Some quick updates on stories I have been following: SENTENCING FOR DEADLY PAIN-MEDS DOC: An Orange County, CA., physician has been sentenced to 30 years to life imprisonment. She was convicted of murder for her reckless, negligent dispensing of prescriptions for powerful pain killers that killed three. Experts continue to argue whether prosecutors went too….
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Two life stories offer warnings about health dangers
Although experts may muster masses of data and point to reams of research, simple human stories sometimes persuade us best about dangers to our health. It’s tough not to ask why football holds such veneration as America’s favorite sport, for example, when one of its skilled players gets candid about his damaged post-professional life. And….
Continue ReadingFor young, less educated whites, the disease of despair is hurting lifespan
For young white Americans, especially those with less education, drug overdoses and suicides are spiking death rates. The trend is nearly unprecedented and looks as grim to public health experts as if the nation were in the grips of a new, fatal infectious disease outbreak akin to the HIV-AIDS epidemic of the 1980s and 1990s. That’s….
Continue ReadingTeens inundated with e-cigarette ads, which pay off for Big Tobacco
Here’s a disturbing trend: Teenagers are getting inundated with advertisements touting electronic or so-called e-cigarettes. Health authorities at the same time note that “vaping” is a growing way for millions to take in harmful nicotine and other substances. Almost 7 in 10 10 youths were exposed to manufacturers’ tidal wave of e-cigarette ads, which are broadcast,….
Continue ReadingFor those suffering with back woes, a therapy option to manage pain
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 ReadingA Life Expectancy Trend Moving in the Wrong Direction
Suicide and its slower version (death from alcohol and drug abuse) appear to be the drivers behind a rising tide of deaths and worsening life expectancy in a specific and startling niche: middle-aged white Americans who lack college educations. Other demographic groups, in the U.S. and other rich countries, are doing nicely in life expectancy,….
Continue ReadingDoctor Challenges Drug Database Monitors on Privacy Grounds
The epidemic of accidental deaths due to overdosing on opioid medicines has been well-documented. The perils of chronic pain management are the subject of Patrick’s patient safety newsletter this month. One way authorities are dealing with the problem is via a database of controlled drug use, so that practitioners and pharmacists can see if patients….
Continue ReadingStill More Diseases Linked to Smoking
The dangers of smoking cigarettes have been well documented for a long time, but new research shows that inhaling tobacco is even more hazardous than we knew. Scientists writing earlier this month in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) found that in addition to lung cancer, heart disease and stroke, smoking also raises the….
Continue ReadingThe Costs of Overdosing on Prescription Painkillers
A couple of years ago, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) quantified the severity of American’s problem with opioid overdoses, and a newspaper investigative report showed how prescribing doctors enabled the problem with these narcotic painkillers. Now, a new story quantifies the actual cost of prescription drug overdoses based on emergency room patients…..
Continue ReadingDEA Will Allow Consumers to Return Unused Prescription Drugs
The federal government is finally addressing this country’s serious abuse of prescription drugs with more resources than just those that regulate health care. The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has agreed to allow consumers to return unused prescription drugs to pharmacies to improve the chances that they won’t be used except for what they were intended….
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