So Young and So Many Pills (WSJ)
More than 25% of U.S. children and teens take prescription drugs on a regular basis. Most have not been tested on children. (12/28)
Osama bin Laden is dead (Wash Times)
Medical history of bin Ladan. Conclusion: It’s unlikely he’s still alive (12/28) Read more
Obama Returns to End-of-Life Plan That Caused Stir (NYT)
Cautious progress on plans to reimburse physicians for end-of-life discussions, trying not to inflame death panel myth (which is bound to happen anyway)
Overhaul of food safety laws might not be to GOP’s taste (Wash Post)
Good summary of bill’s benefits. Republicans may deny funding, claiming: “We still have a food supply that’s 99.99 percent safe.”
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Exercise ‘protects brain from ageing’ (NHS)
Not new or unsurprising, but it’s additional evidence that there’s a connection between low levels of physical activity and cognitive decline
Can dairy cut diabetes risk? (NHS)
The association was found only with whole-fat dairy, not low-fat. “The study is not robust evidence that dairy products can lower diabetes risk.” Read more
Can Congress Make You Buy Broccoli? And Why That’s a Hard Question (NEJM)
Four reasons why it’s hard to answer this question. A legal opinion (12/23)
Doctor Arrested in Whistle-Blowing Case (NYT)
Doctor accused of practicing substandard medicine worked with his friend, the sheriff, to get nurses fired. Nurses vindicated. Doctor now out on bail. (12/23) Read more
The Hazards of Nerd Supremacy: The Case of WikiLeaks (Atlantic)
Substantial, thought-provoking essay by philosopher of the information age, Jaron Lanier
Secrecy May Be Unnecessary for Placebo Effect (WebMD)
Ted Kaptchuk trial involved 80 IBS patients. “There may be significant benefit to the very performance of medical ritual.” Read more
Court Backs Patents for Diagnostic Tests (NYT)
A closely watched development in personalized medicine. Patents on tests raise costs and impede medical progress (12/21)
Drug Makers New Targets for U.S. Fraud Inquiries, Report Says (NYT)
Drug industry overtakes defense as main target of federal fraud investigations. Pharma makes so much money by bending or breaking the rules on off-label marketing that the fines are worth it. (12/21) Read more
A reversal on carbs (LA Times)
The country’s big low-fat message backfired. The overemphasis on reducing fat caused the consumption of carbohydrates and sugar in our diets to soar. That shift may be linked to the biggest health problems in America today.
Mental Health Needs Seen Growing at Colleges (NYT)
70s students saw college counselors for existential crisis: Who am I? “Now they’re bringing in life stories involving extensive trauma, a history of serious mental illness, eating disorders, self-injury, alcohol and other drug use.” Read more
An epidemic of loneliness (Lancet)
“Doctor”, she asks, “can you give me a cure for loneliness?” Patients whose only misunderstanding is to have lived to an age when they are no longer coveted by a society addicted to youth.
Tackling loneliness in the holidays (Lancet)
The holiday season is the time of the year when our desire for social contact is most likely to outstrip what our circumstances will allow; it is into this gap that loneliness creeps. Read more
The U-bend of life: Why, beyond middle age, people get happier as they get older (Economist)
Life improves after the stressful middle years. Interesting comments
Can Congress Force You to Be Healthy? (NYT)
A good point or the wrong question? Virginia judge’s ruling could prove irresistible to the Supreme Court Read more
There was no way to use a catheter or give him an IV. We solved the problem the way we would have 50 years ago, with warm compresses and oral antispasmodics. … It has been very important that the [medical] team include older physicians, like me. Read more
As a practicing pediatrician, I, too, feel the nobility and privilege of my profession, and count myself lucky every day that I am able to do what I do. But to denigrate lawyers and journalists as somehow less valuable to society is beneath us as a profession. Read more
Am I missing something here or does this say we shouldn’t publicize information about hospitals with poor hygiene because they’ll just lie about the facts or be otherwise devious and dishonest? Plus, reputation – that is, the financial profits of medicine – is more important than the health and safety of patients? No, it couldn’t be saying that. Read more
Between 1985 and 2000, the retail price of carbonated soft drinks rose by 20%, the prices of fats and oils by 35%, and those of sugars and sweets by 46%, as compared with a 118% increase in the retail price of fresh fruits and vegetables. …
Healthy, low-calorie foods cost more money and take more effort to prepare than processed, high-calorie foods. … Drewnowski estimated that a calorie-dense diet cost $3.52 a day compared with $36.32 a day for a low-calorie diet.
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I have a post today at the blog KevinMD. … “An exemplary blog that features timely news and opinion of the latest in medicine, bringing in one of the most devoted audiences and keeping thousands of curious minds satisfied with smart and funny writing. While working on his own blog, Kevin has consistently promoted the rest of the medical blogosphere as a useful and reliable source for medical knowledge and opinion.” Read more
We live in a very anxiety-producing culture. It’s not the inevitability of death that makes us so anxious. That’s a historical constant. It’s not simply the specifics of turmoil and suffering in the world. Nor is it the underlying insecurity we feel as side-effects of the transition to a global economy. All of those contribute to anxiety, yes. But what exacerbates our condition, in my opinion, is constant exposure to information that ultimately stands to benefit financially from maintaining a state of anxiety. That’s not a good situation. Read more
The researchers are hopeful that they can build on these initial findings to develop new uses for this potent ingredient in honey, and in light of an alarming trend of antibiotic-resistance, ultimately even put defensin-1 to use as an alternative to current antibiotics. Read more
Rising Plague (Brad Spellberg) Before getting to the numerous recent news items on antibiotic resistance and urinary tract infections, let me quote from Dr. Brad Spellberg’s Rising Plague: The Global Threat from Deadly Bacteria and Our Dwindling Arsenal to Fight Them. (In the following, “community-acquired” means an infection that begins outside a hospital, and fluoroquinolones… Read more
When someone is having a heart attack, bystanders (outside of a hospital) are encouraged to administer life-saving cardio-pulmonary resuscitation (CPR). The traditional form of CPR involves a ratio of 30 chest compressions per minute alternating with two mouth-to-mouth rescue breaths. When I learned CPR, students were provided with a sealed, sterile cloth for covering the… Read more
The wheels of justice may turn slowly, but for Anne Mitchell, the Texas nurse who was prosecuted for complaining about the unethical conduct of a doctor, justice is proceeding. The doctor in question, Rolando Arafiles, is about to be formally disciplined. (For background on this story, see Whistle blowing: Nurse Anne Mitchell vs. Dr. Arafiles.)… Read more
Data Underload #18 – Sleep Schedule (Flowing Data) A picture worth a thousand words. Diagram of the hours of the day showing when we’re asleep and awake throughout the lifespan. Sleeping (or Not) by the Wrong Clock (The New York Times) When your sleep schedule is out of sync with the rest of the world,… Read more
On Monday, news broke that Walgreens was about to announce a genetic test kit, available in stores starting on Friday. The kits would allow consumers to test for such things as how you respond to statins or blood-thinners; whether you carry genes for Tay-Sachs disease or cystic fibrosis; whether you have an increased risk for… Read more
In his recent book on the financial crisis, John Lanchester mentions China’s unprecedented economic growth, which has created a “hugely expanding, highly consuming new middle class.” China’s [middle class] went from 174 million to 806 million, arguably the greatest economic achievement anywhere on Earth, ever. Chinese personal income grew by 6.6 percent a year from… Read more
We’ve known for years that antibiotic resistant bacteria (ARB) are increasingly a problem in hospital settings. As the recently published (and excellent) book Superbug describes, ARB are also increasingly common in the community – in sports teams, prisons, and on pig farms, for example. A recent study finds that antibiotic resistance is on the increase… Read more
Sometimes childbirth – the hours spent in labor – can last a long time. You can get thirsty. Or hungry. Is it OK to eat and drink during labor? If not, why not? In any childbirth scenario there’s always the possibility that surgery – and general anesthesia — will be necessary. Under anesthesia there’s a… Read more
These research findings, of course, fly in the face of our cultural dogma that proclaims it impossible for people to achieve an emotionally fulfilling and healthy life unless they become parents. And that’s a problem, because the vast majority of American men and women eventually have children, yet conditions in our society make it nearly impossible for them to reap all the emotional benefits of doing so.
There’s a wonderful letter (PDF) in Science signed by 255 members of the National Academy of Sciences. It’s titled “Climate Change and the Integrity of Science,” and it’s not simply about climate change. It argues that politically motivated attacks on climate change threaten the very integrity of science. As the lead signer points out, since… Read more
Are you ever just a little bit nervous when someone calls you while they’re driving? Maybe you should be. Distracted driving takes two. These public service ads are from Bangalore, India. Without the text (“Don’t talk while he drives”), they simply seem shocking. But they certainly accomplish their intent of getting your attention and making… Read more
Nice post on Slate about how developmental milestones can be meaningless and create needless worry. A little less than a century ago, Arnold Gesell, a developmental scientist at Yale, proposed that motor skills were related to the maturing of the brain. This led to the pronouncement that all infants would pass through the same steps… Read more
[A]s a society, Americans are no longer sure what to do with our dead. … Today … our death rituals have become downsized, inwardly directed, static and, as a result, spiritually and culturally impoverished. … At upbeat, open-mike “celebrations of life,” former coaches, neighbors and relatives amuse us with stories and naïvely declare that the dead, who are usually nowhere to be seen and have nowhere to go, will nevertheless live always in our memories. Funerals, which once made confident public pilgrimage through town to the graveyard, now tread lightly across the tiny tableau of our psyches.
Saul Goldberg, a student of Tony Judt, will be cycling across the country this month to raise money for ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease) and to increase awareness of this devastating disease. Goldberg will travel from Astoria, Oregon to Brighton Beach, New York, leaving on May 25th and arriving on July 25th. Those who would like… Read more
