MRI and X-Ray Often Worse than Useless for Back Pain
Reading through this article I went from peeved to enraged. This has been in the literature for decades and yet, STILL, people consider an MRI the gold standard and demand it. Doctors sort of have to oblige. And yet imaging, Xray AND MRI lead to higher disability for a number of reasons. Back pain does…
Read MoreFailed Back Surgery Syndrome: A Review Article
Background research for my writing project. Back surgery is one of the most expensive surgeries that have a troubled past and current state of affairs. It is one of those “biologically plausible” procedures that can wreak havoc. Asian Spine J. 2018 Apr; 12(2): 372–379. Published online 2018 Apr 16. doi: 10.4184/asj.2018.12.2.372 PMCID: PMC5913031 PMID: 29713421 Failed…
Read MoreNumbers Needed to Treat
Numbers needed to treat. This is a crucial concept. It illustrates brilliantly the concept of First, Do No Harm, which also happens to be the title of the first chapter of my writing project “Deep Resilience”. This graphic comes from this excellent article with the even more excellent title when evidence says no but doctors…
Read MorePractical applications of chaos theory to the modulation of human ageing: nature prefers chaos to regularity
We discussed the concept of complexity with aging here. This article reinforces that principle. The full article is behind a paywall and since it’s an older article, I will skip the purchase and just cite the article. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1023/A:1023306419861 Published: March 2003 Practical applications of chaos theory to the modulation of human ageing: nature prefers chaos…
Read MoreUnnecessary Medical Care In The U. S. System
Unnecessary care. It’s a real problem! Not only wasteful but possibly leads to injury. This article is 5 years old, but I’m reviewing it for the writing project I’m doing. The one that got me thinking, however, was a study of more than a million Medicare patients. It suggested that a huge proportion had received…
Read MoreDo Some Surgical Implants Do More Harm Than Good. New Yorker
I’m still working on my shelter-in-place project called “Deep Toughness: the cutting edge science behind ancient practice and modern health hacks” (still working on the title). The list of implants that carry well-documented dangers goes on. In 2004, there was a recall, affecting ninety-six thousand people, of two types of cardiac stent, for design flaws…
Read MoreFirst Do No Harm: Harrowing Tale of A’s Player Micah Bowie
This is a horribly sad story of medical interventions going awry. Back pain which continued after retirement in 2008. Treatments were ineffective, and in 2016 he ended up getting a spinal cord stimulator. Unfortunately the battery migrated somehow into his liver, diaphragm and then lung. He’s had horrible breathing trouble since, and it’s a…
Read MoreSteroid Injections Not as Safe as Previously Thought
From Harvard Medical School blog Calling steroid injections into question Steroid injections can quickly relieve inflammation in the joints, and the effects may last from several weeks to several months. I’ve seen a number of patients who got significant relief from steroid injections every three or four months. But, a new report of one…
Read MoreFrail Older Patients Struggle After Even Minor Operations
Frail, older patients frequently undergo such operations, which surgeons tend to see as routine, simple fixes — but may not be. “Our data indicate that there are no low-risk procedures among patients who are frail,” Dr. Hall and his co-authors concluded in their study. So he had a lot to talk over with this patient…
Read MoreCervical Cancer Screening: The basics
This pdf of the presentation from last week’s conference on Controversies in Women’s Health. It’s hard to say if there is an upshot per se. In general, guidelines are getting much more nuanced and recognize the real harms of false positives.
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