by Leigh Ann Hubbard, managing editor
In our new monthly feature, we’re thanking bloggers and other Web sites that mention us. Hopefully you can find a few new ones to read in the process. Here we go, in no particular order …
by James Hubbard, M.D., M.P.H.
A few days ago I started hearing a lot about the fat virus–not a new concept. But all of a sudden, the news was on the radio, television, newspapers and Internet that a scientist had discovered that the adenovirus AD-36, which causes the common cold, might make you fat. The hypothesis is the virus infects fats cells and makes them duplicate so, even without eating more, you gain fat.
I don’t think there was a new study or revelation, so why the big deal?
by James Hubbard, M.D., M.P.H.
There are always scary stories about carbon monoxide deaths this time of year. It can happen any time, but in the winter, people have the heat on and the house sealed.
A family of four were guests in an Aspen, Colorado, mansion recently and died in the night. I remember a famous tennis player died a few years ago staying in someone’s guest room. Carbon monoxide, a colorless, odorless, tasteless gas, does not discriminate against any social class. It can affect anyone. In fact, a draft or two in an old house might help a little to ventilate it out.
Carbon monoxide is a product of carbon fuel combustion from things like fireplaces, heaters, exhaust fumes, pollution or volcano eruptions. The modern day poisoning usually comes when you combine an inefficient or malfunctioning heat source with a relatively sealed space. It’s popular way to commit suicide, with 2,000 deaths per year from breathing exhaust fumes in a closed garage.
And then there are the accidental exposures.
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James Hubbard, M.D., M.P.H.
I’m jumping the gun a bit, but I thought you should have a heads up in case President Obama mentions the new buzz phrase “medical home” in his State of the Union Address.
Since his election, President Obama hasn’t said much about universal health care, although I’m sure that’s his long-term goal. He’s mostly talked about cutting costs, with a definition only politicians can get away with: Lower costs means slowing said costs’ growth. Instead growing 10 percent per year, maybe we can slow to 6 or 4 percent.
Of course any improvement, without diminishing quality, will be welcome. Obama’s plan so far is to update health-care technology, such as implementing electronic medical records and (I hope he means) streamlining red tape. Time will tell how much that will really save.
DOCTOR ORGANIZATIONS’ IDEA FOR HEALTH-CARE REFORM
Not to be left out of the health-care reform debate, professional medical organizations are pushing their own agenda. The concept of a medical home is big among primary-care groups like the American Academy of Family Physicians, American Academy of Pediatrics and American College of Physicians (internal medicine doctors). The American Medical Association also thinks it’s a good idea.
WHAT IS A PATIENT CENTER OR PERSONAL MEDICAL HOME?
by James Hubbard, M.D., M.P.H.
Have you seen the headlines? “Caffeinated co-eds hear voices,” “Heavy coffee drinkers more likely to hallucinate,” “Too much coffee can make you hallucinate and sense dead people say sleep experts. The equivalent of just seven cups of instant coffee a day is enough to trigger the weird responses.” That’s about three cups of regular coffee per day.
It came to my attention when health writer Brian Newsome posted in the health blog of The Gazette, our local paper, “Move over LSD and step aside shrooms—Here comes coffee.” To his credit Brian was skeptical and, in fact, wrote a follow-up post with a link to Dr. Ben Goldacre, who criticized the study’s quality at his well-known website badscience.net. (Dr. Goldacre evaluates the quality details of medical news, holding author’s and media reporter’s feet to the fire to get it right.)
by James Hubbard, M.D., M.P.H.
When I read Senator Ted Kennedy had a seizure at a public dinner on inauguration day, it got me thinking, does the average person know what to do if someone’s having a seizure?
As a teenager, I witnessed a seizure while I was at a park, and it scared me to death. (I scared easily as a teen.) The man jerked and flailed uncontrollably in an unconscious state surrounded by onlookers, and no one knew what to do.
People yelled, “Hold him down so he won’t hurt himself!” “Put something in his mouth so he won’t swallow his tongue!” “Call an ambulance!” After, what seemed like an eternity, he just lay limp and moaned. Later I saw his friends help him up and they drove away.
Now that I am a doctor (said in hushed, hallowed tone) I know what I should have done.
by James Hubbard, M.D., M.P.H.
A while back, I blogged about a study that suggested over-the-counter lidocaine gel decreases the discomfort of a mammogram. (The gel numbs the skin after you rub it on.)
Recently, the FDA issued an alert reminding us that, although there were no serious side effects in the study, this same lidocaine gel and similar numbing agents can cause life-threatening side effects if you absorb too much through the skin. Rarely, it has caused heart irregularities, seizures, breathing problems, coma and death.
A lot to risk for the minimal benefit found in the study, don’t you think? In small amounts it appears to be safe, but the FDA recommends:
by James Hubbard, M.D., M.P.H.
I’m sure you know by now the FDA is getting rid of foods containing peanut butter faster than I can say Jif. (No, it’s not one of them.) First tomatoes, now peanut butter. Is there no end to the misery?
James Hubbard’s My Family Doctor has been following the case closely. Our dedicated managing editor has made it her mission to specifically find out if Girl Scout cookies are safe to eat, or will that industry go down in flames like Lehman Brothers, Fannie Mae and the Republican party before them.
by James Hubbard, M.D., M.P.H.
Our second most popular Web site article is our abortion debate, “When Does Life Begin?” I doubt if this will be a big issue in the new Obama administration, but it will continue in the hearts and minds of many.
by James Hubbard, M.D., M.P.H.
The debate over universal health care should get hot and heavy this year. By far, our most popular article is “Doctors Debate Universal Health Care Pros and Cons.” Check it out and join the discussion. Two things are certain: No one has a surefire answer, and no matter what happens, it’s going to affect your pocketbook.
We will be in a great experiment, with us as guinea pigs. Sure, they have universal health care in other countries, but in no nation so vast and diverse as ours. And what is universal health care anyway? To me, it just means everyone has health care. Everyone wants that. The debate is how to implement it–and can we afford it. (more…)
