I've written before on the increasing danger of bacteria that are resistant to multiple antibiotics. This resistance is a side effect of the use, and frequent misuse, of the many antibiotics physicians have at our disposal. I've also written about the pressure that physicians sometimes face from patients to prescribe unnecessary antibiotics.
Last week Slate published an article by Dr. Zachary Meisel, an emergency department physician who recounts facing a very common dilemma. He took care of...
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Smoking and Quitting Are Social Behaviors
"But he can't be a man 'cause he doesn't smoke The same cigarettes as me." -- Rolling Stones, (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction
An article in this week's New England Journal of Medicine illuminates the social dynamics of smoking and quitting, and generated a lot of attention in the media. The study followed twelve thousand people, many of whom were initially smokers, from 1971 until 2003. The large group was all connected in one large social network, meaning ...Osteoporosis Screening: Not Just for Women Anymore
Osteoporosis, which means very low bone density, is a major risk factor for fractures. Fractures can be catastrophic for older people, and effective medicines exist to treat osteoporosis and prevent fractures, so detecting osteoporosis before a fracture happens is very important in older patients. Since osteoporosis is very common in postmenopausal women, screening them for osteoporosis is a well-established part of preventive care.
Though men are less likely then women to have osteoporosis, ...
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When Less Care is More
Doctors are trained to try to figure out what's wrong and fix it. We're trained to make a plan and execute it, to do something. But that impulse to order the next test, prescribe the next therapy or do the next procedure can harm our patients if it's done without consideration of the patient's goals. That's particularly true with older frail patients whose quality of life is decreasing. In our reflexive rush from symptom to test result to treatment, we may never stop to thin...
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U.S. Measles Cases at Highest Numbers Since 2001
I almost never write about children's health. I'm not a pediatrician, and most of what I know about kids' health I learned as a dad, not in training. This topic, however, is important enough to concern all of us.
Measles is a very contagious viral illness that causes high fever, a rash, cough and a runny nose. Complications can include pneumonia, brain inflammation and death. In 1958 there were 763,094 cases of measles reported in the US. The measles vaccine was introduced in 1963, and wid...
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