It’s the most common cause of job absences and disability for Americans younger than 45. It hits most of us at some point, and experts estimate that we spend more than $90 billion annually on its diagnosis and treatment. As I’ve written before, a bad back is one of the most painful and debilitating health….
Continue ReadingArchives for November 2015
We have much to be grateful for on Thanksgiving, especially with our health
We all owe our individual and collective health not just to ourselves but to any army of Samaritans — our friends, families, colleagues, caregivers, and the many medical professionals who practice at the highest levels of skill and compassion. It’s tempting, especially when immersed in the ways that health care in this nation falls short,….
Continue ReadingFDA data underscores why patients need to ask tough questions about care
The epidemic of overtreatment is hardly new, and it often stems from physicians’ tendency to order excessive tests. But now Uncle Sam is getting ready to step in even more, prompted in part by disturbing data that detailed serious inaccuracies and flawed results with 20 case studies involving diagnostic tests for cancer, heart disease, autism, and….
Continue ReadingMake the holidays an even sweeter season by capping sugar intake
Just a reminder to the health conscious: Make moderation your motto during the holiday eating season. And, if you’re heeding the Food and Drug Administration, it’s worth considering capping the amount of sugar you take in as part of your daily diet in the days ahead. That means, just for starters, no sugary soft drinks. The….
Continue ReadingWith celebrity ignorance and STDs on rise, let’s grow up about sex
For a nation that’s 238 years old, America can be remarkably immature in certain ways — take, for example, in its thinking about sex. Maybe if we weren’t so adolescent about this life-giving topic, we wouldn’t have been subjected to some of the recent, tawdry, and distressing reports from yes, both celebrities and scientists. HIV-AIDS….
Continue ReadingAlthough smoking rates plunge, here’s why the news is still dismal
As I’ve just written in my monthly Better Health Care newsletter, smoking is a pernicious addiction with startling persistence. But at least, as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has reported, this nasty habit has fallen to its lowest rate in generations, with the agency, sadly, pinpointing the populations still puffing away and suffering….
Continue ReadingAs uterine surgeries are planned, transplant system’s ‘gaming’ can’t be ignored
Let’s give credit where it’s due: Transplant surgery, in popular lore, has become one of modern medicine’s most miraculous practices, not only saving individual lives but also blazing new frontiers about the functions of organs in the body and providing insights of large significance into the workings of the human immune system. This progress hasn’t….
Continue ReadingMagical health thinking manifests in therapies, devices and, with stents, too
Magical thinking moves all too many Americans to pursue strange ways to improve their health, even if the risks are hugely apparent and the rewards wildly open to question. Just consider: Would you immerse yourself for supposed health reasons in a sub-zero controlled climate “colder than the coldest naturally occurring temperature recorded on Earth” or….
Continue ReadingLawsuit leads to another head’s up about sports, concussion risks for kids
Americans may be thick-headed about many things. But slowly, it seems, our collective consciousness is rising about the risks our favorite pastimes pose to our health. A spate of indicators suggest that, finally, even die-hard fans and resistant organizations are recognizing the brutal havoc that sports like football and even soccer can wreak on the….
Continue ReadingTapeworm talk? Maybe that’s one way to get health care attention
Just in time for Friday the 13th: Tired of the office jocks chin-wagging all day long about the Skins, Nats, Caps, and whatever? Weary of hearing other colleagues chatter about Kardashians, haute coture, or activities in trendy clubs with names that can’t be mentioned in family settings? Here’s a bizarre health-related topic that’s guaranteed to….
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