I’ve been eating a load of holiday foods and thinking that I’m going to need to make some dietary adjustments. Like me, you may have read or heard in the news that clinical trials looking at omega-3 fatty acids (omega-3 acid ethyl esters – O3AEE) did NOT significantly reduce major cardiovascular events. In fact, the news may have said that...
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You may think of Henry VIII when you think of gout. Called the disease of kings, many associate it with excess. Gout is actually a common disease. Over three million people in the US diagnosed with gout every year. Gout is a builds up of uric acid in tissues, especially in the joints. Uric acid is a byproduct the digestion of purines, a natural substance...
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By Steve Gillman What my cancer taught me about medical “evidence” and how much is enough I exaggerate. My oncologist probably does believe humans need food, but I suspect the belief makes him uncomfortable, since no double-blind studies have been done to prove it. Like many doctors, his general approach to treatment is that if something hasn’t been...
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Alzheimer’s Disease Today patients with mild Alzheimer’s Disease are being recruited for at least two clinical trials based on an interesting observation made by a graduate student at MIT. Hannah Iaccarino wondered if you could restore the brain’s gamma waves. One of the features of Alzheimer’s Disease is a loss of a type of brain...
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Hand Dryers Remember when public bathrooms didn’t have hot air hand dryers? Installed to eliminate waste and improve hygiene, research suggests that they are actually great at spreading germs, right back onto your freshly washed hands. A 2018 study brought this information to people’s attention. Researchers exposed petri dishes to bathroom air...
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Anger is an emotion that everyone experiences from very early on. Studies have confirmed anger in infants as young as two months old. There is a lot of literature that describes anger as a negative emotion. Yet, at least one anger researcher says that “anger is a powerful and healthy force in your life. It’s good that you feel it. You need to...
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In 1969, at a workshop about women’s bodies and health in the Boston area, 12 women met to discuss their experiences with doctors. As they talked, they realized commonality in their stories. First, all of the women shared that they had felt ignored or dismissed during their interactions with physicians and second, all noticed that they didn’t...
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If you had the flu in 2017, you know what the influenza A H3N2 virus feels like. Australia had a bad round of H3N2 flu this year and often the Northern Hemisphere follows the same trend. What to do? Get the flu shot! So many people say that they get the flu shot but still get the flu. It is true that the vaccine has only a 40 to 60 percent effectiveness...
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It has been observed for many years that parachutes slow down the descent of people jumping from planes, making those jumps survivable. “Parachute use to prevent death and major trauma related to gravitational challenge: systematic review of randomised controlled trials“ is an article accepted for publication in the British Medical Journal. The...
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According to research from the Pew Research Center, 68 percent of adults in the US get their news online on social media. Yet news, whether online or from traditional outlets, can be misleading. Spin is the term used to describe a slant in the way information is presented. Unfortunately, many journalists rely on press releases in their writing and story...
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The US Federal Government has an Office of the National Coordinator of Health Information Technology and nine years ago, Regina Holliday provided testimony at a workshop – the Health Information Technology (HIT) Policy Committee Meaningful Use Workgroup. This testimony described the harrowing experience of a patient with kidney cancer,...
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In March of this year, Dr. Harlan Krumholz, a cardiologist at Yale School of Medicine, asked this question on Twitter. I am curious to know from patients…esp those recently in the hospital…what do you wish we did better? What were the most obvious ways that quality could be improved. Throughout hospitalization & in the transition home. We should...
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