… Read the restA child born in a Glasgow, Scotland suburb can expect a life 28 years shorter than another living only 13 kilometres away. A girl in Lesotho is likely to live 42 years less than another in Japan. In Sweden, the risk of a woman dying during pregnancy and childbirth is 1 in 17 400; in Afghanistan, the odds are 1 in 8.
Category Archives: Public health
Prostate Cancer Screening: Not Worth The Money?
There’s been quite a shift in official recommendations regarding the popular PSA blood test. As most men know, this is by far the most popular screening test for prostate cancer. The problem, as I’ve mentioned before, is that the PSA test is not only poor at finding real cancers, it’s also bad at creating many falsely positive tests.… Read the rest
Wrinkles: Do Any Medicines Help?
Here’s a fun topic; what can we do to prevent wrinkles? It may be a “fluffy” doctor topic but it certainly is relevant to people. So, let’s review what actually works; maybe you’ll save yourself a lot of money after reading this.… Read the rest
Do You Know "The 3 Fives" of Healthy Choices?
HB3RFF6NWYUE The World Health Organization websites have a treasure trove of information, but sometimes it’s hard to dig through it all. So here’s a good campaign you may have missed: Before the Olympics, the WHO Department of Food Safety teamed up with China’s Ministry of Health and Beijing’s Food Safety Administration to create a series of public wellness articles on a them of “healthy choices, healthy life”.… Read the rest
Fruits & Pesticides: Are Supermarkets Safe?
I’ve had a couple posts regarding pesticides and fruits, and have a follow up now. In early spring, Greenpeace China published results of their private testing of fruits in major markets in some cities, including Beijing, and found many pesticides.… Read the rest
Is Primary Care Doomed?
There is a lot of press these days about the messy state of health care in the US. One issue less apparent now but a major issue in the future is the shrinking percentage of medical school graduates entering primary care (family medicine, pediatrics, internal medicine).… Read the rest