Tuesday, September 23, 2014
Children Damaged by Toxic Stress
The
American Academy of Pediatrics has launched a campaign to deal with children
who have been exposed to emotional abuse, neglect, caregiver wrongdoing,
violence and other stressors. There is
no perfect screen and no specific intervention to offer. It would seem helpful to me to teach stress
coping skills in elementary school, where they could be most helpful. Offering them to everyone might identify
children at high risk and yield long-term benefit to those who need them.
Thursday, September 18, 2014
Two Major Problems of Senior Patients are Often Missed
Balance
problems that can lead to hip fractures and sleep apnea that can increase the
risk of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and strokes. I either of these problems is unaddressed, it
can be fatal. Don’t wait for your doctor
to ask, make the inquiry yourself. Ask
if you are at risk, and if so, ask to be tested. Treatment is available.
Tuesday, September 16, 2014
Doctors Charged with Medicare Fraud
In the
seventh national operation, involving 400 law enforcement officials from across
the country, 90 individuals and 27 health care providers, including doctors,
were charged with Medicare fraud. Among
other accusations, the most common alleged offense involved treatments and
services. I do not know how many
integrative physicians were included in the operation, but I do know that some
very good doctors have been charged in the past. The problem is that there are no codes for
many integrative procedures, but if you participate in Medicare, you are
required to put down a code, even if it doesn’t fit. If Medicare judges your code to be
inaccurate, you are charged with fraud, which can lead to stiff fines and
possible jail. That is why integrative
doctors like myself do not belong to Medicare.
It would be stupid to put yourself in such a terrible position.
See Family Practice News, June 15, 2014, P.4.
Thursday, September 11, 2014
Stents Might be Causing Heart Attacks Rather than Preventing Them
Dr. Robert
Rowen puts out an excellent newsletter.
I urge you to subscribe to it and read it. In the July, 2014, issue he rightly raises
his voice in anger because 4 million medicated stents have been surgically
placed in U. S. patients in the last decade.
The studies supporting the use of these stents are woefully
inadequate. The drug coating on the
stents may cause 4,500 new heart attacks each year, almost half of them
fatal. Bare metal stents might often be
a safer choice. Those who get the
medicated ones are often treated with Coumadin (rat poison) for extended
periods of time. A few years back, I
published a paper contending that EDTA chelation would be much safer and quite
effective with or without a stent. So
far that has landed on deaf ears.
Call 800-791-3445 to subscribe to Second Opinion, Dr. Rowen’s newsletter.
Tuesday, September 9, 2014
Spinal Stenosis Responds Poorly to Steroid Injections
400
patients at 16 medical centers evaluated the effectiveness of epidural
injections of steroids for treating spinal stenosis and published the results
in the New England Journal of Medicine.
The study showed that patients injected with steroids along with local
anesthetics had no less pain and no better function than those who received
only local anesthetics. Hundreds of
thousands of injections of steroids are given each year for this problem with a
great deal of pain and some potential risk.
Some insrance companies require the injections before they will approve
surgery. I find that prolotherapy and/or
pain reduction techniques are safer, cheaper, and more effective for both the
short and long run. Ask your orthopedist
about this study. The findings were
dramatic.
See The Blade, Toledo, section A, page 6, Monday, July 7,
2014.
Thursday, September 4, 2014
Interpersonal Relations Affect Blood Pressure and Life Expectancy
Researchers at the University of
Pittsburgh have shown that spouses who argue frequently have higher blood
pressure. Those who have a lot of
friends or who are surrounded by family with frequent contact have a lower risk
of heart disease and are more likely to live longer.
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