Back in November, following a two-hour meeting in Chicago, president-elect Obama offered Sanjay Gupta the position of Surgeon General. (This from a presumably reliable source: Gupta’s mother, Damayanti.) Gupta has been prudently tight-lipped about the appointment ever since the Washington Post broke the story in early January. Gupta, the chief medical correspondent for CNN, discussed… Read more
Category Archives: Politics & Issues
The economy, stress, and health
In October the American Psychological Association (APA) released its Annual Stress in America Survey. Compared to 2007, the 2008 survey found an increase in stress related to money, the economy, job stability, housing costs, and family health problems. Stress-related symptoms also increased: fatigue, feeling irritable or angry, lying awake at night, lack of motivation, feeling… Read more
Paging Dr. Frankenstein
Yes, there’s mercury in your salmon and melamine in little Jenny’s formula, but not enough to do any real damage. Read more
Eat fish? Don't read this
The LA Times had a story today on melamine in farmed fish from China, the source of 70 percent of farm-raised fish. This isn’t exactly breaking news. Recent melamine-in-milk stories have mentioned melamine in animal feed, which means fish, shrimp, beef, pork, and poultry were likely to be contaminated. Melamine-in-fish stories go back to the… Read more
Melamine update
What happened in China, and what threatens a widening swath of the world’s food supply, is a human tragedy that can’t be understood simply in terms of science. Read more
Economic recovery and healthcare reform
Many of the ideas in Clinton’s plan were too complex to be communicated efficiently and effectively. This made political positioning, always difficult, even more delicate. Read more
Will Obama’s health policy survive a Big Pharma challenge?
“Here’s some friendly advice to the pharmaceutical industry: don’t make the mistake of attacking the policies of our new President. Such a move is likely to backfire.” Read more
To make more money
Health is more than drugs and disease. It’s the food we eat, the water we drink, and the air we breathe. We need to be able to trust them all. Read more
The election, the common good, Starbucks, and driving safely
There’s been plenty of coverage of the Obama and McCain health plans during the presidential election campaign. I debated whether to contribute my opinion and decided against it. I think everyone is exhausted with media coverage. There’s a nice Time Magazine article this week on “The 24-Minute News Cycle.” It was reassuring to read that… Read more
My personal odyssey through the health culture
I was a “victim of advice” in the seventies, but I should have known better. Read more