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GetReligion covers the biased reporting about the Catholic institutions who refuse to fund contraception and abortion causing medicines for their employees. First amendment anyone?
This goes beyond the first amendment problem, because it is a "headsup" to docs.
I had a bozo on my Xanga blog saying that since hospitals and doctors "take" money from the gov't that the gov't has the right to tell us to do abortions etc.
Note that being reimbursed for work done (educating students on scholarships, caring for indigent uninsured or Medicare/medicaid patients,) is not the same as being employed by the gov't (as I was when I worked for the IHS).
But Obama's "regulations" suggest that in the future, doctors and hospitals could be told what procedures to do and not to do. True, insurance will refuse to pay for these things, but often docs do what is needed anyway, and figure to forgo the money or that they might be paid months later after an appeal. But you can't fight the government.
Which brings us to part two:
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Colonoscopy lowers the rate of colon cancer by 50 percent.
A new study provides what independent researchers call the best evidence yet that colonoscopy — perhaps the most unloved cancer screening test — prevents deaths. Although many people have assumed that colonoscopy must save lives because it is so often recommended, strong evidence has been lacking until now.
Yes, now they have proof, so it means the gov't may actually pay for these tests.
Wait: It should be lowering the rate 100 percent, since you are taking out the pre cancerous polyps, right?
there is a graph that won't replicate that shows the actual decrease is from 1.5% to 0.75 %, so the risk is low. The graph also shows that most of the cancers were found ten years after the colonoscopy was done.
That's why by some groups that we should do a single colonoscopy on everyone at age 60, and then only do repeat colonoscopies every ten years on those with polyps.
Yes. So in order to catch all the cancers you would need to repeat every five years when you find a polyp; to get most of them you would have to repeat the colonoscopy every ten years, on every high risk person.
Problem: There aren't enough docs trained in the procedure to do this. And although the risks of the procedure is small, it isn't zero...and the patients HATE the test.
Factoid:
The transition from benign adenoma to colorectal cancer is thought to have a long natural history of between 10 and 35 years. It is estimated that the annual conversion rate of a polyp to a cancer is approximately 0.25%.
So removing a polyp means a zero chance, but if you have one polyp, there is a much higher chance you will get another one (in this small high risk group, the chance of a second polyp over 7 years was 30 percent)....this means that there are new polyps or polyps that are missed.
The colonoscopy often can't see those in the start of the large intestine, and miss these.
Then there is the problem: The rate is highest in black men, and it may not be racism but let's face it: There are few friendly neighborhood clinics where you know doc from church and the nurses live down the street.
Finally, not mentioned is that colon cancer has changed over the last 50 years. When I was in medical school, half could be found by rectal exam, but now only 10 percent are. Why the change? Maybe a better diet? not much information here.
So what is needed is a better screening test...maybe a blood test to check who needs the colonoscopy, and then do the colonoscopy more often.
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35"the percent obesity rate in the US. The highest rate was in black women...
Michelle's passion has a reason.
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Many women who have heart attacks don't have pain...
female heart patients may exhibit these symptoms, they are also more likely to show symptoms that are less typically associated with heart attacks, like sleep disturbances and severe unexplained fatigue in the days and weeks prior, as well as cold sweats, weakness and dizziness during the attackhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif.
not mentioned in the article: We see this in diabetics too...
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One of the worst parts of the 1917 flu epidemic was that it hit and sometimes killed not the old, but the young, especially men in military barracks, and pregnant women.
So how many pregnant women are covered by flu shots? between 30 and 50 percent.
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Cancers that docs often miss (and don't find until several visits): Pancreatic cancer, stomach cancer, and multiple myeloma.
Why? Because they are rare, don't show on routine tests and their symptoms are similar to those of much more common illnesses.
Yeah, my last myeloma patient took 4 visits before I found the problem because I thought his kidney failure was from his diabetes and his pain was from arthritis...sigh...
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Junk science report of the day: Painkiller can help a "broken heart".
no, not oxycodone, any painkiller, because emotional stresses can make you hurt.
Researchers have discovered that emotional and physical pain cause similar reactions in the brain and are so similar that some studies have shown that taking painkillers can actually dull emotional pain, the authors claim
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