Cigarette smokers got yet more chiding from public health officials about why and how they should quit an addictive and destructive habit. To do so isn’t easy, and a “shocking” number of doctors aren’t helping enough, the Surgeon General of the United States conceded. But there are big reasons to give up the nasty vice,….
Continue ReadingArchives for January 2020
They’re not just ‘headaches.’ Traumatic brain injuries are real. And serious.
The nation’s commander-in-chief did a big disservice to recently injured service personnel and others who have suffered traumatic brain injuries by dismissing what happened as “not very serious” and just “headaches” of little consequence. Pentagon officials sought to deflect attention from President Trump’s comments at a global economic forum in Davos, Switzerland — off-the-cuff remarks assailed….
Continue ReadingCalifornia, Big Blues, and hospitals join the attack on sky-high drug prices
Big Pharma, with its relentless price gouging, may finally have poked in the eye the wrong people. But even as patients wait to see if hospitals, and now states and insurers, can beat down skyrocketing drug prices, isn’t it past time for more public shaming for doctors who persist in writing excessive, dubious, and downright….
Continue ReadingA cause for global concern: an exploding viral outbreak in central China
The Year of the Rat has dawned in Asia in most inauspicious fashion, with public health officials grappling with an exploding viral outbreak centered in China. Tens of millions of Chinese have been locked down in what officials are saying may be one of the largest health quarantines of its kinds, occurring during Asia’s major….
Continue ReadingWhile policy makers engage in food fights, kids are getting fed dubious eats
Will grownups in the room step up soon and stop the nonsense? Or should consumers, especially parents and those who want to eat in healthful ways, just expect a perpetual food fight about what’s good and reasonable for Americans, especially our kids, to eat? When it comes to breakfasts and lunches served to 30 million….
Continue ReadingYes, you may suffer heart disease, even in the most fitness-fanatical state of the union
Sure, it can be fun to watch two East Coasters take a long, sharp pin and pop the fantasy bubble that Westerners, especially Coloradans, like to float around in. Mountain state residents may like to tell themselves how the people on the Front Range skew young, educated, and active. How blue skies and open spaces….
Continue ReadingFDA reviews go faster — but with less proof drugs are safer or more effective
For anyone concerned with the quality and safety of prescription medications, this may be an especially displeasing commentary from a pharmaceutical expert about drugs raced to approval now: “Some of them are really great,” the professor observed. “And some of them [are] not so great. And a lot of them are very expensive.” That quote,….
Continue ReadingOn MLK Day, never forget his view: ‘Injustice in health is the most shocking …’
With the nation taking a holiday to celebrate the remarkable life of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King and his pioneering push for Americans’ civil rights, it may be worth remembering that his far-reaching visions of equality and social justice were deeply unpopular in their time, as was he. King infuriated many, including in medicine….
Continue ReadingCritics may howl. But with stubborn wrongs, big settlements may be necessary
Doctors, hospitals, insurers, politicians, and businesses may assail the civil justice system over sums it awards to people who have proven they have been harmed. But as significant as some judgments may be, they may be exactly what judges and juries decide may be required to get institutions and enterprises to stop stubborn wrongs. Is….
Continue ReadingSpiking death rate a harsh reminder of alcohol’s risks, especially for women
Tipple much, much less in 2020. That might be a life-saving bit of advice for too many Americans to follow, especially because of new data on a worrisome spike in alcohol-related deaths. As NBC News reported, based on published research by federal researchers: “The yearly total of alcohol-related deaths for people ages 16 and over….
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