Eliminating Cold Medicine- October 29, 2007 Take Some Tylenol and Call Me in the Morning: What will we do without cough and cold medicine I can hear it now, that familiar refrain - "Tylenol doesn't do anything." And it doesn't, at least not for runny noses, sneezes, and coughs, despite what the expert says:Childrens Tylenol and Childrens Motrin, when sold by themselves, were excluded from the discussions because the medicines in those products, acetaminophen and ibuprofen, respectively, are safe and effective in treating fevers and aches.http://medpundit.blogspot.com/2007/10/eliminating-cold-medicine.html Screening for Autism- October 29, 2007 I Screen, You Screen: The American Academy of Pediatrics is recommending that all children be screened for autism. They've only press-released their recommendations, however, so it's difficult to assess them. Wouldn't it be nice if professional organizations actually released their recommendations to their members before they did so to the public It would make it so much easier for doctors to discuss the news stories with their patients. They're releasing them today at their annual conference,..http://medpundit.blogspot.com/2007/10/screening-for-autism.html Magnet-Free Europe- October 29, 2007 Magnet-Free Europe: For some reason, the EU was proposing severe restrictions on the use of MRI scans, a proposal which has been halted- for now. Here's the reasoning behind the original restrictions:The Directive was drafted by DG Employment, with the aim of minimising workers exposure to electromagnetic fields (EMF). Currently eight million MRI patient examinations per year are carried out in Europe, said Professor Dag Rune Olsen, who works in experimental radiation therapy at the Norwegian...http://medpundit.blogspot.com/2007/10/magnet-free-europe.html Spooky Skulls- October 29, 2007 Spooky Skulls:Spooky brain pictures. Background here.http://medpundit.blogspot.com/2007/10/spooky-skulls.html Preventing Alzheimer's- October 29, 2007 Of Mice and Mazes: Do high blood pressure medications prevent Alzheimer's They do in mouse brains - in test tubes and in mazes:The researchers then tested Diovan in mice that were genetically at risk for Alzheimer's disease.Some of the mice drank water laced with Diovan. Their Diovan dose was lower than that used for people with high blood pressure.For comparison, other mice got ordinary water without Diovan.After drinking their assigned water for 11 months, the mice took a memory test in which.http://medpundit.blogspot.com/2007/10/preventing-alzheimers.html In Error- October 29, 2007 Errors, Errors: The sad story of a medical error and learning to deal with errors.http://medpundit.blogspot.com/2007/10/in-error.html Medical Sci-Fi Contest: Please Meet the Winner! - Medgadget - www.medgadget.com- October 29, 2007 Medical Science Fiction: Late to the party, but here are the winners of Medgadget's Medical Sci-Fi Contest. Enjoy.http://medpundit.blogspot.com/2007/10/medical-sci-fi-contest-please-meet.html Inspiring Lives- October 28, 2007 Inspiring Lives: Speaking of the supreme champion of eugenics, here's an inspiring story from the days of his reign.http://medpundit.blogspot.com/2007/10/inspiring-lives.html Eugenics Past and Present- October 28, 2007 Eugenics Past and Present: I've been reading an essay from 1907 by David Starr Jordan, a great mind of his time - scientist, peace activist, president of Standford, and eugenicist. The essay is the The Human Harvest, an anti-war argument grounded in eugenics. From a eugenics perspective, wars are bad because they kill the best men, leaving behind the weakest to perpetuate the race- and weaken the human harvest. Even in the service of a profound good the the callousness and cruelty of...http://medpundit.blogspot.com/2007/10/eugenics-past-and-present.html Micropractice vs. Reality- October 28, 2007 My Long Absence: I have been away too long from the internets and blogosphere. These forced, long absences always leave me a little depressed. But just as I was leaving for a conference in Chicago about a month ago, events forced me into an ideal micropractice. What does that mean It means I'm short staffed and doing a lot of extra work myself. There are two schools of thought when it comes to the business of running a medical practice. The conventional wisdom is that it's a waste of a doctor's.http://medpundit.blogspot.com/2007/10/micropractice-vs-reality.html |