medicine
oracknows | July 29, 2006Via Dr. Flea, I find this rather amusing cartoon: Dr. Id, written by Michelle, who, it turns out, was also responsible for the 12 Types of Med Students and a fairly spot-on portrayal of a medical student's surgery rotation. Dr. Id says what other doctors only wish that they could say and does what other doctors only wish that they could do.
In this case, Dr. Id confronts a mother who brought her children to the emergency room for mild colds...
j7uy5 | July 29, 2006This is an archived post from September, 2005, posted here and now because I am away on vacation.
As
I go about my days, I get the impression that there is a lot of
confusion out there about the treatment of opiate abuse and dependence.
Wes Clark (not that Wes Clark, the other
one) has written an article to help us understand this nettlesome
issue.
First, I summarize some point from his article, and a
few others, then add a few bits of my own.
Dr. Clark provides us with some historical background in his article,
rev="review" href="http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/full/349/10/928">…
oracknows | July 28, 2006I have to apologize for last week's Dose of Woo. No, I'm not apologizing for the subject matter (the obsession that reigns supreme among some alties with "cleansing" one's colon to "purge toxins" and achieve the super-regularity of several bowel movements a day). Rather, I'm sorry I didn't point out just how disgusting one of the links I included was, because among all the glowing testimonials for how great colon cleansers felt after having supposedly rid themselves of all that nasty fecal matter caked on the walls of their colons and achieved the Nirvana of many bowel movements a day (or, as…
oracknows | July 27, 2006It's not your Friday Dose of Woo yet, but fear not. You'll get your weekly dose of woo in due course.
Kevin Trudeau is arguably the most prominent snakeoil salesmen of our time. I've leafed through his first book, Natural Cures "They" Don't Want You to Know About at the bookstore and recoiled at the conspiracy-mongering, lies, and self-promotion (a lot of discussions in the book urge you to pay for access to his website to get more information). As you may know, he's now released a followup book More Natural Cures Revealed.
Fortunately, Christopher Wanjek has read it so that I don't have to…
purepedantry | July 27, 2006Floyd Landis, most recent winner of the Tour de France, has tested positive for testosterone use:
Landis denied cheating and said he has no idea what may have caused his positive test for high testosterone following the Tour's 17th stage, where he made his comeback charge last week. But he aims to find out.
"All I'm asking for," he said Thursday via teleconference, "is that I be given a chance to prove I'm innocent. Cycling has a traditional way of trying people in the court of public opinion before they get a chance to do anything else."
Now the cycling world will wait for results from a…
oracknows | July 27, 2006The latest edition of the blog carnival for nursing, Change of Shift no. 3, has been posted at Emergiblog.
purepedantry | July 27, 2006A study reveals that an increasingly large number of Americans are too fat to fit in MRIs and have X-rays that lack resolution:
More and more obese people are unable to get full medical care because they are either too big to fit into scanners, or their fat is too dense for X-rays or sound waves to penetrate, radiologists reported Tuesday.
With 64 percent of the U.S. population either overweight or obese, the problem is worsening, but it represents a business opportunity for equipment makers and hospitals, said Dr. Raul Uppot, a radiologist at Massachusetts General Hospital.
"We noticed over…
j7uy5 | July 27, 2006This is an archived article from 2004, scheduled to be posted today to
fill a vacation-induced gap.
A recent article in the LA Times reports on hazards associated with
herbal sex aids. This brings to mind a couple of reasons to
be
concerned about herbal products and dietary supplements.
style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">
Potential
dangers may be hiding in herbal sex aids
style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">
Timothy Gower
style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">
June 14, 2004
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[...] Canadian
researchers
underscored these concerns in May with an alarming…
oracknows | July 27, 2006I hadn't intended to mention this case again for a while, but an article in Stats.org brought up a point that, although I had somewhat alluded to it, I hadn't really explicitly addressed. It has nothing to do with the judicial decision, the Cherrixes' successful appeal for a new trial and the stay ordered by the higher court, or any the legal issues involved with the case.
It has to do with the atrocious reporting of this case by the mainstream media. In other words, it has to do with how the case has been framed, which has been essentially a near total success for the Cherrixes and those who…
purepedantry | July 26, 2006...depression.
This is related to something they make medical students memorize. When someone comes in with hypertension, it is always good to check whether the person has renal artery stenosis because this is one of the few causes of hypertension we can actually fix. Renal artery stenosis results in hypertension because your kidneys secrete hormones that are involved in maintaining your blood pressure. How much hormones they decide to secrete is determined largely by the blood pressure that is felt by your kidneys; thus, when you block blood flow to the kidneys, they become convinced…
j7uy5 | July 26, 2006This post on Black
Triangle reminds me that it is a good idea to spread this
warning, at this time of year. He notes several medications that
increase the risk of heatstroke, or otherwise pose risks in heat and
bright sun.
Many of these are psychiatric medications.
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antipsychotic" rel="tag">Antipsychotic
medications, in particular, can increase risk of heatstroke. Some make
the skin more susceptible to sunburn.
href="http://www.nami.org/Template.cfm?Section=About_Medications&Template=/TaggedPage/TaggedPageDisplay.cfm&TPLID=51&ContentID=…
oracknows | July 26, 2006Unfortunately, I didn't have time to write much for today. Fortunately, this gives me the perfect opportunity to remedy a situation in which I've been remiss. As you know, Kathleen Seidel has been tirelessly exposing the dubious science promoted by Mark and David Geier, who advocate using Lupron to shut of sex hormone synthesis as a means of "treating" autism by "making chelation therapy more effective." She's posted much more since I last referenced her.
The advantage of my not having much time is that you can read the results of her investigations directly without my extensive commentary.…
scientificactivist | July 26, 2006From the archives:
(17 February 2006) I'll be honest with you: I really don't know what to think about drug companies. I'll give them some credit, since unlike many of their peers they produce a product that is useful to society and has important humanitarian implications. I want to like them--I really do--but when I read about things like this, it becomes pretty difficult.
On 15 February, The New York Times published a detailed account in its business section on the exorbitant prices some pharmaceutical companies are willing to charge for their therapies. The report focused on Avastin,…
oracknows | July 25, 2006...has been posted at Medical Humanities. Enjoy the best medical blogging from the past week.
scientificactivist | July 25, 2006From the archives:
(18 April 2006) If Massachusetts were a physician, I'd have mixed feelings about visiting him or her. Sure, Dr. Massachusetts would be incredibly persistent and would do its best to make sure I left its office feeling better than when I arrived, but on the other hand if I had any sort of serious condition, I'm skeptical about how far Dr. Mass. would go to treat the underlying causes, rather than just the immediate symptoms. Massachusetts would probably be an adept surgeon, but maybe not a great family doctor.
Last week, amid great fanfare, Massachusetts governor Mitt…
oracknows | July 25, 2006From the AP:
NORFOLK, Va. (AP) -- A 16-year-old cancer patient was headed to court Tuesday with his lawyers to try to block a judge's order requiring him to report to a hospital the same day for treatment as doctors deem necessary.
A juvenile court judge on Monday denied a request by lawyers for Starchild Abraham Cherrix and his parents to stay his order pending an appeal in a higher court, said John Stepanovich, attorney for Jay and Rose Cherrix.
Lawyers also asked the Accomack County Circuit Court to take over the case and grant the stay, and a hearing was set for noon Tuesday in that court…
oracknows | July 24, 2006Not surprisingly, since the court decided that Abraham Cherrix, a Virginia teen who was diagnosed with Hodgkin's disease at age 15, underwent chemotherapy, relapsed, and then refused to undergo any further chemotherapy, opting instead for an "alternative medicine" treatment known as the Hoxsey treatment, to be administered at the Biomedical Center in Tijuana, the blogosphere has been abuzz with chatter about the decision. Not surprisingly, I find myself in the minority in approving of the decision, even if I do so reluctantly. Indeed, not only do I find myself in the minority, but I find…
scientificactivist | July 24, 2006From the archives:
(21 January 2006) I had a great trip to the doctor the other day. I showed up for my appointment (one I had made only one day before), waited a few minutes, saw the doctor, and then I left. There was no paperwork, no long wait, no money exchanged, and no stress. Basically, there was nothing standing in the way of what I had come there for--medical care.
And, no, I don't live in some fantasy world.
I live in England.
I love universal health care, and for me it's because of the small things. I never had any major problems with my health insurance in the U.S., but I still…
j7uy5 | July 23, 2006American Scientist has
href="http://www.americanscientist.org/template/AssetDetail/assetid/50767?fulltext=true&print=yes">an
article about the potential for controlling
mosquito-borne diseases, by genetically modifying the insects to make
then
inhospitable to malaria and dengue. (Most of their articles
are
subscription-only, but this one is openly accessible.)
I mention this article, because it is interesting for three reasons.
For one, mosquito-borne illnesses are a major world health problem, and
anything that holds promise for defeating them is a matter of interest.
Second,…
oracknows | July 22, 2006It looks as though it's time to 'fess up. It's us surgeons who are the source of all that CO2. Sid Schwab tells us why. (And, no, it's not because of all the hot air we surgeons are capable of producing; we're nothing compared to politicians in that respect.)