Tag: Follow the Money
Phenylephrine No Better Than Placebo
FDA advisory panel’s declaration paves way for removal of dozens of medicines in the U.S. Your favorite cold medicine for a stuffy nose may soon be unavailable. An advisory panel to the Food and Drug Administration declared Tuesday that an ingredient in widely used oral decongestants doesn’t work, setting the stage for dozens of products…
Read MoreThe Research Scandal at Stanford Is More Common Than You Think
“This is a major issue, one that extends well beyond one man and his career. Absent public scrutiny, journals have been consistently slow to act on allegations of research falsification. In a field dependent on good faith cooperation, in which each contribution necessarily builds on the science that came before it, the consequences can compound…
Read MorePodcast ZDoggMd and Rita Redberg: When Less is More
Readers of my blog might know that I have been so impressed with Rita Redberg, MD from UCSF. She has the courage to stand up to industry pressure and tell the truth about various very important topics. Some of these are the use of statins, overtesting for disease, the use of bisphosponates for bone density. …
Read MoreFlaws in Alzheimers Research
This is an important story. For those who have an interest in science and scientific research I highly recommend that you read the article from Science. It reads like a gripping detective story, but is quite chilling. I had been aware that there was controversy about the role of amyloid plaques in Alzheimer’s research. But…
Read MoreMRI 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 MoreAnti-Cytokine Agents: Targeting Interleukin Signaling Pathways for the Treatment of Atherothrombosis
Circ Res. Author manuscript; available in PMC 2020 Feb 1. Published in final edited form as: Circ Res. 2019 Feb; 124(3): 437–450. doi: 10.1161/CIRCRESAHA.118.313129 PMCID: PMC6386195 NIHMSID: NIHMS1517334 PMID: 30702995 Anti-Cytokine Agents: Targeting Interleukin Signaling Pathways for the Treatment of Atherothrombosis Paul M Ridker, MD, MPH Author information Copyright and License information Disclaimer The publisher’s final…
Read MoreTargeting Residual Inflammatory Risk: A Shifting Paradigm for Atherosclerotic Disease
Front Cardiovasc Med. 2019; 6: 16. Published online 2019 Feb 28. doi: 10.3389/fcvm.2019.00016 PMCID: PMC6403155 PMID: 30873416 Targeting Residual Inflammatory Risk: A Shifting Paradigm for Atherosclerotic Disease Aaron W. Aday1,* and Paul M. Ridker2 Author information Article notes Copyright and License information Disclaimer This article has been cited by other articles in PMC. Go to: Abstract…
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 More