Tests Detect Alzheimer’s Risks, but Should Patients Be Told? (NYT)
Does it help to know you are likely to get a disease if there is nothing you can do?
The Value of Self-Experimentation (Blog of Tim Farriss)
Fascinating description of how one man experimented on himself to find what worked for his acne, sleep, mood, weight control, brain function.
An essay on a topic of international health importance (Lancet)
What it was like to be a doctor in Iran the day Neda Soltan died
The Truth Wears Off: Is there something wrong with the scientific method? (New Yorker) (subscription req’ed for complete article)
Just because an idea is true doesn’t mean it can be proved. And just because an idea can be proved doesn’t mean it’s true. When the experiments are done, we still have to choose what to believe.
Are Most Published Studies Lies? (GeriPal)
Good explanation of regression to the mean: We get sick, then we recover. That doesn’t prove drugs made us get better.
Everything about medicine is now big business (KevinMD)
The medical industry stays in business by selling you things. Big problem. Health care providers used to have your best interests at heart. This is not how “business” works.
New obesity pill: new hopes, old fears (Lancet)
The use of Contrave– an anti-depressant/anti-addiction combo — to tackle a complex problem like obesity is worrying, especially when the benefits seem modest (5% weight loss)
An epidemic of loneliness (Lancet)
“Doctor”, she asks, “can you give me a cure for loneliness?” Patients whose only misunderstanding is to have lived to an age when they are no longer coveted by a society addicted to youth.
Tackling loneliness in the holidays (Lancet)
The holiday season is the time of the year when our desire for social contact is most likely to outstrip what our circumstances will allow; it is into this gap that loneliness creeps.
Music of the heart (Lancet)
Teaching doctors to hear murmurs of the heart using musical notation
10 days in Sweden: the full allegations against Julian Assange (Guardian)
Feminist angle on this is fascinating. Assange and lawyers shouldn’t be insulting rape victims (“honeytrap”). But is it a set-up? What a perfect media story, torn condom and all.
WikiLeaks: the man and the idea (Guardian)
Lengthy editorial about what Assange has wrought and how he should be viewed
With New Tax Bill, a Turning Point for the President (NYT)
The two sides of Obama: The leader of a new progressive movement and a reasoned pragmatist who can bridge the divide in Washington
Your right to protest is under threat: Friends have started to say something they have never said before: I’m too frightened to protest (Independent)
A description of student protests that makes the UK sound like Iran
Image: The Lancet
Sorry, comments are closed for this post.