Ounce of prevention: Junk Food
One more story ripped from the headlines, another chapter in “an ounce of prevention.s’ Article in the SF Chron Food giants fight proposed nutrition guidelines An effort by four federal agencies to limit marketing of junk food to children has provoked a fight between the packaged food industry and public health groups as intense as…
Read MorePrecautionary Principle and Genetically Modified Food
Over the last few days, I’ve been discussing Munger’s model of avoiding that which is bad for healthier or more successful outcomes. I’ve made the point that in Medicine, also, that is part of the way to be healthy, to avoid the unhealthy. Simplistic, but in a way profound. When it comes to cancer, the…
Read MoreMedicare Expert Testifies and Decries Waste
This describes the testimony of an Obama official in charge of Medicare, and he targets the bureaucracy, but it makes a very interesting read. He clearly is totally apolitical and just trying to improve Medicare, but gets attacked by Republicans, of course. I won’t try to comment on the whole article, of you’re interested the…
Read MoreMost Hospitalizations in Elders due to Four Drugs
In the “First Do No Harm” file we have this article outlining the dangers inherent in certain medications. All of these meds have been around a long time, and all are “tried and true.” Is it maybe time to review their safety or risk benefit ratio? I would take issue with them lumping aspiring with…
Read MoreWhat's in a name? Time to rename "cancer?"
I was speaking to one of my Medical School classmates at my recent reunion about this very topic. (I went to Tulane Medical School and was speaking to Dr. Oliver Sartor, a specialist and expert in Prostate Cancer.) We were discussing this because his area of expertise is prostate cancer, and there have been such…
Read MoreWhat’s in a name? Time to rename “cancer?”
I was speaking to one of my Medical School classmates at my recent reunion about this very topic. (I went to Tulane Medical School and was speaking to Dr. Oliver Sartor, a specialist and expert in Prostate Cancer.) We were discussing this because his area of expertise is prostate cancer, and there have been such…
Read MoreApproval for Avastin for Breast Cancer Revoked by FDA
I’ve been putting off posting about this latest article about Avastin for breast cancer. I find the way that these very loaded controversies are settled very depressing. In the case of Avastin, it looks like in the best case scenario it extends life for 5-6 months at a cost of $88,000 per year. Recent studies…
Read MoreHigh Resolution CT scans lead to higher costs
I became aware of these high resolution CT scans at Dr. Rita Redberg’s talk last year at a UCSF conference called eontroversies in Women’s Health” and wrote about it here. This article refers to a new paper released today in JAMA questioning the benefits of all the additional tests, as well as the costs. First…
Read MoreStudy Debunks Operation to Prevent Strokes
I’m sorry to see that this attempt also failed. I discussed the failed use of stents to prevent strokes here. But I just want to emphasize that $20 million is quite a bit of money that could have gone to health clinics to avail patients of exercise machinery, or subsidies to provide better nutrition, education,…
Read MoreFirst Do No Harm: Even Vitamins May Harm
I have been meaning to write about these recent studies for awhile. I will just direct you to the New York Times blog that covers it quite extensively. That Vitamin users would have higher rates of cancer is pretty counterintuitive, and may not prove to be the case. But there clearly is no good reason…
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