Source: Rant Rave As I described in a previous post, the parents of Isaiah James May, who has been declared brain dead, are engaged in a legal battle to keep their son on life-support. At their last court appearance on January 27 they were granted an extension of their appeal. The next court date is… Read more
Category Archives: Health & Medicine
Why did we shoot ourselves in the foot on health care?
Source: The University of Minnesota Unlike the US, where a turkey dinner is traditionally associated with Thanksgiving, the United Kingdom dines on turkey at Christmas. So when the British or Australians accuse you of acting like “a turkey voting for Christmas,” they mean you’re going against your own best interests. The BBC has a new… Read more
Baby Isaiah: Ethical dilemmas of modern medicine (1)
Source: The Province Isaiah James May was born last October in a small town (population 7,000) in Alberta, Canada. For Rebecka May, age 23, this was her first child. The pregnancy was normal, and both mother and child were healthy at the time of delivery. Labor was difficult, however. It went on for 40 hours,… Read more
Melamine, cadmium, and Heidi Montag
Source: Reuters Melamine in milk is in the news again. Is this totally inexcusable or what? Products from three Chinese companies were removed from shelves in southern China after they tested positive for melamine. Products included not just milk, but candy that used milk as an ingredient. Two of the companies had been cited in… Read more
FDA video on health fraud: So boring it makes you wonder
Source: Dipity The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has a new video on health fraud awareness. A worthy topic. It touches on weight loss products, HIV scams, cures for cancer and diabetes. What’s noteworthy about the video is that it’s SO boring. The inflections of the voiceover are totally inauthentic. It has the pacing of… Read more
Daily Dose: Climate change: How bad can it get; FDR's death; Yawns; Facebook
Source: Sacramento for Democracy Climate change Copenhagen climate summit: Five possible scenarios for our future climate (The Guardian) Concise summary of what we can expect for each increase of one degree Celcius (1.8 degrees Fahrenheit) in global temperature. Here are a few of the health implications. 1C: “Most of the world’s corals will die, including… Read more
Daily Dose: Celebrity health; Livestock antibiotics; Transplants
The body as machine Source: The Daily Mail Inventor spends Christmas with his perfect woman – a £30,000 custom-made fembot (The Daily Mail) “Inventor Le Trung spent Christmas Day with the most important woman in his life – his robot Aiko. … Her touch sensitive body knows the difference between being stroked gently or tickled.… Read more
Daily Dose: Palliative sedation; E. coli in tenderized meat
There’s a long article in Sunday’s New York Times on palliative sedation. I’ve also listed some older stories on the subject and an educational site. Aging, end-of-life, and death Source: The Why Files Hard Choice for a Comfortable Death: Sedation, (The New York Times) “Among those [end-of-life] choices is terminal sedation, a treatment that is… Read more
This mess we’re in – Part 1
Source: Moore’s Lore After all these months of acrimony and hand-wringing, it appears there will be something called health care reform. It may be equally disappointing to both supporters and opponents, but that comes as no surprise. It’s now abundantly clear that the legislative process is hopelessly inadequate when it comes to things like health… Read more
This is for my friend Ted Kennedy
Source: Washington Life Magazine Every “aye” vote in the Senate remains critical for the final passage of health care reform, and Senator Byrd’s health is described as fragile. Earlier this year he spent six months in the hospital with a staph infection, and he has used a wheelchair for his recent trips to the Senate… Read more
Health Culture Daily Dose #18
Source: Wunderground When did we start calling the whole day before Christmas “Christmas Eve?” I thought Christmas Eve was the evening before Christmas. But no. Senators voted on health care reform at 1:00 AM on Thursday December 24th. To me, that’s still Wednesday night, but it was widely reported as happening on Christmas Eve. Perhaps… Read more
Big Pharma tells Santa: All I want for Christmas
Source: FoundMoney Last week it looked like Big Pharma had won the latest skirmish over importing low cost drugs from Canada and other countries. But the battle isn’t over yet. As FiercePharma told its drug company readers today: “And you thought you could stop worrying about re-importation.” Senator Dorgan’s amendment to the health care reform… Read more
Campaign contributions and the cost of pharmaceuticals
Source: The Heartland Institute Prescription drugs are much more expensive in the US than they are in other countries. Americans pay 36 percent more than Canadians, on average. We pay 39 percent more than Europeans and 43 percent more than the Japanese. Mevacor, a commonly prescribed statin for lowering cholesterol, costs $200 for 100 pills… Read more
Courtroom dogs comfort children, calm adults
Ellen O’Neill-Stephens is an attorney in Washington state. Her background includes prosecuting crimes against children – sexual assault, neglect, abuse and other serious crimes. Back in 2003, her household included her son Sean, who has cerebral palsy, and Jeeter, a trained service dog and companion to Sean. There were days when Sean was with a… Read more
Accelerate health care reform before it's too late
Source: Infected Tube Paul Starr was a senior advisor for health care reform under President Clinton, and he’s the author of a celebrated history of the American health care system, The Social Transformation of American Medicine. He has weighed in on the current health care debate in a New York Times op-ed piece. In addition… Read more
Could conservatives reverse health reform in 2013?
Source: About.com, Daniel Kurtzman Maggie Mahar raises a disturbing point about implementing health care reform once a bill makes it through both branches of Congress. In the House version of the bill, the provisions — the public plan, the Exchanges, regulation of private insurers, subsidies — take effect on January 1, 2013. The Senate version,… Read more
Sin taxes: Financing health care with soda pop
Sourch: On the dash Sugary soft drinks are under attack from obesity experts, health commissioners, nutritionists, Congress, and President Obama. And the soft drink industry is fighting back. Health experts have proposed a tax on soft drinks of one cent per ounce. That’s an extra 12 cents on a 12-ounce bottle of Pepsi, which may… Read more
Baby RB: Ethical dilemmas of modern medicine
Source: Karen Bown Photography In the days before informed consent – when doctors knew best and it hadn’t occurred to patients that they had rights – newborn babies with life-threatening birth defects were declared “stillborn.” The motives were compassionate: Spare the parents an agonizing choice and a lifetime dedicated to full time care. This medical… Read more
The problem in Afghanistan is hunger
Source: Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan The typical diet in Afghanistan is bread with a watery soup, some onions, a potato, perhaps a bone and some yogurt or oil. One third of the population is hungry or in danger of starving – humanitarian groups call this being “food insecure.” Another third of the… Read more
Can you get swine flu by eating pork and other myths
Source: China View Christopher Beam, writing on Slate, points out that opposition to vaccines unites both ends of the political spectrum. “Swine flu may have an unexpected side effect: political unity. The far left and far right agree that they’re sure as heck not getting vaccinated against swine flu.” The far right objects to the… Read more
Questions worth asking about swine flu vaccinations
Source: TopNews The questions raised by Dr. Mercola about swine flu vaccinations – such as, Are you willing to let the government experiment on your child? – are simply inflammatory and self-serving. There are some legitimate questions, however. For example: Where is the vaccine manufactured? The current supply of H1N1 flu vaccine comes from US… Read more
Why it’s safe to completely ignore Dr. Mercola
Source: Kitchen Table Medicine A chiropractor for whom I have considerable respect – she’s a scientist, formerly an aeronautical engineer – is handing out copies of an article by Dr. Mercola that recommends against the swine flu vaccine. Another chiropractor told me she knew of no one in her profession who would receive, or allow… Read more
Giving "alternative" a bad name
I’m generally sympathetic to the benefits of alternative therapies. That’s not surprising given I’ve studied, practiced, and taught alternative therapies, in addition to having a PhD in the History of Science and Medicine. There are times, however, when I totally understand why some members of the medical profession are so vehement in their condemnation of… Read more
The public option has a pulse
Source: xplosive world Commentators are expressing surprise at the resurrection of a public option as part the health care reform package. The main reasons cited for its resurgence are the insurance industry’s recent attack on health care legislation, claiming premiums would rise, and polls indicating that a clear majority of the public supports the public… Read more
Were "death panels" a teachable moment for palliative care?
Source: Palliative Care Foundation This past summer, thanks in large part to Sarah Palin, we were inundated with sound bites about death panels, pulling the plug on grandma, and saving the government money by dying a little sooner. Palin’s emotionally manipulative Facebook post appeared on August 7. “The America I know and love is not… Read more
Dementia, denial, and high school football
Source: NFL Football 360 The National Football League (NFL) commissioned a survey on the incidence of dementia and other memory-related diseases among its retired players. The results that came back showed early-onset dementia occurring “vastly more often” compared to the national population. The NLF dismissed the study as unreliable. The data comes from the 88… Read more
Is football the moral equivalent of dogfighting?
Source: Collegiate Sports Medicine Malcom Gladwell (of Outliers, Blink, and The Tipping Point fame) has an article in the New Yorker called “Offensive Play.” The subtitle is “How different are dogfighting and football?” In dogfighting, the dogs are injured and suffer permanent damage. It’s becoming clear that the same is true for professional football players.… Read more
Are women doctors safer?
Nearly half of students in US medical schools are female. Studies show that, compared to their male counterparts, women doctors are friendlier, spend more time with their patients, and are less likely to be sued. According to Jorge Girotti of the University of Illinois at Chicago Medical School, women doctors are more empathetic, compassionate, and… Read more
Are convertibles hazardous to your hearing?
Source: Los Angeles Times A decibel (abbreviated dB) measures the intensity of a sound. The zero point of the decibel scale is called “near total silence.” As long as we’re living and breathing on the earth, we’re never going to experience absolute, total silence. If you scan the increasing decibel levels of familiar sounds, the… Read more
Money-Driven Medicine, the documentary, available on the web
Source: Bill Moyers Journal Maggie Mahar announced today (on her Health Beat blog) that the documentary of her book, Money-Driven Medicine , will be available for free on the web for two weeks. As Mahar says in her post today, the director and field producer “did a brilliant job of finding doctors and patients who… Read more