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What’s Inside Osama Bin Laden’s Medicine Cabinet?

NBC News obtained from sources in Pakistan a list of drugs found in Osama bin Laden’s medicine cabinet, after Navy SEALs left the scene of the raid and Pakistan officials took over the compound.

My Medicine Cabinet by Steve Isaacs via Flickr and a Creative Commons licenseThe list shows that bin Laden was a fairly typical–almost American–consumer of over-the-counter medications. There was nothing to indicate he needed dialysis or had diabetes or Marfan syndrome. He did have secondary osetoporosis, according to physicians who examined photos of him over time. (That’s an actual job, by the way, for physicians who’d want a career drawing up profiles about the health of world leaders or terrorists and feeding that information to intelligence analysts.)

Bin Laden stocked pain relievers for kids living at the compound, some home remedies for nerves and gastrointestinal upset, and Avena syrup, which is an extract of wild oats that’s been associated with enhancing sexual desire. Much hay has been made from those wild oats, such as who might have been taking them.

*This blog post was originally published at ACP Internist*

About The Children’s Medication Recall

The [recent] massive recall of some of the most popular [children’s] medications is unsettling, disturbing and concerning. Thankfully it was done as a precautionary move before any child was harmed and that there’s a sufficient supply of generic alternatives of the medications recalled.

Still, having 40 popular medications recalled by one of today’s most trusted pharmaceutical manufacturers rocks our confidence in the safeguards in place at the core. Read more »

*This blog post was originally published at Dr. Gwenn Is In*

Latest Interviews

IDEA Labs: Medical Students Take The Lead In Healthcare Innovation

It’s no secret that doctors are disappointed with the way that the U.S. healthcare system is evolving. Most feel helpless about improving their work conditions or solving technical problems in patient care. Fortunately one young medical student was undeterred by the mountain of disappointment carried by his senior clinician mentors…

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How To Be A Successful Patient: Young Doctors Offer Some Advice

I am proud to be a part of the American Resident Project an initiative that promotes the writing of medical students residents and new physicians as they explore ideas for transforming American health care delivery. I recently had the opportunity to interview three of the writing fellows about how to…

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Latest Book Reviews

Book Review: Is Empathy Learned By Faking It Till It’s Real?

I m often asked to do book reviews on my blog and I rarely agree to them. This is because it takes me a long time to read a book and then if I don t enjoy it I figure the author would rather me remain silent than publish my…

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The Spirit Of The Place: Samuel Shem’s New Book May Depress You

When I was in medical school I read Samuel Shem s House Of God as a right of passage. At the time I found it to be a cynical yet eerily accurate portrayal of the underbelly of academic medicine. I gained comfort from its gallows humor and it made me…

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Eat To Save Your Life: Another Half-True Diet Book

I am hesitant to review diet books because they are so often a tangled mess of fact and fiction. Teasing out their truth from falsehood is about as exhausting as delousing a long-haired elementary school student. However after being approached by the authors’ PR agency with the promise of a…

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