When Is Breast Cancer Not “Cancer”? When You’re Funded by Breast-Implant Makers (Bnet)
Plastic surgery trade groups advised doctors on what to tell women worried by new link between breast implants and anaplastic large cell lymphoma (ALCL). Say it’s a “condition,” not cancer.
It Gets Worse (NYT)
Robert Crawford’s healthism is alive and well. Review of Susan Jacoby’s Never Say Die: The Myth and Marketing of the New Old Age
Talk Doesn’t Pay, So Psychiatry Turns Instead to Drug Therapy (NYT)
The new emphasis on efficiency in medicine has produced a significant loss of intimacy between doctors and patients. No specialty has suffered this loss more profoundly than psychiatry.
The divided self, hidden values, and moral sensibility in medicine (Lancet)
A thought-provoking essay by Arthur Kleinman. Medical decision-making is so over-simplified that we ignore the complexity of conflicting emotions — in both patients and doctors. A corrective would be medical education that includes the study of the humanities. Why don’t medical journals in the US write about this?
Counting Down to Nuclear War (NYT)
Review of How the End Begins: The Road to a Nuclear World War III
On Climate Who Needs the Facts? (NYT)
Obama’s modest budget request for funds to study climate change were denied by House Republicans. Politics trumps science. House evidently believes “wishing away the evidence will eliminate the problem.”
How Not to Get Sick From a Flight (NYT)
Germs on surfaces are just as much a problem as those in the air. Sample swabbing of tray tables found 4 out of 6 had superbug MRSA, plus norovirus, which produces a wicked flu. Products sold to keep you safe have mostly psychological effects.
Gap Between Rich And Poor Named 8th Wonder Of The World (Onion)
Just 50 years ago popular movements called for closing the gap. “Due to a small group of dedicated politicians and industry leaders, vigorous preservation efforts were begun around 1980 to restore—and greatly expand—the age-old structure.”
Image (Implants): Los Angeles Times
Image (Mexico City beach): The Onion
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