October 1st, 2010 by Jennifer Shine Dyer, M.D. in Better Health Network, Health Policy, Health Tips, Research, True Stories
Tags: Baseball, Biomedical Ethics, Childen's Health, Chronic Disease In Children, Chronic Illness and Kids, Disabled Child, Disease Management, Dr. Jennifer Shine Dyer, Family Medicine, General Medicine, Internal Medicine, Kids With Chronic Disease, Longer Life, Pediatrics, Primary Care, Quality of Life, Secondary Treatment, Shay Days
No Comments »
As a medical professional who often treats children with chronic diseases, my patients turn to me not only for treatment advice but often for advice on how to improve their quality of life. I often have difficulty addressing the latter as there is a paucity of research on quality of life outcomes as compared to biomedical outcomes.
However, preliminary data from DR Walker et al. (1) have shown that comprehensive disease management improves quality of life and thereby reduces medical costs for some common chronic illnesses. Recently, a patient shared a story with me that was written by an anonymous author which demonstrates the powerful effect of seemingly small efforts on the quality of life of a disabled child. Read more »
September 30th, 2010 by Steve Novella, M.D. in Better Health Network, Health Tips, Opinion, Quackery Exposed, Research
Tags: Anecdotal Evidence, Artificial Sweetener, Aspartame, Caloric Intake, Calorie Consumption, Cancer-Causing Chemicals In Food, Carcinogen, Carcinogenic Potential, Dietetics, Dr. Janet Starr Hull, Dr. Steve Novella, Evidence Based Nutrition, FDA, Fear Mongering, Food Additives, Food and Drug Administration, Food and Nutrition, Food Chemicals, Food Safety, Internet Conspiracy, Internet Urban Legend, Non-Evidence-Based Social Media, Nutrition and Health, Oncology, Pseudoscience, Pseudoscientific Cult, SBM, Science Based Medicine, Science-Based Evidence, Scientifically Implausible Claims, Unverified Speculation, Weight Loss
3 Comments »
If you believe everything you read on the Internet, then is seems that a chemical found in thousands of products is causing an epidemic of severe neurological and systemic diseases, like multiple sclerosis and lupus. The FDA, the companies that make the product, and the “medical industrial complex” all know about the dangers of this chemical, but are hiding the truth from the public in order to protect corporate profits and avoid the pesky paper work that would accompany the truth being revealed.
The only glimmer of hope is a dedicated band of bloggers and anonymous email chain letter authors who aren’t afraid to speak the truth. Armed with the latest anecdotal evidence, unverified speculation, and scientifically implausible claims, they have been tirelessly ranting about the evils of this chemical for years. Undeterred by the countless published studies manufactured by the food cartel that show this chemical is safe, they continue to protect the public by spreading baseless fear and hysteria.
Hopefully, you don’t believe everything you read on the Internet, and you don’t get your science news from email SPAM, where the above scenario is a common theme. While there are many manifestations of this type of urban legend, I am speaking specifically about aspartame — an artificial sweetener used since the early 1980s. The notion that aspartame is unsafe has been circulating almost since it first appeared, and like rumors and misinformation have a tendency to do, fears surrounding aspartame have taken on a life of their own. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Science-Based Medicine*
September 29th, 2010 by Lucy Hornstein, M.D. in Better Health Network, Health Policy, Health Tips, News, Opinion, Quackery Exposed, Research
Tags: Dr. Lucy Hornstein, Family Medicine, Fifth Vital Sign, General Medicine, Internal Medicine, Not Dead Dinosaur, Pain Control, Pain Management, Pain Perception, Pain Scale, Pain Tolerance, Physical Exam, Primary Care, Signs and Symptoms, Vital Signs
1 Comment »
There’s been a movement afoot for several years now to quantify pain as the so-called “Fifth Vital Sign.” It all started as a well-intentioned effort to raise the level of awareness of inadequate pain control in many patients, but has gotten way out of hand. The problem is that the word “sign” has a specific meaning in medicine that, by definition, cannot be applied to pain.
When you hear us medicos talk about “signs and symptoms” of a disease, it turns out that they are not the same thing. “Symptoms” are things the patient experiences subjectively. “Signs” are things that can be observed objectively by another person.
Headache is a symptom; cough is a sign. Itching is a symptom; scratch marks over a blistery linear rash are a sign. Vertigo, the hallucination of movement, is a symptom; nystagmus, the eye twitching that goes with inner ear abnormalities that can cause vertigo, is a sign. If someone other than the patient can’t see, hear, palpate, percuss, or measure it, it’s a symptom. Anything that can be perceived by someone else is a sign. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Musings of a Dinosaur*
September 29th, 2010 by Peggy Polaneczky, M.D. in Better Health Network, Humor, News, Opinion, Research
Tags: Adenovirus-36, Childhood Obesity, Dr. Peggy Polaneczky, LA Times, Obesity and Kids, Obesity Epidemic, Obesity-Causing Virus, Overweight Kids, Pediatrics, The Blog That Ate Manhattan
No Comments »
Finally, the answer to the obesity epidemic. [According to the LA Times], it’s a virus:
New evidence indicates that children who are exposed to a virus called adenovirus-36 are more likely to be obese than those who are not exposed to it, and to be heavier than other obese kids who were not exposed to it, researchers said this week. The virus…is one of 10 bacteria and viruses that have been associated with a propensity for putting on plural poundage.
Maybe this explains why I and two of my sisters all became fat in the same year. Well, that — combined with the fact that we had just moved to a new neighborhood where there were no kids we knew to play outside with, and we started taking a bus to school instead of walking, and “Dark Shadows” had just started, leading us to spend every afternoon after school snacking in front of the TV. But I like to think it was a virus.
*This blog post was originally published at tbtam*
September 29th, 2010 by Berci in Better Health Network, News, Research
Tags: Forbes Magazine, General Medicine, Medical Projections, Predictions In Medicine, Science Fiction and Medicine, Science Roll, The Next 10 Years In Medicine
No Comments »
Forbes magazine came up with a few lists describing what will happen in the next 10 years in different areas. Medicine is one of these:
We asked our staff and contributors to forecast some of the noteworthy events of the next 10 years, a vision of the coming decade sketched from real data, projections and facts whenever possible — though we’ve injected a dose of rigorous science fiction to fill the gaps.
- 2012: Super-Tuberculosis
- 2013: DNA Sequencing Pays
- 2014: Big Pharma Implodes
- 2015: First autism drug
- 2016: First fatherless child using synthetic sperm
- 2017: U.S. life expectancy declines for first time in a century. Doctors blame 55% obesity rate.
- 2020: FDA approves autonomous robot surgery to remove tumors.
*This blog post was originally published at ScienceRoll*
