Moving Is walking dangerous to your health? Sometimes. Particularly when you march through city streets. A recent media friendly study looked at emergency patients hit by cars and trucks who entered Bellevue Hospital in New York. Some salient “facts”: 1. 44% were hit while in crosswalks while the light was signaling a safe time to […]
Unknown Unknowns – Some Future Health Crises (4/2/13)
The Known Unknowns You don’t have to read Nicholas Nassim Taleb’s “The Black Swan” to recognize unpredictable events produce inordinate impact. Consider the major events of your own life – marriage, work, serious illnesses. How many of them were predictable? Chance rules the world. Presently most “health” crises are, in policy terms, health care crises. […]
Less Sleep, More Weight? (3/29/13)
A Weighty Conundrum Americans are obsessed by weight. We weigh too much, we’re told. Obesity will kill many, many of us. The truth about weight is far more complicated. Part of that truth – a person’s weight is controlled by hundreds of different factors. And those are ones we know about: The color of a […]
Amazing Ambien (3/19/12)
The Rock Star Drug Steve Tyler of Aeorosmith took it to sooth an aching foot. He fell off the stage. One Calgary man claimed it made him take a bottle of vodka out of the fridge, down it and drive directly into other cars – all while he was asleep! My patients have woken with […]
In Defense of Sleep (3/12/13)
In Defense Recently a journalist asked to summarize important facts about sleep. Here’s an attempt to defend sleep – and it’s role in human regeneration. Some will be interested by a new large European study showing that the worse the insomnia, the worse future heart failure. Yet the story is much bigger than that: The […]