Doctor Jay Parkinson just opened up a medical practice in Brooklyn. What makes his practice newsworthy? He makes housecalls. In fact, he only makes housecalls. For the kids: A "housecall" is a long-forgotten custom in which the doctor comes to your house to treat you when you are sick. See, e.g., Little House On The Prarie, The. But before you … Read More
Healthy Children Or War?
President Bush has threatened to veto legislation renewing and expanding the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). The legislation would extend health coverage to as many as 10 million children — four million of whom are currently uninsured. Bush has claimed the SCHIP bill contains “excessive spending”, even as he’s requested $200 billion more for the war in Iraq.. When … Read More
I Don’t Know Why…
…but I suddenly feel empowered by this. UPDATE: Okay… maybe I should clarify. This is what did it for me: One day, they say, male patients may be able to turn to their own testicles as a source of stem cells to repair an ailing heart or kidney or to fix the brain damage caused by Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s disease.
Owen Wilson Is Not Alone
Lots of celebrity suicide attempts (or alleged one) listed here. A few surprises for me include: Donna Summer – tried to leap from an 11-story window at a New York hotel at the peak of her career in 1976, but was discovered by a housekeeper. Tai Babilonia – attempted suicide after she became addicted to alcohol and amphetamines following her … Read More
Microwave Popcorn Is The Harbinger Of Death
Cigarettes? Nah. Lung cancer is caused by microwaving popcorn: Consumers, not just factory workers, may be in danger from fumes from buttery flavoring in microwave popcorn, according to a warning letter to federal regulators from a doctor at a leading lung research hospital. A pulmonary specialist at Denver’s National Jewish Medical and Research Center has written to federal agencies to … Read More
Woman Looks Inside Her Heart
Fo rizzle: A woman has seen her own heart on display at a medical exhibition. Jennifer Sutton, 23, from Ringwood, Hampshire, successfully underwent an operation to replace her heart earlier this year. She had developed a life-threatening condition called restrictive cardiomyopathy in her teens. Now the original heart, which nearly killed her, has been put on temporary display by the … Read More
More On “Crazy Sexy Cancer”
I noticed I’m getting a spike in traffic here (for some reason, I’m ranked number five at Yahoo for searches on this subject), and it is largely due to people googling "Crazy Sexy Cancer", the TLC documentary I blogged about earlier in the week. For what it is worth, I finally got around to viewing it on my TIVO last … Read More
Katrina Doctor Tells Story
The doctor who was accused of murdering patients in New Orleans as Katrina approached (fortunately, the grand jury refused to indict her) recounts the heart-wrenching facts of those days in Time. A snippet: In normal triage situations, the sickest people are treated first. But my understanding is that conditions were so bad, you and the other medical staff switched to … Read More
Crazy Sexy Cancer
Best. Documentary. Title. Ever. Looks interesting too: Crazy Sexy Cancer is an irreverent and uplifting documentary about a young woman looking for a cure and finding her life. In 2003, 31-year-old actress/photographer Kris Carr was diagnosed with a rare and incurable cancer. Weeks later she began filming her story. Taking a seemingly tragic situation and turning it into a creative … Read More
A Failing Health Care System
To all the nay-sayers who think health care in this country is just hunky-dory: KANSAS CITY, Missouri (AP) — A man threw his seriously ill wife four stories to her death because he could no longer afford to pay for her medical care, prosecutors said in charging him with second-degree murder. According to court documents filed Wednesday in Jackson County … Read More
Marie Jon Apostrophe Thinks It Is Stupid To Focus On Hillary Clinton’s Cleavage; It’s Better To Focus On Her Ass
Poor Marie. She so badly wants to write an article with insightful political analysis about Hillary Clinton, the current Democratic frontrunner for President ’08. But she just can’t. Or can she? Just say no to socialized Hillary Care Ah, well, that’s a good start. A thought-provoking critique of Hillary’s plan for improved health care. Let’s see how far Marie can … Read More
A Novel Approach To Health Care
Is this coming to an employer near you? For employees at Clarian Health, feeling the burn of trying to lose weight will take on new meaning. In late June, the Indianapolis-based hospital system announced that starting in 2009, it will fine employees $10 per paycheck if their body mass index [BMI, a ratio of height to weight that measures body … Read More
Stupid Quote Of The Day
Rep. J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.): “Folks, that’s the bottom line: It’s government-paid health care,” . “It’s a bad bill for a bad time, and it’s coming under the false pretenses of trying to do something for children.” Statements like that are why the Republicans lost control of Congress in 2006, and why Hastert is no longer House speaker. He’s talking, … Read More
Policy Trumps Facts: Part XXVII
Yet another example emerges of the Bush Adminstration keeping you in the dark: A surgeon general’s report in 2006 that called on Americans to help tackle global health problems has been kept from the public by a Bush political appointee without any background or expertise in medicine or public health, chiefly because the report did not promote the administration’s policy … Read More