Doctors

Blood Levels in Fat Cells May Help Predict Migraine

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A new study appearing in the journal Headache: The Journal of Head and Face Pain, looks at people experiencing two to twelve migraine headaches a month. In this study researchers found that measuring a fat-derived protein called adiponectin before and after migraine treatment is useful in revealing if headache patients felt pain relief or not. The researchers of the study are hopeful that finding this potential biomarker for migraine of adiponectin may be used for developing new and better migraine treatment options. Finding better treatment options for migraine sufferers is lucrative because roughly 36 million Americans suffer from migraine headaches which can last longer than 4 hours at a time. Women are three times to get migraines when compared to men. In the study the researchers collected blood from 20 women who visited 3 different headache clinics for an acute … Read more

Can Surgeons Learn Lessons from Olympians?

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An interesting article titled “Performing to a world class standard under pressure—Can we learn lessons from the Olympians?” by Serryth D. Colbert and et. al. appeared in the 2012 issue of the British Journal of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery (50, pp 291-297). With the Summer Olympics this year in London, the authors decided to ask Team Great Britain Olympic rowing squad what makes a winner. The authors state: “We explored the concept of ‘mental toughness’ and the impact this has on successful performance under intense pressure. Our aim was to use their experiences to possibly improve oral and maxillofacial surgeons’ performance in critical situations.” The researchers consulted a leading performance development consultancy and made a questionnaire which was given to both the rowers and the surgeons at a joint conference.  The results were that the rowers responded to the questionnaire … Read more

Why People Hate the Dentist

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Numerous posts on the internet have attempted to shed light on the why people hate the dentist. Tom over at OralAnswers.com has a two part series on why people hate the dentists located at http://www.oralanswers.com/2011/09/why-people-hate-the-dentist/ and http://www.oralanswers.com/2011/09/why-people-hate-the-dentist-my-theory-part-ii/ Dr. Joe Bulger DDS in Canada changed the name of his blog to hatedentists.com and his written several posts on the topic of people who hate dentists located at http://www.hatedentists.com/1319/hate-dentist/ , http://www.hatedentists.com/1326/dentist-haters/ , and http://www.hatedentists.com/1363/top-10-reasons-people-hate-dentists/ SaneDentist.com has a post by Dr. Mujtaba Ali regarding 5 reasons why people hate the dentist located at http://www.sanedentist.com/here-are-5-reasons-why-we-hate-the-dentist-and-what-a-dentist-thinks-about-them.html Reading, over these posts and potential explanations for hate towards the dentist just doesn’t seem to do the hate justice and doesn’t touch on all the issues. So here are some reasons why I think people really hate dentists (subjective opinion): 1) Being motivated by money to the point … Read more

Dumb Americans Trust Their Doctors for No Valid Reason

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Gawker has written an article titled “Stupid Americans Trust Doctors” written by Parenne and published on June 17, 2009, located over at http://gawker.com/5294409/stupid-americans-trust-doctors in which it says: ” Doctors are lazy and greedy and do not care about you. But Americans do not know this! Because of the TV, they think doctors would come up with a good national health care plan. They would not. If the doctors made a plan, it would involve paying them even more money to not bother keeping up with advances in their fields and not ever letting you sue them when they hurt or kill you.” Here is one female doctor’s view on why she went into medicine via http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2009/jul/02/the-health-reform-we-need-are-not-getting/?page=3 “I am a doctor and… yes, I love the money! Its amazing, you gomers keep coming back to us and we just sprinkle a little Rx here or a little … Read more

Professionalism of Medicine in the 21st Century

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An article is titled Medical Professionalism in the New Millennium: A Physician Charter in the Annals of Internal Medicine, vol. 136, no. 3, pages 243-246, February 5, 2002, http://www.annals.org/content/136/3/243.full?ijkey=49cf14ffb35a6afdba3a14871f01fb39ad23066f&keytype2=tf_ipsecsha In the second paragraph appears the words: “…conditions of medical practice are tempting physicians to abandon their commitment to the primacy of patient welfare” The article then goes on to discuses a preamble “Professionalism is the basis of medicine’s contract with society. It demands placing the interests of patients above those of the physician, setting and maintaining standards of competence and integrity, and providing expert advice to society on matters of health. The principles and responsibilities of medical professionalism must be clearly understood by both the profession and society. Essential to this contract is public trust in physicians, which depends on the integrity of both individual physicians and the whole profession.” The … Read more