More on Milk
By MARK BITTMANNot surprisingly, experiences like mine with dairy, outlined in my column of two weeks ago, are more common than unusual, at least according to the roughly 1,300 comments and e-mails we received since then. In them, people outlined their experiences with dairy and health problems as varied as heartburn, migraines, irritable bowel syndrome, colitis, eczema, acne, hives, asthma ("When I gave up dairy, my asthma went away completely"), gall bladder issues, body aches, ear infections, colic, "seasonal allergies," rhinitis, chronic sinus infections and more. (One writer mentioned an absence of canker sores after cutting dairy; I realized I hadn't had a canker sore - which I've gotten an average of once a month my whole life - in four months. Something else to think about.)
Although lactose intolerance and its generalized digestive tract problems are well documented, and milk allergies are thought to affect perhaps 1 percent of the American population, the links between milk (or dairy) and such a broad range of ailments has not been well studied, at least by the medical establishment.
Yet if you speak with people who've had these kinds of reactive problems, it would appear that the medical establishment is among the last places you'd want to turn for advice. Nearly everyone who complained of heartburn, for example, later resolved by eliminating dairy, had a story of a doctor (usually a gastroenterologist) prescribing a proton pump inhibitor, or P.P.I., a drug (among the most prescribed in the United States) that blocks the production of acid in the stomach.
But - like statins - P.P.I.s don't address underlying problems, nor are they "cures." They address only the symptom, not its cause, and they are only effective while the user takes them. Thus in the last few days I've read scores of stories like mine, some of which told of involuntary or incidental withdrawal of dairy from the diet - a trip to China (where milk remains less common), or a vacation with non-milk-drinking friends or family - when symptoms disappeared, followed by their return upon resumption of a "normal" diet.
Silicon Valley Surgeons Risk ‘Moral Authority’ for 200% Returns
By - Jul 19, 2012
The anesthesiolgists’ ball in December 2010 was already raging when Dr. Thomas Elardo and his wife arrived. It was 11 p.m., and the Opera House in downtown Los Gatos, California, was packed with nurses and doctors dancing to ’80s covers by The Microbes, an all-doctor band. Elardo climbed the stairs to the mezzanine bar and was immediately gladhanded by Bobby Sarnevesht, a local entrepreneur, and orthopedist Samir Sharma, who pulled Elardo aside.
Elardo had known Sharma for years, but the orthopedist had never given him the time of day. That night was different -- he had something to show Elardo. At the bar, Sharma flaunted a $960,000 check, Elardo recalls. Sharma said it was for his work as a surgeon and investor in an outpatient surgery center in Los Gatos, operated by Sarnevesht.
“They were saying, ‘This is the kind of money you can make. You’ve gotta come in!” recalls Elardo. “I was speechless.”
Patient harm at Maine hospitals going unreported, studies find
Posted July 24, 2012, at 7:07 p.m.
Hospitals are failing to report many cases of patients being harmed during medical treatment, even in states such as Maine where reporting is mandatory, according to a new national study.
Half of states have reporting systems for “adverse events,” such as medication errors or surgery on the wrong body part, but few of those incidents are brought to authorities’ attention, according to a July 19 report by the U.S. Health and Human Services’ Office of Inspector General.
Maine counted 163 such events in 2011, largely “unanticipated deaths,” according to a June report that found “serious under-reporting” in the state. The finding was drawn from national health care quality data that estimate adverse event rates based on factors such as hospitals’ sizes, the number of procedures performed and the community’s population, according to Joe Katchick, a registered nurse who monitors the reporting program in the Department of Health and Human Services’ Division of Licensing and Regulatory Services.
Maine’s 2002 Medicaid expansion saved lives, study says
Posted July 25, 2012, at 8:55 p.m.
WASHINGTON — States that expand their Medicaid programs under President Barack Obama’s health care law may end up saving thousands of lives, a medical journal report released Wednesday indicates.
Until now, the Medicaid debate has been about budgets and states’ rights. But a statistical study by Harvard researchers in the New England Journal of Medicine found a 6 percent drop in the adult death rate in Maine, Arizona and New York, three states that have recently expanded coverage for low-income residents along the general lines of the federal health care law.
The study found that for every 176 adults covered under expanded Medicaid, one death per year would be prevented.
“Policymakers should be should be aware that major changes in Medicaid — either expansions or reductions in coverage — may have significant effects on the health of vulnerable populations,” wrote the researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health.
Medicaid is a federal-state program for low-income and severely disabled people. It covers about 60 million people in the United States. The new law assigned Medicaid a major role in expanding coverage, accounting for about half the 30 million uninsured people expected to gain insurance as a result of the health overhaul.
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