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1. Tattoo Me: Tales of Regret and No Regrets. Almost a third of people with tattoos regretted the decision to get body art, particularly men who obtained tattoos at a young age.
2. Distance Program Helps Depressed Heart Patients. An organized depression treatment program gave patients who'd had a heart attack -- or a near miss -- ...
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I'm told every doctor has their list of unsolved patient mysteries. Those patients where something terribly awful or something miraculous happens for which you lay awake at night trying to understand. The nature of doctors is to want solve problems and figure out medical mysteries in sleuth-like Sherlock Holmes fashion. It's these unsolved mysteries that you remember as they perplex you for days, weeks, possibly years after.
For me, it happened ...
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1. Even Mild Hits to Head Disrupt Blood-Brain Barrier. Football players who experienced repeated mild hits to the head, even without receiving a true concussion, showed evidence of disruption of the blood-brain barrier and an autoimmune response in the brain, which may help explain the premature neurodegeneration increasingly seen in athletes.
2. Cellulitis Dx Often Incorrect. Three-fourths ...
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My first night shift in a stretch of 7 was almost over. It was 6:15am and I had to keep moving otherwise the minute I would stop, my eyelids would drop like two ton shades and I’d fall asleep. That never makes for a good drive home after a night shift.
“Got time to see one more?” asked Jenny the nurse.
“Do I have ...
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1. 5 Psych Disorders Have Common Genetics. Autism, attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), bipolar disorder, major depressive disorder, and schizophrenia share common genetic underpinnings -- despite differences in symptoms and course of disease.
2. Imaging Suggests Wide Window for Alzheimer's Tx. The biological path to Alzheimer's disease might continue for more than a decade, suggesting ...
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Use of generic drugs has the potential to reduce annual consumer spending on prescriptions by billions. A study published in the New England Journal of Medicine and discussed in the New York Times' Economix blog in 2012 looked at Medicare Part D expenditures and correlated them with drug prescribing patterns. The regions of the United States with the highest Medicare expenditures were those where ...
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I’ve always had nagging doubts about filling out death certificates. An excellent article in American Medical News explores the “inexactitude” of the custom. Doctors are never taught how to fill out the documents. The article quotes Randy Hanzlick, MD, chief medical examiner for Fulton County, GA:
Training is a big problem. There are very few medical schools that teach it,” he said. “For many physicians, the first time they see it ...
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“I’d really feel better if we got the MRI,” Ms. James said. “I understand you think it’s a migraine, but I want to know, just in case. Wouldn’t you?”
Ms. James and I sat in her darkened hospital room—the light bothered her eyes and exacerbated her headache. She was a dialysis nurse with many years of experience in the healthcare field, and I ...
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1. Disease Burden of New Virus Similar to Flu. Rates of hospitalization for metapneumovirus in children younger than 5 are similar to those for influenza, representing a substantial disease burden.
2. Blood Test May Show Memory Loss in Older Women. The blood of healthy postmenopausal women may offer signs of increased risk of small areas of brain ...
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This series is brought to you by MedPage Today.
1. State of the Union: Health Savings Proposed. Having wealthier seniors pay higher Medicare premiums and reducing taxpayer subsidies to drug companies are just a few of the ways the federal government can lower its healthcare spending, President Obama said during his State of the Union address.
2. No Tie Between Readmissions, Mortality. Readmission rates at nearly ...
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