Are prescription drugs truly safe? Depends on how well and how long you look. When I was discovered on endoscopy to have gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD,) my gastroenterologist told me I should immediately go on proton pump inhibitors, known as PPIs. They were extremely efficacious. “And they’re safe. I’ve been on one for 16 years. […]
Humanity Goes Viral
Lots of people want their work to go “viral” – to propagate everywhere and anywhere, to infect and affect the whole of humanity. Internet virality is one of the ways that information now spreads. Biological information often operates differently from what you find on the internet. It’s a lot older – nearly four billion years […]
Treat the Chart Not the Patient
Killing Care Softly It’s official: doctors treat charts, not people. Harvard researcher Russell Phillips reckons physicians of many stripes are now “data entry technicians.” My preferred term is “checklist monkeys.” The results for your health care? Not good. How much time and energy are really wasted? Recent reports show ER physicians spending 44% of their time […]
Unsafe: Surviving the New Age of Anxiety
A different, new age of anxiety is brewing. To understand why, look around. One of the world’s favored centers of “chill” just burned to the ground. In the peacefully pleasant California wine country residents woke to winds whipping fire. Within minutes their homes reduced to ashes, their vehicles melted. They had no warning. In the morning light […]
Fighting Dementia Using Your Eyes and Ears
Dementia scares people. Rates are rising. New evidence shows decreased vision and hearing make dementia more likely. One study out of Stanford found people who had vision loss and did not seek treatment showed five times the cognitive decline rate, and over nine times the Alzheimer’s rate as those without problems, through a period of eight and a half […]
