January 02, 2015
High tech--and
common sense--to the rescue...against infection - This HND piece discusses infection control, and how high
tech, common sense, and a bit of high touch can make a dent in the spread of
pathogens. We bring in some cool innovaitons from NASA, and mention a few
products that incoproate this wizardry….. Read the complete article.
December 27, 2014
No silver
bullet…for flawed diet studies - This HND piece
covers yet another crummy diet study, and it is one more junk science affair
headlined by big name know-nothings. This one is a bit unique in that it
combines the overhyped DASH diet, with "proof" that low carb is
worthless. But, that would be low carb defined as 40% carbs in your diet. Talk
about stacking the deck. As to DASH, it is a warmed-over Mediterranean diet,
with somewhat more carbs and a drastically lowered sodium content. National
Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute geeks would freak at the real Mediterranean
diet and its typical sodium level of 4200 milligrams per day. Sadly, the people behind this study are way
too high up in the, uh, food chain of influential researchers……Read the complete article.
December 16, 2014
Medical
conspiracy theory
- This HND piece
takes a look at the possibility that there may be true-life medical
conspiracies. But, are they really "star chamber" type affairs, or
maybe these situations—at least some of these situations—only appear to be
conspiracies. Perhaps they are more conformity than conspiracy. We give the
example of peptic ulcers and Tagamet, and continue with the matter of
neuro-immune disease. Strangely, Senator Harry Reid seems to be involved in the
latter. Read the complete article.
December 15, 2014
You can keep
your doctor...if he doesn't kill himself - This HND piece
examines a mostly hidden story: Physician suicide. Conservative estimates put
the figure at around 400 per year, and that works out to losing the student
body of an entire med school annually. Most experts think the real numbers are
a good deal higher. Of course, it's no secret that ever since Medicare, and
certainly since health care became a subsidiary of the insurance industry,
being a physician is not what it used to be. Throw into the mix rapacious
plaintiff's lawyers, and it's not a pretty picture. Then there's the matter of
depression, which is also in play—only those docs affected can't do much about
it, since merely seeking treatment for depression can affect licensure status. Read
the complete article.
December 06, 2014
Protecting the
integrity of scientific data - This HND piece
examines the matters of chain of custody, specimen tracking, and data integrity.
We cite the example of how the very first use of forensic DNA could have been
for naught, based on sloppy specimen tracking. But there is more at stake here
than forensics. We also consider the giant business of medical diagnostics.
Surely these millions of specimens must be kept with proper identification of
their rightful owners, so to speak. Included is shout-out to a smart new
company involved in the enterprise of keeping this stuff straight…..Read the complete article.
November 26, 2014
Ferguson and
Kitty Genovese - What,
you may ask, does a tragic police-involved shooting have to do with the brutal
rape and murder—50 years ago—of a woman from Queens, NY? That's easy...Learning
absolutely zero from its absurdly inaccurate and biased coverage of the
Genovese case, the media did it again—big time—with the Mike Brown/Darren
Wilson matter. Everyone seems to remember that "38" witnesses to
Kitty's death "did nothing."
Yet, no one seems
to remember the name of the vile perp Winston Moseley, or that Genovese was at
least his third murder victim. Nor, do they remember that Moseley was caught
precisely because the public chose to "get involved," by reporting
his suspicious behavior to the police the following day, which led to his
arrest.
For what it's
worth, there were nowhere near 38 actual witnesses, although that seems to be
the number of people interviewed by the police. More than that, there are those
who insist their calls to the police precinct went unheeded, and when the cops
did show up later to investigate the murder scene, one resident said bitterly
"You should have come when we called."
But the Kitty
Genovese story is only and forever about how the terrible people of Kew
Gardens, Queens refused to get involved—as if the perp didn't even exist.
Likewise, we can
debate excessive force in the Mike Brown case, but no one seems to care that
had he not acted like a vicious thug, which no one disputes, he would surely be
alive today.
Oh yeah. The
"official" tainted version of the Genovese case came from the NY
Times. What a surprise.
November 24, 2014
Shouldn’t Ebola
infection control be more than just a “good crisis”? - This HND piece
looks at the cynical use of the Ebola scare as a vehicle to advance special
interests. One of the first to take
advantage of the crisis was the clownish Francis Collins, director of NIH, who
rather absurdly claimed that the agency's problems in fighting the disease have
been hampered by a series of budget cuts. No one, including people within NIH,
was fooled for long. But for Collins, being a political hack has always been
more important than acting as a physician.
Then, there's the shrill Ebola-fueled campaign launched by the National
Nurses United (NNU). Plenty of details are covered in the piece, but let's just
say this: Beware militant Leftists masquerading as a health care union. Yeah,
they're so concerned about infection control that they are against their own
nurses getting flu shots……Read the complete article.
November 21, 2014
How NOT to help
diabetics - On
November 21st, the Washington Post ran a Special Report
on diabetes, featuring a series of supposedly informative articles. The report
was sponsored by Novo Nordisk, a big name (maybe the biggest) in diabetes care.
No doubt, they have every interest in getting people off their meds...
To be kind, the
report was a profound waste of time, and very much in keeping with so-called
"diabetes education," provides zero takeaway for the diabetic. I
vented a bit via e-mail to the report's editor, Mary Jordan.
Dear Ms. Jordan--
Talk about a
missed opportunity! As one who writes a weekly health column for a major website,
perhaps I was naive to think that your coverage of this topic would include
something other than the tired old cliches, which—by the way—have only worsened
public health. Here is why there is an "epidemic" of diabetes:
1. The conflation
of the very real and devastating autoimmune condition of Type 1 (real) diabetes
with the lab finding of hyperglycemia, which has quite cynically been named
"Type 2 diabetes." After all, it is so much easier to build a brand
with 29 million sufferers than less than 1 million.
2. The criminal
advocacy of a low-fat/ high carb diet by both the ADA and AHA, despite
mountains of evidence to the contrary.
3. The advocacy
of expensive, harmful, and often avoidable pharmaceutical therapy to promote
glycemic control. Might I suggest that you actually read the papers, endlessly
cited, which are purported to "prove" the necessity of tight glycemic
control, but in fact do no such thing.
Moreover, the
record of pharmaceutical therapy in this area is far from stellar.
Indeed, there is really only one drug that probably is safe and effective, and
that is Metformin. Ironically, though, Metformin does little to directly lower
blood glucose. Instead, it mitigates so-called "liver dump," whereby
for many people, during a period of not eating, the equivalent of as much as 70
grams of carbs is forced into the blood by the liver.
Of course, as Diane Kress
has pointed out, the same mitigation effect can be achieved by consuming 15-20
grams of carbs.
4. As to insulin
therapy for type 2s, this is the single most absurd aspect of the
"epidemic." To be sure, insulin will almost instantly lower blood
glucose, and that is why it is essential therapy for type 1s. But, consider
this: 80% of type 2s are obese. Insulin lowers blood glucose by forcing the
glucose into the cell. In other words, insulin will make a fat person more fat!
But then, he will need even more insulin, which will make him still fatter...
His insulin
resistance occurs *because* he is fat, as the body's defense to prevent him
from gaining more weight.
5. However, the
most basic reason for our "epidemic" is that the "diabetes"
blood glucose level has been lowered from 160 milligrams per deciliter to 140
milligrams per deciliter to 125 milligrams per deciliter. Good luck finding any
scientific evidence behind this. It sure does create more diabetics, though,
right? Bear in mind that dozens of things can temporarily raise blood glucose,
including stress. Stress can easily raise this number by 30 points.
OK, then. What if
someone who is already stressed gets his blood tested to discover it is 126? He
is now given the provisional diagnosis of type 2 diabetes, and I promise you is
more stressed. He comes back a few days later, and this finding is confirmed.
You might ask:
What if he never shows this hyperglycemia ever again? It doesn't matter. He is
now a diabetic for life, which means at the very least that his life insurance
will be forever rated.
So...We have more
treatment, more drugs sold, and higher insurance rates for life, regardless of
any other health findings. Cool racket, no?
You might try
doing some real journalism next time.
November 17, 2014
Is strict
allopathy the only answer to mental illness? - This HND piece
applies the "treating symptoms, rather than causes" criticism to how
we approach mental illness. It's no secret that there are serious limitations
to psychoactive drugs, even if they are champion best-sellers. We highlight
some works that offer new pathways to therapy, and give a plug to Marcia
Angell, MD, for her efforts in exposing the questionable practices of Big
Pharma……. Read the complete article.
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