Regular readers will remember that I wrote about Zetia back in November.  That post had some important background for this week's news, and a handy lesson about the difference between clinical and intermediate outcomes in medical studies.  If you missed it, you may want to check it out.  This week, Merck released the data from a stud...

Change is always painful, even when everyone benefits from it.  We usually do our best to ignore slow trends, keeping our comfortable habits and pretending that the world will never surprise us.  I'm sure long after Ford started selling cars there were plenty of horse buggy makers who were sure that the car would always be an expensive frill for the very few. I don't think anything in the last 15...

I've written before about the controversies in screening for and treating prostate cancer. Prostate cancer presents a unique challenge because it is extremely common, affects men who on average are older than patients with other cancers, and usually takes many years between diagnosis and disability or death....

"It ain't what you don't know that hurts you; it's what you know that ain't so." -- Will Rogers This week's issue of the British Medical Journal has a fun article analyzing seven popular medical myths that even some physicians believe.  The article was covered in the popular press including in this

... not dark and SAD.   This week I have two quick important points about mood disorders.   First, this Saturday is the winter solstice which is the first day of winter and the day of the year with the shortest daylight.  (It's also my wedding anniversary.  One of you please remind me on Friday!)  Every year in late fall or early winter some people develop increased appetite, sadness, excessive sl...

Insomnia is a very common problem, and sometimes a very frustrating and persistent one.  But what if our expectations of an uninterrupted 7 or 8 hours of sleep is unrealistic?  What if a night of sleep for 4 hours, wakefulness for an hour or two, and then more sleep for 3 hours is how most of humanity slept before artificial lighting? In More

I've written many times about the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF), the most unbiased and authoritative group that reviews the literature on preventive healthcare. Their latest recommendation is not surprising; it's just a good reminder.  This week's Annals of Internal Medicine has a More

(or How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Love the Pharmaceutical Industry) I'd like to try to change the way you think about preventative medications. The goal of prescribing blood pressure-lowering medications is not to lower blood pressure.  The goal of prescribing cholesterol-lowering medications is not to lower cholesterol.  The goal of prescribing medications for osteoporosis...

Last week's post generated many comments from you, and I appreciated them very much. With Thanksgiving approaching and New Year's resolutions around the corner many of us are reviewing our commitment to our exercise program (or realizing that for the last few months we've had no commitment and therefore no exercise program).  With this perfect timing, this issue of the Journal of the American...