In the News

November 2, 2026

Anti-vax ideology strikes again at CDC

Clinicians are seeing unvaccinated pregnant women with measles show up in their practices.  Most have never seen such a thing before and are unfamiliar with it and how to respond.  CDC scientists, alarmed about the outbreaks of measles and concerned about the effect of measles on pregnant women, wanted to alert clinicians to the threat and how to address it.  Their superiors at Health and Human Services said no.  The purported reason is to allow the warning to be vetted by the CDC’s scientific process.  Meanwhile, people are getting hurt.

October 30, 2026

Some colorectal cancer answers

While rates of colorectal cancer have been declining among those over the age of 50, they have been rising among those under 50, including even some adolescents.  Not only have the rates for younger people been rising, colorectal cancer in younger people has proved to be more aggressive and more resistant to chemotherapy than colorectal cancer among older patients.  Researchers have now done some interesting studies involving RNA and discovered subtle differences between colorectal cancers in those under 50 and those over 50.  While they don’t yet understand why these differences exist, they do help to explain the more aggressive nature of the tumors in younger people and their greater resistance to chemotherapy.  This is an advance that may lead to better treatment options for colorectal cancer among younger patients.

October 29, 2026

Punishment or fair discipline?

A Texas orthopedic surgeon is suing two orthopedic surgery groups which expelled him over allegedly false and inaccurate testimony he gave in a number of medical malpractice cases.  The doctor, who has testified in multiple cases on behalf of patients, claims that his testimony has never been rejected by any of the courts in which he testified and that the organizations are trying to muzzle him and prevent him from testifying in the future.  He also alleges that attorneys representing patients have dropped him as a witness because he was expelled from the orthopedic surgery groups and that attorneys are no longer calling him to retain him as an expert witness.  He claims that the groups only discipline doctors who testify on behalf of patients and never doctors who testify on behalf of other doctors.  Doctors protecting other doctors.  What a surprise.

October 28, 2026

More and more people are getting the message

Did you know that drinking alcohol increases your risk of getting cancer?  That question has been asked of members of the public for a number of years now.  The accepted scientific consensus is that drinking alcohol does indeed increase the risk of developing cancer and, as the years pass, more and more Americans are getting the message and answering “Yes.”  While alcohol consumption is decreasing, it is unclear whether or how much of the reduction is due to this knowledge and how much is due to changing tastes among people and between generations.

October 27, 2026

Food safety is at risk

According to the CDC, 48,000,000 Americans fall victim each year to foodborne illnesses.  Fortunately, most of these illnesses are not fatal and do not leave their victims with lasting problems.  But that is a big number.  A majority of those illnesses are related to produce and a lot of the produce we eat comes from Mexico.  The FDA is in charge of inspecting farms and providers of produce but it is doing a very poor job of it.  Since 2009, only a little less than 8% of the farms and facilities that provide our produce have been inspected by it.  The FDA excuses its low rate of inspections by claiming that foreign governments inspect in their countries and that the industry performs inspections as well to assure food safety.  Food safety advocates claim that the United States does not have a robust system for assuring that foreign producers are following all of the rules.  Since so much of the produce we eat is eaten raw, this is a significant problem.

October 26, 2026

Measles again

According to CDC data, the number of measles cases for 2026 has already doubled last year’s total.  This year there have already been over 4,500 confirmed cases of measles arising out of 43 new outbreaks.  According to news reports, some individuals and groups that failed to vaccinate their children against measles are having regrets.

October 20, 2026

Vaccine messaging may cost votes

A Republican congressman is warning that mixed messaging on vaccines from the Trump administration is turning away some otherwise loyal Republican voters.  Meanwhile, the United States reported 301 new measles cases in the last week.  Most of the new cases were clustered in a group of midwest states:  Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Indiana.

October 19, 2026

Be careful out there

Researchers have found that almost one-third of over-the-counter skin care products they tested contain unlisted substances which can be harmful with repeated exposure.  Some of the products tested were among the most popular skin creams.  Among the unlisted active ingredients was a corticosteroid which requires a prescription and which can cause “skin atrophy, steroid acne, dyspigmentation, hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis suppression, and other adverse outcomes.”  Needless to say, more regulatory oversight is needed.

October 16, 2026

This is crazy!

Some AI researchers are so convinced that AI is going to cure cancer that they are taking up smoking.

October 15, 2026

Quality of Life

From yesterday’s New York Times, “A 2025 study reported that the average life expectancy in the United States rose by only about six months from 2009 to 2019, while healthy life expectancy actually declined. In fact, from 2010 to 2019, the United States was the only high-income country in which healthy life expectancy decreased. Put another way, we’ve gotten slightly better at keeping people alive, Dr. Austad said, but we’ve also been ‘increasing the period of ill health at the end of life.'”

October 14, 2026

No surprise here

Women with autoimmune diseases were more likely than men to be told their conditions were psychiatric or psychosomatic in nature, according to survey data.

October 13, 2026

More Medicare Advantage Turmoil

One of the most important things to remember about Medicare Advantage is that you are dealing with an insurance company and not the Medicare program.  This means that you are at the mercy of whatever business decisions the insurance company makes and they make new decisions all the time.  If at any time, the company decides that it is not making enough money from its Medicare Advantage plans in your state or locality, it can shut them down at the end of the coverage year.  If it does not shut them down, it may decide to raise premiums or reduce benefits.  Even if it does neither of these things, it may remove your doctor or your local hospital from its list of approved providers.  As health care becomes more and more expensive, the insurance companies that offer Medicare Advantage plans are cutting back and leaving sometimes whole states with no Medicare Advantage plans or only a few.  While you can always go back to traditional Medicare, you may not be able to afford to buy the gap coverage that pays for expenses Medicare does not cover.  This is particularly true if you are older or sick or both.  This year more Medicare Advantage plans are closing than in any year before and it is hitting rural America particularly hard.  Good luck to

October 12, 2026

Kennedy orders vaccine studies

Secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., has announced an agency-wide effort to find evidence of injuries following vaccinations.  The effort is seen as the latest effort of Mr. Kennedy to reshape federal vaccine policy.  Mr. Kennedy has been a vaccine skeptic for many years.  His views directly contradict those of pediatricians and other vaccine experts about the safety and efficacy of childhood vaccinations.

October 9, 2026

Medicare v. the world

While we do not have universal health care, we do have Medicare.  One if five Americans is covered by Medicare.  A survey compared older Americans on Medicare with age matched counterparts in industrialized countries with universal health care.  The results were mixed.  Americans reported good access to care and good care delivery compared to the other countries.  Where Medicare fell down was in its cost.  It premiums, co-pays and failure to cover long term care left many Americans with unaffordable care/

October 8, 2026

More on medical debt

The high cost of medical care is a real problem and the social media is abuzz with complaints and suggestions.  According to an article in today’s Wall Street Journal, some influencers are urging their followers not to pay their hospital bills.  Other influencers offer tips for reducing hospital bills and getting hospitals to take less.  This is becoming a significant issue for hospitals which have seen unpaid bills rise 16% over the same period last year.  One possible factor in the increase in unpaid hospital bills is the fact that an unpaid medical bill under $500 is not considered in credit scoring so there is no hit to a person’s credit score, if they don’t pay a small hospital bill.

October 7, 2026

Two related stories

I have maintained for a long time that we need universal health care in this country.  No American should die because she or he cannot afford health care.  Along those lines, the percentage of Americans who support “Medicare for all”, a proxy for universal health care, now stands at 66%.  If was only 53% in 2020.  In a related note, nearly one in four Americans had medical debt last year or had a family member with medical debt.

October 6, 2026

More measles cases in Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania is in trouble.  It has reported over 1,000 measles cases so for in 2026, some of which have resulted in death.  The number of cases just this year in Pennsylvania is more than the combined total of all of the cases in the preceding thirty years.  Nationwide, there have been eight reported measles deaths in the last two years, more than the combined total in the previous thirty years.  Measles is highly contagious for those who have not been vaccinated against it.  Unfortunately, some people cannot be vaccinated against the measles and must count on the rest of us getting vaccinated to prevent the spread of the disease.  The only reason measles rates are exceeding anything in the previous thirty years is the refusal of some parents to get their children vaccinated.

October 5, 2026

Has there been a biological incident in Russia?

I don’t know whether COVID escaped from a Chinese biological warfare lab but there may be a pathogen escape problem in Siberia.  A worker at a Russian plague institute laboratory had died of pneumonia of an unknown cause.  Rumors are running rampant in Russia.  I have never had a great deal of admiration for Russian technology and worker efficiency.  As the old Soviet Union joke used to go, “They pretend to pay us and we pretend to work.”  Alcoholism is a big problem in Russia, especially in Siberia where the nights can be long and cold.  This may be all stereotypes on my part or it may be all too real.  We need to keep an eye on this story.

October 2, 2026

Human brain tissue in mouse brains

I don’t like this.  In order to study neurodevelopment of human brains, researchers are creating mice with no brain cortex and replacing that with human stem cell tissue.  The replacements have been successful but are troubling from an ethical standpoint.

October 1, 2026

Avoid that sugar (at least while taking antibiotics)

Our tummies and digestive system are home to many viruses, bacteria and fungi.  Collectively, these are known as the gut biome.  The biome is essential to good health as these little creatures take some of what we eat and produce essential short-chain fatty acids and some vitamins.  Wen we take antibiotics to address a bacterial infection, those antibiotics kill off a lot of the good gut biome as well as the bad bacteria.  A recent study shows that if patients avoid high sugar intake during antibiotic therapy, the good bacteria in the gut biome survive better than if sugar intake is high.

September 30, 2026

Why do things like this keep happening?

A 74 year old Army veteran went into the hospital in Ohio to have her cancerous right leg amputated.  Pre-operatively the surgeon correctly marked the leg to be removed.  That mark was still on the right leg after surgery but the veteran’s left leg was gone.  It did not take long for a hospital investigation to conclude this was “an avoidable mistake” and that routine procedures at the hospital to prevent things like this from happening were not followed.  The veteran had to return to the operating room to have the cancerous leg removed.  Since it was the only one left, the surgeon was able this time to remove the correct leg leaving the poor veteran as a double amputee.

September 29, 2026

Can you hear me?

It is firmly established that hearing loss increases the risk of dementia.  A recent study showed that not only can hearing aids slow the rate of cognitive impairment, for a significant minority of people with mild cognitive impairment, hearing aids can return some cognitive function to them.  Get your hearing tested.

September 25, 2026

Sex, drugs, but no rock and roll

A number of recent sad stories in the news about health care professionals being charged, tried and convicted for sexually molesting patients, adults and children, or for possessing child pornography.  On the drug side, a nurse in Maryland was sentenced to a year in prison for stealing morphine intended for a ten-year-old cardiac surgery patient.

September 24, 2026

More measles news

In light of the recent disagreement about measles deaths in Pennsylvania, it is significant that state and local medical leaders are working with the CDC to develop a uniform definition for measles death.  The state and local authorities are the ones who initiated this collaborative effort and not the CDC.  In Pennsylvania, the state has identified four deaths as being caused by measles.  The CDC, which is under the supervision of RFK, Jr., a noted vaccine skeptic, has refused to accept the diseases as due to the measles.  It lists one death nationwide due to measles and refuses to identify where in the country the death occurred.

September 23, 2026

Cancer deaths on the decline

Between 1991 and 2024, the overall rate of death from cancer declined 31%.  The primary reason for this dramatic drop is the number of people who quit smoking and reduced their risk for lung cancer.  The drop was most pronounced in the decline in lung cancer deaths.  Cancer researchers believe further drops are on the horizon, if we keep funding cancer research.

September 22, 2026

How did we die in 2024?

The national report on the causes of death in 2024 is out and contains some interesting findings.  One that struck me had to do with the number of accidental deaths.  While heart disease was the number one overall killer of Americans in 2024, until people reached the age of 45, the most common cause was accidental injury.  When it came to accidental injury, males were significantly more likely than females to die of an accidental injury.  Both of these findings suggest that young men and boys engage in riskier behavior than do women.  No surprise there.  One disturbing finding was that suicide made it into the top ten causes of death for 2024.

September 21, 2026

RSV vaccines are effective

Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is, as its name suggests, a respiratory virus that can cause serious illness and death.  Older adults are particularly susceptible.  Vaccines against RSV were introduced in 2023.  A recent study in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) found that the vaccines were quite effective.  They reduced the risk of hospitalization and death among those older than 60 by a little over 80% compared to those who did not receive a vaccine.  Get those shots.

September 18, 2026

Measles or just a coincidence?

As you may know, there is a spat between the State of Pennsylvania and the Department of Health and Human Services concerning the measles epidemic sweeping the state.  The State has reported four measles deaths related to the outbreak.   RFK, Jr., the Secretary of Health and Human Services and a long-time vaccine skeptic, has taken the position that the four deaths were due to other conditions and not to measles, even though the four decedents clearly had measles.  The State, not unreasonably, argues that this undercuts its attempts to demonstrate the significance of the outbreak and increase vaccination rates.  There does not appear to be any end in sight to either the measles outbreak or the spat.

September 17, 2026

American Diabetes Association faces boycott

The American Diabetes Association continues to be roiled by the fallout from the events at its annual meeting in June.  At that meeting, five scientists were removed by police at the request of the Association for distributing editorials condemning federal research funding cuts.  Some of the people ejected were themselves high ranking officials in the ADA, including the editor-in-chief of its flagship medical journal.  Members of the ADA and other influential figures have joined a boycott, which is intended to force leadership to investigate the events and admit its fault in sending the police to eject the researchers.

September 16, 2026

Advances in colorectal cancer screening

Colorectal cancer is having a moment.  It is the third most diagnosed cancer and the second leading cause of cancer deaths overall.  Among those under 50, it is the leading cause of cancer death.  More and more young people are getting colorectal cancer.  It can be cured, if diagnosed in time.  The current recommendations are for initial screening at age 45 for those believed to be at average risk.  Ideally, that initial screening is a colonoscopy.  More alternatives to colonoscopy are now on offer, however, and are demonstrating effectiveness, even if not at the level of the colonoscopy.  At home stool tests that look for the presence of occult blood have been shown to reduce colorectal cancer deaths by 43%.  Cologuard tests, which are widely advertised, test not only for occult blood but also for genetic markers of cancer cells.  Cologuard should be even more effective than just occult blood testing in reducing colorectal cancer deaths.  Get tested.

September 15, 2026

It’s a record

A multi-drug resistant yeast, candidozyma auris, is spreading in hospitals and extended care facilities.  A recent study found that it is getting on caregivers’ gowns and gloves and using that as a means of traveling from patient to patient.  The yeast is capable of causing severe, life-threatening infections, especially in patients who are already ill or otherwise compromised.  In the study, the yeast was able to transfer 29% of the times medical personnel interacted with an infected person.  The other two most prominent drug resistant bacteria and yeasts had transfer rates of only 16% and 10%.

September 14, 2026

????

There is a pattern to the timing of cancer diagnoses.  Over a 20 year period, cancer diagnoses were most likely to occur in January, followed by October and June.  The researchers who reviewed the records and noted the differences attribute most of them to holidays, vacations, scheduling patterns and other factors.  Because even a short delay in cancer diagnosis can result in a worsening of the cancer, it is important that diagnosis not be delayed.

September 11, 2026

More bad news about alcohol

After years of debate about whether alcohol was a net positive or a net negative, the contest is over and alcohol has lost.  The scientific consensus is that there is no amount of alcohol that is good for you and almost any alcohol is bad.  Now an observational study has shown that alcohol-related cancer deaths are increasing.  According the researchers, the surprising finding was how many cancers are made worse or brought on by alcohol consumption.

September 10, 2026

Risks associated with really hot coffee or tea

Drinking 5 or 6 really hot cups of coffee or tea a day will significantly increase your risk of esophageal cancer.  Really hot in this context means around 160 degrees Fahrenheit.  Cool down and live longer.

September 9, 2026

CTE is not just for football players

I flew jets in the Air Force.  I have the greatest respect for Naval aviators who participate in carrier operations.  It was hard enough landing a high performance jet on 10,000 feet of unmoving concrete.  It is degrees of difficulty harder to land on a pitching deck in the middle of the ocean.  To complete a successful carrier landing, Naval aviators must drive their planes onto the deck in order to catch one of the arresting wires that will slow their jet from 150 miles an hour to zero in a split second.  They also endure the physical stress of catapult launches and high G maneuvers.  It should come as no surprise that these stresses and impacts can cause the same long-term brain damage that we are recognizing more and more in football players.  A number of Naval aviators have displayed the same symptoms of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) as have football players, including depression, mood swings and suicidal ideation.  Some have committed suicide.  Congress is demanding that the Navy investigate the prevalence of these effects among long-term aviators.  We will see what happens but I wish the aviators good luck and good health.

September 8, 2026

Exercise and dementia

It turns out that there are two types of exercise.  One is good for preventing or delaying the onset of dementia while the other may actually accelerate it.  The exercise we do at the gym or when walking or jogging is the good kind of exercise that contributes to good brain health.  The exercise associated with manual labor not only does not contribute to good brain health but may actually accelerate the onset of dementia and Alzheimer’s.  Researchers believe that confounding factors associated with jobs and lifestyles that involve manual labor may be responsible for the differences but there is not enough information yet to know.

September 4, 2026

What’s that smell?

From time to time, my wife remarks about someone, usually me, smelling like an old person.  I always thought it was just the product of an overactive imagination on her part.  I was wrong.  There is science behind this.  The oils that keep our skin supple and waterproof change over time and that changes our smell, some more so than others.  The change can begin in some people as early as 40 but there is no way to prevent it.  It is just a part of aging.

September 3, 2026

Tennessee report on huge medication mix up released

The State of Tennessee has released an 80 page report on the errors that led to four surgical patients receiving potassium instead of an anesthetic.  One of the patients remains on life support.  The other three have varying degrees of paralysis below the chest.  Despite three pharmacy techs being involved in the preparation of the syringes sent to the operating rooms that morning and a final check and sign off by a pharmacist, the error went undetected until the patients began displaying neurological symptoms.  The core failure in the mix up appears to be bringing the potassium to the pharmacy shelf without properly labeling it as a high alert medication.  Sadly, we will never get rid of human error.

September 2, 2026

No surprise here

The number of people showing up at emergency rooms without insurance is increasing.  And it will go up further from here as cuts to federal insurance programs take further hold.

September 1, 2026

A cardiac warning sign for women

Misdiagnosis of a cardiac emergency happens with some frequency.  People experiencing a heart attack or severe angina are sent home with a diagnosis of a musculoskeletal problem.  The problem is even more pronounced in women.  Many doctors assume women are less likely to have a heart attack.  In addition, many women have different heart attack symptoms than men.  An often overlooked symptom is profound fatigue for which there is no obvious cause.  When someone is experiencing low blood flow to the heart or otherwise getting ready to have a major heart attack, there are almost always some warning signs.  For women, extreme fatigue is often the most common warning sign.

August 31, 2026

Another reason to avoid those high fructose drinks and foods

The evidence keeps piling up showing that some nutrients affect the growth and spread of some cancers.  The latest study showed that fructose seemed to encourage metastasis in some cancers.  Doctors caution that this does not mean that you should avoid fructose, a naturally appearing sugar in many fruits, but should avoid high fructose drinks or foods.  There is no evidence that these foods and drinks are good for you in the first place and they pose a number of other risks besides giving cancer a good home.

August 28, 2026

We are not safe anywhere anymore

Folks living in central Germany probably don’t spend too much time worrying about contracting malaria.  Perhaps with modern travel, they should.  Two workers at the Frankfurt International Airport died recently of malaria.  Health officials think they were infected by a mosquito that arrived in the hold of a cargo jet they were unloading.  We are all just one international flight away from being infected by something we never dreamed of.

August 27, 2026

Nurse pleads guilty in nursing home death

In Ohio, an 84 year old nursing home patient with memory issues wandered off without the nurse on duty noticing her absence.  She spent the night outside and died of hypothermia.  The nurse responsible for the patient realized she was not in her room but did not report her missing until the following morning.  In an unusual turn of events, the nurse was criminally charged in the woman’s death and has now pled guilty.  Both of the crimes with which she was charged are misdemeanors.

August 26, 2026

The effects of health care cuts are rippling through the system

It has been a year since Republicans in Washington passed Donald Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill.  The bill had many parts.  Among them were over $1,000,000,000,000 cut from Medicaid spending over the next ten years and elimination of premium subsidies many people used to afford health insurance in the Affordable Care marketplace.  The results are only beginning to be felt but already the number of people who have no health insurance has increased by 5 to 8 million people just in 2026.  Poor people who were covered under the Medicaid program have also lost coverage and even more will lose coverage in the coming years.  These losses in coverage mean that hospitals will encounter more patients whom they are legally obligated to treat but who have no insurance to pay for the care they will receive.  Hospitals will have to pass the costs of these uninsured patients to the rest of us or go broke.  Rural hospitals are the hardest hit and more and more of them are closing as their ability to pass on costs is limited compared to their big city cousins.

August 25, 2026

Catholic Bishops to Florida AG, “Drop dead”

This is great.  Religious exemptions for school vaccinations are spreading and vaccination rates are getting so low that there is no longer herd immunity in many locations.  Florida is one of the states that allows liberal religious exemptions and directs schools to accept any declaration by a parent that their child is refusing vaccination on religious grounds.  The only place that is resisting?  Catholic schools.  They won’t recognize claimed religious exemptions because the Catholic bishops of Florida say there is no basis in Catholic doctrine for them.  In fact, they say, the opposite is true.  Catholic doctrine requires a person to take reasonable steps to protect others, for example those who for medical reasons cannot be vaccinated.  The Florida AG has written to the bishops and told them to follow the law and respect the religious decisions of the parents in this matter.  The bishops basically told him to mind his own business and that they, not he, are the arbiters of what Catholic faith and doctrine is in the State of Florida.  If you don’t want your child exposed to the measles in Florida, send him or her to a Catholic school.  In related news, two unvaccinated people, likely children, died of measles last week in Pennsylvania.  There were no reported vaccination deaths.

August 24, 2026

Sicker enrollees head for the Medicare Advantage exits

As Medicare Advantage enrollees encountered more complex health problems, they increasingly run into the roadblocks erected by Medicare Advantage plans to keep costs down.  This is leading to more and more of these people leaving Medicare Advantage for Traditional Medicare, which does not have these barriers.  The percentage of enrollees leaving Medicare Advantage is larger in states that have guaranteed issue of Medigap coverage.  This is the coverage that pays the difference between what Traditional Medicare pays and what the actual bills are.  Without this gap coverage, it may be too expensive to leave Medicare Advantage.

August 21, 2026

Medicare Advantage is costing us a thousand billion dollars too much

The Congressional Budget Office predicts that over the next ten years the federal government will pay Medicare Advantage plans $1 trillion (Trillion with a “T”) more to take care of their patients than it would have spent if those patients had been enrolled in traditional Medicare.  There is something wrong here and we cannot afford it.

August 20, 2026

Hospital at which unnecessary surgeries were performed cuts deal

Dr. Javaid Perwaiz was an OB/GYN surgeon in Chesapeake, Virginia.  For a ten year period he lied to his patients about their medical condition and persuaded them to undergo unnecessary surgeries for which he billed Medicare and other federal programs millions of dollars.  He was caught, tried, and convicted of 52 counts of healthcare fraud and is currently serving a 59 year sentence.  Now the hospital at which he performed the unnecessary surgeries has cut a deal with the feds to avoid prosecution.  In return it must make restitution to the federal programs defrauded by Dr. Perwaiz, establish a fund to compensate his victims, and consent to a monitoring program.  Getting off easy, if you ask me.

August 19, 2026

There you are

Twenty years ago, while he was on trial for first degree sexual assault, a Rhode Island anesthesiologist disappeared.  Apparently, the search for him was never abandoned as he was recently arrested on his sailboat off the coast of New Jersey.  He had been living and working as a biotech executive for at least the last few years with some significant financial success.

August 18, 2026

Flying high

In a study that interests me as a former Air Force pilot, commercial pilots and flight attendants have the highest rates of radiation-related cancers of all occupations, even including those who work in nuclear plants.  Pilots and flight attendants are exposed to significantly more cosmic rays than we earthbound folks when they are flying at cruising altitudes above 27,000 feet.  More protection is needed for them.

August 17, 2026

Recalls, recalls, recalls

What is going on?  There are now recalls of millions of eggs, of lettuce, of tomato soup, of potato sourdough bread, of pastrami and of other luncheon meats.  The recalls are variously prompted by listeria contamination, foreign object contamination and parasitic contamination.  Food industry, get it together.

August 14, 2026

More on the cyclosporiasis outbreak

Senator Elizabeth Warren is asking the Department of Health and Human Services whether its response to the cyclosporiasis outbreak of lettuce contaminated with a parasite was influenced by the fact that Taylor Farms, the company implicated in the sale and distribution of the lettuce, was a donor to President Trump.

August 13, 2026

The Ebola outbreak continues to rage

According to the World Health Organization, the ongoing Ebola outbreak in Congo is on track to be the most deadly Ebola outbreak in history, surpassing the 11,000 dead in an outbreak over a decade ago.

August 12, 2026

The sad state of maternity care in this country

The March of Dimes is dedicated to improving the health of moms and their babies.  Its 2026 survey on maternal health issues found that over 1/3 of the counties in the United States are maternity deserts where there is not a single obstetrical clinician.  2.4 million women of reproductive age live in these counties and 149,000 infants were born there last year.  Still more women live in areas with very limited maternal care delivery options.  More than half of all counties in the U.S. lack a hospital with labor and delivery services.  Due to changes in federal law, more and more small hospitals that are the only source of maternity care in their counties are closing and more will close as the effects of the Trump administration cuts to health care spending continue to ripple outward.  As the Chief Medical Officer of the March of Dimes noted, maternity deserts do not happen by chance.  They are the result of deliberate policy choices by politicians.  We should be ashamed.

August 11, 2026

Loss of trust in the CDC

Many pediatricians and other primary care doctors used to treat the pronouncements of the CDC as God’s word.  The CDC was consistently their primary source of the latest information about health issues.  That is no longer the case according to numerous surveys.  This is especially true when it comes to vaccine recommendations.  Doctors are scrambling to find competent, trustworthy information sites to replace the CDC.  This is a tragedy for our country.

August 10, 2026

Hospital mergers hurt all of us

The data is in and is irrefutable.  Not surprisingly, it reinforces a basic principle in economics:  when a supplier of a good or service faces no competition, prices for that good or service go up.  For the last thirty years the hospital industry has been swept by a wave of mergers.  Although prices went up after these mergers, it was difficult to be sure because hospitals kept their charges secret and charged different amounts to different customers for the same procedure.  Now hospitals are required to disclose their prices and it is clear that those with little or no competition charge substantially more than hospitals in a more competitive environment. When hospitals charge more, we all pay more, even if we don’t need medical care as health insurers raise their rates for everyone to account for the higher prices.  It is long past time for the federal government to protect us against predatory mergers of hospital chains.  Bigger is not always better.

August 7, 2026

Three controllable factors to gain extra years of dementia free life

According to researchers, there are three controllable factors that significantly affect your risk of developing dementia sooner rather than later.  If you control these three factors in mid-life, you can expect 13 more dementia free years than if you do not.  The three factors are smoking, high blood pressure and diabetes.  Avoiding smoking, maintaining a healthy lifestyle with good diet, exercise, sleep and keeping your weight under control should get you those 13 extra years.

August 6, 2026

A Medicare Advantage plan organization cutting corners got caught

A management services organization located in Florida has agreed to pay Medicare a little over $14M to resolve claims that it had its employees upcode the medical conditions of beneficiaries of the Medicare Advantage plans with which it was working.  The upcoding in this case involved the review of the medical records of beneficiaries and entering codes to make them appear more sick and in need of care than they actually were.  Medicare Advantage plans receive more money from Medicare to provide care for patients who are sicker.  Under its contracts with the Medicare Advantage plans, the management services organization shared in any additional money paid to the plans by Medicare.  This gave it a financial incentive to upcode the diagnoses for the Advantage plan members.

August 5, 2026

Cyclosporiasis parasite continues to spread

The cyclosporiasis outbreak continues to spread despite the best efforts of health officials to stop it.  The CDC has identified six additional states with confirmed cases, bringing the total to 15.  The outbreak involves iceberg lettuce grown in Mexico that is infected with an intestinal parasite that causes diarrhea, bloating, stomach cramps, and profound fatigue.  There have been over 10,000 confirmed cases, over 500 hospitalizations and two deaths.  The actual number of cases is probably significantly greater than those which the CDC has been able to confirm as some people have milder symptoms and, regardless of symptom severity, some infected people do not seek medical care.

August 4, 2026

Best Hospital Rankings for Arizona 2026

U.S. News and World Report is out with its list of best hospitals in the United States for this year.  The top five best regional hospitals in Arizona, according to their rankings, are #1 Mayo Clinic Hospital, #2 Honor Health Scottsdale Shea Medical Center, #3 Banner-University Medical Center Phoenix, #4 Honor Health Scottsdale Thompson Peak Medical Center, and #5 Banner-University Medical Center Tucson.  Here is a link to the entire report.

August 3, 2026

Another consequence of a warming environment

As the climate continues to warm, various species that are harmful to us are taking advantage of environments that were not available to them in the past.  One of the problem insects for us is ticks.  They are widespread and getting worse.  They transmit a number of viral illnesses, including most commonly Lyme disease and Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, which has a nearly 20% fatality rate, if not diagnosed and treated in a timely fashion.  Another disease transmitted by ticks is Bourbon virus, for which there is no treatment and which can also be fatal.   Watch out for ticks.  They can be nearly anywhere in the outdoor environment and even inside homes.  Check your pets for ticks and check yourselves, if you have been hiking, camping or even just working in the yard.

July 31, 2026

You don’t see this very often

A Texas doctor and a health spa owner have been arrested and criminally charged in the death of a 47 year old woman, who experienced fatal complications following an IV infusion at the spa.  It is rare that medical malpractice results in a criminal charge, but this case is the exception and there appear to be good reasons why.  The doctor was the Chief Medical Officer for the spa but was almost never there and not providing any supervision.  The doctor was not present at the spa at the time of the fatal infusion.  The spa is apparently 100 miles from the area where he practices as an anesthesiologist.  The fatal IV was a prescription medication administered by the owner of the spa, who was not licensed to administer IV medication.  The medication was ordered from the manufacturer by spa personnel using the doctor’s credentials, which is not allowed.  The infusion contained potassium chloride, which has a risk of serious complications, especially if it is not administered properly.  The doctor’s license has been temporarily suspended.

July 29, 2026

More food-borne illnesses are on the way

Food safety experts are raising the alarm that more food-borne illness outbreaks are in our future due largely to cuts in federal health programs that monitor these illnesses and alert states and the public.  A federal-state program begun in the early 1990’s after some children died of e coli in hamburger meat was among the programs cut by the Trump administration last year.  The food safety people are concerned that the loss of this surveillance will allow food-borne illnesses to spread more widely before health authorities realize the threat and mobilize to take action.

July 28, 2026

Keeping it cool

GLP-1 drugs require refrigeration, as do many other vaccines and drugs.  The demand for these drugs just keeps increasing, which increases the need for delivery companies that can keep these medications cold during shipment to consumers.  The large shipping companies, FedEx and UPS, are increasing their cold storage and refrigerated delivery capabilities to be sure they don’t lose the opportunity to be a player in this burgeoning market.

July 27, 2026

Cyclosporiasis parasite

Every year there are some food-borne parasitic infections but 2026 is breaking records, primarily due to an outbreak of cyclosporiasis.  This parasite produces diarrhea in its victims.  Investigators have concluded that iceberg lettuce is the produce that is primarily responsible for transmitting the parasite.  Michigan has the highest incidence with almost 2,000 laboratory confirmed cases.  Nearby states also have higher rates than states farther away from Michigan.  Actual case numbers are likely substantially higher as many cases are not reported or are not laboratory confirmed.

July 20, 2026

Oops and oops

The parasitic outbreak that is sweeping the country has been linked to produce.  The FDA announced last week that iceberg lettuce from Taylor Farms tested positive as a source of the parasites.  The lettuce was sold to Taco Bell.  Needless to say, both companies have taken a huge financial hit.  Per the FDA now, that was a false positive finding.  It was not this lettuce that was the source of the infection.  Good luck undoing the financial harm.

Two men had DNA testing which showed that they were accidentally switched soon after birth 38 years ago at a North Dakota hospital.  They are suing the hospital.

July 17, 2026

Holding your breath is not an option

Canadian wildfires are covering large parts of the northeast and eastern United States in thick smoke.  The smoke has been described as a toxic brew of gases and particulates.  Authorities are urging residents in affected areas to stay indoors or to wear masks, if they have to go outside.

July 16, 2026

Keep it moving

An observational study from England of over 91,000 patients found that prolonged sitting was associated with an increased risk of dying of cancer.  The more often a sedentary person arose from sitting and began to perform even light tasks, the greater the reduction in the incidence of cancer deaths.

July 15, 2026

Vitamin K and bleeding in newborns

More and more parents are refusing to allow their newborn infants to receive Vitamin K shots.  This is an outgrowth of the anti-vax movement.  Vitamin K in newborns reduces the risk of bleeding, especially brain bleeding.  Now a study from Sweden of over 2,000,000 live births during a nearly 20 year period has found that children who did not receive a Vitamin K shot had a 1.5 times greater chance of experiencing a bleeding event and a nearly 3 times greater risk of an intracranial bleed.

July 14, 2026

Be the right candidate

People getting cataract surgery are often offered a number of choices for the lens the surgeon will implant.  Standard lenses are usually covered by insurance and are good for distance vision.  The patient may still need glasses for reading or close work.  Newer lenses offer more options in terms of being able to see up close as well as far away, but they cost more and are often not covered by insurance.  While the newer, more expensive lenses offer better vision, they are not for everyone.  Only those patients who are good candidates can obtain the promised benefits.  Others will be disappointed.  Some medical practices push the more expensive lenses for obvious reasons, even when they are not the best choice for the patient.  If you want the newer, more expensive lenses, be sure you get a surgeon who will spend the time necessary to fully evaluate your eyes and determine you are a good candidate for them.

July 13, 2026

This is scary

According to the World Health Organization, 80% of newly diagnosed cases of the Ebola virus in the Democratic Republic of Congo have no known relationship with existing cases of the disease.  If they had no contact with infected people, how are they getting the disease?  The most likely explanation is that the newly identified Ebola patients contracted the disease from people who had it but had not be diagnosed with it.  In other words, there are many, many people with infective Ebola walking around and infecting others.

June 22, 2026

More fake nurses on the loose

In the middle of a trial in which prosecutors showed that they had a strong case, a Florida woman pleaded guilty to selling almost 3,000 fake nursing degrees.  The woman ran two nursing schools in Florida and sold diplomas certifying successful completion to thousands of persons who had not completed the necessary coursework and training.  An undetermined number of those receiving the undeserved degrees undoubtedly used them to get state licenses to practice nursing.  It is going to take some work to identify them and take away their licenses.

June 19, 2026

Another synthetic opioid threatens us

Nitazines, a synthetic opioid, were developed in the 1950’s as a potential painkiller but were so strong that they were never approved for use.  Nitazines are 40 times stronger than Fentanyl and 100 times stronger than heroin.  They are being used in the United States as an additive to painkillers sold illegally on the street.  A drug purchaser never knows whether nitazines have been added to the drugs he is buying so has no idea how strong the drugs are.  This is leading to many accidental overdoses.  The United States has reported finding 29 different nitazines in drugs found on the street and has counted at least 1,100 fatalities related to nitazine use.  Since nitazines are not routinely tested for when a drug overdose death occurs, the actual number of nitazine-related deaths may be substantially higher.

June 18, 2026

Delayed screwworm response

The New World screwworm, a flesh eating pest which attacks cattle, is spreading through herds in Texas and New Mexico and threatening to spread even further.  The Department of Agriculture is the federal agency responsible for addressing the threat.  According to former officials there, the Trump Administration’s federal spending reviews with their resulting budget cuts and personnel losses slowed the department’s response to the screwworm threat.  The administration spokespeople say it is all Biden’s fault.

June 17, 2026

Sharing microbiota among roommates

Living with another person, even if it is not a romantic partner, requires sharing.  Turns out that we are sharing more than just the kitchen and living room.  We are also sharing our oral and gut microbiome species with our roommates.  And if the roommate is a romantic partner, we share even more of the oral microbiome than we do with non-romantic roomies.  Take care of yourself as you are sending your microbiomes to your partner.

June 16, 2026

Infant mortality rates are improving, but still have a long way to go

The infant mortality rate in the United States has dropped to its lowest level ever.  In 2025, it was slightly lower than 5.4 deaths per thousand births.  This translates to about 19,000 infant deaths in 2025.  Infant mortality is based on the number of deaths that occur in the first year of life per thousand births.  While this is certainly good news, the reality is that our rate of infant mortality lags far behind that of most of the rest of the industrialized world.  For example, it is nearly twice as high as the rates in Spain, Italy, Sweden, and Japan.

June 15, 2026

Some unfortunate chickens are coming home to roost

Two trends are coming together at a Northern Virginia hospital chain.  They are likely to happen in many other locations over next year or two.  The hospital chain has terminated the contract it had with an emergency medicine group to staff its emergency departments.  The chain is replacing the group with a private equity firm that will staff the ER’s for a lower price.  The chain emphasized that the termination was not the result of dissatisfaction with the care being provided but was made necessary by reduced Medicaid reimbursements under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act passed last summer.  It was predicted at the time that the bill would result in loss of coverage and services for many lower income people and that has proved true.  The private equity firm offered jobs to the emergency physicians whose group lost the contract, but the offers were for lower pay, fewer benefits and fewer hours.  Never underestimate the power of Congress to make our already shaky health care delivery system worse.

June 12, 2026

,People still struggling to afford health care

According to a report by the Robert Woods Johnson Foundation, regardless of insurance type, nearly half of working adults in the United States struggled to afford health care for their families.  The problems were more pronounced in black and Hispanic families.  Many families reported going without needed health care due to the cost.  We should be ashamed.

June 11, 2026

Unnecessary surgeries in Virgina

The CEO of a hospital in Chesapeake, Virginia has resigned as part of the fallout from multiple civil suits and a federal criminal complaint alleging that he and some of his predecessors allowed a surgeon at the hospital to perform unnecessary surgeries over a ten year period.  The OB/GYN surgeon whose conduct is at issue is serving a lengthy prison sentence after being convicted of multiple counts of healthcare billing fraud and exploiting his patients for monetary reasons.

June 9, 2026

What a difference a year makes

There has been a sharp drop in the percentage of Americans who trust health recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control.  A year ago, in the Spring of 2025, 77% of Americans reported that they trusted the CDC.  Today, only 50% of the population trusts the CDC.  What a shame.

June 8, 2026

Acetaminophen or ibuprofen?

Depending on the source of your pain, it may make a difference whether you take acetaminophen or ibuprofen.  Although both are pain relievers, they work differently and neither one is best for all situations.  Here is a story about how to decide which is most appropriate for your pain or problem.

June 5, 2026

Not good

Since January of 2025, 2,000,000 fewer children are enrolled in state Medicaid programs or the Children’s Health Insurance Program.  This is a serious blow to child health and has the potential to lead to increased illnesses for these children going forward and increased medical costs to society as a whole.  These losses come in advance of the reshaping of state Medicaid programs which have lost huge amounts of funding to pay for the Administrations other programs and tax cuts.  Many, many more children will lose coverage as the effects of these cuts become manifest.

June 4, 2026

Bad news, good news

The bad news is that the birth rate in the United States declined by 1% last year.  This decline is in keeping with worldwide trends among industrialized nations.  We need these new members of society to sustain our economic productivity and to care for our aging population.  The good news is that most of the decline was driven by a 7% drop in teen pregnancies.  Teen pregnancies are rarely a good thing.

June 3, 2026

GLP-1 inhibitors reduce the need for knee replacement

Taking GLP-1 receptor agonists is not only associated with significant weight loss, it is also associated with a reduced incidence of knee replacement.  And the longer a person takes the drugs, the greater the reduction in the likelihood of a knee replacement.  However, due to a lack of data, it is not clear whether the reduced incidence of knee replacement is due to the effects of weight loss alone or due to some other effect of the drugs.  Lots more to learn about these drugs.

June 2, 2026

The decline vaccinations is starting to bite

Doctors are seeing a surge of diseases most of them have never or only rarely ever seen before.  Almost all of them are diseases which were nearly unheard of during our period of mass vaccination.  Many of the diseases are appearing in children whose parents chose not to vaccinate them or who are too young to have been vaccinated.  The fact that most doctors have not seen these diseases before or only rarely presents diagnostic challenges.  More tests are necessary, more antibiotics are necessary and hospitalizations are longer as a result.  It is not just children.  Doctors report more adults who refuse tetanus shots after suffering an injury which might have exposed them to tetanus,  Roughly one in ten people who develop tetanus will die.  As the rate of vaccinations continues to decline, herd immunity will be lost and these diseases will become far more common.

June 1, 2026

Inhaled insulin product approved by the FDA

The FDA has approved the first inhaled insulin product for children and adolescents with Type 1 diabetes.  According to the company that makes it, inhaled insulin more naturally mimics the body’s production of insulin in response to changing blood sugar levels associated with mealtimes and snacks.  Inhaled insulin reaches the body more quickly than injected insulin and is suggested as a means of dealing with unplanned meals or snacking.

May 21, 2026

Surgery is a tough business

A study published in the Journal of the American College of Surgeons found that over an eight year period, 10% all surgeons left the practice of surgery.  This is a troubling figure and points to a loss of access to good surgical care.

May 20, 2026

What are they thinking?

The Trump administration is considering a plan to automatically enroll 65-year-olds in a Medicare Advantage plan instead of in traditional Medicare.  Republicans continue to argue that Medicare Advantage plans, which are run by the largest insurance companies, are more efficient and less costly than traditional Medicare.  This assertion flies in the face of the recent finding by the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission that in 2025 the system paid $76 billion more for care for Medicare Advantage enrollees than if the same people had received their care through traditional Medicare.

May 19, 2026

FDA analysis of pediatric deaths after Covid vaccination

The FDA conducted an analysis of all pediatric deaths following the administration of a Covid shot.  Before the actual data was released at the insistence of Senator Ron Johnson, the FDA had stated that at least ten children died as the result of a Covid shot.  The actual data told a different story.  After 137 million shots being administered to children under the age of 12, there were no deaths that were certainly the result of a Covid shot.  There were five deaths that were possibly related and two that were probably related, but even as to the two that were “probably” related, other causes could not be ruled out.  All of the deaths involved cardiac issues.  Anti-vaxxers are alive, well and driving policy at the FDA.

May 18, 2026

It’s not us, it’s them

As health care costs continue to rise, lawmakers are under increasing pressure to do something about the problem.  Drugmakers and health insurance companies do not want to be in the crosshairs when Congress finally acts so they are throwing hospitals under the bus.  According to them, it is hospitals that are the driver of the rapidly increasing costs and hospitals that should be the subject of any regulation coming out of Washington.  Hospitals are not amused.

May 13, 2026

GLP-1 inhibitors may have a beneficial impact in breast cancer

A 10-year-long observational study found lower all cause mortality in breast cancer patients who took GLP-1 inhibitors.  While there may be something here, critics point out that this was an observational study only, that similar benefits have not been reported by other studies, and that there were plenty of possible confounding factors that might explain the mortality results.  Lots more to study and learn about GLP-1 inhibitors, but there is plenty to be encouraged about.

May 12, 2026

Diet Coke kills cancer cells?

President Trump has a known affinity for Diet Coke.  So do I, but I don’t  justify my preference by claiming that, since Diet Coke kills grass, it must also kill cancer cells in the body.  According to Dr. Oz, that is one of the president’s excuses for drinking a lot of Diet Coke.

May 11, 2026

Cruise ship viruses

Oceangoing cruise ships put you in pretty close contact with a lot of other people for days at a time.  Viral outbreaks are not uncommon.  Another Norovirus outbreak has already sickened over a hundred passengers on a Princess Cruise.  Less common is the Hantavirus outbreak on an oceangoing vessel known for its stringent health protocols.  Normally, Hantavirus cannot be transmitted from person to person, but this Andean variant can.  Hantavirus is normally spread through the droppings of infected mice.  It is believed that the source of the virus on the vessel was two passengers who embarked in Argentina and were probably already infected.  Sadly, they both died of the infection while the vessel was sailing in the Atlantic Ocean.  Other passengers were sickened and one died.  All passengers are being disembarked and isolated for observation and treatment.  There is no cure for Hantavirus but supportive measures can help.

May 8, 2026

Only 20 states are well-prepared to respond to a health emergency or natural disaster

Trust for America’s Health, a non-profit focused on health and wellness in the United States, publishes an annual list of those states which are prepared to respond to a health or natural disaster emergency.  Only twenty states are in the top tier of state’s well-prepared to respond.  See where your state is and do something about it, if it is not in the top tier.

May 7, 2026

Hospital Safety Grades

Leapfrog Group is a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting safety in the hospital setting.  It publishes safety grades for hospitals across the country.  Its latest grades are out and a number of Arizona hospitals earned an A rating.  The grades are based upon a review of errors, accidents, injuries and infections.  As the Leapfrog group points out, a hospital may have the best surgeons, but if it cannot keep its patients safe before and after the operation, it is failing in its responsibilities.

May 6, 2026

Loss of trust

For many, many years Americans had great trust in the Food and Drug Administration.  Sadly, that trust is getting to be a thing of the past.  The head of the Department of Health and Human Services is a known vaccine skeptic.  He has influenced FDA policies with regard to vaccines in ways that align with his skepticism rather than actual science.  The most recent news is that the FDA has withdrawn studies showing the effectiveness and safety of the Covid-19 and shingles vaccines.

May 5, 2026

There is a new narcotic on the street

There is a new narcotic on the street and it is bad.  It is a synthetic opioid and is ten times as powerful as Fentanyl, which is itself a very powerful and dangerous drug.  The new drug is an orphine and it comes in several varieties.  It can cause very rapid respiratory failure and unconsciousness.  Some users just keel right over.  Although it can be reversed with Narcan (Naloxone), it will probably require multiple doses due to its strength.  It cannot be detected with routine drug tests and is therefore hard to interdict.  It is highly addictive.  As with Fentanyl, it is being used most often as an additive to other illicit drugs, such as methamphetamine, but may also be distributed standing alone.  Because its users are probably not expecting it, it can surprise them and cause overdoses in even cautious drug addicts.  Beware.  You never know how strong a street drug is before you take it.

May 4, 2026

It’s the hospitals, stupid

Study after study shows that the biggest driver of health care costs in the United States is hospital bills.  Since 2000, they have increased three times faster than inflation.  They have increased faster than prescription drug prices and faster than the cost of visits to the doctor.  The surge is due to reduced competition among hospitals as merger fever has gripped the sector.  There have been over 1,300 hospital mergers since 2000.  It is time to rein them in.

April 14, 2026

The red light is on

Turns out there is an actual scientific basis for some of the claims being made for red light therapy.  It can help address a number of conditions, including pattern hair loss, skin aging, cold sores, some types of inflammation, and some bodily responses to radiation and chemotherapy.  The FDA has also recently approved its marketing for treatment of dry age-related macular degeneration.  That said, caution is advised as marketers of red light devices often make wildly exaggerated claims for their products.  If you can name a condition, someone will promise that their red light treatment will fix it for you.  Here is a good article about the uses of red light and some caveats and suggestions.

April 13, 2026

Achieving Poophoria

Forty percent of Americans have bowel issues that affect their daily lives.  Here is a book by a gastroenterologist about how to achieve “poophoria,” or ideal pooping comfort and bowel health.  Dr. Trisha Pasricha offers tips in her book about how to have pain-free pooping and a healthy gut.  It starts with eating enough fiber.  Most of us don’t.  Also, don’t spend more than 5 minutes sitting on the throne or you increase your chances of developing painful hemorrhoids.  Avoid highly processed foods as those increase the likelihood of developing irritable bowel syndrome.

April 3, 2026

Bacteria continue to develop antibiotic resistance

Chlorhexidine digluconate (CHG) is a widely used antiseptic in medical intensive care units and elsewhere in hospital environments.  As with so many other antibiotics, it appears it is losing its effectiveness and, as a result, many bacteria are spreading in hospitals and sickening patients.  The resistant bacteria are spreading on surfaces and through the air.  Drains are of particular concern as breeding grounds for resistant and tolerant bacteria.

April 2, 2026

A new variation of Covid-19 is spreading

Covid-19 is still with us, even though we don’t hear that much about it these days.  Covid is highly changeable and is continually developing new mutations, which defeat to a certain extent current vaccines and past immunity.  Fortunately, it has been around long enough that most people have developed some immunity, either due to getting Covid or receiving a vaccine.  This means that, while someone may still contract Covid, the disease will not be as severe as it was when the entire population of the world was exposed to it for the first time.  The latest variation has been named Cicada and is spreading throughout the world, including the United States.  Right now it is being monitored but does not appear to be causing more severe illness than the other strains which are circulating.  If you are at high risk of developing a severe illness if you get Covid, get a booster shot of the vaccine at the beginning of the summer when Covid seems to spread more easily.

April 1, 2026

Health care coverage for all!

In a surprise move, the House and Senate have unanimously passed legislation guaranteeing health care coverage for all Americans.  President Trump is expected to sign the landmark bill into law later today.  Universal health care should not be an April Fools joke, but it is.

In actual news, 450 hospitals face closure or serious reductions in services as a result of cuts in health care spending made by President Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill.  The cuts were necessary to pay for the tax cuts that were both enacted and extended by the bill.  The joke is that health care coverage is being reduced for Americans instead of expanded.

March 31, 2026

Pay to play pardons

A clear pattern has developed when it comes to pardons issued by President Trump:  Pay to Play.  If you have made a lot of money from defrauding the government and regular citizens and are willing to spend some of that money benefiting President Trump or his family or in hiring high powered and well-connected lobbyists, you may get a pardon, which includes wiping away your obligation to repay the government and other people whom you defrauded.  Good for you but bad for the taxpayers and the others defrauded by you.  Isn’t it great to be rich?

March 30, 2026

What if we lost vaccine access?

There is a truly frightening model out there showing what would likely happen in this country over the next 25 years, if vaccines for polio, measles, rubella and diphtheria were no longer available.  Nearly 300,000 would die from measles and 23,000 would be paralyzed by polio.  Mothers who develop rubella early in pregnancy have a 90% chance of delivering a baby with congenital heart defects, blindness or deafness, or all three.  About a third of those babies would die before their first birthday.  Diptheria would likely take the lives of 138,000 people over 25 years, if access to the vaccine were lost.  Vaccine policies in the United States might cause some vaccine manufacturers to no longer sell their vaccines here.

March 25, 2026

The pesticide-laden Dirty Dozen

Agriculture uses a lot of pesticides to get our produce to the table.  If you are not eating only organic produce, you are being exposed to pesticides, but not all produce is equally affected.  The Environmental Working Group, a health non-profit, publishes a list each year of the produce that contains the most pesticides, “The Dirty Dozen.”  This year’s list is led by spinach, kale and mustard greens, strawberries and grapes.  The EWG also publishes a “Clean Fifteen,” the produce items with the smallest amounts of pesticides.

March 24, 2026

It is not just vaccine skepticism

It isn’t just vaccines that some parents are refusing for their children.  According to pediatricians, they are seeing a range of important newborn interventions refused by parents who are buying in to vaccine and science skepticism.  For example, Vitamin K shots, which have been used without problem since the early 1960’s to prevent potentially deadly bleeding, are being refused by some parents.  Ditto for Hepatitis B shots and an eye ointment to prevent blindness.  Parents, your children depend on you.  Get the facts and weigh the benefits against the risks.

 

March 23, 2026

Protect your eyes

Your eyes can get sunburned.  It can happen anytime you are in sunny conditions.  Think the beach or the ski slopes.  The damage manifests itself as eye pain, redness and light sensitivity.  It will usually heal over the next couple of days, but repeated injury can cause long-term damage.  Ophthalmologists recommend that anytime you need sunscreen, you also need sunglasses that protect against UV rays.

March 20, 2026

Obesity drug trials are in trouble

The best form of drug trial is a double-blind study in which participants are randomly assigned to take either the subject drug or a placebo.  Results are then compared by researchers who are also blinded to who is actually receiving the drug and who is receiving the placebo.  The problem for the obesity drug trials is that the drugs are so effective, those who are taking the placebo can figure it out pretty quickly when they don’t lose any weight.  Many of the placebo-assigned patients are then choosing to drop out of the tests and get the real weight loss medication.

March 19, 2026

It used to be cigarette butts

There is a new form of litter taking over bars and pretty much everywhere else.  It is the nicotine pouch.  These are small pouches containing nicotine salts and are used by many people as a substitute for smoking.  The pouches have soared in popularity.  Sales rose by 641% between 2019 and 2022.  All those used pouches have to go somewhere and, unfortunately, that somewhere is not usually the trashcan.  Bars are the worst.  There you will find used pouches on the floor, in the urinal, in empty and partly empty glasses and stuck to the underside of tables.  People who would never think of littering spit these out anywhere.  They apparently don’t think of these pouches as littering, perhaps because of their small size.  It is a big problem that is only getting bigger.

March 18, 2026

Medical record abuse

One of the intended advantages of the use of electronic medical records (EMR) is their portability.  A patient can access his or her records on line.  One doctor can send the patient’s records to another doctor in a matter of seconds.  It is easy for a current health care provider to get access to the patient’s old records.  Unfortunately, that very portability makes it easier for scammers and bad actors to get access to what should be confidential medical information.  Recently, Epic, a major provider of EMR software, sued a company that was mining confidential medical records and then sending the information to personal injury law firms, which used the information to recruit the patients as clients.  This does not appear to be an isolated incident.  All involved should be prosecuted.

March 17, 2026

Fibermaxxing

Apparently it is a thing on social media and refers to eating lots and lots of fiber.  It is not only a thing, it is a good thing.  Very few people get enough fiber in their diet.  The more fiber the better, according to gastroenterologists.  Just make sure to get it in as unprocessed a form as possible.

March 16, 2026

A small price to pay

Federal law prohibits drug manufacturers from paying or otherwise rewarding doctors for prescribing their products.  This practice has been found to increase prescriptions and the cost of health care.  Notwithstanding the law, drug companies continue to give these kickbacks to doctors.  When the government discovers a kickback scheme, it fines the drug company or enters into a settlement with the company in which the company makes a payment to the government.  A recent study of the fines and payments over a period of 2020 to 2025 shows, however, that the fines and payments amounted to only 2% of the revenue generated by the kickbacks.  This is a ludicrously small penalty and only applies to those companies that got caught.  Given these numbers, drug companies are fools not to engage in kickback schemes.

March 12, 2026

Americans are cutting back to pay for health care

Gallup routinely surveys Americans about various subjects, including the effects of health care costs.  Even before the expiration of the premium subsidies for those buying ACA plans and the cutting of Medicaid enrollment, health care costs have been rising and affecting the lives of everyday Americans.  These recent changes are expected to significantly add to health care costs.  Gallup’s most recent survey found that nearly one-third of respondents reported cutting back on a wide range of other expenses and borrowing to pay for health care.  It is only going to get worse.

March 11, 2026

The safest hospitals in Arizona

Every year Healthgrades identifies the top 10% of hospitals in the United States that have the lowest rate of occurrence of 13 preventable patient safety events.  There are eight this year in the state of Arizona.  In no particular order they are:  Banner Ocotillo Medical Center; St. Joseph’s Hospital; Oasis Hospital; Arizona Spine and Joint Hospital; Western Arizona Regional Medical Center; Havasu Regional Medical Center; The CORE Institute Specialty Hospital; and the Mayo Clinic Hospital.

March 10, 2026

Weekend catch up sleep is bad for your health

We continue to learn more about the importance of good sleep habits to our overall health.  One of the health risks we face is insulin resistance, a condition in which the body produces insulin in response to the presence of glucose in the blood, but the body can no longer use it effectively.  This can lead to the development of Type 2 diabetes.  Recent studies show that getting right around 8 hours of sleep a night is ideal for avoiding insulin resistance.  Using the weekend to catch up on missed sleep during the week is associated with an increased risk of insulin resistance.  Too much sleep is bad for you as is too little.  Be like Goldilocks and choose just the right amount.

March 6, 2026

Polio virus travel warning

The polio virus is circulating in some countries and even people who have been immunized against polio may want to take precautions, according to the CDC.  The countries include many of the usual suspects from the less-developed world but also some European countries, including Germany, Finland, Spain, the United Kingdom, and Poland.  The CDC recommends that you be sure your polio immunization is up to date before visiting these countries and that you may wish to consider a lifetime booster dose of the polio vaccine.

March 5, 2026

Healthcare effects of the attack on Iran

Among the impacts on healthcare from the attack on Iran, authorities are warning hospitals to be on the alert for cyberattacks by Iranian actors.  Additionally, some health products manufactured in India are being delayed because of the risks associated with shipping through the Strait of Hormuz.  More disruptions likely to follow, if this drags on.

March 4, 2026

Avoid ultraprocessed foods for your young child

A study of over 2,000 Canadian children found that the higher the amount of ultraprocessed foods a 3 year-old child consumed, the greater the likelihood of adverse behavioral and emotional symptoms at age 5.  Never seems to be any good news when it comes to ultraprocessed foods, but there sure is a lot of bad news.

March 3, 2026

Get your colorectal cancer screening, youngster

According to the American Cancer Society, nearly half of all new colorectal cancer diagnoses are made in adults under the age of 65.  This is a significant shift in the age at diagnosis.  Researchers are not sure what is driving the increased diagnoses among younger adults, but believe it is likely due to environmental factors, including diet and widespread use of antibiotics in the food supply.  By way of contrast, colorectal cancer diagnoses and deaths have been declining among those over 65 due to increased screening, which leads to prevention or early detection.  Doctors are now recommending routine screening beginning at age 45 for those at average risk.  Colonoscopy is the gold standard for colorectal cancer screening.

March 2, 2026

It isn’t just CTE football players need to worry about

A cross-sectional study of almost 4,000 football players showed that the more years a person played and the higher the level of play, the more likely the person was to do poorly on computerized cognitive function tests and to display neuropsychiatric symptoms.  Compared with controls, the football players also displayed more depressive symptoms and had more subjective concerns about their cognition.  “These findings support an association between football play and worse later-life cognitive and neuropsychiatric function.” wrote the researchers.

February 24, 2026

The canary in the coal mine

Infectious diseases experts are calling the measles epidemic breaking out across the United States “the canary in the coal mine” because its existence means that vaccination rates are down and that other highly contagious diseases are soon to follow.  Children usually get vaccinated for a number of communicable diseases at the same time.  If they are not getting their measles’ vaccination, it is unlikely they are getting the others either.  Doctors expect to see an increasing number of cases of whooping cough, polio, meningitis, rotavirus, rubella, tetanus, and RSV.  Another example of humans ruining a perfectly good scientific advance out of ignorance or lack of concern for others.

February 23, 2026

Pot not so harmless for adolescents

Cannabis use among adolescents was linked to a significantly increased risk of developing bipolar, psychotic, anxiety and depressive disorders by age 26 according to a recent study.

February 20, 2026

Judge orders takeover of Arizona prison health care

A Federal District Court judge has ordered that Arizona give up control of health care in its prison system.  The lawsuit out of which this order arises has been going on for 14 years.  In the suit, prisoners allege the state provides inadequate medical care to them which violates their constitutional rights.  In 2022, the judge found in favor of the prisoners and ordered the state to make changes and to improve care.  She has now concluded that the state has failed to follow her orders and has forfeited the right to continue to control health care delivery in the prison system.  The state has 60 days to submit a list of candidates to assume control of the health care delivery.

February 19, 2026

Exercise is truly the wonder drug

Our bodies were meant to move.  Millions of years of evolution cannot be denied.  It has been shown to reduce the risk of many diseases, to improve mood and even to protect against dementia.  Cancer patients can benefit as well.  Cancer survival rates improved with exercise, even for sedentary patients who did not begin to exercise until after their diagnosis.  Hit the gym or just go walking.

February 18, 2026

Only in Medicare Advantage

While it can never happen in traditional Medicare, people in Medicare Advantage plans can discover that the insurance company sponsoring their plan has decided to shut it down for economic reasons.  This is called “forced disenrollment” and means that the participant must find another plan willing to take him or her or must enroll with traditional Medicare, if they can afford to do so.  The rate of forced disenrollment has been increasing for a couple of years.  It was 1% as recently as 2024, almost 7% last year and is 10% this year.  That is a lot of forced disenrollments.  As is so often the case in health care, rural residents got the short end of the stick and had higher rates of forced disenrollment than their city-living counterparts.  For example, almost 92% of Medicare Advantage participants living in Vermont lost their coverage as insurers fled the state.  For those forced to find other coverage, the change may mean they can no longer see their doctor or may no longer have access to the same formulary of approved medications.  The sicker the participant is, the harder it will be to find a good substitute for their lost coverage.

February 17, 2026

“Medical Freedom” means more preventable deaths among children

The South Carolina measles outbreak is fast becoming the largest outbreak in the United States in the last thirty years.  Doctors are being forced to see suspected measles patients in the hospital parking lot to prevent transmission to crowded ER waiting rooms.  They blame the outbreak on lower rates of immunization brought on by demands for “medical freedom,” reaction to the Covid pandemic, misinformation about vaccines on social media and anti-vax activities by the agencies overseen by noted anti-vaxxer RFK, Jr.  There have been almost 1,000 cases so far with more to come.  Health experts are also predicting outbreaks of other infections for which we have effective vaccines.

February 14, 2026

Read, read, read

Lifelong learning, reading, visiting museums, doing puzzles are all tied to a significant reduction in the risk of developing Alzheimer’s and dementia.  If someone who did these things over the course of their life did get Alzheimer’s or dementia, it usually came on later in life and was milder.  Story is here.

February 13, 2026

Colorectal cancer a leading cause of death in young people

The rate of colorectal cancer among young people is skyrocketing.  It is now the third leading cause of death among young adults.  The rate is increasing by about 2% per year.  The increase is believed due to sedentary lifestyle, lack of exercise, and increased consumption of highly processed foods and red meat.  Eat that fiber, young people.

February 12, 2026

Mass Gathering Medicine

Mass Gathering Medicine is the name given to the specialists who plan for the inevitable medical needs that arise during mass gatherings, such as the Olympics.  As you would expect, a lot of planning goes into preparing for the arrival of hundreds of thousands of spectators, athletes and support personnel.  The arriving people must be fed, housed and transported.  Some will get sick and some will be injured.  There may even be a mass casualty event that could result from fire, stampede, building collapse, natural disaster, or terrorism.  The Mass Gathering Medicine specialists must anticipate all of these and develop a plan for dealing with them.

February 11, 2026

Trump to end protections against greenhouse gasses

The Trump administration is rescinding the finding that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gasses endanger human health by causing the climate to change.  The move is being billed as a massive deregulation that will save consumers over a trillion dollars, mostly in lower car prices as there will no longer be a need to meet pollution standards.  Legal challenges are a certainty.

February 10, 2026

New law limits Pharmacy Benefit Managers

President Trump has signed legislation that greatly limits the economic impact of pharmacy benefit managers (PBM’s).  PBM’s are another good idea gone bad.  They were created to negotiate drug prices with manufacturers so as to obtain reduced prices and discounts for the health plans and health insurers that hired them.  They were compensated by keeping a portion of any discounts they obtained.  In practice, PBM’s increased prices for everyone.  Drug manufacturers increased list prices so they would have room to negotiate.  PBM’s benefited from high list prices as they could claim they obtained large discounts.  Those without insurance ended up stuck with the high list prices rather than the prices the drug manufacturer would have charged but for the presence of the PBM’s.  Under the new law, PBM’s won’t be able to link compensation to discounts and must pass discounts on to the health plan or insurer.

February 3, 2026

Timing is everything

The human body is a wondrous machine about which we still know so little.  A recent example is a study reported out of France involving lung cancer patients receiving immunochemotherapy.  Those patients who received their therapy in the morning lived twice as long as those who received their therapy in the afternoon or evening.  The researchers believe this effect is due to the increased presence of immune system cells in the body in the morning hours due to the effects of the circadian rhythms of the body’s cells themselves.  These immune system cells are able to absorb the therapy and have a greater beneficial effect.  The beauty of the finding is that it provides a more effective treatment without increasing costs at all.  All you have to do is change the timing of the therapy to gain and improvement.

February 2, 2026

Direct to consumer tests are not protected by federal privacy laws

More and more Americans are choosing to take a direct hand in their health care and order testing for all sorts of conditions directly from private vendors.  Privacy advocates are cautioning that the results of these tests are not protected by the same federal laws that protect confidential patient information and that the results may be bought and sold among commercial interests to the great detriment of the customer.  For example, genetic information may be accessed by life insurers and used to deny life insurance to certain people or to raise premiums for them.

January 21, 2026

Medicare continues to negotiate drug prices

As part of the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, Medicare was finally authorized to negotiate drug prices with manufacturers.  It was only allowed to negotiate prices on 10 drugs each year and the negotiated prices would not take effect for the first time until 2026.  Among the drugs for which price reductions were negotiated were insulin, Jardiance, Xarelto and Eliquis.  The savings are expected to save Medicare beneficiaries $1.5 billion.  A second set of drug prices were negotiated last year and go into effect in 2027.  Medicare is currently negotiating a third set of ten drugs for 2028.

January 10, 2026

HHS is changing childhood vaccination policy

Robert Kennedy, Jr. is a longstanding vaccine skeptic.  He has appointed numerous other vaccine skeptics to important positions for making vaccine policy.  The HHS entitites to which he has appointed people have recommended doing away with certain childhood immunizations.  Medical groups, including pediatrician groups, have resolved to continue to recommend the usual vaccinations to their parents.

January 1, 2026

GLP-1 weight loss is not permanent

Researchers have found that weight loss produced by GLP-1 inhibitors is not permanent.  They now believe that obesity is a chronic condition and that to continue to maintain the weight loss brought on by GLP-1 medications, the patient must continue to take them indefinitely.