There’s good news out on declining deaths caused by one of the nation’s leading killers. But experts warn that the country will need to work hard to sustain a sharp drop in cancer mortality rates — mostly due to smokers quitting their nasty habit. That’s because other factors like rising obesity may undo the recent….
Continue ReadingArchives for January 2020
Here’s a cause for anger and despair: We’re all forced to pay $8,000 ‘health tax’
Even as economic inequity and inequality fuel a nationwide plague of “deaths of despair,” a runaway and inefficient health system hits Americans hard in their pocketbooks, in effect imposing an $8,000 annual tax on every household, a pair of leading economists say. The crushing cost of the U.S. health system, exceeding $1 trillion a year,….
Continue ReadingNeed simple, clear, and direct ideas to be healthier? Heed these 48 words
Bravo, brevity. Four dozen words is all it takes for a doctor and noted writer on diet and obesity to offer plenty of sound advice on how to get and stay healthy. Here are the suggestions from Yoni Freedhoff, associate professor of family medicine at the University of Ottawa, founder and medical director of Ottawa’s….
Continue ReadingHospital mergers and acquisitions aren’t great for patients’ care, study finds
Big hospitals keep getting bigger. But, contrary to what the suit-wearing MBAs may claim, the rising number of institutional mergers and acquisitions isn’t necessarily better for patients and their care. At hospitals subjected to corporate wheeling and dealing, the quality of care got worse, or, at best, it stayed the same and didn’t improve, a….
Continue ReadingA caution about rising hype for artificial intelligence in medicine
In recent years, doctors, hospitals, and popular media have promoted emerging treatments to the public with enthusiasm that in each case would turn out to be overblown. Just consider the red-hot chatter that once surrounded regenerative medicine, precision medicine, gene therapy, or immunotherapy. And now, it may be the turn of artificial intelligence to be….
Continue ReadingWith teens’ health at risk, White House plays politics with vaping
The Trump Administration kicked off the new year with a whimper not a bang with yet another of its attempts to corral the health nightmare of e-cigarettes and vaping by the nation’s young, while not upsetting the industry too much. Starting Feb. 1, the federal government announced it will forbid the sale of most flavored cartridges….
Continue ReadingA patient’s painful and powerful reminder of harms inflicted by drug diversions
Hospitals, clinics, and other health care settings — and those who staff them — aren’t immune to the ravages of the opioid crisis and its related abuse of prescription and illicit drugs. For patients, their caregivers’ addictions can have serious consequences, including a less-discussed nightmare: diversions of their drugs. Lauren Lollini, a psychotherapist and a….
Continue ReadingHere’s something as frightful as the weather outside: winter weight gain
Many of us may feel a little too hefty after weeks of seasonal feasting and merrymaking. But Old Man Winter also may share a slice of the blame for our weight gain at this time of year and beyond. Packing on a pound or two, maybe even five, may be more common at this time….
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