Why Medical Care Costs So Much

The cost of medical care is high because the body is complicated and doctors and patients hate ambiguity. The cost is high because a missed diagnosis can lead to death and a large lawsuit. The cost is high because we have many specialists that view the body in tiny pieces and want to feel 100% correct about their piece. Let me give you a real life example:My patient, Rick is a brilliant

Ground Beef is Unhealthy and Contaminated

I am a bit obsessed this week with Celebrity Chef Jaime Oliver and his mission to reform the way Americans eat. I watched his new ABC show where he tries to reform the school lunch program in North Carolina where 50% of the town is obese. It is really a great show and it's great to see this type of "reality" TV rather than the usual fare. In honor of eating healthy, I am re-posting a blog from

Eating Healthy is High Cost

I watched a good documentary called "Food, Inc". It was nominated for an Academy Award . The promo says you'll never look at dinner the same way and they are right. Since I am a fan of Michael Pollan and have read "Fast Food Nation", I was already one of the healthy food fans, but seeing how agriculture and farming has changed over the last 40 years was still a shocker.There is no doubt that

Don Berwick to Head CMS

President Obama likes to shake things up. He has named Dr. Donald Berwick to head the Medicare and Medicaid Agency known as Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). This is a huge government agency with a budget of over $800 BILLION a year. That is more than most countries in the world. Dr. Berwick would be a major force in implementing the new health laws and changing Medicare to be

Corporate Hall of Shame Award

Thanks to reader m.scott for alerting me to this weeks Corporate Hall of Shame winner. Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Texas is the winner for it's egregious denial of care for a 10 day old baby who was born with a congenital heart defect. Coverage for surgery to treat transposition of the great arteries was denied for...are you ready for this....a "preexisting condition". Both of the Houston

New Approved Treatment for Dupuytren's

I did a blog on Dupuytren's contracture last year that got a lot of interest. There are a lot of men out there with this condition and, apparently, many of them are reading EverythingHealth. I mentioned a new biologic drug that was being developed as a non-surgical treatment for Dupuytrens. At that time, it was still in testing phase and not available for use.The product, collengenase

Are You Fat?

If you are wondering if you need to lose weight click here to calculate your body mass index (BMI). I am surprised that it applies to both men and women, especially considering the larger muscle mass of men, but it is an eye opener.

Health Care Reform Bill 101

Well, it is an historic day as health reform has finally passed. Yes, it is a watered down bill that leaves much to be desired but...it is a start. After months of stops, starts, rhetoric, fear mongering, empty promises and long, heated debate, many Americans are not sure of what just passed. It will have different effects on different people and many of the provisions are delayed until 2014.

"She Have AIDS"

I can't get the stories of Haiti out of my mind.A patient showed up at the Port au Prince hospital ward with a massive left sided paralysis, an obvious stroke. This 48 year old woman had collapsed the day before and was now accompanied by her three grown daughters, who were most attentive and worried. I examined her in the bed with other patients and families gathered around. (There is no sense

Answer to Medical Challenge

Yesterdays medical challenge answer was Herpes Zoster (aka: shingles). Shingles is caused by the varicella-zoster (chickenpox) virus which lives in the nerve roots and can become reactivated later in life. The blistering eruption can be painful and one distinctive finding is that it rarely crosses the midline of the body. Each nerve has it's own "dermatome" distribution and the infection

More Haiti Images

Reviewing the images of our Medical Mission to Port au Prince, Haiti brings back haunting memories.#1 - 2 Dramatic collapsed buildings..there are thousands like this#3 This man was outside of the emergency tent, lying alone and unattended#4 Families stayed with hospitalized patients, sleeping on cardboard on the floor. With no homes to go back to, we had no problem giving them shelter

Medical Challenge

Here is another medical challenge from the New England Journal of Medicine. Make your diagnosis and the answer will be posted tomorrow.1. Chemical Burn2. Cicatricial pemphigoid3. Epidermomycosis4. Herpes Zoster5. Squamous Cell Carcinoma

Haiti Medical Relief - Continued Need

(note family is caring for the patients)It has been two months since the disastrous earthquake in Haiti and the medical need is still dire. I just returned from a week in Port au Prince with a 17 person team of doctors and nurses to work with Partners in Health. We worked at the University Hospital, the only State hospital in this city of

Haiti Medical Relief

The January 12 Haiti earthquake killed over 200,000 people and The United Nations reports nearly 1.3 million people are now homeless. The devastated capital of Port-au-Prince is home to 762,708 of them, living in squalid tent camps without proper sanitation. Officials have worried about "donor fatigue", especially with the Chile earthquake. But the situation in Haiti is so much worse than

Healthy Comfort Food

Comfort food is usually home made and carries some emotional significance with it. During times of stress or illness people often turn to "comfort foods" to feel better. Most everyone has a favorite comfort food and comfort foods are not necessarily one's favorite food. Ask yourself...what is my favorite food? Then ask "At the end of a long day, when I'm tired and stressed or sick in bed,