Source: Down Maine Veterinary Clinic Click photo for larger view. There’s an email that makes the rounds on the Internet about three signs for identifying a stroke: Can the person smile, raise both arms, and speak a simple sentence. “The Smile Test” was originally presented at a conference hosted by the American Stroke Association (ASA)… Read more
Tag Archives: health news
Get thee glass eyes
My mother was decidedly vain her whole life. She’d been exceptionally good looking in her youth, which made it especially difficult to accept the slow physical decay of aging.
Surely it must be easier in our culture to accept the wrinkles, sags and bulges that come with advancing age if one has never thought of oneself as particularly attractive. Or if one has cared little about appearances. Admittedly, this is an increasingly rare point of view in contemporary Western societies. Read more
Oh #^@%$#!+
Source: Bob’s Home Repair Blog Does swearing decrease pain? Definitely, according to a recent study from Keele University. Here are a few details most reports didn’t cover. Study volunteers were able to hold their non-dominant hand in a bucket of ice water (41° F) for two minutes while swearing, but for only one minute and… Read more
Is it safe to take Tylenol?
Acetaminophen, whether it’s in Tylenol, Arthritis Pain Relief, Nyquil, or Vicodin, is safe as long as you don’t take too much. The new maximum dose likely to be recommended by the FDA is 2600 to 3250 milligrams a day. That’s ten 325-milligram Tylenols. Tara Parker-Pope has a question and answer post on the subject in… Read more
Health Culture Daily Dose #15
In today’s Dose: Health care reform (A public option plan emerges from HELP committee; Arguments for the public option from the Urban Institute; Obama stands Harry & Louise on their heads) Health news (Should Steve Jobs use his celebrity status for pancreatic cancer awareness and funding?) Industrialized agriculture (Labeling organic food: What can you believe?;… Read more
Health Culture Daily Dose #14
In today’s Dose: Health care reform (Kennedy-Dodd committee proposal released) Health news (Is Tylenol (acetaminophen) safe to take every day?) Aging (Doctors lack training in care of the elderly) Pop culture (Michael Jackson and Diprivan (propofol), Jackson’s weight, Jackson’s doctor) Health care reform The Senate health committee proposal on health care has been released. Turns… Read more
Health Culture Daily Dose #13
In today’s Dose: Health care reform (Use of language to oppose health care reform; Goozner on media and the uninformed electorate; Doctor blames patients; Doctor importunes Obama and Congress; Doctors salaries doubled in Iran; Another Atul Gawande interview; Political scandals and evangelicals) Health care reform There’s an interesting article in the Washington Post on the… Read more
Health Culture Daily Dose #12
In today’s Dose: Health care reform (Bipartisan support looks unlikely; Public option) Health news Medical research grants) Health care reform As members of Congress headed home for a week-long Fourth of July recess, the consensus on health care reform legislation is that it will not be bi-partisan, as Obama and Democrats had hoped. Republicans are… Read more
Health Culture Daily Dose #11
In today’s Dose: Health care reform (Insurance industry practices; Maggie Mahar on insurance; Analysis of the public option’s status) Health news Mid-life migraines update) The Medical profession More on Dr. Arash Hejazi) Foodborne illness Health care reform Ezra Klein has a column in the Washington Post on Wendell Potter’s testimony before Rockefeller’s Commerce Committee (see… Read more
Health Culture Daily Dose #10
In today’s Dose: The Medical profession (Doctor’s firsthand account of the death of Neda Soltan) Obesity politics (Mediterranean diet, Weight-loss surgery and cancer) The medical profession There is an amazing firsthand account of the shooting and death of Neda Soltan, the young Iranian woman who became a focal point for protesters after the video of… Read more
Health Culture Daily Dose #9
In today’s Dose: Health care reform (Robert Reich on the public option) Health news (Migraines, Nipple piercing and breast feeding) Obesity politics (TB and the thrifty gene) Medical journalism (Drug company ties to journalists) Health care reform Be sure to see today’s two posts on Wendell Potter, the former health insurance executive who testified today… Read more
Health Culture Daily Dose #8
Health care reform Wyden-Bennett plan, Fundamental Democrat/Republican differences, Gawande on building from what we have) The Medical profession (Stress vs. balance for doctors, Doctors’ Diaries on NOVA) Health care reform Last week’s figures on cost and coverage from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) shifted attention to those health care reform initiatives that are less costly.… Read more
Health Culture Daily Dose #7
In today’s Dose: Health care reform (Public health insurance option, Congressional Budget Office, Optimism in the White House, Doctors and reform, Doctors pay) The Medical profession (What doctors earn) Health care reform Paul Krugman, in the New York Times, writes about health care today with his usual intelligence and trenchant prose. His argument: Democrats who… Read more
Health Culture Daily Dose #6
In today’s Dose: Health care reform (Congressionional Budget Office numbers; Why Maggie Mahar isn’t worried; Kevin MD, Daniel Callahan) Foodborne illness (Cookie dough) Industrialized agriculture (Food Inc.) The risk society (Jodi Picoult novels) Health care reform A recent Ezra Klein Klein column in the Washington Post discussed the bad news this week from the Congressional… Read more
Health Culture Daily Dose #5
In today’s Dose: Health care reform (Health care reform won’t make us healthier) The medical profession (Does the AMA represent doctors?; Does the public trust doctors?) Obesity politics (The cost of healthy eating) The doctor/patient relationship (The effects of malpractice on doctors) Graphic art (Anatomically correct shoes) Video (Sanjay Gupta) Health care reform Ezra Klein… Read more
Health Culture Daily Dose #4
In today’s Dose: Health care reform (Public option; Gawande’s article) Health news (Parkinson’s and pesticide) Sleep (Sleep and mental illness) Social networking technology (The digital brain and higher education) Health care reform The Washington Post reports that there is no ‘public option’ in the Senate’s health care draft. The absence of a “public option” marks… Read more
Health Culture Daily Dose #3
In today’s Dose: Health care reform (Gawande radio interview; Public option) Health news (Bayer and prostate cancer) Obesity politics (Michelle Obama) Social networking technology (Doctors on Twitter and email) Health care reform National Public Radio has an interview with Atul Gawande about his recent New Yorker article. It’s 30 minutes and covers much the same… Read more
Health Culture Daily Dose #2
In today’s Dose: Health care reform (Robert Reich; Blaming doctors; Lobbying Congress; Individual mandate) Foodborne illness (FDA and food safety) Health care reform Lobbyists who oppose the “public option” component of health care reform are spending big bucks. Robert Reich’s latest blog post on health care documents the dollar amounts: $9.8 million from the AMA… Read more
Health Culture Daily Dose #1advertising, alcohol, doctors, FDA, health care, health news, Obama, pharmaceuticals, tobacco
In today’s Dose: Health care reform (Obama’s AMA speech; Underlying issues; David Brooks on Obama; Robert Samuelson’s take; WSJ fiction) Health news (Benefits of alcohol?; Ritalin and unexplained deaths) Tobacco (Litigating over free speech; Is the FDA demoralized) Health care reform The American Medical Association (AMA) came out last week against any government sponsored insurance… Read more
How to read health news
Here’s a good companion thought to HRT and the incredible shrinking brain. It’s from Dr. Alicia White, an employee of Bazian, the evidence-based medicine firm in Great Britain. Bazian does research for the health news on Behind the headlines, the National Health Service site I recommend as a source of health news. If you’ve just… Read more
HRT shrinks women's brains? What's wrong with this picture?
There was a widely reported story today about hormone replacement therapy (HRT) and a decrease in the size of women’s brains. The headlines were predictably but needlessly sensational. In fact, the study did not measure a decrease in the brain size of any individual woman. Source: Richard Amsel, The Movie Posters First, the headlines. There… 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
Does chocolate prevent heart disease?
Stories about the health benefits of chocolate are a good way to get the attention of viewers and readers. Wouldn’t it be great if the headlines were true? Read more
Get your health news here
A health news site on the Internet that provides objective information, with no incentive to stretch the boundaries of truth. Read more
Health news and competitive journalism
If we really understood the motivation behind news stories on health and medicine, we might reasonably decide to stop reading. Read more