New Study Challenges Latest Statin Guidelines [ez_date] Statin drugs are the cholesterol-lowering darlings of contemporary medicine. So much so that fully half of men age 65-74 are prescribed them and one in four adults – both men and women – over 45 are taking them. An increasing proportion of these patients don’t have the established […]
Can You Say No to Your Doctor?
“Thanks, Doc, But No Thanks” I’ve recently had opportunity to decline medications recommended to me by two different doctors. Doing so once didn’t set off any triggers, but after the second time it occurred to me that maybe I ought to write something about it. How often do we get to practice what we preach, […]
Why Less Healthcare May Be Better
When Too Much Healthcare Harms The choice every patient faces with our healthcare system, whether they realize it or not, is which treatment alternative offers them the best balance of risk and benefit. Most of us, however, see only the benefit and seldom seriously consider – or are even made aware of – the risks. […]
If Only Obamacare Empowered Patients
What If Obamacare Really Did Something About Patient Education & Empowerment? The patient-oriented elements of Obamacare have largely to do with free screenings that are often double-edged swords – likely to promote as much unnecessary treatment as true life-saving interventions. What Obamacare doesn’t sufficiently address – and what true healthcare reform requires – is the […]
A New Year’s Resolution for Smart Patients
Resolve to Be a Smarter Patient With the first deadline for complying with Obamacare’s insurance requirements looming large, it may be hard for many Americans – especially patients in our broken healthcare system – to think about anything else. But the start of this new year may be a better opportunity than most to refocus […]
Lifestyle Changes Can Extend Your Life, But Who Cares?
Is Your Doctor Paying Attention to Your Lifestyle Choices? Are You? A recent study by Dr. Dean Ornish and colleagues proves once again the power of lifestyle upgrades to extend life. This small study compared the effects of a low-fat, low-processed carbohydrate diet, moderate walking exercise and stress reduction routines on men with low-risk prostate […]
Do Lifestyle Changes Really Matter?
New Study Asserts Drugs Over Lifestyle So here comes another flawed study – randomly-controlled and all, and published in The New England Journal of Medicine, no less – that purports to show that medications work better than lifestyle changes to reduce cardiovascular risk in diabetics. The study was named Look AHEAD (Action for Health in […]
Lifestyle Changes Can Free You Of Our Broken Healthcare System
Lifestyle Choices Drive Your Risk for Heart Attack, Stroke and Death Itself There was some encouraging news last week about the benefits of healthful lifestyle changes on your risk for stroke, heart disease and death from all causes. The first of these was a study published in the medical journal Stroke that found that those who scored […]
Vitamin D Research Raises New Questions
Vitamin D Not A Silver Bullet After All? A recent study by Johns Hopkins researchers finding that there is indeed an upper level of benefit with vitamin D blood levels is likely to put vitamin D proponents in quite a snit. Actually, I’m a vitamin D proponent as well – I supplement with it daily […]
Trans Fats and Tax Codes
Trans Fats & Taxes It’s tax day in America and you’re forgiven if trans fats aren’t uppermost in your mind. However, it’s actually a fitting time to consider how our tax code perpetuates our healthcare crisis. A recent report about the South not being the fattest region in America, as generally perceived, got me to […]
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