June 24th, 2010 by RamonaBatesMD in Better Health Network, Health Policy, Opinion, Research
Tags: Body Image, Dr. 90210, Dr. Gary Alter, E! Network, Female Cosmetic Genital Surgery, Female Sexual Problems, Female Sexuality, First Do No Harm, Genital Appearance, Gynecology, Labia Minora Reduction, Labioplasty, Marge Berer, Mental Health, Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, Plastic Surgeons, Psychiatry, Psychology, Reproductive Health Matters, Risk of Complications, Self Esteem, Self Image, Sexual Health, Sexual Inhibition, Vulva Reduction Surgery, Women's Health
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I seem to be asked more often these days if I do vulva reduction surgery. I’ve even been asked if I “refresh” vaginas (in which I refer them to their gynecologist.) I’m happy it’s a extremely small part of my practice.
I’m also happy to see that the current issue of Reproductive Health Matters is taking a close look at cosmetic surgery, especially female cosmetic genital surgery. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Suture for a Living*
June 24th, 2010 by Edwin Leap, M.D. in Better Health Network, Health Policy, Opinion, Research, True Stories
Tags: Chronic Pain, Drug Abuse, Drug Addiction, Emergency Medicine, General Medicine, Internal Medicine, Pain Crisis, Pain Killers, Pain Medication, Pain Relief, Pain Scale, Pain-O-Meter, Primary Care, Rational Science, Science Based Medicine, Science In Medicine, Treatment of Pain
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Every day in the emergency department I am confronted by pain. In fact, the treatment of pain is one of the most important skills emergency physicians, indeed all physicians, possess.
For instance, I recently cared for a child with sickle cell disease who was having a pain crisis which involved severe leg pain. His life is one of frequent, intense pain. I gently, and repeatedly, treated his pain with morphine until he had relief. I see hip fractures; all broken bones hurt. I am thrilled to alleviate that discomfort. Pain is one of the things I can fix, if only temporarily. It makes me happy to see the relaxed face of a man or woman with a kidney stone or migraine, who suddenly smiles and says “thanks!”
But pain is also the source of so much subterfuge. Emergency department are full of individuals who use controlled substances for recreation. I know because they have pain that is entirely unverifiable. They have terrible right flank pain with no gall-bladder, no pancreatitis, no kidney stone (documented by CT), no pneumonia or rash. They have nothing to cause the pain. And yet, dose after dose of narcotic later, snoring in their ER stretcher, they look up at me with hazy eyes and say, thickly, “Cann I gettt somethinn elsss for paaiin…it hurtssss so…bad. zzzz. Itzzz a tennn.”
So I began to wonder about science and the pain scale. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at edwinleap.com*
June 24th, 2010 by Berci in Better Health Network, Health Policy, Research
Tags: Evidence-Based Social Media, General Medicine, Healthcare Social Media, Internet-Based Healthcare, Medical Technology, Medicine and Healthcare Online, Peer-Reviewed Journals, Social Media In Medicine
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I’ve started a series on evidence-based social media in which I share peer-reviewed articles that focus on using social media in medicine or healthcare:
The key words used as well as the number and geographic location of searches can provide trend data, as have recently been made available by Google Trends. We report briefly on exploring this resource using Lyme disease as an example because it has well-described seasonal and geographic patterns.
Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at ScienceRoll*
June 24th, 2010 by Harriet Hall, M.D. in Better Health Network, Health Policy, Opinion, Quackery Exposed, Research
Tags: CAM, Complimentary and Alternative Medicine, Conventional Medicine, Energy Medicine, Eugenie Mielczarek, Evidence-Based, Informational Medicine, Medical Science, Mystical, Mythical, New Science of Healing, Phenomenon, Physics, Placebo Effect, Pseudoscience, Quantum Theory, Science Based Medicine, The Field, The Living Matrix, Traditional Medicine
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It’s boring to try to ferret out reliable health information from dry medical journals. It’s easier and more fun to watch a movie. A new movie promises to change the way you think about your health. To bring you breakthroughs that will transform your understanding of how to get well and stay well. To share the discoveries of leading researchers and health practitioners about miracle cures that traditional medicine can’t explain.
If this makes your baloney detector light up, good for you!
The Living Matrix: A Film on the New Science of Healing is an atrociously bad movie that falls squarely in the tradition of What the Bleep Do We Know? In his book Nonsense on Stilts, Massimo Pigliucci characterized the “Bleep” movie as “one of the most spectacular examples of a horribly tangled mess of science and nonsense,” and this new movie is more of the same. Bleep was just silly, but The Living Matrix is potentially dangerous because it might persuade patients to make poor decisions about their medical care. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Science-Based Medicine*
June 23rd, 2010 by KevinMD in Better Health Network, Health Tips, Opinion, Research
Tags: American College of Surgeons, Depression in Doctors, Doctor Suicide, Doctors Who Smoke, Family Medicine, Fat Doctors, General Medicine, Healthcare reform, Internal Medicine, Medical School, Overburdened Clinicians, Personal Life, Physician Burnout, Physician Stress, Practicing Medicine, Prescription Drug Abuse, Primary Care, Residency Training, Self-Care, Wall Street Journal, Work-Life Balance
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Do doctors take care of themselves? Sometimes patients may better follow the advice of physicians who aren’t obese and don’t smoke. That was a question asked in a post last year, entitled “When fat doctors talk to obese patients.”
According to studies, as reported in the Wall Street Journal, it’s a mixed bag:
Physicians as a group are leaner, fitter and live longer than average Americans. Male physicians keep their cholesterol and blood pressure lower. Women doctors are more likely to use hormone-replacement therapy than their patients. Doctors are also less likely to have their own primary care physician—and more apt to abuse prescription drugs.
Clearly there’s room for improvement. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at KevinMD.com*
