Preventive Medicine
March 17, 2013
The Forces of Darkness Are Still Strong: Fluoride
An Op-Ed Commentary in the Lincoln Journal on March 7 reminded me that the forces of darkness and ignorance are alive and strong even in our communities. The writer proposed to remove fluoridation from our water despite almost seven decades of clearly beneficial results. I had to respond.
January 31, 2013
Eggs Are Back! Had They Ever Left?
The British Medical Journal (www.bmj.com) just reported that a review of studies of egg consumption determined that there was no increase in heart attacks or strokes related to regular eating of eggs.
August 28, 2011
Screening Mammography:How Effective?
Dr. Kanner looks at a Norway study which separated the benefits of screening mammography from breast cancer treatment improvements. Mammography is clearly helpful, but the help may be more modest and come with more adverse effects than recognized before.
June 28, 2011
Snacking Strategies
There is a world of interesting, tasty and filling snacks that are healthy and really low-calorie. Get to a good supermarket and really look around for what you like, and keep it on hand.
March 13, 2011
Health Care Agent and Proxy
We all need a health care agent to speak for us if we are incapacitated while critical decisions must be made about our care, for example, in an ICU. Your doctor discusses some of the many issues surrounding health care agents and provides a standard health care proxy form used to appoint the agent.
March 9, 2011
You Never Want to Be an Interesting Case. Be Medically Boring.
Dr. Kanner loves medical boredom because then the patient is almost always healthy. Interesting cases are intellectually fascinating but may have bad outcomes. Which would you prefer?
February 26, 2010
Health Care 3: The Terror of Being Uninsured
If you are uninsured and need serious medical care, your costs are almost unimaginably higher than you pay as an insured person. Some illustrations to underscore why we must change the insurance rules to get everyone into the system.
January 4, 2010
Ginkgo Biloba Does Not Work. Alas.
Ginkgo biloba was just shown to be ineffective to prevent cognitive decline in a large, randomized and controlled trial of over 3000 older adults followed for over 6 years in an NIH-sponsored multi-center study published in JAMA. Applying critical evaluation to all purported therapies.
November 21, 2009
Women’s Health: Confusing New 2009 Mammogram Guidelines
A preventive medicine task force just suggested that women not have mammograms in their 40's and should only be screened every two years after that. And don't bother with breast self-exam or your doctor's breast exam. And the gynecologists' task force declared that no women should have Pap smears before age 21 and less frequently…
September 5, 2009
The Health Care Reform Conundrum – 1
Why our health care system is so wonderful and so dysfunctional is an immensely complex tale that is of immediate political importance to understand. Introduction to a planned series of reports.
July 4, 2009
FDA Panel Warns on Tylenol Dosage
An FDA advisory panel was widely reported last week to recommend banning Vicodin and Percocet because the committee believes the amount (500 mg) of Tylenol those drugs contain is dangerous and contributes to liver damage and fatalities. What should we do about Tylenol dosage in general?
April 27, 2009
NY Times: Severe Primary Care Physician Shortage
The New York Times lead story today was on the nationwide shortage of primary care physicians, which imperils the ability of the Obama administration to successfully implement health care reform.