Roy Benaroch, MD

Roy Benaroch is a pediatrician who blogs at the Pediatric Insider. He is also the author of A Guide to Getting the Best Health Care for Your Child and the creator of The Great Courses’ Medical School for Everyone: Grand Rounds Cases.

Goodbye, Benadryl: It is time for you to retire

Roy Benaroch, MD

Meds

February 7, 2020

Sometimes, old ideas and time-tested treatments remain the best. Newer doesn’t always mean better. Except in the case of one of our oldest antihistamines, tried-and-true Benadryl. It is time for that old drug to be retired, sent off to pasture, and never used again. Goodbye, Benadryl. Fare thee well, adieu, and don’t let the door hit you on the way out.

Benadryl (diphenhydramine) was introduced in 1946. The top single that …

Telemedicine overprescribes antibiotics: Are you really receiving the best care over the phone?

Roy Benaroch, MD

Physician

January 18, 2020

You’ve seen the ads, and you may have even gotten a flyer in the mail directly from your insurance company. Use an app to make a quick video call to get the medical care you need. No waiting rooms, no appointments, no having to be touched, or even sit in a room with a physician – just the magic of the internet, and you’ll get what you want.

But will you …

No, phones don’t cause horns to grow on skulls

Roy Benaroch, MD

Conditions

August 27, 2019

The Washington Post ran this headline: “’Horns’ are growing on young people’s skulls. Phone use is to blame, research suggests.”

The headline is entirely correct except for a few minor points:

They’re not horns, which point up from the forehead. They’re more like little 1/2 inch nubs protruding downwards from the back of the skull.
They’re not new. There’s no comparison group to show that these are more or less …
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No, phones don’t cause horns to grow on skulls

The basics of the MMR vaccine from a pediatrician

Roy Benaroch, MD

Meds

July 8, 2019

As the U.S. endures its largest measles outbreak in 25 years — one that’s almost certainly going to get worse before it gets better — we’re getting a lot of calls and questions at my office. What’s measles, what’s the best way to prevent it, when should the vaccine be given to adults and children?

The measles vaccine is given as “MMR,” which teaches the immune system to fight off measles, …

Should adults receive another dose of MMR?

Roy Benaroch, MD

Meds

May 20, 2019

While the vast majority of measles cases in the U.S. and worldwide are occurring in unvaccinated children, a fair percentage is also occurring in adults. With more-widespread transmission of measles, it’s becoming more important for all of us – yes, that includes parents – to make sure we’re well-protected.

Measles is probably the single most contagious infection that humans face. The key to preventing the return of widespread measles is in …

Chocolate for coughs? Look beyond the headlines.

Roy Benaroch, MD

Conditions

April 14, 2019

Everyone loves chocolate, and nobody likes to cough. So when headlines like these appeared, they made a big media splash:

Apparently Chocolate Might Be Better for Treating Coughs than Honey and Lemon.

Chocolate Fights Coughs Better Than Codeine, Says Science.

Chocolate Is a Better Cough Suppressant than Medicine, Study Says.

Looks good, huh? Chocolate for a cough – and the headlines say it’s better than …

Breastfeeding and newborn hospitalization rates: What should be done about it?

Roy Benaroch, MD

Conditions

February 18, 2019

An August 2018 paper in Academic Pediatrics found an unsettling conclusion: Breastfed newborns have about double the risk of needing to be hospitalized in their first month of life, compared to babies who were formula-fed. The numbers are solid, and they jibe with the real-life experience of many pediatricians, including me. So what should we do about it?

The study itself looked at about 150,000 healthy, normal newborns born in …

Is personalized medicine mostly marketing and hype?

Roy Benaroch, MD

Conditions

January 29, 2019

“Personalized” medicine sounds appealing. Rather than just guessing at what medication to try, a genetic test can figure out, in advance, which medications will be effective and which medications are more likely to make you sicker.

Except it doesn’t work. It’s mostly marketing and hype.

The FDA has officially warned consumers and physicians that genetic tests sold to predict patient responses to medications shouldn’t be used. They’re not FDA approved, and in most cases, …

Peanut allergies: What is the best policy for schools?

Roy Benaroch, MD

Conditions

January 14, 2019

Peanut allergies can be a serious problem, and many exposures happen when our kids are at school. On average, there are probably about 5 peanut-allergic children in each of our nation’s 100,000 school buildings. What’s the best policy for schools to use to help protect these kids from potentially fatal reactions?

Different schools have taken different approaches, and as far as I can tell there is no authoritative national guideline …

What you need to know about acute flaccid myelitis

Roy Benaroch, MD

Conditions

December 9, 2018

You’ve probably seen it on the news – a rare, polio-like illness is causing cases of paralysis in children. Here’s the latest info, based on our best current knowledge from the CDC.

Acute flaccid myelitis (AFM) is a sudden illness that causes weakness in one or more extremities – one arm or (less likely) a leg, or any combination of arms and legs. The words in the name express the key …

Students shouldn’t take Adderall as a study aid

Roy Benaroch, MD

Meds

November 13, 2018

College students work hard, and many are looking for ways to improve their studying and learn more effectively. Getting more sleep and more exercise would probably help, but up to a third are trying ADHD medications to see if pills can give them that extra boost. A small, recent study shows that they’re not getting the effect they’re looking for.

We’re not talking, here, about teens who have ADHD. There’s …

Beware of food sensitivity tests on Facebook

Roy Benaroch, MD

Conditions

November 2, 2018

Facebook. Where else could I stumble on a video of a baby hippo taking a bath, or Toto’s Africa performed on solo Harp? But among the shares and silliness and talent, there’s a dark side to Facebook. It’s become a fast way for quacks to push their scams and empty your wallet.

Just today in my feed I received a promoted post about a “food sensitivity test.” I’m not going to link directly …

Tips to help you afford medications

Roy Benaroch, MD

Meds

September 24, 2018

A doctor writes prescription, pharmacist fills prescription, insurance covers prescription. Simple, right? But that’s not the way it works anymore.

Some changes are good. Gone are the cryptic abbreviations and illegible handwriting — replaced by computer printed scripts, or better yet scripts magically transmitted via the ether. But along with fewer errors there’s even less transparency on pricing and coverage. Patients, who haven’t been to pharmacy school and couldn’t possibly decode the pages of …

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Tips to help you afford medications

Remembering the age of polio

Roy Benaroch, MD

Conditions

September 18, 2018

“Polio. I’ve seen polio.”

Last night, I was speaking with one of the most experienced pediatricians I’ve ever met, Dr. Jack Burstiner. I’ve known him for 50 years. I would have known him even longer if I had been born earlier. He lived in my neighborhood, two doors down. He was my pediatrician.

Jack is almost 90 years old. But he still looks like a pediatrician. He’s got a smile a child …

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Remembering the age of polio

Urgent care centers prescribe more antibiotics. Why is that?

Roy Benaroch, MD

Conditions

July 30, 2018

Urgent care centers are way ahead in prescribing unnecessary, potentially harmful antibiotics that are doing no one any good – at least no patients any good. The owners of the urgent care centers are the ones who are benefitting. And you and your family are being bilked, misled, and harmed.

A recent study published in JAMA Internal Medicine looked at the proportion of antibiotic prescriptions that were made for viral respiratory …

Your questions about rabies: answered

Roy Benaroch, MD

Conditions

January 29, 2018

You’ve probably already seen the news: A 6 year old boy in Florida has died of rabies. He had handled a sick bat (some reports said he was trying to rescue the critter), and that was enough contact to transmit the virus. Once symptoms begin, rabies in almost always fatal — so the only way to prevent this from happening again is to avoid contact, and get rabies …

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Your questions about rabies: answered

Youth football and concussions: some good news?

Roy Benaroch, MD

Conditions

December 15, 2017

Concussions and football have come up before, and the news so far has been discouraging. We want kids to stay active, and football is one of the most popular boys’ sports out there. But we know that some prominent professional athletes have had serious, cumulative brain damage from years of football – sometimes brain damage that has destroyed their lives. What about high school football, or football …

Do physician rating sites deserve a black box warning?

Roy Benaroch, MD

Physician

October 3, 2017

When a drug is especially dangerous, or even potentially-maybe-especially dangerous, the FDA requires manufacturers to put a black box warning on the product insert. A black box warning is supposed to very explicitly say “buyer beware,” more than just the typical list of potential side effects mumbled by Mr. TalkFast at the end of a drug ad. It’s easy to ignore the wordy mumbling. The black box: That’s supposed to …

The problem with the free market in health care

Roy Benaroch, MD

Policy

August 14, 2017

Competition often works. Competing dry cleaners or donut shops must either improve the quality of their product or keep their prices low, or customers will go somewhere else for their cruller fix. In time, the better businesses — the ones that provide tastier pastries at a lower price — will thrive, and less-good, more-expensive businesses will go away. In the long run, all customers benefit from competition between businesses.

That’s how …

Chemicals in your food? Please don’t panic.

Roy Benaroch, MD

Conditions

August 7, 2017

Advocacy groups have been busy lately with their fancy-pants chemical detection science instruments, and their press releases have made it into the news. But is there news here, and are these chemicals something parents really need to worry about?

First it was a big lead from the New York Times called “The Chemicals in your Mac and Cheese.” The article started: