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The art and science of medicine
One of my posts was featured today on KevinMD, Are physicians today active in the arts?. While browsing the KevinMD site, I came across a post by “A Country Doctor,” Evidence based medicine at the...
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Childhood obesity and will power
An article in the Journal of the American Medical Association reports that the rate at which obesity is increasing has slowed down and may actually have plateaued. Is this good news? It would be if...
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Merchants of Doubt
It’s easy to understand – if not condone – the behavior of politicians who are financed by tobacco and oil companies. They oppose the regulation of smoking or pollution because they benefit from the...
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Century-old kerfuffle over the “syrup” in corn syrup
I see that the Corn Refiners Association is petitioning the FDA to change the name of their ingredient – as it appears on food labels — from corn “syrup” to corn “sugar.” There’s an amusing footnote to...
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Lobbying against formula for babies
Here’s one small example of what lobbyists can accomplish in Washington. The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) provides formula and food to low-income...
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Support the Fair Elections Now Act
Americans of all political persuasions can surely agree that Congress is currently dysfunctional. Much of the problem stems from the enormous influence of special interest groups – through lobbyists —...
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Should grief be labeled and treated as depression?
The American Psychiatric Association (APA) is in the process of revising the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) – the psychiatrist’s bible. Its last incarnation — known as DSM...
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Should psychiatrists go to med school?
What’s happened to psychiatry over the last 15 to 20 years? That’s a big subject, discussed in many recent and excellent books. One of those books is by Daniel Carlat, author of Unhinged: The Trouble...
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Michelle Chappel – No Place Like Home
World Homeless Day is on October 10, 2010 — 10/10/10. My friend Michelle Chappel Millis has written a song and made a video to support this cause. It’s called “No Place Like Home.” Michelle and I...
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Why don’t hospital workers wash their hands?
Hand washing reduces hospital-acquired infections. How do you motivate hospitals to comply with standards? How do you measure compliance? Turns out this is not a simple problem, according to an article...
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We’re all on Prozac now
This entire poem is available online, so I hope JAMA won’t mind if I reproduce it here. The concept might seem simply clever at first, but in fact it’s quite thought provoking. Side Effects May Include...
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