September 11th, 2010 by Jeffrey Benabio, M.D. in Better Health Network, Health Tips, Humor, News, Opinion, Quackery Exposed, Research
Tags: Alternative Medicine Nonsense, Caffeine, Cellulite, Dermatology, Dr. Jeff Benabio, Drawing Toxins Out, False Claims, Health Tips in Pursuit of Beauty, Improved Circulation, Medical Quackery, Non-Evidence-Based, Rubbing Coffee Grounds Into Skin, Science Based Medicine, Skin Care
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Last week a popular TV talk show featuring a bunch of doctors (I’m not naming names) discussed how coffee grounds can improve cellulite. They explained how rubbing coffee grounds into your skin imparts caffeine into the cellulite thereby improving the circulation and drawing the toxins out.
This is a great tip, except that rubbing coffee grounds on your skin does not impart any caffeine into it, and there are no toxins in cellulite.
Cellulite is a normal secondary sex characteristic of women. It is the result of thin connective tissue in women’s skin. Massaging the cellulite (with coffee, tea, grapes, cream cheese, or chocolate frosting) pushes the fat back into the skin, temporarly improving the appearance. There is no science behind using coffee to treat this normal condition.
Scientific studies have shown, however, that carrying a wet coffee filter filled with grounds into your bathroom will burn more calories, because you’ll spend 20 minutes later cleaning up the mess in your shower.
*This blog post was originally published at The Dermatology Blog*
September 11th, 2010 by Toni Brayer, M.D. in Better Health Network, Health Policy, News, Opinion, Research
Tags: Cost of Healthcare, ED, Emergency Department, Emergency Medicine, Emergency Room, ER, Family Medicine, Fixing Primary Care, General Medicine, Health Affairs, Healthcare reform, Internal Medicine, National Healthcare Costs, Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, PPACA, Primary Care Crisis, RAND Corporation, Robin Weinick, Routine Care, Shortage of Primary Care Doctors, U.S. Healthcare System, Urgent Care Centers
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The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (our government’s name for healthcare reform) may make our already crowded emergency rooms swarm with more patients.
A new study from Health Affairs shows that more than a quarter of patients who currently visit emergency departments in the U.S. are there for routine care and not an emergency. New complaints like stomach pain, skin rashes, fever, chest pain, cough or for a flare up of a chronic condition should not be treated in emergency rooms. They are best worked up and treated by an internist or family physician, preferably one who knows the patient. So why are these patients waiting for hours and spending up to 10 times as much money for emergency department care? Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at EverythingHealth*
September 11th, 2010 by DrWes in Better Health Network, News, Opinion
Tags: Cardiology, Emergency Medicine, Live-Tweeting, Tony Christopher, Tweeting Your Own Heart Attack, Twitter, White House correspondent
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It’s funny, until it’s not:
Opportunity + Instinct = Profit. A good journalist can sense the moment that a story is developing and seize the moment. That’s why when White House correspondent Tony Christopher started having a heart attack, he immediately logged into Twitter and started covering it:
Approximately at 6pm on Sunday afternoon Christopher wrote, “I gotta be me. Livetweeting my heart attack. Beat that!” Presumably a few minutes later the paramedics arrived to tell Christopher he will be stable after his crisis.
An hour later Christopher joked about needing to own a cardiac cat, referencing a viral video in which a cat is trying to revive his dead feline friend. He also updated his followers about the pain he was feeling, “even after the morphine.”
So is this the message the White House wants sent to America?
Seems to me his time might have been better spent on (1) taking an aspirin, (2) calling 911, and (3) calling a friend, (4) and assembling a list of his current medications and past medical history for the doctors in case he loses consciousness. But that’s just me.
-WesMusings of a cardiologist and cardiac electrophysiologist.
*This blog post was originally published at Dr. Wes*
September 11th, 2010 by Bryan Vartabedian, M.D. in Better Health Network, News, Opinion, True Stories
Tags: Autism, Cinchcast, Emotional Health, Emotional Support, Location Applications, Newly Diagnosed, Private Support, Psychiatry and Psychology, Public Support, Robert Scoble, Social Community, Social Media and Personal Life, Social Media and Personal Support, Social Media As Personal Therapy, Social Media Behavior, Social Media Privacy, Social Media Standards, Transparency Threshold
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Last week Robert Scoble announced on Cinchcast the news that his son, Milan, had just been diagnosed with autism. I often listen to his Cinchcasts, and the disappointment in his voice was heartbreaking.
Then I began to wonder: If one of my children were to receive a devastating diagnosis, would my first impulse be to share the news on a public platform? Probably not. And that, among a number of obvious things, is what differentiates me from Robert Scoble.
Everyone’s got their transparency threshold. You can see it with attitudes surrounding location applications. The importance of community to each of us varies tremendously. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at 33 Charts*
September 11th, 2010 by Medgadget in Better Health Network, Health Policy, News, Opinion, Research
Tags: Antibacterial War, Antibiotic Overuse, Antibiotic Resistance, Bacteria-Resistant, Bacterial Infections, Cockroach Brains, Filthy Places for Antibiotics, Immunology, John Rennie, Methicillin-Resistant Staphylcoccal Auerus, MRSA, Penicillin, PLoS, The Gleaming Report, UCSD, University of Nottingham, Vancomycin
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Bacteria may be having a renaissance. Back in the days of the discovery of penicillin, doctors gleefully handed out antibiotics like they were candy and patients were more than happy to munch them down. They were quite effective too, but bacteria rapidly became resistant.
Doctors and scientists worry that we are approaching a time where if we don’t come up with novel antibiotic mechanisms, we will face an epidemic of untreatable bacterial infections. MRSA, methicillin-resistant staphylcoccal auerus, is probably one of the biggest fears.
John Rennie wrote about this issue in the PLoS blog The Gleaming Retort. He describes two strategies scientists are using to try to come up with new weapons in the great antibacterial war. So, naturally one of the first things they turned to was cockroach brains. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Medgadget*
