Treatment, or Prevention? In a perfect world, prevention would not prove necessary. There would be cures for everything. In the American media world, this landscape seems to exist – or is promised soon. Suffering from schizophrenia? There’s a pill. High blood pressure? Multiple pills. Together they’ll surely work. Depression? Check. Where “personal will” no […]
Cancerland (2/10/14)
Number One The number one cause of death in the US is cancer. Many of us go to doctors yearly. We nervously wait for the results of tests. Do I have the Big C – or don’t I? Now cancer is moving on to become the number one cause of death globally, according to the […]
How Drugs Change You Through Time (11/19/13)
Steroids Can a single dose change your body the rest of your life? My patient wasn’t thinking about that. He just wanted to have big muscles. Really big. He had been caught red handed with syringes in his back pack. His parents wanted to know what they were – and why. Nothing much, he told […]
E-Cigarettes – The Way to Quit Smoking? (912/13)
Can E-Cigarettes Help Smokers Quit? Electronic cigarettes – now known as e-cigarettes – make many uneasy. Some think brilliant designs and candy tastes will make smoking so “cool” innumerable teenagers will plunk down their credit cards – and become hooked for life. Others think e-cigarettes might immediately decrease public harm by cutting the number of […]
What You Don’t Know (8/5/13)
Stumped We didn’t know what was causing his death. When we walked on to the medicine wards of the San Diego VA many years ago, most interns were pretty ignorant. Yet we believed someone else knew what to do. As in what was causing the large stock of misery before us. In VA medical wards […]