Medication Injuries on the Rise
From the “First, Do No Harm” department, a recent study showing that medication related injuries leading to hospitalizations has increased by 50% in recent years. The data don’t take into account patients whose injury did not lead to hospitalization. My point in bringing this up, is not that all medicines are bad or unnecessary or…
Read MoreEstrogen Therapy, Now Recommended Again
This is a good column by Gail Collins on the confusing, conflicting medical studies that are reported by the press and how difficult it is to know what to do when it comes to your own health. My own motto might be described as “less is more.” I’ll excerpt a few passages that I think…
Read MoreTendon Pain, what works?
This article from the New York Times looks at the interesting phenomenon that sometimes occurs with tendonitis: using the injured area, even intensely, can sometimes help. I’ve had at least two interesting experiences with this pattern. One was in a patient who had tennis elbow. I had been treating him and after 3 visits he…
Read MoreLymph Node Dissection Not Necessary in Breast Cancer
This study came out a few weeks ago and I’ve been meaning to post about it just because it is of utmost interest to patients and health practitioners alike. The study finds that lymph node dissection does not improve outcomes in women with breast cancer. Lymph node dissection turns out to fall into the category…
Read MoreEven More Placebo Issues
This placebo study was reported on here and here. The results were somewhat surprising to me, that placebos worked even though the participants knew they were fake. I’m guessing now, but I wonder if the cultural ritual of taking pills is so powerful that the mere act of taking a pill, no matter its contents,…
Read MoreDo Cortisone Shots make Tendonitis Worse?
This blog post is about a study that was released in October reviewing more that 4 dozen studies on the efficacy of cortisone injections on tennis elbow. What they found was that the injections definitely helped with the short term pain, but prolonged the amount of time it took for the tendon to actually heal….
Read MoreMammograms, the controversy continues
From last week’s New York Times An expert in breast cancer. Dr. Marisa Weiss, was diagnosed with breast cancer herself. This, is one of many anecdotal stories of early diagnosis leading to successful treatment after a mammogram. These stories abound and fuel the debate over the recently revised guidelines for mammography. The new guidelines stipulate…
Read MoreRadiation Risk and Coronary CT Scans
During the presentation by Dr. Rita Redberg on Coronary Artery Disease during the “Controversies in Women’s Health Conference” last week, she discussed the use of CT scans for screening and diagnosis of CAD. They are used to detect coronary calcium. She stated the astonishing fact that an estimated 1 in 270 women who have one…
Read MoreSome sanity, at last, on Statins
I just attended the annual UCSF conference on Controversies in Women’s Health. This conference is well done, in that it alerts practitioners to issues that are being discussed at the “Task Force” level. For example when I was at the conference 2 years ago I first heard about the mammography controversy, that the science was…
Read MoreBig Money in Stents
Doctor Faces Suits Over Cardiac Stents By GARDINER HARRIS This is an article about a busy cardiologist in Baltimore, who had inserted more than 30 cardiac stents in a single day, and is now facing charges that Dr. Midei “may have implanted 585 stents which were medically unnecessary” from 2007 to 2009. Medicare paid $3.8…
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