Rickets is a childhood bone disease caused by severe vitamin D deficiency. It causes bone pain, weak bones and bone deformities in growing children. In the 1920s the link between rickets and vitamin D was discovered and within a couple of decades rickets largely disappeared from the developed world.
Until now.
A flurry of articles in the media this week (links below) reports a resurgence of rickets in England, Scotland and Ireland. One hospital in Southampton is reported to have treated 40 chi...
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Study Linking Vaccines to Autism not Just Wrong, Intentionally Fraudulent
In 1998 the British medical journal Lancet published a study led by Dr. Andrew Wakefield that changed public opinion about vaccination ever since. The study described twelve children with autism and colitis whose symptoms began shortly after they received the MMR vaccine. Public panic was immediate and sustained. Vaccination rates plummeted in England and measles incidence climbed thereafter. Measles is now endemic in England, meaning that there are enough unvaccinated children that the infectio...
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Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Nasal Decongestants But Were Afraid to Ask
… Or, You Might Think That it’s Funny, But it’s Snot
As I mentioned last week, a miserable cold is striking lots of my patients, spreading grief across the land. The typical symptoms are nasal congestion, cough and the mother of all malaise. Since there is nothing proven to significantly decrease the duration of the common cold, the best doctors can do is treat the symptoms and encourage patience.
The mainstay of treating cold symptoms is a nasal decongestant. Besides letting you actually b...
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