by wmfa | Jun 1, 2017 | Health
More on Vitamins and Dietary Supplements There are fat soluble vitamins (ADEK), and water soluble vitamins (B and C). Generally the water soluble vitamins are safe as we process out what we do not need through the kidneys. On the other hand, we must be careful with...
by wmfa | May 1, 2017 | Health
On Vitamins and Dietary Supplements Last year the Institute of Internal Medicine came out with a report that said you can save your money on daily multivitamins as they do not work to prevent morbidity or mortality; since then I have noticed an enormous increase in 1V...
by wmfa | Apr 1, 2017 | Health
On Overdiagnosis I highly recommend Dr. Gilbert Welch’s book “Over-diagnosed: making people sick in the pursuit of health.” In it he talks about patients getting caught up in a cascade of overdiagnosis. I once had a patient who went to the ER for an upper respiratory...
by wmfa | Mar 1, 2017 | Health
On Antibiotic Resistance I completed my family practice residency in Latrobe in 1999. In my last year our practice admitted three cases of rheumatic fever to hospital. I was the senior resident on two of those cases. Rheumatic fever comes from an untreated strep...
by wmfa | Feb 1, 2017 | Health
On Health Care Spending The oldest patient I ever had lived to be over 100 years old. She was small and frail a bit stooped, but was she remarkably healthy with no real medical problems, and her mind was delightfully sharp. In the last year of her life she developed...
by wmfa | Jan 1, 2017 | Health
On the Perils of Prescribing Before my daughter entered medical school I urged her to study hard and read widely so as to kill as few patients as possible. Her eyes grew wide – but we save lives! Yes, but we also kill, both through human error and by following the...
