Medical stuff

Links to what I have posted recently on my medical blog.

Knitting post of the week

how can you remove stents from airways? Unravel them like an old sock.

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Fetal Alcohol syndrome.

A common cause of congenital defects. But the article is a bit lame, since it just tries to figure out who drinks alcohol around the wold, but not how the alcohol is actually used (i.e. in drunken binges or just a bit of wine with supper every day?)

I suspect the binge users are the problem.

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Some good news for a change: a decrease in kidney failure in American Indians.

The CDC has a report on the declining rate of kidney failure in American Indians, thanks to aggressive treatment of their diabetes and diabetes related hypertension.

the IHS has a lot of problems, but they do focus on risk, and have put in a lot of time and effort and preventive programs to cut the rate of dialysis in our diabetic patients.

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Racism or Sickle cell disease?


I comment on a PhysEd article with the usual "RACISM RACISM" meme, blaming racism for the health and death rate discrepancies in black Americans, espcially in child mortality.

But actually there is a lot of racism, but not personal racism pr se: it is that there are not enough user friendly doctors offices nearby, and the impersonal clinics give good care, but not caring care. And then, who does the patient education?

But this is also true for poor whites in rural areas, immigrants, American Indians, and Hispanics. Yes, the gov't helps by having clinics in these areas etc but they need more.

(compare and contrast to the IHS article I cited above)

But the elephant in the living room for  a higher childhood mortality in blacks is actually sickle cell disease.

If this hit white kids, there would be marathons and charity races, but since it affects mainly black kids, silence.

Which is ashamed, because I suspect genetic manipulation will cure the disease.

but right now, treatment hasn't changed much in the last 20 years, although the morality is lower since it is now being used more.

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3 articles from the CDC on Zika, goats causing diarrhea, and Chronic fatigue syndrome.

just a quick review of several articles.