August 14th, 2010 by John Mandrola, M.D. in Better Health Network, Health Tips, Opinion
Tags: American Diet, Attack On Fatness, Childen's Health, Childhood Obesity, Doctor Passivity, Education Reform, Exercise Every Day You Eat, Fast Food, Fat-Creating Behaviors, Generational Change, Health of Americans, Healthcare Costs, Healthcare reform, Junk Food, Lack Of Exercise, Obesity Crisis, Obesity Epidemic, Overweight, Pediatrics, Physical Education, Reducing Obesity, U.S. Government
No Comments »
If I was Surgeon General, I would follow the lead of our country’s first Mom, Michelle Obama. This is serious folks. We as an American society need to solve the obesity crisis, not just for our physical health, but for our country’s financial stability.
Reducing the spiraling costs of healthcare is wanted by all. So far, prevention of the diseases which contribute most to our healthcare costs, (heart disease, cancer and orthopedic issues, to name just a few) has been given only lip service, by our future supplier of healthcare — the American government.
It turns out that the mechanisms to reduce our most costly ailments are the same as those that mitigate obesity. It is like simple math. (If a=b, and b=c, than a=c.) If lifestyle choices reduce obesity, and less obesity means less consumption of healthcare for heart disease and cancer, than better lifestyle choices means less healthcare consumption. Bunches less. (See, simple math was not so useless.) It is for this reason that I believe the most productive way to reduce health care expenditures is to reduce obesity. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Dr John M*
August 14th, 2010 by Bryan Vartabedian, M.D. in Better Health Network, Health Tips, Opinion, True Stories
Tags: Alternative To Real Life, Clay Shirky, Cognitive Surplus, Disconnecting From The Online World, Divide Between Online And Offline, Facebook, General Medicine, Health and the Internet, Healthy Lifestyle, Internet Addiction, Social Media Behavior, Social Media Tools, Twitter, Unplugging From The Internet, Work-Life Balance
No Comments »
It’s a post you’ll see periodically: Blogger goes on vacation and goes dark from his blog and Twitter. This spawns the requisite post detailing how nice it was to be away. Refreshed and all the stronger, we hear about the lessons from playing parchese, listening to the crickets sing, and ignoring the purr from Tweetdeck.
[Recently] I have been on vacation, but I didn’t necessarily unplug. I screened for critical emails once a day. I had prewritten and scheduled a couple of posts, but they didn’t require much maintenance. Besides that, I was too busy boogie boarding, kayaking, and eating crab cakes to really look at Twitter. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at 33 Charts*
August 12th, 2010 by David Kroll, Ph.D. in Better Health Network, Health Policy, Health Tips, News, Opinion, Quackery Exposed, Research
Tags: Cancer Cure, Dangerous Side Effects, Deadly Product, Death, Dietary Supplement, Evidence Based Medicine, FDA, Food and Drug Administration, FTC, Health Canada, Health Fraud, HIV Cure, Industrial Bleach, Miracle Mineral Solution, Miracle Mineral Supplement, MMS, Operation Cure All, Oral Liquid, Science Based Medicine, Serious Harm, U.S. Federal Trade Commission
2 Comments »
On the heels of Scott Gavura’s superb post on dietary supplement regulation in the U.S. and Canada, I bring you one of the most egregious and obscene product cases I have seen in 15 years of teaching on botanical and non-botanical products: Miracle Mineral Solution. Please accept my apologies in advance for not having a scholarly post for you — this is just too unbelievable not to share with science-based medicine readers. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Science-Based Medicine*
August 11th, 2010 by Davis Liu, M.D. in Better Health Network, Health Tips
Tags: Accurate Diagnosis, Bedside Manner, Doctor-Patient Communication, General Medicine, How To Talk To Your Doctor, Patient-Doctor Relationship, Primary Care
No Comments »
As a practicing primary care doctor, I continue to work incredibly hard on making my bedside manner even better so that patients feel heard. The other reason is because as most doctors learned in medical school 90 percent of getting the right diagnosis comes from taking a good history from a patient.
Unfortunately with shorter doctor office visits and doctors interrupting patients within 23 seconds of starting, you need to know how to get your concerns across. While I don’t believe this is the responsibility of patients, the reality is not everyone has access to doctors with great bedside manner.
How to talk to your doctor is quite easy if you follow three simple steps. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Saving Money and Surviving the Healthcare Crisis*
August 11th, 2010 by Lucy Hornstein, M.D. in Better Health Network, Health Policy, Health Tips, Opinion
Tags: Dr. Rob Lamberts, Family Medicine, Family Practice, General Medicine, Housecalls, Internal Medicine, Internist, Med-Peds, Medical Residency, Medical School, Medical Training, Musings of a Distractible Mind, Obstetrics And Gynecology, Pediatrician, Pediatrics, Primary Care
No Comments »
I like Dr. Rob, the one with the “distractible mind.” And although I thoroughly agree with the stance he takes in his recent post against cholesterol screening in kids, I must take issue with his opening statement:
I have a unique vantage point when it comes to the issue universal cholesterol screening in children, when compared to most pediatricians. My unique view stems from the fact that I am also an internist who deals with those children after they grow up on KFC Double Downs.
From Dictionary.com:
“Unique: existing as the only one or as the sole example; single; solitary in type or characteristics.”
Your med-peds training allows you to follow patients from birth to death (but no obstetrics or gynecology). You can care for all organ systems and all stages of disease (but without as much training in psychiatry). Congratulations! You’ve just (re)invented family practice (except for the above shortcomings). Oh, wait — that’s already a recognized specialty with its own residency programs, boards and everything like that, forty years now.
This misuse of the word “unique” is one of my pet peeves. “Unique?” I don’t think that word means what you think it means. After twenty years in practice, I agree that there probably isn’t much difference between what Dr. Rob does and what I do. After twenty years, I’m not even sure how much relevance remains from our “training.” Still, there remains a great deal of confusion about the very real differences between family practice and med-peds residencies. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Musings of a Dinosaur*
