September 27th, 2011 by Edwin Leap, M.D. in Health Policy, Opinion
Tags: America, Brain Tumor, Culture, Diet Pills, Emergency Medicine, Federal Assistance, Government Funds, Headaches, Health Insurance, medicaid, Morality, Neurology, Overweight, Politics, Public Health, Rant, State Assistance, United States, Weight Loss, Welfare
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I recently saw a teenage boy with headaches. His father, wringing his hands, said that the headaches had been present for two years; but that the child had never been evaluated for them. No imaging, no neurologist. No insurance, of course.
A family friend, another child, had been diagnosed with a brain tumor. The family of my patient was terrified. Where to turn? They were, reasonably, concerned about cost.
Contrast that with the woman I saw on state assistance. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at edwinleap.com*
September 26th, 2011 by Steve Novella, M.D. in Health Policy, Opinion
Tags: Bracelets, Endorsements, Energy Medicine, False Claims, Frequencies, Increasing Blood Flow, Marketing Strategy, Money, Negative Ions, Power Balance, Profit, Pseudoscience, Scientific Evidence, Titanium Ion Bands, Vague Evidence
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It is an unfortunate truth that there is money in pseudoscience, particularly medical pseudoscience. Money both attracts charlatans and also funds their activities, which includes marketing pseudoscience and defending their claims from scientific scrutiny. In this way the game is rigged in favor of pseudoscience.
With0ut effective regulation, sites like ours are forced to play whack-a-mole with the medical pseudoscience du jour. The latest case in point is Titanium Ion Bands – which are just another version of the Power Balance bands that have been previously exposed as nonsense. The idea is that by wearing a small bracelet on one wrist you will experience improved athletic performance. This sounds impossible – because it is. But companies have successfully bamboozled enough of the public to rake in millions.
The marketing strategy is three-fold. First, Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Science-Based Medicine*
September 26th, 2011 by Dinah Miller, M.D. in Opinion
Tags: Adaptive, Adults, Children, Decisions, Extra Training, Hyperactive, kids, Medications, Mis-diagnosis, Outgrow, Over-diagnosis, Pathology, Phase, Psychiatry, Psychotropic, Societal Standards, Treatment, Troubled Parents, Verbalize
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My hat goes off to kiddy shrinks. It’s a tough field, full of issues we don’t see in adult psychiatry.
Our comment section often buzzes with talk about the over-diagnosis of bipolar disorder in children and the ethics of giving psychotropic medications to children. The Shrink Rappers never comment on these things. Why? Because we don’t treat children. I have no idea if the children being treated are mis-diagnosed, over-diagnosed, wrongly-diagnosed, or if the increase in treatment represents a good thing—- perhaps children who would have suffered terribly now are feeling better due to the option of medications. I’ve certainly had adult patients tell me their children were treated with medications, the children have often eventually stopped the medications and emerged as productive adults. Would they have outgrown their issues anyway. Or did the treatment they received switch them from a bad place to a good place and enable them to carry on in a more adaptive way? Ugh, my crystal ball is on back-order at Amazon!
Why I’m Happy I’m Not A Child Psychiatrist: Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Shrink Rap*
September 26th, 2011 by John Mandrola, M.D. in Opinion, True Stories
Tags: Body Aches, Can Do Attitude, Caridology, Compare, Disease, Doing, DrSnit, Heart Health, Illness, Inflammation, Joint Spasms, Living Life, Lupus, Muscle Spasms, Optimism, Positives, Sick
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Whenever a patient asks whether they can exercise, or go here, or there, I liken it to them asking whether they can live life. My answer is always the same…YES. The alternative seems terrible.
In this regard, moving on in the face of illness, let me share with you the writings of a very famous twitteratti, my friend, Melissa T (or @drSnit). Her post today about “doing sick well” struck my optimistic neurons.
You may wonder, how it is possible; putting sick and well together in the same sentence? Let me share her writings…
Dr Snit, author of the blog, “Living with Lupus–But Dying of Everything Else,” should know. She lives with the disease called Lupus–a mysterious ailment known for its flares of inflammation. These spasms of joint, muscle and overall body aches make a post-ride soreness feel like nothing. It’s a tough lot having Lupus.
But yet, Dr Snit stomps forward in life–in defiance of the most inflamed of the inflammatory diseases. She writes Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Dr John M*
September 25th, 2011 by GarySchwitzer in Opinion
Tags: ABC, American Cancer Society, Bobby Bowden, Cancer, Cancer Screening, Diagnosis, Florida State football coach, Good Morning America, Growth Rate, Journalism, Lifetime Risk, National Cancer Institute, Prostate, Reporting, Side Effects, Survivor, Treatment
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In a highly-promoted appearance, legendary Florida State football coach Bobby Bowden went on ABC’s Good Morning America yesterday to announce that he had kept silent since 2007 about his diagnosis with prostate cancer.
First, let me say that I’ve always liked this guy. Funny. Charming. Coached teams that were fun to watch.
But that doesn’t make you an effective communicator on prostate cancer.
If you listen very carefully to the following clip (it took me 3 times watching the clip before I caught this), you’ll hear interviewer Robin Roberts rapidly mention that Bowden “is being compensated” for his appearance by “On the Line.”
“On the Line” is sponsored by several entities including two drug companies that make prostate cancer drugs and by Project Zero – whose executive made news on this blog recently by writing that Dr. Otis Brawley of the American Cancer Society “has killed more men by giving them an excuse to not be tested.”
You could probably find less conflicted sources Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Gary Schwitzer's HealthNewsReview Blog*
