Old Friends, Hygiene Hypothesis and Autoimmune Disease
This whole concept of “old friends” and hormesis fascinates me because of what I see every day in the clinic with patients’ resilience to stress, physical challenges and immune function. The microbiota of the gut is complex and seems to be related to everything. Besides avoiding antibiotics and factory produced fish, chicken and beef,…
Read MoreBeware the Extremes
First, Do No Harm Great article about medicine’s tendency to take recommendations to the extreme. Included should be the recommendations about blood pressure. Too low, especially in the elderly can be dangerous too!
Read MoreAre Bacteria Making Us Crave the Wrong Things?
Interesting article that outlines precedent for a parasite (in this case bacteria) causing us to eat food that benefit THEM instead of US. Creepy, but who knows? “We’ve come to appreciate how beneficial our microbes are, breaking down our food, fighting off infections and nurturing our immune system. It’s a lovely, invisible garden we…
Read MoreAcupuncture for Depression: Scientific American
Scientific American takes on the topic of Acupuncture in discussing a research study about acupuncture for depression. In this particular article, they used electroacupuncture for 6 weeks and the effect was more rapid than with Prozac. If you click through to the discussion, they, of course, interview Edzard Ernst. I’m not sure where his…
Read MoreWall Street Titans Turn to Meditation
Bottom line? Anything for an edge. Why not acupuncture too? Calms stress, improves immune response, lessens pain, helps you sleep, keeps you away from medications and surgeries and able to do activities. I guess I should “makes you more money” to the list…
Read MoreClimate Change: Bad for Health
Of course, we all could guess that. West Nile virus is increasing, asthma rates soaring, allergy season lengthening. This report lays it all out and makes a strong demand for States to mitigate and plan for the repercussions and disruptions that global warming will cause.
Read MoreNo Surgery for Appendicitis?
Even appendicitis is not always an indication for surgery. That IS news. They studied using antibiotics only in children and it worked quite well. Amazing.
Read MoreGoogle Glass Helps Patient from Brain Bleed?
Count me as very skeptical on this one. Not that I don’t believe that this was possible, or even saved the patient’s life in this instance. But do we really want brain surgeons to have split attention? Was there really no one else who could have perused the chart for allergy information? That is usually…
Read MoreAnti-Anxiety Medications Linked to Higher Mortality
More in the “First, Do No Harm” file. The study tried to account as much as possible for other factors such as severity of anxiety, alcohol consumption, and other variables. But they had to conclude that the medications were potentially dangerous and should be left alone if possible.
Read MoreDevice Makers Take Dangerous Shortcuts
Turns out that Medical Device companies have making tweaks to their devices without putting them through human testing. Calamity ensues. First, Do No Harm. A few years ago, the Food and Drug Administration announced a stunning recall, saying that electrical wires in some St. Jude Medical heart defibrillators, which were implanted in tens of thousands…
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