Category: Interesting Links
Jan 14, 2010 | 5 comments | by John Goodman
Huge Price Jump in Brand-Name Meds, Doctor Payments Lowered, and Amish Exempt from Obama Mandate
Getting ready for health reform: The prices of 416 brand-name medicines have increased by 100%−499%.
Doctors’ payments through the Medicare program are scheduled to be lowered by 21 percent in March. But not in Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah and Wyoming — where fees will rise.
Jan 13, 2010 | 4 comments | by John Goodman
Depression, How Dust Affects Your Health, the Downside to Winning the Lottery, and Worthless Cold and Cough Meds
If you have depression, you are probably being undertreated or overtreated.
Man wins $1,000 in lottery; government cuts his Social Security income by $980.
Americans spend about $3.6 billion on [mostly worthless] over-the-counter cold, cough and throat remedies — and millions more on antibiotics that have no effect on viral infections.
Jan 08, 2010 | 6 comments | by John Goodman
New Orleans Hospitals Liable, Swine Flu Reprint, and Other Swine Flu Coverage
Less generous swine flu coverage previously at this blog: the reaction of hospitals, the lack of vaccines, and a decentralized approach to pandemics.
Jan 06, 2010 | 4 comments | by John Goodman
19 Pills per Day, Prescriptions Not Taken Properly, and NYC’s Guide on How to Shoot Heroin Safely
One in four seniors surveyed take between 10 and 19 pills daily; more than half take at least five different prescription drugs regularly. Hat tip to MCOL Daily Factoid.
40% of the 3 billion annual prescriptions issued in the U.S. are not taken properly; patients do not even pick up 12% of them. Hat tip to HealthExecMobile.
How do you shoot heroin safely? New York City-funded guide has the answer.
Jan 05, 2010 | 5 comments | by John Goodman
One Million Veterans Waiting for Disability Claims, AMA Selling Out, Cut Costs of Diabetic Care, and the Market for Placebos
One million veterans waiting for the VA to handle their disability claims. Application form is 23 pages long.
Why is the AMA selling out doctors? So it can keep its monopoly on billing code revenues. (See also Linda Gorman’s previous post on who the AMA really represents.)
Study: Pharmacists working with physicians can cut the cost, improve the quality of diabetic care. So why don’t they do it? Government.
If placebos work so well, shouldn’t there be a market for them? There is: here’s a site that sells them, with studies on what difference they make. Hat tip to Metafilter via Tyler Cowen.
Jan 04, 2010 | 5 comments | by John Goodman
Coffee and Cancer, Stress and Cancer, and a Possible Cure for AIDS
Coffee drinking has been linked to lower risks of prostate cancer, Alzheimer’s, strokes and even committing suicide. It also helps with crossword puzzles.
Can stress cause cancer? Of the 315,544 subjects in [an Israeli] study, men born from 1940 to 1945 who were in Europe through the war years developed cancer at three and a half times the rate of men the same age who immigrated to Israel during the war.
Only one man seems to have ever been cured of AIDS. That might be about to change.
Jan 03, 2010 | 7 comments | by John Goodman
Personal Breathalyzer, Red Wine, and Coffee
Are you drunk? Your own personal breathalyzer can answer that question.
You can have the healthful substance in red wine, without drinking the wine. But, how boring.
Can coffee drinking help prevent diabetes? Yes. But decaf works just as well.
Jan 02, 2010 | 3 comments | by John Goodman
150 Million Microbes, Carpe Diem Tomorrow, and New Year’s Eve
There may be, all told, 150 million species of microbes. They can dwell in acid-drenched mines and Antarctic deserts.
Once you start procrastinating pleasure, it can become a self-perpetuating process: The longer you wait to open that prize bottle of wine, the more special the occasion has to be.
Walking home drunk after a New Year’s Eve party can be dangerous. More pedestrians are killed on the first day of the year than on any other day, and many of those killed have elevated blood alcohol levels.
Dec 31, 2009 | 4 comments | by John Goodman
2009/12/29
Fat cats Obama likes: Administration makes Christmas Eve promise of unlimited financial aid to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac; top exes to get huge bonuses. (Pointer from Greg Scandlen.)
Sen. Baucus ranting on the Senate floor about the Republicans. (video)
A 100 year pattern: When government spending rises, the stock market falls and vice versa.
Dec 29, 2009 | 6 comments | by John Goodman
