HUB's LIST of medical fun facts

Click on date to read the whole blog.

June 1: Juuling and Schooling  -All vaping solutions contain nicotine despite the label that says “contains no nicotine”, or even more cleverly “contains no nicotine tar”, which means of course “no tar”. Juul (jewel) is the most successful vaping company, so successful that it has become a verb, as in “Do you Juul?, Lets Juul.” Tobacco companies are investing in vaping because they know that the younger a person is when nicotine is introduced the more likely they will become a life-time tobacco user.

June 15: Hospital Readmission Reduction Program – At first blush it looked like this Medicare cost reduction program actually worked because “preventable” readmissions decreased for cardiac disease and pneumonia, but further analysis revealed five reasons why that wasn’t true.

July 1: Public Opinion About High Health Care Costs –Two-thirds of the U.S. public thinks that reducing health care costs is a top priority for both President Trump and Congress in 2019.  The expert opinion consensus is that the over $500 Billion (yes, that’s a “B”) cost of “unnecessary services”, “inefficient delivery” , and “excessive administrative cost” is a significant cause of the high cost of our health care, but only 23% of public poll respondents thought so.  The U.S. remains unique as the only developed nation lacking universal health care insurance for its people.

July 15: Tidbits for Summer Cookouts – Fitbits- People walking only 4,400 steps a day (not the recommended 10,000 steps a day) had a lower “premature death rate”. Where did the 10,000 steps a day target come from?— a 1960 marketing campaign by a Japanese pedometer manufacturer that recognized that the Japanese character for 10,000 resembled a man walking! Screen Time – Research by Nielsen found that Americans aged 35 to 49 used social media 40 minutes more each week than millennials.  A researcher interviewing elementary school children uncovered a lot of complaints from the kids about prying their parents away from their screens. “Parents”, she sighed, “are the worst.”

August 1: Parenting “Unconventional Wisdom” – Breast feeding – The benefits of breast feeding infants are generally found in studies of mothers with a higher IQ and in a higher educational and economically class than non-breast feeding mothers. “So what is the real cause of breast-feeding benefits?” Sleep training – Many studies of sleep training show sizable improvements in maternal depression, family functioning, and no negative effects on infants. Working Moms – There is very little data about the pros and cons of mothers working outside the house except for the evidence supporting longer maternity leave which is beneficial to mother and infant in those first months.

September 1: Understanding Medical News About Famous People – What is the prognosis for Andrews of the Patriots (pulmonary embolism) and Ginsburg of the Supreme Court (multiple cancers)? It is relatively save to say that Andrews will not play NFL football this season and that Ginsburg, a champion statistical outlier for 86 years, will probably be sitting on the bench when the Supreme Court resumes in October. After that, who knows? Doctors may guess, but they really don’t know either.

September 15: Vaping and Fatal Pneumonia – There are so many additives in vaping solutions that it is not absolutely certain that vitamin E acetate oil causing lipoid pneumonia is the culprit, but some of the counterfeit vaping solutions used by recent respiratory-distress patients contained more than 50% vitamin E oil!  Who would guess that we would ever say, “It appears to be much safer to just smoke a joint!”

October 1: Vitamin supplements – Here’s more evidence-based skepticism about the benefits of both vitamin C and vitamin D supplements. I have cautioned against vitamin E . . .at least the inhaled form. Is there a vitamin F supplement to continue my alphabetic progression? Yes.  Vitamin F is an outdated term for omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids,  but I think I’ll let that subject “sleep with the fishes” for the moment.

November 1: Vaping Disease, Medical Marijuana, and CBD –  Pathologists from the Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale, Arizona found no expected microscopic hallmarks of lipoid pneumonia in patients with vaping lung disease, but did find a chemical “burn” or reaction to a toxic gas. Medical marijuana resulted in minimal decrease of pain, little improvement in sleep, and virtually no effect on anxiety or depression. Despite the fact that patients were told by the sellers that there was CBD in the purchased product one third of the study patients had NO detectable CBD in their urine!

November 15: Climate Change Deja Vu from 1996 – “We are still a long way from stabilizing the global climate, a far more complex challenge than repairing the ozone layer. Even with quick action, some greenhouse gases will linger in the atmosphere for centuries. Still, close observers note that a climate of hope has crept into negotiations recently. Insurance companies, small island nations, and others with major interests in a stable climate have re-shaped the diplomatic playing field. Finally, the time for serious policymaking may be at hand.” (1996 Report)

December 1: Top 10 Dangerous Toys and Hazardous Vaping Pods – Though not lethal, yet, if ingested by toddlers the concentrated pods of marijuana for vaping devices can cause significant ICU stays for them. The even more concentrated forms of MJ in edible “dabs” (up to 90% THC) can really cause trouble. Ingesting the concentrated nicotine in vaping pods can actually be lethal to toddlers.

December 15: Changing My Medicare Health Insurance Plan Is Just like Placing a Bet  –  “Youse pays your money and youse takes your choice.” Or as one of my medical student buddies said when we were a lot younger, “Life insurance? You lose (die), you win ($). You win (live a long life), you lose ($).” Did I make the right choice in changing plans?  I’ll know in a year if I won the bet, or the house did.