Beastie Boy Adam Yauch Has Cancer
Beastie Boy Adam Yauch, who also goes by the name “MCA,” has announced that he’s about to undergo treatment for a cancerous tumor in his left parotid gland, which has caused the Beastie Boys to cancel their upcoming concert tour and postpone their new album release. The news has left many people with questions about this type of cancer, its actual location, and, of course, its prognosis. The good news is that it seems the cancer was caught early and should respond well to treatment with a favorable outcome and little or no impact on Yauch’s ability to sing.
First, the parotid gland is the largest of the salivary gl...
Source: Dr. Z's Medical Report - July 22, 2009 Category: Physicians With Health Advice Authors: Ed Zimney, MD Tags: Healthy Living Adam Yauch Beastie Boys Benign blog cancer Career community Dr Z Dr. Z's medical report Ed Zimney Everyday Health Lifestyle Malignant MCA medblog Music Online Support Parotid Gland Prognosis Salivary Source Type: blogs
Who Pays for Health Care?
All the recent talk about health care reform has me thinking about an article I read last year about who pays for health care. So let’s begin with a question; namely, who do you think pays for health care? Is it employers? The government? Insurance companies? Individuals? If you’re like most Americans, you probably believe that employers pay the bulk of their workers’ insurance premiums and that governments pay for Medicare and Medicaid (and some will remember to add in the State Children’s Health Insurance Program – SCHIP). Some of you will no doubt believe that insurance companies pay for a lot of our healt...
Source: Dr. Z's Medical Report - July 16, 2009 Category: Physicians With Health Advice Authors: Ed Zimney, MD Tags: Healthy Living blog community Dr Z Dr. Z's medical report Ed Zimney Everyday Health Health Care insurance payment Politics premium Reform Source Type: blogs
Diprivan (propofol) and Michael Jackson
Although Diprivan is widely used every day in hospitals and surgery centers across the United States, very few people, outside of medical personnel, were familiar with it or had even heard of it prior to its being found in Michael Jackson’s home after his untimely death. And while we still don’t yet know if it was related in any way to his death, many people want to know more about Diprivan and what its potential effects might have been.
I worked for ICI, now Astra Zeneca, the pharmaceutical company that originally developed Diprivan, in the mid-80s during the time it was being prepared for market launch. I was...
Source: Dr. Z's Medical Report - July 9, 2009 Category: Physicians With Health Advice Authors: Ed Zimney, MD Tags: Healthy Living alcohol anesthesia anesthesiologists Astra Zeneca availability blog dangereous Diprivan Diprivan safety Diprivan use Dr. Z's medical report drug Ed Zimney Everyday Health fatal hospital setting hospitals Source Type: blogs
Caffeine Cures Alzheimer’s! And Other Misleading Headlines.
Not really, but I’d imagine that headline caught your eye and grabbed your attention, which is what it was supposed to do. The study on which that claim is based was widely and often quite misleadingly trumpeted across the Internet yesterday (July 6, 2009). Although some responsible sites included in the headline that the tests were done in mice, many concealed this important fact until you were well into the article and had already been exposed to whatever advertising was on the page. I’d already seen several misleading headlines before I realized the studies were in mice and I’m sure that many people di...
Source: Dr. Z's Medical Report - July 7, 2009 Category: Physicians With Health Advice Authors: Ed Zimney, MD Tags: Healthy Living 500 milligrams Alzheimer's Alzheimer's disease beta amyloid caffeine cure enzymes espresso headlines humans impaired memory insomnia memory loss mice misleading mouse press release researchers side effe Source Type: blogs
Making Sense of Headlines on Acetaminophen Pain Relievers
Depending on which headlines you’ve seen recently, you may think that some pain relievers are being recalled because they’re dangerous and you might be wondering if you need to clean out the medicine cabinet and throw out any number of these products. I’m going to try to explain this highly complex situation, but the bottom line is that when taken as directed, all of the pain relievers currently on the market, be they prescription or over the counter (OTC), are still considered to be safe and effective and you don’t need to throw them away (and nothing is being recalled at the moment either).
The bo...
Source: Dr. Z's Medical Report - July 2, 2009 Category: Physicians With Health Advice Authors: Ed Zimney, MD Tags: Healthy Living acetaminophen aging alcohol alcohol consumption blog chronic pain community directed Dr Z Ed Zimney Everyday Health FDA FDA advisory hydrocodone injury liver liver damage medblog narcotic news OTC Source Type: blogs
Why Did the Jackson Family Ask for a Second Autopsy?
On Friday morning, before the first autopsy on Michael Jackson had been completed, I wrote an article in these pages to explain just what an autopsy is, why it’s done, and what we could expect from it (I’m a former medical examiner and a board-certified forensic pathologist). As I predicted, the initial examination of his body with the naked eye, which is called the “gross” examination, was inconclusive, in part because further tests, which take days to complete under any circumstances, were required. These tests include the microscopic examination of small samples of each of the organs as well as...
Source: Dr. Z's Medical Report - June 30, 2009 Category: Physicians With Health Advice Authors: Ed Zimney, MD Tags: Healthy Living autopsy blog celebrity death chemicals community conspiracy theories conspiracy theorists David Carradine Dr Z Dr. Z's medical report drugs Ed Zimney examination family forensic pathology foul play governme Source Type: blogs
Michael Jackson: What Will an Autopsy Look For?
When any person dies suddenly or unexpectedly it becomes the responsibility of the medical examiner to determine the cause of death. Such is the case in the tragic death of Michael Jackson at the all too young age of 50. When I worked as a medical examiner in Washington, D.C., in the early 1980s, our policy was to automatically do a full autopsy investigation on anyone 50 or under regardless of their medical history. Over 50 and we might waive the autopsy if there were a clear medical history of illness or disease and there were absolutely no suspicious circumstances, as investigated by the homicide unit of the D.C. police...
Source: Dr. Z's Medical Report - June 26, 2009 Category: Physicians With Health Advice Authors: Ed Zimney, MD Tags: Healthy Living 50 accidental age alcohol autopsy blog cause of death celebrity community died Dr Z Dr. Z's medical report drugs Ed Zimney Everyday Health exam forensic gross Heart homicide injuries investigation Source Type: blogs
Keeping Your Brain Active: 10 Tips For Improving Your Brain
The other day I was listening to an interview on National Public Radio with Dean Oshler who has just written a book called From Square One: A Meditation, with Digressions, on Crosswords. During the interview I was surprised to hear Mr. Oshler challenge the widely held belief that regularly doing crossword puzzles is good for your brain fitness and can help stave off Alzheimer’s disease. Oshler’s problem with crossword solving is twofold: first, he believes the clinical data showing an advantage for puzzlers is both weak and only observational (“[The researcher] never said that there was a cause-and-effect...
Source: Dr. Z's Medical Report - June 25, 2009 Category: Physicians With Health Advice Authors: Ed Zimney, MD Tags: Healthy Living active Alzheimer's disease blog book brain Chicago community crossword puzzles Dean Oshler Dr Z Dr. Richard Restak Dr. Z's medical report Ed Zimney emotion Everyday Health George Washington Hospital Universit Source Type: blogs
Nestle Toll House Cookie Recall: The E. Coli Mystery
Although Nestle has recalled some 300,000 cases of its refrigerated Toll House cookie dough from store shelves, as of June 22, 2009, none of their product had actually tested positive for the E. coli that’s caused illness in at least 70 people in 30 states. And since it’s highly unusual for E. coli, an intestinal bacterium of cattle (i.e., it’s in their feces) to be present in something like cookie dough, investigators are so far at a loss to explain exactly what is going on. But, since all of the people who became sick ate the same raw cookie dough product, it seems obvious that it’s the cookie dou...
Source: Dr. Z's Medical Report - June 23, 2009 Category: Physicians With Health Advice Authors: Ed Zimney, MD Tags: Healthy Living bacteria beef blog CDC cookie dough Dr Z Dr. Z's medical report E.Coli Ed Zimeny Everyday Health feces food health blog health safety ice cream illness investigation lawsuit medblog mystery Nestle T Source Type: blogs
FDA warns consumers to discard Zicam products
In an unusual move earlier this week, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) alerted consumers that Zicam Cold Remedy products have been associated with long lasting or even permanent loss of smell. FDA recommends that consumers stop using these products and that they throw away any that might still be in their homes. The affected products include Zicam Cold Remedy Nasal Gel, Zicam Cold Remedy Nasal Swabs, and Zicam Cold Remedy Swabs, Kids Size (the last one is a previously discontinued product). The products had been sold by Matrixx Initiatives to reduce the duration and severity of cold symptoms; however, they have never...
Source: Dr. Z's Medical Report - June 18, 2009 Category: Physicians With Health Advice Authors: Ed Zimney, MD Tags: Healthy Living Airborne anosmia cold conumers discard Dr Z drug Ed Zimney effective Everyday Health FDA flu health blog homeopathy loss of smell matrixx initiatives medical news new drug application products safety Source Type: blogs
