If stodgy medical journals ever hyped themselves, last week's New England Journal of Medicine could have been hyped as the special weight-loss surgery issue. It featured two studies that examined the effects of weight-loss surgery on mortality, and More
Vitamin D Deficiency is Common and Dangerous
Two weeks ago I warned you about excessive sun exposure. Ironically, this week I'm warning you about a consequence of insufficient sun exposure.
A recent article in the New England Journal of Medicine exposes a very common and under-diagnosed problem, vitamin D deficiency. This has become a bigger problem as our activities have moved incr...
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Antimicrobial Soap no Better than Plain
In our germ-phobic culture antimicrobial soap, once only used in hospitals, has become very popular in households. This issue of the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases contains a study which reviews the literature comparing antimicrobial soaps versus plain soap. The results of the study was reported in many media articles, including More
Good Day, Sunshine!
With the long days of summer upon us, many of us are hitting the beaches and getting suntans. Southern California is obsessed with both beauty and health, and tanning sits at the intersection of the two. Suntans have become symbols of status, health and beauty.
But why? There are certainly no health benefits to tanning, and many health risks. Dermatologists have been warning us for over a generation that sun exposure increases our risk of melanoma, the most dangerous form of skin cancer. I...
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Zinc Unproven in Treating Common Cold
I know I just wrote about the common cold two weeks ago, but I don't make the news, I just report it.
This week the news is about zinc. A study in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases reviewed all the studies in the medical literature on the efficacy of zinc for the common cold. The study attracted some coverage in th...
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