16% of all spending in the US is on healthcare. About half of that is spent by federal, state, and local governments, and the other half is spent by the private sector. In 1970 about 7% of all spending was for healthcare. Total annual spending on healthcare per person has increased fr...

 

“Love is a burning thing And it makes a fiery ring” -- Johny Cash

On Valentine’s Day some think of chocolate, or wine, or flowers. Physicia...

I have shocking news. Smoking is very very bad for you. In 1964 the US Surgeon General issued a report summarizing the known adverse health effects of smoking. At that time about 40% of American adults smoked. A widespread campaign followed informing Americans about the link between smoking and lung cancer, emphysema, stroke, and heart attacks. Federal law required the placement of health warni...

[This post is grosser than most. You may not want to read it over lunch.]   Last year I warned that Clostridium difficile (C. dif.) infections are becoming more common.

C. dif. is a bacterium that infects the colon causing severe, sometimes life-threatening, diarr...

The last two years have graced us with atypically mild flu seasons. This year we’re not so lucky. The flu season seems to have started early, and at least on the East Coast is quite severe. This week Boston has declared a public health emergency as their emergency departments became swamped with flu cases. In Pennsylvania, a hospital erected a tent outside its emergency department for the increa...

My regular readers know that I frequently bemoan the fact that we have no effective way to test for most cancers, and that in many cancers early diagnosis does not improve survival. Cervical cancer is one of the few exceptions. Since Georgios Papanikolau developed the test named after him, the Pap test has dramatically reduced the incidence and mortality of cervical cancer. More recent advances...

The sun will come up tomorrow. -- Little Orphan Annie

But in a trillion tomorrows the sun...

I haven’t written about niacin for over a year, and like a misunderstanding of the Mayan calendar that won’t go away, niacin is in the news again this week. You can catch up on the old news by reading my previous posts (links below) but here’s the story in a nutshell. People with high levels of a cholesterol molecule called LDL tend to have more strokes and heart attacks than people with normal...

This year’s flu season seems to be starting earlier than usual and is getting more intense by the week. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) reports in its weekly summary of flu surveillance that flu cases are increasing across the country. California still is showing only sporadic flu activity, but 8 other states report wi...

The idea that patients are better off paying their doctor directly and using their insurance only for unaffordable catastrophes is gaining some traction. With implemen...