Aspirin for Cancer Prevention not Ready for Prime Time

Let’s imagine that we had a hunch that lighting incense at midnight contributes to weight loss, and we wanted to test that hunch. How would we do that? We would recruit lots of overweight adults and (with their permission) randomly assign them into two groups. The first group would receive a wakeup call every night at midnight and would then light some incense. The second group would still receive a wakeup call (so that the sleep deprivation itself is not a difference between the groups) and w...
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Epidemiology is Much Worse For You Than Red Meat

"Red meat is not bad for you. Now blue-green meat, that's bad for you!” -- Tommy Smothers

I generally try to avoid writing about meaningless studies that should be ignored. First, there are a lot of them. Second, I don’t want to attract more attention to them than they already get in the media. But sometimes a meaningless study seems to perfectly confirm what we already wanted to believe. Then a feedback loop of reader gullibility and media misunderstanding ...
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Relearning What We Knew: Antibiotics Don’t Help In Sinus Infections

Most of us are personally familiar with the symptoms of a sinus infection – congested nose, cough, fever, pain in the forehead or cheeks, and general misery. It’s impossible not to feel sympathetic for patients with sinus infections, and it’s understandable that they want to do whatever it takes to feel better as soon as possible. And for many doctors and patients “as soon as possible” means “antibiotics”. In fact, almost one fifth of antibiotic prescriptions are given for patients with sinus ...
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Tai Chi Improves Balance in Patients with Parkinson’s

Parkinson’s disease is a progressive neurologic disorder. Parkinson’s biggest initial impact is on how patients move. Patients have tremors and have difficulty initiating movement. They walk with short shuffling steps. Balance worsens and falls are common. Parkinson’s disease is treated with medications and rarely with brain surgery. Resistance-based exercise has been shown to slow the worsening of balance and strength in patients with Parkinson’s disease, but these exercises frequently requir...
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Major Study Examines Causes of Morgellons

The name Morgellons originated in 2002. That year a mother took her young son to doctors reporting that he was complaining of “bugs” in his skin. He had sores under his lips and the mother reported seeing fibers in these sores. She named her son’s illness Morgellons and started a website to raise awareness and research funding for the disorder. The boy’s doctors found no specific abnormality and believed that the mother was suffering from a psychiatric condition. Since then many patients have p...
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How Frequently Should You Have Your Bone Density Checked?

Breaking a bone is frequently a catastrophic injury for an older patient. A hip fracture or a vertebral fracture frequently leads to a permanent decrease in mobility which starts an inexorable decline in health and independence. For that reason, fracture prevention is a critical part of the care of older people. Osteoporosis, which is severely decreased bone density, is a major risk factor for fractures, especially in women over 65. Osteoporosis is also treatable, and there is good evidence tha...
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Why Losing Weight Is So Hard

I’ve written many times that losing weight is the second hardest thing I ask my patients to do. (Breaking an addiction like smoking or alcoholism is the hardest.) The frustrating thing is how little we know about how to lose weight successfully. But we are learning more all the time about why losing weight is so difficult. Much about dieting and weight loss is poorly understood, but let’s first lay out some facts that are well established. Weight loss and weight gain are caused by an i...
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Home Exercises or Chiropractic Care Beat Medications for Neck Pain

Neck pain is a very common problem. Many of us have woken up with a painful neck and found that we couldn’t turn our head because of painful muscle spasm. Doctors use various treatments for neck pain. Pain medication, spinal manipulation by a chiropractor, and physical therapy for stretching exercises are all popular remedies, but there is very little scientific evidence to support any of them. I frequently used to prescribe anti-inflammatory pain medications as an initial treatment, but not any...
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