A more nuanced translation of Hippocrates’ original Greek text might read: Life is too short; the task is huge; the right time is like a razor blade; the road to experience is fraught with hazards; to continuously accept reality and critical thought over hope and prejudice is taxing.
Category Archives: Health & Medicine
The art and science of medicine
The pleasures and complexities of taste
Back in March and April of 2009 I wrote a long series of posts on taste. I got interested in it through the idea of supertasters – individuals who are overly sensitive to certain bitter tastes and, as a result, have their own set of food preferences. When More Time Than Dough contacted me about quoting from one of those posts, I decided to clean them up and present them as a series.
Knowing when you’ll die: Tony Judt’s last interview
I have no idea where I’ll be next month. I could be silent. I could be dead. I could be exactly like this. I could be in a variety of stages. But I know, absolutely with certainty – within reason – that I’ll be dead in five years. And that reversal of consciousness means that I am very focused upon life in the next two weeks.
Teens benefit from later school start time
As kids approach puberty, scientists now know, there is a two-hour shift in when their bodies release melatonin, the hormone that causes sleepiness. As a result, teens and preteens find it impossible to fall asleep until about 11 p.m., even if they try to go to bed earlier. Yet teenagers still need an average of 9.25 hours of slumber each night.
Palliative care: Lost and recovered
Between those late 19th century discussions of euthanasia as mercy killing and 1975, when Balfour Mount introduced the term palliative care, there was no name for supportive care of the dying. Without a name, there could be no specialists in the subject, no professors to teach it, no training for physicians. There was little discussion of the subject in medical schools. Without a name, the subject could not be indexed and researched in medical literature. There could be no advances in knowledge or improvement in techniques.
Physician as lone practitioner
Bureaucratized shift-work is not good for doctors and it’s not good for patients. I don’t know what the solution will be. Primary care doctors are asking to be paid by the hour, not for piece work. That might help. The wealthy can afford concierge doctors. Maybe something will come out of the medical home concept. If doctors and patients get unhappy enough, perhaps a creative solution will evolve.
The tyranny of health
A recent commentary in the Journal of the American Medical Association asks: If individuals don’t use preventive services, “what kind of penalty … would be ethically and morally acceptable?” The question wasn’t “How do we account for unhealthy behavior,” but what punishment would be sufficient either to change that behavior or at least to save money by denying these people health care.
Blogging: Time to get over it
When political and economic thinking became more conservative in the 1970s and 1980s, governments began to promote the idea that individuals were personally responsible for their health and should practice healthy lifestyles. A large segment of the population – mainly the educated and economically secure – welcomed these ideas. Feeling personally responsible for one’s health and practicing healthy lifestyles gives one the reassuring illusion of control. In particular, it’s a good distraction from the things that are beyond individual control, like salmonella in our peanut butter and the superbug MRSA at the gym.
Prescription drug abuse and the Osbournes
I remember a scene from The Osbournes where son Jack, recently released from drug rehab, talks about finding a few stray particles of OxyContin dust in his pocket. He immediately consumed them as if his life depended on it. The craving was overwhelming. His description made the feeling of addiction palpable.
Tony Judt — continued
“Why is it that here in the United States we have such difficulty even imagining a different sort of society from the one whose dysfunctions and inequalities trouble us so?” he asked from his wheelchair.
I am saddened by the death of Tony Judt
The vocal muscle, for sixty years my reliable alter ego, is failing. Communication, performance, assertion: these are now my weakest assets. Translating being into thought, thought into words, and words into communication will soon be beyond me and I shall be confined to the rhetorical landscape of my interior reflections.
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Food :: The Atlantic
Where the Salmonella Really Came FromSeptember 8 1:09 pmKevinMD.com
Anecdotal accounts of patient experiences with local physiciansSeptember 8 1:00 pmPharmalot
Boo! Wyeth And Its Ghostwriting PracticesSeptember 8 12:54 pmStreet Anatomy
YEASAYER “Madder Red”September 8 12:03 pmInsideSurgery Medical Information Blog
Malaria Classic Clinical TriadSeptember 8 6:06 amMore Thyme Than Dough
Twinkie Twinkie Little FoodSeptember 8 4:10 amGary Schwitzer's HealthNewsReview Blog
Goldmines for drug and device makers in expanding heart markets: two important stories you shouldn't missSeptember 7 4:51 pmHealth News from NHS Choices
Heart risk from working late?September 7 4:41 pmMedical Futility Blog
Physicians' Fears of Malpractice Lawsuits Are Not Assuaged by Tort ReformsSeptember 7 11:36 amGeriPal - Geriatrics and Palliative Care Blog
Advance Care Planning: A Paradigm ShiftAugust 30 2:29 am