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Human Kuru or Mad Cow Disease

click image to enlarge
Watch Video

Human victims of Kuru, a disease similar to mad cow disease, Papua New Guinea, 1963.
Video:  National Library of Medicine.

Mad Cow Update

by Brian M. Carty, MD, MSPH
7-03-08

You can acquire the disease kuru by eating your dead relatives.  Kuru was discovered in the Fore people of Papua New Guinea and was transmitted by ritual cannibalism when the brains and other tissues of deceased tribe members were eaten at funeral feasts.  Kuru, mad cow disease (bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or BSE) and variant Creutzfeldt-Jacob disease (vCJD) of humans, are all caused by  ....>More  


What Happened to Rimonabant?

 An Effective Appetite Suppressant Was Not Approved in the US

by Brian M. Carty, MD, MSPH
6-07-08

It must have occurred to someone long ago that if marijuana makes people hungry, maybe there is an "antimarijuana," a substance that opposes the appetite-stimulating effects of marijuana, causes weight loss and thus effectively treats obesity.  Hence, the drug rimonabant, a cannabinoid receptor blocker.  The cannabinoid receptor ....>More  


Can you find the non-smoker?
-With permission of British Medical Journal

Smokers’ Faces: Take This Quiz. Can You Pick Out the Smokers?

by Brian M. Carty, MD, MSPH
5-11-08

Hint:  the smokers have more wrinkles. There are 9 photos followed by a short article.  Guess whether the person in the photo above is a smoker or not, then click here for the answer. Click here  to skip the quiz and go directly to the article.


Pandemic Flu for Survivalists

The Masque of Red Death
click image to enlarge

"And now was acknowledged the presence of the Red Death.  He had come like a thief in the night."  The Masque of the Red Death

by Brian M. Carty, MD, MSPH
4-25-08

Thanks to a strict naval quarantine, the island of American Samoa was virtually untouched by the devastating 1918 influenza pandemic which killed at least 50 million people worldwide. Would this strategy enable you to survive ..>>More  


Should Antibiotics Be Prescribed for Acute Infectious Diarrhea?

Cartoon - Antibiotics and Infectious Diarrhea
click image to enlarge
art by Nacho Garcia 

by Brian M. Carty, MD, MSPH
4-01-08

Although antibiotics decrease the severity and duration of acute infectious diarrhea, you didn't get a prescription for antibiotics. Why not?  ....>>More  


Cross-Examination

Posted 3-22-08
 
Q: Doctor, before you performed the autopsy, did you check the pulse?
A: No.
Q: Did you check for breathing?
A: No.
Q: So, it is possible that the patient was alive when you began the autopsy?
A: Well, let me put it this way. The man's brain was sitting in a jar on my desk. But I guess it's possible he could have been alive and practicing law somewhere.

Wrinkles Treated More Quickly Than Skin Cancer

by Brian M. Carty, MD, MSPH
3-11-08

A study in the December 2007 Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology showed that the average waiting time to see a dermatologist was 38 days for a changing mole (a lesion which is suspicious for skin cancer), but only 16 days for  ....>>More  


Are You Getting Proper Medical Treatment?

Rand Corporation research shows that Americans get only about 50% of recommended medical treatments. Below are some important treatment guidelines for a variety of medical problems.

Allergy to insect stings.   Stings by bees, wasps, hornets, and other insects can cause life threatening allergic reactions. ....>>More

Aspirin and NSAIDS.   Apirin taken to prevent heart attack or stroke ....>>More

Colon cancer screening.  Colonoscopy is recommended for colon cancer screening for most ....>>More

Diabetes.  Blood pressure in diabetics should be less than 130/80. Hemoglobin A1C ....>>More

Foreign travel.  Recommendations for vaccines, preventive drugs, and so on can be obtained from ....>>More

Heart attack patients.  Hopefully, you will never be wheeled into an emergency room with chest pain ....>>More

Heart attack medications.  Patients who have had a heart attack should usually receive ....>>More

Hypertension (high blood pressure) medications.   Don't stop prescription drugs without consulting your doctor. Stopping  ....>>More

Infections: correct amoxicillin dose for upper respiratory infections.  If amoxicillin is prescribed for sinus infections, middle ear infections, or pneumonia, the dose  ....>>More

Infections of skin and soft tissue.  "The death of Keflex (cephalexin)," to quote the late Merle  ....>>More

Intensive care medicine.  If you are reading this you are probably not a patient in an intensive care unit ....>>More

Lung Disease: asthma and beta blockers.  Beta blockers such as atenolol, propranolol, metoprolol, and others  ....>>More

Lung Disease: unexplained worsening of COPD. Patients with COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and/or emphysema) with unexplained worsening of COPD have a roughly 30% chance  ....>>More

Osteoarthritis of the knee.  This common disease is often treated with pain medications, steroid ....>>More

Pain medications.  NSAIDs (nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs) are often prescribed for the pain of arthritis and ....>>More

Steroid use, chronic.  Steroids (glucocorticoids such as prednisone, methylprednisolone, dexamethasone) have many  ....>>More

 

HotMedicalNews.com

Pedophilia Diagnosis
Goes High-Tech

by Brian M. Carty, MD, MSPH
6-20-08

Pedophiles, almost always males, are individuals who are sexually attracted primarily to prepubertal children.  A child molester is an individual who has committed a sexual offense against a child. Pedophiles are not always child molesters, and child molesters are not always pedophiles.  For example, Lewis Carroll, the author of Alice in Wonderland, was a pedophile but apparently never  ....>More  


Hollister T-shirts

Excuse Me,
Would You Mind Advertising Colostomy Bags for Us?

by Brian M. Carty, MD, MSPH
6-12-08

Will the "Hollister" t-shirt, which you see everywhere, surpass the backwards baseball cap as the cardinal emblem of the surly teenager, the "slacker?"  A company named Hollister makes the t-shirts, but  ....>>More  
 


Jack Kevorkian, Assisted Suicide Proponent, Runs for Congress


Is He Nuts?

Assisted Suicide and Dr. Kevorkian
click image to enlarge
art by Nacho Garcia

Jack Kevorkian admits to helping more than 130 people commit suicide.

by Brian M. Carty, MD, MSPH
5-30-08

Dr. Jack Kevorkian, the assisted suicide proponent, announced in March that he will run for Congress in Michigan's 9th Congressional District as an independent.  Kevorkian was convicted of ....>More  


Unusual Psychiatric Syndromes:
An Occasional Series

Capgras Syndrone

by Brian M. Carty, MD, MSPH
5-01-08

The Capgras Syndrome is a delusion, or false belief, that significant others, usually a spouse or family members, have been  ....>More  


Jascha Heifetz

Jascha Heifetz (1901-1987), the greatest violinist of the 20th century, did not need beta-blockers to perform.
-Photo Jascha Heifetz Society. www.jaschaheifetzsociety.org


Q: How do you get to Carnegie hall?

      A. beta-blocking drugs
     B. practice

     click for the correct answer


Anal Cancer Rates on the Rise

by Brian M. Carty, MD, MSPH
3-07-08

Anal cancer is a very serious disease.  In the past 30 years incidence rates have roughly doubled in males and increased by about 50% in women.  Changes in sexual practices have almost certainly caused most of the increase.  ....>>More  


Why is it that you can never read a doctor's prescription, but you can always read his bill?
 


Bird Flu Update:  Pandemic Influenza Still a Threat
Avian influenza virus (H5N1) is widespread in many wild and domestic bird populations

Bird Flu Update
Pandemic Influenza Still a Threat

by Brian M. Carty, MD, MSPH
2-22-08

A city is swept by an epidemic. Thousands are dead, the streets are silent, and all stores, schools, churches, and public places are closed. There are no pedestrians, no cars, no buses, and no trains. The supply of coffins  ....>>More  


Can Surgery Cure Diabetes?

by Brian M. Carty, MD, MSPH
2-14-08

"A chance to cut is a chance to cure" is the surgeon's motto. That bariatric (obesity) surgery for severe obesity often cures diabetes is not new information. What is new is  ....>>More  


Unusual Vaginal Tumor


An Unusual (Very!) Case
of Vaginal Tumor

by R. R. Willcox
December, 1961
Posted 2-02-08

A young unmarried woman aged 24 years, suffering from cancerophobia, came into the clinic in an acute anxiety state, convinced that she had a .... >>More


Historic Lobotomy Video, 1942
Historic Video: Lobotomy, 1942
Watch Video

Lobotomy Revisited

by Brian M. Carty, MD, MSPH
11-14-07

Do you remember Rosemary Kennedy, John F. Kennedy's sister? Maybe not, since she spent most of her life hidden away in an institution in the Midwest. She had a lobotomy, a brain operation for mental illness,....>>More


HotMedicalNews.com
Medical Image of the Month
July 2008
Dog with Rabies
click image to enlarge

This rabid dog has saliva dripping from its mouth, a cardinal sign of rabies.
Photo:  Centers for Disease Control, 1955.


New Emergency Stroke Treatments

New Emergency Stroke Treatment

by Brian M. Carty, MD, MSPH
6-17-08

Until just a few years ago medicine had little to offer a stroke patient except to let nature take its course and to provide supportive care such as oxygen, fluids, aspirin, and the like.  But in the past 10 years, new and more effective emergency treatments have significantly improved ....>More  



Medical Image of the Month
June 2008
Lime Disease at site of tick bite
click image to enlarge
On a woman's posterior right upper arm, the "bulls-eye" rash of early Lyme disease at the site of a tick bite.
Photo:  Centers for Disease Control.

Antidepressants for All Stroke Patients?

"That's Great if You're a Rat"

Antidepressants for stroke victims     

by Brian M. Carty, MD, MSPH
5-16-08

Antidepressants after a stroke can enhance recovery and decrease death rates, even if the patient is not depressed. ....>More  


Medical Image of the Month
May 2008
watch dial painters
click image to enlarge
Women painting watch dials with luminous paint containing radioactive radium (c. 1920). By pointing their brushes with their lips, they inadvertently ingested radium. The radium later caused degeneration of the bone of the jaw, bone cancer, and other health problems.

The Adult Baby Syndrome
click image to enlarge
art by Nacho Garcia 

Unusual Psychiatric Syndromes:
An Occasional Series

The Adult Baby Syndrome

by Brian M. Carty, MD, MSPH
4-14-08

Mr. A, a 35-year- old single Caucasian man, consulted a psychiatrist with a complaint that "I am supposed to be a 35-year-old, but I want to be a baby ...>More  


Medical Image of the Month
April 2008
click image to enlarge
A US postal stamp commemorating George Papanicolaou (1883-1962), a physician who invented the Pap smear, a test used to screen for cancer of the cervix.

Bodybuilder and enhanced performance
-With permission of  Steve Michalik.  Mr. Michalik, a former Mr. America and Mr. Universe, once used steroids and suffered as a result. He is now an energetic and outspoken opponent of steroid abuse.

Are Ya Juicin' It?
Anabolic-Androgenic Steroid Abuse

by Brian M. Carty, MD, MSPH
3-15-08

Irritable, angry, aggressive, but feeling strong and invincible, Mr. A, 32, a bodybuilder and prison guard, stopped at a convenience store to call his boss. Car trouble on the way to work.  He would be late. ....>>More  


Medical Image of the Month
March 2008
click image for complete text and photos
Transfer of a toe to the hand.
-Photo courtesy of New England Journal of Medicine.

Medical Image of the Month
February 2008
Policemen in Seattle wear masks during the 1918 influenza pandemic.
click image to enlarge
Policemen in Seattle wear masks during the 1918 influenza pandemic.
-Photo from the National Archives.

Archive

2008          
  March
 

Beta-Blockers Improve Musical Performance and Competitive Shooting Performance

 

Are Ya Juicin' It? Anabolic-Androgenic Steroid Abuse

 

Wrinkles Treated More Quickly Than Skin Cancer

 

Anal Cancer Rate on the Rise

 

Medical Image of the Month: Transfer of a toe to a hand.

  February
 

Bad Blood in Canada

 

An Unusual (Very!) Case of Vaginal Tumor

 

Can Surgery Cure Diabetes?

 

Bird Flu Update Pandemic Influenza Still a Threat

 

Medical Image of the Month: 1918 Influenza Pandemic

  January
 

UK Health Care System In Need of Repair

 

New Appetite Suppressant Drug Combination Not Ready For Prime Time

 

Medical Image of the Month: Harvey Cushing

2007          
  December
  November
 

Anti-Sicko:  The Dark Side of Government Health Care

 

Manopause:  Testosterone Deficiency in Older Males

 
 

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