I’ve written before about how the error rate in the practice of medicine is far greater than that in other industries. I’m not talking about when doctors make a difficult decision that in retrospect was wrong; I’m talking about just plain mistakes, such as when one medication is ordered but another is dispensed or when the dose dispensed is 10 times greater than what was what was intended because of an extra zero was written in the order. We are finally looking to fields such as aviation to le...
More
Time for Flu Shots
Summertime, and the livin’ is uneasy Stocks are slumpin’ Unemployment is high
(with apologies to George Gershwin)
Reminders of the end of summer are upon us. Kids are returning to school. Rain covers are thrown over backyard grills. Flu vaccines are arriving in doctor offices.
This season’s influenza vaccine is here. It contains the flu strains most likely to reach North America this fall includ...Startling Scientific Finding: Dieting Leads to Weight Loss
What sort of diet helps people lose more weight? Do overweight people lose more weight on a low-carbohydrate diet (like Atkins) or on a low-fat diet (like Weight Watchers and others)?
A carefully designed study published in the current issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine answers that question. The study enrolled over 300 obese adults and randomized them to a low-carbohydrate diet or a low-fat diet. Importantly, patients with diabetes, high cholesterol and high blood pressure were exclud...
More
Rethinking Calcium Supplements
This week I discovered how painful it can be to change a habit. Not because it means admitting I was doing the wrong thing, but because it means analyzing how feeble my reasons were for the habit in the first place.
Ever since I started practice I’ve been recommending calcium supplements to post-menopausal women. Why? Mostly out of habit. There’s not a shred of evidence that calcium supplements prevent fractures, but some suggestion that they may help bone density. But what’s the harm? Ca...
More