“Do you take vitamins?” “No,” I answer my patients. “Why not? Aren’t they good for you?” The nuanced answer to that remains no. A truthful answer might be “when it’s been shown you need them.” Most Americans are not vitamin deficient. There is evidence that vitamins can be harmful, not helpful. And what generally gets […]
Now – You Must Use Drugs
The health insurance companies know exactly how you should practice. These days, despite the admonitions of Nancy Reagen, they are pointedly telling you to use drugs – and quite peeved when you don’t. A recent postal arrival from a major insurer arrived on properly forbidding stationery. The declaration – it was incumbent that I put patient […]
Will Your Next Doctor Visit Be With a Robot?
Autonomous robot surgeons now do a better job of stitching than humans – at least in animals. Will your next medical visit be with a robot? Perhaps not – though your doctor may already feel like one. For roboticization of work, particularly through “innovative” IT, is rapidly coming to control your health care. Bright New Robots […]
Statins and the New Numbers Racket (12/9/13)
The Old Numbers Racket One way to keep a population unhealthy is to endlessly worry them about getting sick. For the last few decades, purveyors of cholesterol as the core of heart disease have created a medical industrial complex that has been hard to suppress. Now that complex is changing its spots again with new […]