Dr. Google: The top 10 health searches in 2017
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Ever wonder what other people are wondering about? I know I do.
So, here are the top 10 health searches in Google for 2017. And just so you don’t have to look each one up, I’ve provided a brief answer. You’re welcome.
1. What causes hiccups?
I was surprised this one made it to the top 10 list of health searches. Maybe this search is common because hiccups are as mysterious as they are universal. I’ve written about hiccups before, but let’s just say the cause in any individual person is rarely known or knowable. Then again, the reason hiccups stop is also unknown.
Some triggers...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - February 21, 2018 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Robert H. Shmerling, MD Tags: Health Source Type: blogs
Calcium, vitamin D, and fractures (oh my!)
When I saw the headlines about this recently published study on bone health saying “Vitamin D and calcium supplements may not lower fracture risk” I thought: Wait, that’s news? I think I remember seeing that headline a few years ago.
Indeed, in 2015, this very blog reported on similar studies of calcium supplements, noting that calcium supplements have risks and side effects, and are not likely indicated for most healthy community-dwelling adults over 50. These folks are not in a high-risk category for vitamin deficiencies, osteoporosis, and fractures, and we usually advise them to get their calcium from food. Dietar...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - February 12, 2018 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Monique Tello, MD, MPH Tags: Drugs and Supplements Health Osteoporosis Source Type: blogs
Better cardiovascular outcomes with gastric bypass surgery
(Source: Notes from Dr. RW)
Source: Notes from Dr. RW - October 8, 2017 Category: Internal Medicine Tags: cardiovascular gastroenterology Source Type: blogs
The Proof is the Bottle
An 18-year-old woman presented for altered mental status. EMS reported that she was at a beach party when she became unresponsive. Friends said she may have been drinking alcohol, but denied other illicit drug use. Initial vital signs included a blood pressure of 117/69 mm Hg, heart rate of 110 bpm, respiratory rate of 11 bpm, SPO2 99% on room air, and a temperature of 98.9°F. The patient was somnolent and reacted intermittently to physical stimuli on exam. She intermittently moved all four extremities. Her gag reflex was intact. Pupils were 4 mm bilaterally reactive without nystagmus. She had tachycardia, her lungs...
Source: The Tox Cave - October 2, 2017 Category: Emergency Medicine Tags: Blog Posts Source Type: blogs
Podcast: What Does Binge Eating Disorder Feel Like?
In this episode of the Psych Central Show, hosts Gabe Howard and Vincent M. Wales discuss Binge Eating Disorder. At his heaviest, Gabe weighed 550 pounds. He describes in detail how he went from a “normal-sized” guy to being morbidly obese, his return to being “normal-sized,” and addresses the question of whether he was, in fact, addicted to food. During the second half of the show, our hosts welcome Lisa, a woman who was with Gabe during this period of his life. She shares her experience of what it was like being with someone with binge eating disorder and how he finally confronted it.
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Show Highlights:
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[1:1...
Source: World of Psychology - August 31, 2017 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Gabe Howard Tags: Binge Eating General The Psych Central Show Source Type: blogs
Doctors should fight fake health news at the checkout aisle
I see them every time I wait in the inescapably long lines at the grocery store. They’re offering me so much. Fat-melting foods that “work like gastric bypass.” Sleep masks that prevent breast cancer. One day diets. And, of course, the perennial “medical miracles.” All these revelations can be mine with a simple magazine purchase.
It’s easy to dismiss the medical advice being propagated through the supermarket checkout aisle. Who would take health advice from a magazine sitting next to a box of Snickers and the National Enquirer? This visceral elitism, however, is causing doctors and scientists to miss out on a...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - June 24, 2017 Category: General Medicine Authors: < a href="http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/post-author/benjamin-mazer" rel="tag" > Benjamin Mazer, MD, MBA < /a > Tags: Physician Primary care Source Type: blogs
From “do no harm” to “reduce harm.” It’s time to change the paradigm
The concept of “First, do no harm,” which is embedded in the oath that kicks off the careers of most new doctors in America, has become something of a surrogate for the practice of medicine. But it’s something of a false promise. Doctors routinely cause their patients harm. The oath we should be taking is, “Help others with as little harm as possible.”
We live in a world of harm — from car accidents to recreational drugs, sexually transmitted diseases, cancer, unhealthy diets, and lack of exercise. The list goes on. In treating the outcomes of these hazards, the goal as a physician should be to reduce harm.
Ta...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - June 10, 2017 Category: General Medicine Authors: < a href="http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/post-author/amy-ho" rel="tag" > Amy Ho, MD < /a > Tags: Physician Primary care Source Type: blogs
Doctors Should Also Be Fighting “ Fake News ”
BY BENJAMIN MAZER, MD
I see them every time I wait in the inescapably long lines at grocery store. They’re offering me so much. Fat-melting foods that “work like gastric bypass.” Sleep masks that prevent breast cancer. One day diets. And, of course, the perennial “medical miracles.” All these revelations can be mine with a simple magazine purchase.
It’s easy to dismiss the medical advice being propagated through the supermarket checkout aisle. Who would take health advice from a magazine sitting next to a box of Snickers and the National Enquirer? This visceral elitism, however, is causing doctors and scientis...
Source: The Health Care Blog - June 1, 2017 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: John Irvine Tags: Uncategorized Andrew Weil Benjamin Mazer Fake News Mehmet Oz Quackery Source Type: blogs
I ’ ll let you in on an industry secret
The unspoken secret is that healthcare providers prefer treatment over prevention, expensive over inexpensive, patent-protectable over non-patent-protectable, billable procedure over nonbillable procedure, BMW over Toyota Prius.
Spiraling healthcare costs are the expected result because greater revenues are built into the basic principles that drive the system. The endless year-over-year increase in your health insurance premiums should therefore come as no surprise because this system is designed to take more and more of your money.
Health care is a business, a big business (the biggest business of all in the United Stat...
Source: Wheat Belly Blog - April 18, 2017 Category: Cardiology Authors: Dr. Davis Tags: News & Updates Source Type: blogs
What do you get for your money?
Shouldn’t the most expensive healthcare in the world also buy you the greatest health in the world?
If you pay $600-$1500 per month for a high-deductible health insurance policy for your family, does that mean that you and your family will enjoy better health? Because Americans spend nearly $10,000 per person per year on healthcare—-more than any other country on the planet, double the spending of the U.K., Canada, and Australia-—does this mean that Americans pay more and thereby enjoy better health? Less diabetes, less heart disease, less obesity, fewer cases of autoimmune disease, less arthritis, etc.?
Americans p...
Source: Wheat Belly Blog - April 15, 2017 Category: Cardiology Authors: Dr. Davis Tags: Undoctored gluten grains health healthcare Inflammation Weight Loss wheat Source Type: blogs
Is there HEALING in healthcare?
Has the idea of healing people back to health been lost from modern healthcare?
Have you seen all those billboards and ads luring you into hospitals, surgeries, and other high-ticket medical procedures? Why run ads for electrophysiologic studies, implantable defibrillators, lap-band/gastric bypass, and cancer chemotherapy?
Easy: Because that’s where the money is.
If healing were truly the driving theme behind today’s healthcare, then the whole approach would be different. Conversations with health care providers would focus on prevention and identifying and reversing causes instead of expensive procedures.
The...
Source: Wheat Belly Blog - April 3, 2017 Category: Cardiology Authors: Dr. Davis Tags: Undoctored health healthcare healthcare costs predatory Source Type: blogs
Vitamin D: What ’s the “right” level?
Many of my patients who come into the office for their physical exams ask to have their vitamin D levels checked. They may have a family member with osteoporosis, or perhaps they have had bone thinning themselves. Mostly, they want to know that they’re doing everything they can to keep their bones strong. Vitamin D is critical for healthy bones. But when we check that blood level, how to act on the result is the subject of great controversy in medical-research land.
Pinpointing a “healthy” vitamin D level is tricky
So, what is the current cutoff value at which people are considered “low,” and thus at risk for dev...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - December 19, 2016 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Monique Tello, MD, MPH Tags: Drugs and Supplements Health Healthy Eating Source Type: blogs
Obalon Non-Surgical Weight Loss System: Interview with Andy Rasdal, CEO of Obalon Therapeutics.
Medgadget recently reported on the FDA approval of the Obalon balloon system, which assists weight-loss in obese patients who have failed to lose weight by other means and is an alternative to conventional gastric bypass surgery. The system has been developed by Obalon Therapeutics, a company out of Carlsbad, California, and consists of inflatable balloons that can be inserted into the stomach in a minimally invasive manner. The treatment involves swallowing a deflated balloon in the form of a small capsule attached to a thin tube. Once in the stomach, the balloon is inflated and the tube is withdrawn. A maximum of up to t...
Source: Medgadget - November 29, 2016 Category: Medical Equipment Authors: Conn Hastings Tags: Exclusive GI Medicine Source Type: blogs
Obalon Swallowable Balloon for Weight Loss FDA Approved
Gastric bypass surgery, just like any other surgery, hold potential for intraprocedural problems and follow-up complications. Less invasive means of reducing the volume of the stomach are coming to market. One particularly interesting system called Obalon just received FDA approval to help obese people to reduce weight who failed to do so through diet and exercise.
The system was developed by Obalon Therapeutics, a company out of Carlsbad, California. It revolves around a swallowable balloon that looks like a large pill that has a tube attached to it that is used to pump up the balloon once it’s in the stomach. Th...
Source: Medgadget - September 15, 2016 Category: Medical Equipment Authors: Editors Tags: GI Medicine Source Type: blogs
