica Greenwalt, 28, was worried about mounting pains in her wrist and shoulder from hunching over a tablet all day. When she heard about standing desks, she thought she might have found a solution. To start, she created a makeshift standing desk; in June, she switched to a convertible standing and sitting desk. She noticed that standing made her more alert at work, but also helped diminish her pain and stave off early warning signs of carpal tunnel syndrome.

If you’ve ever had a dental filling, chances are you’ve got some mercury in your mouth. Those so-called silver fillings are a mixture of liquid elemental mercury and powdered silver, tin, copper, and other trace metals that hardens into a solid material that dentists have considered an excellent solution for cavities for more than a century. But concern has been growing as to the safety of these fillings, with some experts citing dental mercury’s dangers, especially to the kidneys and the nervous system.

If you’ve ever had a dental filling, chances are you’ve got some mercury in your mouth. Those so-called silver fillings are a mixture of liquid elemental mercury and powdered silver, tin, copper, and other trace metals that hardens into a solid material that dentists have considered an excellent solution for cavities for more than a century. But concern has been growing as to the safety of these fillings, with some experts citing dental mercury’s dangers, especially to the kidneys and the nervous system.

On Sunday, Aug. 30, Oakland will see something new. Over 1,000 triathletes in wetsuits will jump into the water from the revitalized Estuary Park and start swimming in the newly clean inner harbor. They’ll mount their bikes and loop downtown Oakland, and then run around Lake Merritt and finish their race in Jack London Square. Expected to rival the Oakland marathon’s energy, the first-ever Oakland triathlon may become one of the West Coast’s largest urban triathlons—showcasing the city and its emerging health-and-fitness culture. And seeded among the competitors will be dozens of athletes sporting the green, yellow, and gray racing kits of the Oakland Triathlon Club: the race’s ambassador club whose rapid growth seeks to give a populist vibe to an often-expensive activity.

Alamedans share their views on the new alliance.

“I want Alameda to become one of America’s top bicycle-friendly cities."