Shaw's Eco-Logic

This HND piece continues discussing the problem of how to find good doctors, and how to evaluate medical outcomes. We also hear from patient safety advocate Joel S., who gives some interesting insights on both of these matters.

Joel is convinced that the medical establishment is simply not capable of rating itself, and provides some good reasons to support his contention. He also offers a unique idea, whereby an independent agency, set up for patients and by patients, could do a better job.

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This HND piece examines the difficult related problems of finding a good physician, and evaluating your medical procedures. We explain "Dr. Hodad," but as you might surmise, it is not complimentary. The trouble is...never mind that lay consumers cannot define good care or good outcomes; neither can those supposedly in charge of such things.

One emerging possibility is with a new site—Completed.com. Here, people can post evaluations of professionals in every field of endeavor, including healthcare. Reviews are carefully screened to discourage trolling. And, there is a bit of a process in even being able to join as a reviewer, which should also keep things on the up and up.

Until we get a handle on bad doctors and bad outcomes, we will never be able to fix healthcare.

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This HND piece was inspired by the recent study, which disputes the anti-HRT findings of 2002.  We go into the history of HRT, and some of the factors that led up to the biased and flat-out improper conclusions that were publicized in 2002.

As a result, millions of younger menopausal women were scared off hormone replacement therapy, with already demonstrated health effects.  Cold comfort that this wrong has finally been righted 15 years later.  In fact, it will take many more years for this mistake to completely reverses itself within the system.  Dozens of official websites still pander the wrong advice.

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This HND piece first evokes the novella and film, but the focus here is on the very real problem of falls--especially in the elderly.  We cite a depressing list of nasty statistics, and catalog many of the possible injuries.  Hip fractures are among the worst...and deadliest.

Of course, there are logical reasons for all these senior falls, what with impaired physical condition and medication side effects.  But then, there are also plenty of easily mitigated hazards both at home and in the community.  A number of useful links are provided.

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This HND piece appears in conjunction with National Suicide Prevention Week (September 10-16) and Suicide Prevention Awareness Month (all September).  But, we put special emphasis on how suicide impacts the military—active duty members and veterans.  For starters, the overall military suicide rate is about 50% higher than the general population.   For vets, there are 22 suicides per DAY.

We also discuss the special suicide issues with EOD (explosive ordnance demolition) techs.

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This HND piece covers a less known nasty fact about the drug:  It is quite good at causing strokes in those under age 45.  We highlight a recently published review article that looked at dozens of studies, and came up with a host of disturbing findings.

We also give a bit of history on meth, and its cousin amphetamine.  Supposedly, no one knew that the drugs were addictive--the far more potent methamphetamine much more so--until after World War II.  It turns out that both the Allies and Axis gave the drugs to combatants, for performance enhancement.  Make of that what you will...

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This HND piece start out by defining terms, and then segues into the heavy use of prescription drugs, especially for chronic pain issues. For many pain sufferers, addiction would seem to be the least of their problems, since in some cases they can develop a tolerance to the meds, not to mention hyperalgesia—an acute sensitization to pain.

But then, providers will cut back on the flow of the drugs, driving too many of these patients toward heroin. Heroin, in pharmaceutical grade, is an effective pain medication, but pharma grade isn't exactly what's being sold on the streets. Worse, street heroin can be mixed with potentially deadly fentanyl.

We also touch on endorphins—our body's own natural opioid—and relate some pretty disturbing statistics on the opioid crisis (Drug overdoses now kill more people than gun homicides and car crashes combined).

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This HND piece once again covers e-cigs,and this time the good news is that a large study indicates that the devices do help people to quit smoking. Amazingly, officialdom has ignored the obvious for years, still clinging to its love of tobacco tax revenue—and in the case of NGOs—Pharma money.

The harm reduction community hopes that this new study will be the beginning of the end of official resistance. Even the so-called public health agencies cannot deny science forever.

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This HND piece takes to heart this statement from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA):

"Consumer self-care is becoming an important part of efficient and effective healthcare delivery. By exercising best practices of promoting wellness and preventing illness, informed consumers can dramatically improve outcomes and reduce costs. Learn about what you are experiencing. This will allow you to make good decisions about all parts of your life, like: your treatment; how and where you are going to live; who you are going to live with; how you will get and spend money; your close relationships; and parenting issues."

Within the mental health field, a host of self-help resources are available from the Open Forest initiative. As such, we cover them in some detail.

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This HND piece is the latest installment in our annual coverage of National Autism Awareness Month. This time, we look into compelling evidence that nasty herpesvirues CMV and HHV-6 could be involved in the epidemic of autism spectrum disorder.

We link out to lots of good material, including the original paper from Dr. Leo Kanner, who first described the disorder in 1943. We also cover the breakthrough ideas of Michael J. Goldberg, MD, who's been bucking the medical establishment, while curing kids along the way. However, the scariest stuff is probably the litany of illnesses caused by these horrible and omnipresent viruses.

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