A new study from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and Centers for Disease Control highlights how common type II diabetes is among American adults. The study is summarized in this NIH news release. 6.5% of American adults have diabetes. Even more alarming is that a third of them don't know they have it.
Type II diabetes has serious potential consequences, and its high prevalence makes it a common cause of disabi...
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A Small Part of the Solution
A sad fact of our current healthcare marketplace is that a large number of Americans can't afford medical care other than in the emergency room. It's impossible to have a private practice without considering those for whom even the basics of primary care are an unaffordable luxury.
Since I went into private practice six years ago, I made a commitment to volunteer caring for indigent patients. One afternoon every month I volunteer at the More
The Evidence on Acupuncture
I've introduced you to the Medical Letter in a previous post. It's a great source of unbiased reviews of the medical literature. In their most recent issue, the Medical Letter reviewed the available evidence about acupuncture. Since I can't link to the full text (it's available only to subscribers) I'll summarize their review.
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Gastric Banding is a Reasonable Treatment Option for Obesity
Obesity is a serious problem in America and in my practice. Obesity predisposes to type II diabetes, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol. It also increases stress on joints and worsens arthritis. Nevertheless, losing weight for most patients is very difficult. Dietary modification and exercise have been the most proven weight loss techniques, but many patients can not adhere to a strict exercise and diet regimen.
More recently, surgical treatments for weight loss have offered an alternati...
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Homocysteine: A Risk Factor Worth Ignoring
Last month's New England Journal of Medicine has a great lesson about how we should think about risk factors.
It's been long known that homocysteine is a risk factor for heart disease. That means that, when looking at large numbers of people, those with high levels of homocysteine have more heart attacks on average than those with low levels. Too frequently, we confuse a risk factor with a cause, and we jump to the conclusion that homocysteine causes heart attack. A risk factor, howeve...
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