More pontification than a 15 minute office visit
John Goodman had a nice blog post today. I typically enjoy reading his stuff and recommend it to my readers.
After reading his post linked to above, particularly the very last paragraph just above his signature, take a look at this MSNBC story.
Cheers,
…Sam
A while back I wrote a series of posts about health care reform and in one I mentioned the system in Singapore as one which we in the U.S. should look at as a good model to work from when considering ways to improve our own.
Well, today the Happy Hospitalist has a post which links to another article about the system they have in Singapore.
Give it a read and tell me what you think.
Not sure why exactly, but this story really made me smile
Lost Parrot Gives Vet His Name and Address
It made me think of an experience my wife and I had during my medical school days in Jackson, MS.
One day, my wife came home and discovered a calico cat on the front porch of our house. It was a really beautiful cat with an extremely sweet disposition.
She petted it a bit and then went inside, figuring it belonged to a neighbor and would go home soon.
Well, the cat continued to stick around….for a day or two, so we decided to see if we could track down it’s owners.
It had a collar with a rabies vaccination tag.
So my wife called the veterinary clinic that was listed on the tag to see if they could use the tag number to locate the owner.
The clinic was located in south Jackson in what is essentially a nearly exclusively African American neighborhood.
The receptionist answering the telephone took the tag number from my wife and put her on hold while she looked up the owners name in her records.
A few moments later she came back on the line and my wife heard her say “That’s not yo’ kitty.”
My wife responded “Oh, I know she’s not mine. That’s why I called you. I found her on my porch and I’m trying to locate her owner.”
My wife heard her start giggling and say “No, that’s not yo’ kitty.”
Realizing she was not being understood, my wife responded, speaking a little more slowly “I know it’s not my kitty. I’m trying to find out whose kitty it is.”
They went back and forth like this a few more times with the receptionist getting increasingly giggly and my wife getting increasingly frustrated.
Finally, the receptionist between giggles cleared things up by telling my wife, “You don’t understand. I’m trying to tell you the cat’s name. Her name is ‘Nacho-Kitty.’ If you bring her down to the clinic, we can contact the owner for you and return their cat to them.”
(Maybe you had to be there, but usually when my wife tells this story, people give her a funny look.
I think maybe in our overly-P.C. society they think she is being racist and making it up or something, but my wife is by far the least racist person I have ever known. I honestly know nobody with a more pure, kind, and accepting heart.
She’s just relaying the story as it happened.)
HT for the parrot story to BadHabit.
Picture credit.
Dear Doctor Sam,
Why don’t you show your face on your website. What’s up with the pictures of the back of your head?
Sincerely,
Curious
Well Curious, that’s a great question.
Other than the obvious answer which is that my face ain’t all that pretty, it’s all about preserving the thin veil of anonymity.
I know it isn’t much of a veil and that any truly determined person would have very little difficulty discovering my identity, but it’s something at least.
Let’s face it, there are a lot of nutjobs out there who might not like some opinion I write or whatever and I really don’t want some potential stalker or axe-murderer to know what I look like.
I suppose it could be argued that an axe-murderer would likely sneak up behind me in order to strike his blow and that I therefore am showing him exactly what to look for by showing the back of my head, but I guess that’s just a chance I’ll have to take.
Anyway, there’s no super secret here. Maybe someday I’ll reveal my full name and face, but for now, I prefer to maintain a little bit of privacy.
Hope that satisfies your curiosity!
Cheers,
…Sam
Hi Folks,
Sorry it’s been a while since I’ve posted anything. I guess I’ve been a bit busier than usual recently.
Also, quite frankly, I just haven’t had much inspiration.
I did do a brief addition to the disease index with an article on Erectile Dysfunction, but otherwise, drsamonline.com has been a pretty quiet place the past week or two.
I had hoped by now to have more articles in both the disease and medication indexes, but I think perhaps I’ve been a bit too ambitious here. Writing these articles is pretty labor and time consuming and there really is a virtually unending number of diseases and medications to cover.
All of this has caused me to do some thinking about the direction of this website.
One thing I find myself doing a lot of is answering people’s questions. This occurs in my clinic, on the internet, and just in my general life itself. People ask my advice and opinions on all sorts of things, not just their health care. In large part, this dynamic was some of my motivation for starting this website.
One of my main goals was to cut down my work over time. Rather than verbally answer the same questions over and over, I figured I could just create a website where I could put that information and then refer people there to find their answers.
In reality however, I find that this has increased my work. Now I am writing articles and still having people ask me the same questions. I also find myself receiving emails at my drsam@drsamonline.com address from folks seeking my advice.
Until now, I’ve typically just been engaging in private correspondence with these folks by replying to their emails.
It dawned upon me however that some of these questions and queries for advice I receive might benefit others who read this blog so I thought I’d create a new blog category and occasionally post these questions and my responses to them as actual blog posts. I’ll call this category “Ask Dr. Sam”.
The beauty of this concept I think is that with the ability to leave comments on blog posts, other readers can also chime in with their input and advice.
The other thing that dawned upon me is the idea that perhaps other folks might like to try their hand at writing some articles for the disease and medication indexes.
I’ve already got some examples of the sort of format I’d like these articles to take. The goal with them is to put information in simple easy to understand words so that the average person can educate themselves a bit.
So what do you folks think?
Any of you interested in trying your hand at writing some articles?
Any of you interested in getting my thoughts on some particular subject?
If so, just shoot me an email at drsam@drsamonline.com.
If you submit an article or a question, I’ll take a look at it and if it seems like something appropriate for this website, I’ll publish it for you.
For the articles, if you wish to remain anonymous, then let me know. If however, you wish to receive credit for your work, I’ll be glad to put your name on it.
Anyway, I look forward to hearing from folks and seeing how this pans out.
Until then, cheers!
…Sam
Today, I’d like to touch upon a subject that I think in some way affects us all. I’m talking about the continually unfolding disaster of substance abuse in this country.
As a physician, I see the effects of drug addiction and abuse on pretty much a daily basis. There is hardly a day goes by that I don’t have at least one person either come in to the clinic or call my nurse demanding I write a prescription for their favorite controlled substance. I typically politely decline.
The problem is certainly not confined to prescription medications either. Currently the big problem in this neck of the woods seems to be related to methamphetamine, though crack coccaine is pretty big around here too. None of this is meant to ignore other substances.
After a while, you sort of get a sixth sense about these folks and can usually spot them pretty easily. A lot of times, I can spot them before I even see them, simply from what is written in the chart, what their presenting complaint is and how it is worded.
The E.R. docs have an even greater exposure to this stuff than I do as a family medicine doc.
It doesn’t take long for most folks in the medical profession to become somewhat cynical towards these patients. Hang out with some doctors or nurses long enough and you’re almost certain to hear them complain about their latest drug-seeker, or that disruptive crack-head they saw the other day, etc.
I’m not immune to this either. The fact of the matter is that a lot of these patients genuinely are a disruptive pain-in-the-asses. They usually take up an inordinate amount of time trying to convince you to do something you’ve already told them you won’t. They are often quite rude, and often use foul, abusive, and occassionally threatening language.
It’s not hard to lose sight of the fact that in spite of all this, they are still people. Most of them have family who love them and are worried about them. Most of them have dreams and aspirations. Most of them did not spend their early childhood dreaming of someday being an addict.
I’m not some touchy-feely left-wing pansy trying to make excuses for them or condone their behavior. What they are doing is wrong. They need to stop. They need help. Unfortunately, they are not usually too interested in receiving any help. They usually just want that next hook-up.
What got me going on this subject today was something I read from a member of another internet forum I sometimes visit. The guy posting this put a different light on the addict than what we usually see.
His is a story that I felt should be shared. I asked his permission to post it here and he kindly gave it.
Here goes.
“ Truthfully, I do have some sympathy towards addicts. my only experience with a crackhead/crackwhore.. My ex-wife’s younger sister, she was 16 or 17 at the time, and my ex wasn’t my ex yet.
Sis was dating a slightly older guy, seemed pretty nice. Parents were parents, they weren’t pleased that she was dating, but that’s what having a daughter is all about. When they met him, he said all the right things.
A little dating, a little experimentation with drugs (pot, ecstasy) apparently resulted in her to going to a party with him and people that she didn’t know. He got her high, and then gave a her a little crack. Over the next few weeks, he gave her a little more and a little more. just led her down the trail to addiction. all free, nobody suspected a thing.
She got hooked, then he wanted her to pay for her habit. She emptied her piggy bank, she emptied her bank account, not enough. Small things disappeared around the in-laws house. They didn’t notice.
They noticed her change in behavior, she was irritable (okay, more irritable), she was defensive, she wasn’t home. They didn’t know yet that she quit her job. Joe Blow kept giving her crack (discounted prices). She was hooked.
She stole more, she gave away her car, parents reacted wrongly (tried to confine her to house, gated community), and then they kicked her out. Instantly regretted that, but then they couldn’t find her to bring her back and get her proper help. They didn’t yet realize what was going on, just attributed it to her going through some rebellious stage.
She had no more money, she had no access to money. Joe Blow became her pusher and her pimp. all of this in less than a month.
Parents found her, brought her home, tried to get her help. a week or two later, she emptied mom’s very expensive jewelry case (after breaking into a locked room) and disappeared again.
Two weeks later they found her again, , in this short period of time she went from a beautiful young woman to an emaciated, much older looking, worn-out person.
This time, they put her in a program, in a home.
I was there to see their anguish throughout the entire ordeal. I helped them search the streets, try to keep her company when she was home, visit her in the rehab center. She did manage to overcome her addiction, but afterwards she was devestated.
She knew what she had done, the whole family needed counselling (but they didn’t get it, which was surprising to me). The last that I heard from her, she had her life back under control and was going to college. But she was scared about how she’d react in new situations with less help. She did join NA and hopefully everything has gone well for her since.
So, I can feel sympathy for addicts. Sis and her family had everything, loving, close-knit family, very secure financially, and this still happened, and was hard as hell to reverse..”
This is a pretty new blog and I am a relatively very new blogger.
When I started this website and blog, one of my main goals was to simply expose myself to this cyber-world and get some experience and learn a bit about creating internet content.
Many/most of my blog posts have been excessively wordy, but I realize that this is part of my learning experience. All of them have been heartfelt. All of them represent countless hours of research and work.
As with most new blogs, my internet traffic has been less than stellar. This hasn’t really surprised me too much.
I read one statistic that stated that there are approximately 175,000 new blogs started every day. So, I know that no matter how great a writer I might be (which I know I am not), it’s going to take some time to get any sort of meaningful traffic.
So, with all that in mind, I must say that I was somewhat amused with my most recent post which I put up a little over a week ago. It was the one titled Fax Spam in which I briefly talked about an annoying though somewhat humorous fax I received advertising some sort of male sexual enhancement product being sold at the website www.ready4her.com.
Of all my posts, this was the one I put the least effort or thought into. It was just a brief little blurb I typed out in about 10 minutes for fun.
Wouldn’t you know, it has garnered more traffic so far than all my other posts combined.
My traffic is still certainly pathetic, but this was a real head-shaker.
The most fun part of the whole thing was in the comments section of that post. I have learned that there are definitely some real loons out there in internet land.
Anyway, I thought I’d try a little experiment here and provide a small sample of the email spam I have received today just to see what happens.
If you are reading this, then thanks for your participation in this experiment in human behavior.
Here goes.
This first one is a spam email I received from “Anita Kaiser“. It’s subject line is titled “BEST PRICE ! Buy Cialis, Viagra online NOW - and save 50% your money !!!“
The body of the email reads as follows.
“Hello !
Now you have the opportunity to save your time and money!
With US based online p,h,a,r,m,a,cy store you can buy any meds you
need!
Forget about p/r/e/s/c/r/i/p/t/i/o/n/s and doctors. Now you save your
time.
Forget about high prices at local stores.
M/e/n/’s H/e/a/l/t/h
A/n/t/i - D/e/p/r/e/s/s/a/n/t/s
P/a/i/n R/e/l/i/e/f
W/e/i/g/h/t l/o/s/s
Go visit: http://jyigegg.com
HVFQBKVAZXPJULRRVAKRX“
Next in our experiment is the following spam email I received today from “Ernest Calloway“, though his return email address is Brian@steamsteel.info.
By the way Brian, if my publishing of your email address generates some spam for you, well you know, Karma.
Anyway, the title of Brian’s, er I mean “Ernest’s” email is “re: (no subject)”
Ooh, now that’s original. Hey, do you think he was trying to fool me into thinking he was actually responding to an email I sent him? Oh Ernest, you’re so clever!
Anyway, the body of his email reads as follows.
” Hey, want to get those bills under control for good, it’s easier than you think. We will help you.
Go here http://steamsteel.info/Brim/ this is your solution. ”
Now, after “Ernest’s” scintillating email, I was really looking forward to the next one which looked suspiciously familiar. Its subject line was very similar to the one Ernest sent. It was simply titled “(no subject)” and was sent to me by Louise Hinson. Interestingly, like Ernest above, her email address, Sara@bellfleece.info, didn’t really seem to match up with her name.
Oh and Sara, that Karma thing applies to you as well.
The body of her message is where she and Ernest bore the most striking resemblance however and it was as follows.
” Hey, want to get those bills under control for good, it’s easier than you think. We will help you.
Go here http://bellfleece.info/Orchestral/ this is your solution. ”
So these are three little slices of spam I’ve dined on today and thought I’d share them with you. I’m curious to see what sort of response they generate.
Let’s see!!
Cheers,
…Sam
Wow. This was a new one for me.
About 20 minutes ago, this came over the fax machine at my clinic.
I know the picture quality isn’t so good as I took the pic with my cell phone camera, so I’ll type what is written.
It is a fax from LBI, INC. of Toronto, Canada and was sent by “Tod”
The subject is “Re: our last conversation”
Under the comments section it says
“Sorry, my cell battery went on me.
The pills I use Work Better than Viagra & you don’t need a prescription because it’s herbal. That alone saves you $100 for a doctor visit.
This website gives out FREE samples
[w.w.w.READY4HER.com]
I’t very, very effective, you’ll be happy you tried it. The Free Sample offer can end anytime so I’d get it now while you can.”
For what it’s worth, I don’t know Tod, nor have I had any cell phone conversations with him.
At the risk of revealing too much information, I will also state here for the record, that I have no personal need for any product of this sort. The plumbing is still fully functional so far!
I know a lot of folks routinely receive this sort of spam via email on a regular basis. This is the first time I’ve ever received any via the fax machine, however.
Since I am the only male working in my clinic, the girls all had a good laugh and told me that this fax was obviously for me.
I’d sure like to know who gave Tod our fax number.
You can’t really see it in the picture above, but Tod has wisely blocked his number from appearing on the fax copy.
Anyway, hope you all have a laugh at this, and I hope this isn’t the first in a new wave of spam.
On a positive note however, perhaps this is just the sort of thing to drag the medical profession kicking and screaming into the 21st century and convince us all to get rid of the fax machines.
Cheers,
…Sam
I saw a sort of neat story on the BBC News website about researchers in Louisiana who are taking proteins from alligator blood and trying to use them to develop new antibiotics.
Other than handbags and good eating, alligators are mostly just a bit of a nuisance in these parts.
I think it would be great if these researchers are successful in their quest.
Of course, natural selection being what it is, I’m sure that MRSA (Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus) would likely eventually evolve into GRSA (Gator Resistant Staph Aureus).
By the way, the picture above of the little alligator is one I took back in 2003 at the Dauphin Island Sea Lab Estuarium.
He always sort of reminded me of Schnappi, the darling of German MTV, when my wife and I were living over there in 2004-2005.
(Oh, and before some smarty-pants feels the need to correct me, I do know the difference between alligators and crocodiles, but “See ya later, alligator” didn’t seem nearly as original for the title of this post.)
I think I’ve mentioned it before in other posts in this blog, and I tell it to my patients all the time. It bears repeating here.
The overwhelming majority of the stuff I tell my patients when it comes to staying healthy doesn’t require the letters “M” and “D” after one’s name.
Most of this stuff is basic common sense that the average fifth grader knows. Eat your vegetables, get enough sleep, exercise, don’t smoke, don’t do drugs, don’t sleep around with scuzzy strangers, etc., etc., etc.
I’d say probably 95% of what I do as a family physician falls into this category. (Now that other 5% however, well, that’s a different story. That other 5% represents years and years of hard work in medical school and residency and clinical practice experience.)
Anyway, there was an interesting article in the April issue of the journal Pediatrics titled Characteristics Associated With Older Adolescents Who Have a Television in Their Bedrooms.
The conclusions in this article seem to fit very nicely into my 95% “Duh, a fifth grader could tell you that,” category.
Basically, they compared older teenagers who had televisions in their bedrooms with those who did not.
In the words of Gomer Pyle, “Surprise, surprise, surprise!”
What they found was that those with televisions in their bedrooms tended to watch more television, have less physical activity, lousier eating habits, etc.
So parents, here’s a no-brainer for you: Do your kid a favor and get the television out of their bedroom.
Okay, so now here’s an even bigger no-brainer for you. Get the damn boob-tube out of your own bedroom as well.
Want to take it even a step further? Get the darned thing out of your house altogether.
Okay, I realize that may be too big a step for most folks. If it’s too big a step for you, then at least turn it off once in a while and go get some exercise.
(In the interest of full disclosure, I will say that my wife and I do have a television in our living room, but we almost never watch it. We used to have cable service, but we decided to have it disconnected about a year ago. We don’t have any sort of antenna and therefore we have absolutely no channels to watch.
I have to say, I’ve never been happier. We are saving money by not paying a cable bill and our lifestyle is much healthier. We eat better, exercise more, read more, interact with each other more, you name it. We do occasionally rent a movie and watch it, but our television otherwise remains off. We have no intention of ever going back!
I highly recommend this to anyone reading this blog.)
Cheers,
…Sam
There was an interesting story on MSNBC.COM about hands-only CPR.
As a physician, every two years I get re-certified in Basic Life Support (BLS), which is essentially what most folks know as CPR, as well as Advanced Cardiac Life Support (ACLS), which is essentially what they try to portray in shows like “E.R.” when everyone is dramatically yelling stuff like “Give him an amp of epi, stat!”.
Since finishing residency, I no longer practice any obstetrics (for reasons discussed in my medical liability and malpractice reform blog post), so I no longer get re-certified in Advanced Life Support in Obstetrics (ALSO).
I have never gotten certified in Advanced Trauma Life Support (ATLS), which is something that the surgeons and ER docs all get certified in. I don’t do ER medicine, so I haven’t really been able to justify the extra expense and time involved with getting this certification. I keep thinking perhaps I will get it someday though, as moonlighting in the local ER may be something I’d like to pursue in the future. For now though, I’ll leave the chest tubes and tracheotomies and such to others. Continue reading ‘Hands Only Cardiopulmonary Resucitation (CPR)’
Okay, I promised to address the 800 pound gorilla , known as the broken medical liability system in this post.
Regardless of what all the parasites who are currently getting fat off the current system will try to tell you, the civil liability system in this country is a disaster.
Anyone with half a brain and a lawnmower can see this.
A lawnmower?
Yep.
Okay, if you read Part 5 of this series outlining what I affectionately call The Dr. Sam Plan, you know that I promised to offer a quick blurb here in Part 6 about what I envision as a meaningful way to deal with the 800 pound gorilla, known as the medical liability crisis.
I’ll have to do that in Part 7 instead.
First however, I need to offer a brief little addendum to Part 5.
Continue reading ‘A Plan For Intelligent Health Care Reform Part 6′
To recap parts 1-4, so far in this little series, I’ve just been laying some groundwork, pontificating sort of non-specifically about where I think the main problems lie with our health care system and where I think the direction of reform should go.
In a nutshell, I think the major problems boil down to a whole lot of interference with the traditional doctor-patient relationship from outside forces such as third party payers (government and insurance), bureaucratic regulating bodies, a civil liability system that seems to have been designed by Jackie Chiles, and other outside industries such as the pharmaceutical industry, compliance industries etc.
I have compared our health care system with our veterinary health care system and made the contention that the veterinary system is vastly superior in many areas primarily due to a relative lack of such interferences. I contend that it is because veterinarians operate in a nearly free market system where the relationship between the veterinarian and the patient/owner is a direct one, without third party payers or as much government, corporate, or civil liability interference and fears, veterinarians are much more responsive to the needs and demands of their clients and clients are much more responsible with the money when it is coming out of their own pocket. They are much less apt to make needless visits to the ER and demand expensive tests and medications when there is not some nebulous third party footing the bill.
I have also mentioned that within this relative laissez-faire environment there are also some problems that become apparent in the form of people’s too frequent inability or unwillingness to pursue appropriate medical intervention due to financial considerations.
With this post I intend to finally start delving in with some ideas for bringing all this stuff together to try to come up with some solutions for creating a plan for intelligent health care reform. Continue reading ‘A Plan for Intelligent Health Care Reform Part 5′
Hi folks.
I still haven’t finished my series on health care reform which starts with A Plan For Intelligent Health Care Reform Part 1, and continues with parts 2-4. There are indeed more parts coming, but those posts tend to run long and are somewhat labor intensive not only for me to write, but I’m sure for you to read.
Also, mine is not a blog dedicated solely to health care system reform, but rather has a mission to touch on many more topics. I don’t want folks who are looking for advice on how to stay healthy, or who are looking for commentary of recent medical news and breakthroughs, etc. to get turned off of this blog by encountering a never ending stream of posts containing my long-winded pontifications about how to fix a health care system so broken that it’s repair has been the dominant topic of every presidential election for the past two decades.
So, this brief post will not be about health care reform. Rather it is a follow up post to my previous stop smoking post. This is probably my shortest post so far I think. It is here really to just provide you with a link to another blogger whose writings I find valuable and enjoy reading. He has written a post titled Smoke Scream.
If you are a smoker and are contemplating quitting, please read this post. I sincerely hope it will help influence you to quit.
That’s it for this post (told you it was short). More health care reform pontification coming up soon!
Cheers,
…Sam
Okay folks, in part 3 of this series on my plan for intelligent health care reform, I promised to try and keep this 4th post a bit shorter. I will endeavour to do that.
Up till now, I’ve been basically pointing out problems with our health care system, and also ranting about all the horrible plans and ideas being floated out there in the mainstream media and political land to “fix” them.
Not to sound like a broken record, but if you haven’t read parts 1-3 in this series, please do so now so this one will make a bit more sense and be read in context.
Anyway, to bring folks up to speed since it’s been almost a week since my last post, this whole series owes it’s life to an editorial I read in the Journal of Family Practice in which the editor, Jeff Susman, outlines his pleasurable experience with taking his dog to the veterinarian.
Continue reading ‘A Plan for Intelligent Health Care Reform Part 4′
If you haven’t read A Plan for Intelligent Health Care Reform Part 1 and Part 2 yet, please read them first, before proceeding with this post.
Sorry for the delay in getting this 3rd post up folks. The blame for that lays partly with a surge in activity in my off-line life concomitant with my fighting a nasty cold. (Also, I’ve recently been helping my friend get her website and blog about bargain wine reviews up and running. Go check it out if you get a minute. She’s got a pretty nice site I think.)
This stupid virus and my busy life only receive part of the blame however, as the bulk of the reason for my delay boils down to simple inertia on my part. When trying to piece together this third post in my mind, I have quite frankly been a bit overwhelmed by the complexity.
Continue reading ‘A Plan For Intelligent Health Care Reform Part 3′
Okay, as promised in yesterdays post, A Plan For Intelligent Health Care Reform Part 1, today’s post will basically just be a cut and paste of the letter I sent to Dr. Susman in response to his editorial entitled, “What if it’s cancer?”. If you havent read the editorial, please do so before reading my letter below, as things will make a bit more sense that way.
Continue reading ‘A Plan For Intelligent Health Care Reform Part 2′
Like most physicians, I’m usually a fairly busy fella. That’s one of the big reasons that this blog is typically only updated a couple times a week, rather than daily (or even more frequently), like a lot of blogs.
When I’m not in the clinic seeing patients, or trying to navigate through the massive bureaucracy associated with that, I try to read the latest professional journals to keep up with the latest research etc., so I can practice the best medicine I can.
This past weekend was one of those moments and I sat down to read the latest issue of the Journal of Family Practice. I often like to read the editorials and letters to sort of get a feel for how others in the profession are thinking.
So, what does that have to do with health care reform?
Well, the editorial in this latest Journal was of particular interest to me, and in it I think I see the makings of a plan for intelligent health care reform for the U.S.
Continue reading ‘A Plan For Intelligent Health Care Reform Part 1.’
So, as I’m surfing the web earlier today, I happened upon the “Health & Healing” discussion forum at www.craigslist.com, which is basically a typical fun Internet free for all.
Lots of folks with lots of opinions on there.
Anyway, I came across one post from a user going by the name of “dlwhiz” that expressed the following.
“I need to find natural cures for high blood pressure. Anyone have a cure, pills are not working, they make me sick.”
There was of course a plethora of answers from all sorts of folks. These anonymous Internet posters offered all sorts of advice basically ranging from “Quit being so lazy, get some exercise!” to “Use some different medicines” to “Try these great herbal remedies!” (I’m paraphrasing here to capture the general tone of most of the posts…these aren’t actual verbatim quotes)
Some of the answers I read were better than others, but most of them had one glaringly huge flaw, one which as a physician I saw immediately and which I think most physicians would similarly pick up on immediately.
What was this horrible flaw?
“Huh, this post title sounds different than what you emphasized in your last two weight-loss posts Dr. Sam?
I thought you said it was all about the calories.”
If that’s what you thought, go read those posts (The Hacker’s Diet and How to Lose Weight) again, a little more closely.
What I was emphasizing with those posts was that when it comes to losing weight (fat), it’s primarily all about the calories you consume.
I don’t want this message however to be misinterpreted as saying something along the lines of “As long as the calories are where they need to be, eat whatever the heck you want.”
That is most definately NOT my message.
If you remember in my How to lose weight post not too long ago, I gave you the zero dollar answer to that million dollar question.
That post ended up being about the equivalent length of a 13 page Microsoft Word document.
It seemed to me like an awful lot of writing to get across my basic message regarding fat loss, a message which is virtually overlooked in the myriad of diet books out there.
In a nutshell, my message is something along the lines of “While what you eat is important and you should definitely strive to make healthy foods the mainstay of your diet, and while getting plenty of exercise is important and you should definitely strive to get plenty of good exercise, when it comes to gaining or losing fat, all of that is trumped by the more important concept of how much you eat. When it comes to gaining or losing fat, it really is all about the calories you consume.”
Continue reading ‘More on How to lose weight. The Hacker’s Diet’
Sometimes I like to surf around news sites in other parts of the globe to get a better feel for what’s going on in other countries, as well as how the foreign press is presenting what’s going on here in the U.S.
In my opinion, access to folks in all the far flung places of the world is the greatest thing about the Internet.
Anyway, I was buzzing around the website for England’s The Daily Telegraph the other day, reading all the news that’s “Fit for Brits,” when I came across an interesting story about some breakthrough medical research being done at UCLA on Alzheimer’s Dementia.
Here’s the story titled UCLA drug aids Alzheimer’s patient ‘in minutes’. Please give it a read, and then come back here. It’ll only take a minute or two.
Okay, the following is a totally political rant. If you aren’t interested in a bunch of political ranting about socialized medicine, or the problems with Medicare funding, etc, (which, by the way is probably indicative of sanity and common sense on your part) then you should probably skip this post as it will most likely just irritate you. There is nothing in it that is informative about any particular medical topic or anything. It is not categorized under the “How to stay healthy” or “Silly Fun Stuff” categories for a reason. Disclaimer over with now. If you read further, don’t say you weren’t warned.
This will be a quick post, which I think is only fair considering the Epic War and Peace style dissertation I put the readers through with my last post on How to Lose Weight.
This is just a sort-of follow up to my post about Penumbra. If you remember, at the end of that post, I posed a couple of questions about potential other uses for this technology.
One of those other uses I wondered about was whether or not this treatment could be used for occlusive arterial conditions other than strokes, such as heart attacks for instance.
Well, it seems I’m not the only one who considered this sort of idea. A study published in today’s New England Journal of Medicine titled Thrombus Aspiration during Primary Percutaneous Coronary Intervention shows very promising results from a study in the Netherlands looking into just just this sort of thing.
As promised, I will keep this post short by avoiding going into a lot of details about this study. Hit the link above if you wish to get into the nuts and bolts of it.
In a nutshell however, the Dutch researchers compared doing a conventional stent placement in a heart attack victim vs first using a device (that sounds very much like the Penumbra device) to vacuum the clot out of the blocked coronary artery prior to placement of a stent.
They found that using the vacuum technique resulted in better perfusion and outcomes compared to conventional stent placement alone.
Today is Mardi Gras, and down in these parts (less than an hour from The Big Easy), Mardi Gras is a big deal.
For those not in the know, Mardi Gras is French for Fat Tuesday, and in these parts Fat is something we are quite familiar with!
The
Fat is something we have in abundance, not only around here, but pretty much nationwide. It’s not just a problem confined to the
Fat is like an annoying relative that just doesn’t want to go away. So let’s talk about this.
It seems like everywhere you look, there’s a new diet plan or secret weight loss pill or hypnotic technique or special tea from the
Getting rid of fat is a national obsession!
So, how do you do it???
That’s the million dollar question.
Dr. Sam is here to give you the zero dollar answer!
Hi folks,
This is just a quick note to point out a couple new links in the sidebar on the right. These are the Disease Index and Medication Index.
Each of these will take you to a page which will (eventually) have alphabetically listed links to other pages which will have information about particular disease conditions and medications.
As of this writing, I have a sample page in each one.
For the Disease Index page, there is a link to a page describing Giardiasis. This is information that is a cut and paste that came from the Centers for Disease Control website.
For the Medication Index page, there is a link to a page describing Amoxicillin. This is info that is a cut and paste that came from wikipedia.
Okay, this post has absolutely nothing to do with medicine, the healthcare system, medical practice or anything of the sort.
In a sort of tangential, really-making-a-stretch way however, it does have to do with staying healthy.
There’s an old saying that says “Laughter is the best medicine.” There’s even a good bit of empirical evidence to back that up. Here’s just one example.
Continue reading ‘Here’s the “One Semester of Spanish Love Song”’
I’m still in the total newbie stages of this blog thing.
Yesterday, I finally received my order from Amazon that included the book WordPress For Dummies.
I’m quite excited by this as I hope to be able to greatly expand my abilities with this software and make this blog much more useful and much more user friendly.
Right now, what I’m hoping to do is use the software for more than just blogging. I want to use it as a content management system.
I’m hoping to create indexed pages that aren’t blog entries but that are rather stand alone pages that provide information about specific subjects. Things like information about specific diseases, treatments, medications, etc. Continue reading ‘Future Plans for the Blog’
I just read an interesting story about a new treatment for occlusive strokes.
The device is known as Penumbra and is being put out by the company of the same name Penumbra, Inc.
From the story I read, and from my brief visit to the company website, it looks like it might have promise to treat some stroke victims who otherwise would be sort of out of luck.
Basically, from the description, this is a catheter type device that is threaded into the femoral artery (The great big artery in your groin that feeds blood to your leg), and is worked in retrograde fashion up the aorta and then into the appropriate arteries (carotid, etc.) until reaching the site of the blocked artery inside the skull. It then acts basically like a vacuum cleaner and sucks out the blood clot that is blocking the artery and causing the stroke.
“Doc,” he said to me with all sincerety, “I’d really like to quit smoking but I just can’t.”
How many times have I heard that ridiculous statement???
Of course you can quit smoking.
It may not be easy, but absolutely YES YOU CAN!
Okay, this will be a generalized, common sense post. It’s not intended to go into a lot of detail, but is intended to be more philosophical in nature.
Here’s the deal for staying healthy.
Think of your health as being like playing a hand of poker.
The cards you are dealt…..those represent your genetics, and those things life throws at you that are beyond your control.
How you play those cards represents your lifestyle…how you respond to life….in essence what you choose to do or not do with the body you have.
Hi everyone. As you may have guessed, I’m Dr. Sam. See my “about me” link for further details.
This is the first of what I hope will be many posts.
This is my first foray into the world of blogging, so please bear with me as I learn the ropes.
My obvious goal with this blog is to reach people.
I’m a practicing physician and find that on an almost daily basis I seem to have less and less time to really discuss issues with my patients. Issues ranging from their specific medical problems to problems in society as a whole.
There is an endless flood of bureaucratic hurdles that get between me and my patients.
This is not just true for me, but for pretty much all doctors these days.
I think this is disastrous.
My goal for this blog is to make up for this somewhat.
