MedWorm Tags: decisions

Decisions, decisions, decisions

Caroline's Breast Cancer Blog — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 11:02:00 +0100

Yesterday's post generated a few comments on Facebook so I decided that I wanted to write more about decision making in medical treatment. You have an ailment, you go to the doctor, and they tell you what they recommend. It is your choice to follow it. You are a mature adult and you can decide what you want to do to your body. However it is your obligation to make a good decision. A good decision is defined as one that is based on a rational decision making process. You can ask your doctor what the side effects would be or the pain level of the 'medical adventure' or whatever else you want to know. You can get a second opinion. Or you can do some research on your own - online at credible websites or through other medical professionals or even people who have gone through the procedure. ...

ADHD Solutions For Your Child Making Wise Decisions

Life With ADHD — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 23:00:00 +0100

Before even thinking about ADHD solutions for your child, consider the following facts. ADHD may have several causes but one of them is that the levels of dopamine in the child’s brain are decidedly low. Dopamine is responsible for our ‘reward’ system so is very closely linked with attention and motivation . Given that the child’s brain goes on developing until he or she is about 25, do you think it is a good idea to give him a psychostimulant so that it sort of kick starts the dopamine and other neurotransmitters into action ?. Could this be one of the best ADHD solutions for your child? These ADHD drugs or amphetamine salts as they are so often glibly called come with various fancy names such as Ritalin, Adderall, Dexedrine and Vyvanse. Adderall is in great deman...

Nudge by Thaler and Sunstein

Neuromarketing — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 12:07:54 +0100

Nudge is all about choice architecture, a discipline which structures choices in a way that produces the most beneficial outcome. I don't have to tell Neuromarketing readers that humans often behave in conflict with the traditional economist's view of rational decision-making. Thaler and Sunstein not only provide plenty of evidence of irrationality, but they show how to avoid some of the problems it causes. CommentsCommentsRelated StoriesSecrets of the Moneylab by Kay-Yut ChenScary Thought: A Treatment for Impulse BuyingThe Upside of Irrationality by Dan Ariely (Source: Neuromarketing)

7 Tips for Deciding How Best to Spend Your Time, Energy and Money

World of Psychology — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 15:55:45 +0100

We all have to make decisions about how to spend our time, energy, and money. Because of my happiness project, I now explicitly ask myself, “Will this decision make me happier?” I’m determined to get the most happiness bang for the buck. Here are some questions I consider: 1. Is this decision likely to strengthen my relationships with other people? Strong relationships with other people are a key — the key — to happiness, so decisions that help me build or strengthen ties are likely to boost my happiness. Yes, it’s a hassle and an expense to go to my college reunion, but it’s likely to have a big happiness pay-off. 2. Will this decision provide me with novelty and challenge? Novelty and challenge make me happier—but they also make me feel insecure, intimidated, frustrated,...

Wishy-Washy? Help in Making Good Decisions

World of Psychology — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 10:15:03 +0100

Anyone who knows me well will tell you that I’m a tad indecisive, not about everything, but most things. Here’s a typical experience: I’m at a restaurant, perusing (i.e., studying) the menu and pondering. I ask what everyone else is having, and ponder some more. Then I chat with the server. If I’m wavering between two dishes, I ask what’s the better option. If I just have one meal in mind, I focus my questions on that dish. After I get the answer, sometimes, I think some more. Aside from being a super fun dinner date (fortunately, my boyfriend and friends just laugh it off now…most of the time), I clearly have decision issues. So what’s my problem — and yours if making simple daily decisions feels like you’re gearing up for the choice of a lifetime? An articl...

Cognitive Fitness for Financial Decision-Making

SharpBrains — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 14:50:02 +0100

Issues with aging can be costly for retirees’ money (Associated Press). Quotes: – “With age comes wisdom about money — up to a point.” - “Years of handling your own finances and investments sharpen the ability to make sound decisions. But failing to prepare for the day when growing older hampers your judgment can be costly at an age when more is at stake. Seniors older than 65 hold about $18 trillion in assets, according to government data, or about a third of all U.S. net worth.” - “Sometimes the senior’s worst enemy is himself or herself,” says Andrew Stoltmann, a Chicago attorney and investment adviser. “Poor financial decisions and cognitive impairment go hand in hand.” To learn more: click on full article. (Source: SharpBrains)

When Our Intuition Leads Us to Bad Decisions

World of Psychology — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 14:39:28 +0100

Six years ago, Malcolm Gladwell released a book entitled Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking. In his usual style, Gladwell weaves stories in-between descriptions of scientific research the support his hypothesis that our intuition can be surprisingly accurate and right. One year ago, authors Daniel J. Simons and Christopher F. Chabris, writing in The Chronicle of Higher Education not only had some choice words for Gladwell’s cherry-picking of the research, but also showed how intuition probably only works best in certain situations, where there is no clear science or logical decision-making process to arrive at the “right” answer. For instance, when choosing which ice cream is “best.” Reasoned analysis, however, works best in virtually every other si...

Treatment Success Depends Largely On Patient Participation

Better Health — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 16:00:53 +0100

Ten days ago a post here mentioned the 14th ICSI / IHI Colloquium. I said the Society for Participatory Medicine was well represented, including: Jessie Gruman, four time cancer patient and founding co-editor of our journal, gave an important breakout session, about which I’ll be writing soon. (Jessie is founder and president of the excellent Center For Advancing Health.) Jessie’s talk was so good it had me going nuts on Twitter – I couldn’t keep up with all the “tweet-worthy” things that came out of her mouth. Well, I’ve just re-read her text, and it brought back why I went nuts. I was going to write about it, but I’m just going to post the full text. For those who don’t know, last fall Jessie underwent surgery for her fourth cancer; she has some experience. (more...

A Young Person Refuses Life-Saving Treatment: Is That Ok?

Better Health — Sun, 05 Jun 2011 19:00:00 +0100

Discussion: (more…) *This blog post was originally published at Movin' Meat* (Source: Better Health)

Best of Our Blogs: June 3, 2011

World of Psychology — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 11:16:55 +0100

It’s easy to slip into the “coulda, woulda, shouldas” of our lives. There’s the trip you didn’t take. The relationship you might have ended too soon. The career that sits, still waiting to be pursued. And though it maybe difficult to admit, it’s not the boss that held you back or the friend that slighted you. In fact, there’s probably some true to the saying that “you are your own worst enemy.” It’s the weekend again. It’s June. Summer is upon us. Why not take the time to reflect on why you’re holding yourself back? A few days ago, I asked our Facebook friends what’s the best decision they ever made. It was one of our most popular topics and we received responses on everything from living to accepting their life....

Clinton, Obama, and Hayek

Cato-at-liberty — Wed, 11 May 2011 14:01:13 +0100

By David BoazPresident Obama has been saying that if the United States government can find and eliminate Osama bin Laden after ten years of searching, it can do anything: Already, in several appearances since the raid, Obama has described it as a reminder that “as a nation there is nothing that we can’t do,” as he put it during an unrelated White House ceremony Monday. On Sunday night, during his first comments about the operation, he linked it to American values, saying the country is “once again reminded that America can do whatever we set our mind to.” This is, of course, nonsense. Finding bin Laden, difficult as it proved to be, was an incomparably simple task compared to using coercion and central planning to bring about desired results in defiance of economic reality. You ...

Should Competitive Cyclists Undergo Cardiac Ablation For Atrial Fibrillation?

Better Health — Fri, 06 May 2011 08:38:25 +0100

The number of emails that come from fellow cyclists (and endurance athletes) with heart rhythm issues amazes me. I am more convinced than ever that our “hobby” predisposes us to electrical issues like atrial fibrillation (AF)—that the science is right. Obviously, my pedaling “habit” creates an exposure bias. I hear from many of you because we cyclists understand each other. Like you, I consider not competing a lousy treatment option. As a bike racer, I know things: that prancing on an elliptical trainer at a health club doesn’t cut it, and, that spin classes may look hard, but do not come close to simulating real competition. I know the extent of the inflammation required to close that gap, to avoid getting dropped when one of the local Cancellara-types have you in the gutter i...

Spanish Physicians Take Heed: Social Media Influences Healthcare Decision-Making

Better Health — Thu, 05 May 2011 15:00:11 +0100

The Spanish Twitter chapter of #hcsmeu (hashtag #hcsmeuES) held its first unconference on April 1st in Barcelona. For many it sounds like a convention of freakish fans of some cult science-fiction TV show (a group I’m also part of, by the way). But its actually a group of about 200 healthcare professionals from all over Spain who share their interest in social networks and their influence in this particular industry. Many of those present were meeting face to face for the first time but all of them had previously been gathering weekly on Twitter for a one-hour discussion about the relationship between physicians, pharma, patients and ICT, just as other groups across Europe. Nowadays even the most reactionary guy admits that both new technological advances and social networking are changi...

Too Many Options? Try Closing Some Doors

World of Psychology — Sat, 12 Mar 2011 11:54:57 +0100

I have become increasingly aware that one of the stumbling blocks to my recovery from depression is my inability to make decisions, and my disdain for closing options. And yet closing doors is good for your sanity. Even in writing this post, I have saved the word file in five stages, so that if the material I cut out in version one seems important later on, I can go to file A and retrieve it. The horror of losing a precious sentence in penning this thing! My grieving over each decision — i.e. letting go of the options I didn’t pick — is precisely why I loathe grocery shopping and every other kind of shopping. Especially in America when you get to choose between eight kinds of apples: Washington local, organic, Pink Lady, Braeburn, Red Delicious, yada yada yada. I get over...

Dr. Paul Offit returns to Books and Ideas podcast

the Brain Science Podcast and Blog with Dr. Ginger Campbell — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 17:01:18 +0100

In his new book Deadly Choices: How the Anti-Vaccine Movement Threatens Us All pediatrican Dr Paul A. Offit traces the history of the anti-vaccine movement from opposition to the small pox vaccine in the 19th century up through recent events. Unfortunately, the results are predictable. Reducing vaccination rates lead to reemergence of dangerous preventable infectious diseases. That is why the decision not to vaccinate is not a personal decision. It is one that involves the whole community. This is the focus of the conversation I had with Dr. Offit in Episode 40 of Books and Ideas. This is a follow-up to Dr. Offit's first interview here in Episode 25. Because I think this issue is literally a matter of life and death, I encourage you to share this podcast with others. Listen to Dr. Offit's ...

Do not change your mind!

Caroline's Breast Cancer Blog — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 10:59:00 +0100

I am talking to you medical people out there who take care of us patient people. I know you do all kinds of studies and trials. That's fine. Progress is good. But please do not change your mind and tell me the treatment I had was either wrong or useless. Please work on the delivery here, and tell us that what was done previously was not wrong or useless but the best possible treatment at the time. Progress has allowed the development of improvements. If you tell us patients that that the treatment they received was wrong or useless, we are not happy. It is in fact upsetting. So stop it!I was diagnosed with tennis elbow in November. I was given a cortisone injection and given a wrist splint, told to rest it and sent for PT/OT. After a few weeks I was sent home with a series of exercises - s...

Best of Our Blogs: February 22, 2011

World of Psychology — Tue, 22 Feb 2011 18:54:13 +0100

This article looks at bipolar disorder in Hollywood. (Source: World of Psychology)

Narrative Medicine: Healing Through Storytelling

Better Health — Mon, 21 Feb 2011 16:00:32 +0100

More in the evolving meme of narrative medicine: Researchers at the University of Massachusetts Medical School (my alma mater) have found that for a select population of individuals, listening to personal narratives helps control blood pressure. While the power of stories is old news, the connection to clinical outcomes is what’s newsworthy here. Read Dr. Pauline Chen’s nice piece in the New York Times. The implications for ongoing work in this area are mind boggling. The Annals of Internal Medicine study authors sum it up nicely: Emerging evidence suggests that storytelling, or narrative communication, may offer a unique opportunity to promote evidence-based choices in a culturally appropriate context. Stories can help listeners make meaning of their lives, and listeners may be in...

End-Of-Life Care: When Medicine Prolongs Dying, Not Living

Better Health — Tue, 08 Feb 2011 20:00:00 +0100

The recent Washington Post article entitled, Who decides when medicine prolongs dying, not living? perfectly captures my earlier blog on why we’re afraid of death. An excerpt from the Post piece: [There's a] huge gap between Americans’ wishes about end-of-life care, as expressed in numerous public opinion polls, and what actually happens in too many instances–futile, expensive, often painful procedures performed on people too sick to leave the hospital alive–much less survive with a decent quality of life. Ninety percent of Americans say they want to die at home but only 20 percent do so. Half of Americans die in hospitals and another 25 percent in nursing homes, after a long period of suffering from chronic, incurable conditions that finally become untreatable. An ...

Secrets of the Moneylab

Neuromarketing — Tue, 25 Jan 2011 14:28:54 +0100

Book Review: Secrets of the Moneylab: How Behavioral Economics Can Impact Your Business by Kay Yut Chen with Marina Krakovsky Economics can be dry stuff – remember “macro,” “micro,” and supply/demand curves? Fortunately, Secrets of the Moneylab is a lot more fun than Econ 101 because it focuses not on theory but on how people [...] Comments[...] described in Secrets of the Moneylab by Kay-Yut Chen and ... by It Really DOES Pay to Schmooze | NeuromarketingOur take away is that the scientific method works. Test ... by Rich and Co.[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Graham Hill, Roger ... by Tweets that mention Secrets of the Moneylab by Kay-Yut Chen | Neuromarketing -- Topsy.comRelated StoriesScary Thought: A Treatment for Impulse BuyingT...

Secrets of the Moneylab by Kay-Yut Chen

Neuromarketing — Tue, 25 Jan 2011 14:28:54 +0100

Book Review: Secrets of the Moneylab: How Behavioral Economics Can Impact Your Business by Kay Yut Chen with Marina Krakovzky Economics can be dry stuff – remember “macro,” “micro,” and supply/demand curves? Fortunately, Secrets of the Moneylab is a lot more fun than Econ 101 because it focuses not on theory but on how people [...] CommentsCommentsRelated StoriesScary Thought: A Treatment for Impulse BuyingThe Price of Everything by Eduardo PorterNeuromarketing on WebProNews (Source: Neuromarketing)

How To Have A Pain-Free Hospital Stay

Better Health — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 18:00:55 +0100

This is a guest post from Dr. Anita Gupta. ********** How To Have A Pain-Free Hospital Stay Too often patients feel like they’re in the passenger seat when entering the hospital. Even in the best of circumstances — such as planned admissions — patients often don’t feel in control of their own care. One of the most unnecessary issues facing patients when they enter the hospital is untreated (or undertreated) pain. Often the focus of the medical team is to treat a condition, and controlling a patient’s pain comes second. Fortunately, this doesn’t need to be the situation. Here are a few tips for patients to ensure that their pain does not go overlooked: – Let someone know if you are in pain. This may seem obvious, but patients often hesitate to question their doctor...

Death: Why Are We So Afraid Of It?

Better Health — Fri, 07 Jan 2011 22:00:00 +0100

My cousin’s mother-in-law is in her late 90s. She had horrible osteoporosis and can barely move. She has little cognitive function left. She requires nearly 24-hour care and no one would even attempt to say she has any quality of life left. She told her son years ago that she was “ready to go,” and had had enough. And yet when I asked my cousin’s husband if his mother had any do-not-resuscitate orders, or had ever completed an advanced director outlining her wishes of what kind of end-of-life care she wanted, he said no. His sister, he said, just wasn’t ready for that yet. So what, I asked, will you do when/if your mother gets pneumonia? Will you treat it with antibiotics? Will you put her on a respirator? If she is no longer able to eat, will you feed her t...

Practice Variation: Essential To e-Patient Awareness

Better Health — Fri, 31 Dec 2010 18:00:02 +0100

This is the first of the follow-up posts I hope to write from participating in the Salzburg Global Seminar titled “The Greatest Untapped Resource in Healthcare? Informing and Involving Patients in Decisions about Their Medical Care.” One of our purposes on this site is to help people develop e-patient skills, so they can be more effectively engaged in their care. One aspect is shared decision making, which we wrote about in September. A related topic, from August, is understanding the challenges of pathology and diagnosis. Both posts teach about being better informed partners for our healthcare professionals. I’ve recently learned of an another topic, which I’m sure many of you know: Practice variation. This is a big subject, and I’ll have several posts about it. It’s complex, ...

Becoming A Savvy Healthcare Consumer: A “Difficult Science”

Better Health — Wed, 29 Dec 2010 18:00:30 +0100

Dr. Kent Bottles is in the midst of a very thoughtful multi-part blog post under the heading, “The Difficult Science Behind Becoming a Savvy Healthcare Consumer.” Part I examined “the limitations of science in helping us make wise choices and decisions about our health.” Part II explores “how we all have to change if we are to live wisely in a time of rapid transformation of the American healthcare system that everyone agrees needs to decrease per-capita cost and increase quality.” Both parts so far have addressed important issues about news media coverage of healthcare. (more…) *This blog post was originally published at Gary Schwitzer's HealthNewsReview Blog* (Source: Better Health)

A Patient’s Contagious Confidence And Endless Possibilities

Better Health — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 15:00:54 +0100

In a recent post I wrote why patients are the most important part of the medical team, and my colleagues, Elizabeth Cohen, Kevin Pho, MD, Donna Cryer, JD, and Carl R. Sullivan, MD, shared their insights as well. Today, Ginger Vieira, a patient living with type 1 diabetes and celiac disease, says: “You, as the patient, are the most important part of the medical team because you are the one who makes the daily decisions, who balances your disease around dinners, soccer games, long hours at work without enough time to check your blood sugar and eat lunch. You are the one who takes the knowledge you learn from your doctor and fits it into your everyday life. That’s a huge role, and it’s never easy.” Ginger Vieira shares her story about the challenges and how her positive attitude is al...

Why Privatizing Medicare Is Highly Explosive

Better Health — Mon, 06 Dec 2010 17:00:00 +0100

In response to my recent post where I averred that the cigarette companies were treated as scapegoats, I have had several cyber and actual conversations about personal responsibility. I believe that folks should realize the consequences and the benefits of freely-made decisions. While we want American society to be compassionate, we do not want to punish success and reward failure. Our goal is to do all that we can to maximize everyone’s success. We should be ready to assist those who need and deserve our private and governmental assistance, but personal effort and responsibility are necessary elements of these interventions. In our gastrroenterology practice, when we see patients who are in financial difficulty, my physician partners and staff will do all that we can to help them. While...

Decision making

Caroline's Breast Cancer Blog — Sun, 21 Nov 2010 12:38:00 +0100

I make my own medical decisions. I do. I make decisions about lots of things (my husband says we always end up doing what I want but that's another blog post) but I feel comfortable making decisions. When it comes to medical decisions, I usually make a decision when first proposed to me and do not opt to go home and 'sleep on it' or research the hell out of it. Dr. Berk had an unfortunate bike accident that resulted in a spinal cord injury. He partially credits his return to health as a result of the involvement of his family in the decision making process and how it made them stronger as a family. Granted, the decisions he dealt with are different than the ones I have been making. I often make my own medical decisions, sometimes I consult my husband but usually I just act. Its my body and...

Lung Cancer CT Scan Marketing Spreads Across The Country

Better Health — Mon, 15 Nov 2010 21:00:34 +0100

Last week, after the National Lung Screening Trial results were released, David Sampson, American Cancer Society director of medical and scientific communications, wrote that “our greatest fear was that forces with an economic interest in the test would sidestep the scientific process and use the release of the data to start promoting CT scans. Frankly, even we are surprised how quickly that has happened.” And, yes, the marketing has even hit fly-over country in the Twin Cities, with this ad appearing in the Sunday Minneapolis Star Tribune in the “A” section: Of course, no where in the ad will you read about the potential harms of such scans, the false positive rate, what happens when you get a false positive (unnecessary followup testing and perhaps unnecessary t...

On Mourning the Death of a Pet

World of Psychology — Sat, 06 Nov 2010 16:01:32 +0100

My friend, Priscilla, just lost her best friend (okay, after her husband, Jimmy). On her blog, she writes: Our beloved golden retriever died this morning, peacefully, after spending a wonderful week by our side on Martha’s Vineyard, at the beach, where she ran into the ocean, and in the woods, where she took a long walk with me. She was 14 years old, my zen teacher, and my most constant meditation partner. We loved her so much. I know how traumatic losing a pet can be. I’m bracing for it myself, as one or both of our two Retriever-Chow mutts could go in the next two years. I found the Pet Loss Support Page online, which includes “Ten Tips on Coping with Pet Loss” from Moira Anderson Allen, M.Ed. I’ve excerpted the first five below. Anyone who considers a pet ...

Does It Matter What The Hospitalist Thinks?

Better Health — Fri, 15 Oct 2010 21:00:00 +0100

I read this article about a young child with heterotaxy syndrome with great interest. Not because I find heterotaxy syndrome something of great fascination, but because of the lack of communication — on both ends of the spectrum: Even though 5 other Dr. all came in and listened to his lungs and said that he didn’t sound like he was wheezing and that his lungs sounded really good. But because this hospital is overly political, process driven, bureaucratic, and in a constant state of litigious fear they are unable to make any conclusions based on actual medicine and patient care. Common sense is blown out the window when you have a system were a hospitalist one year out of medical school has an opinion that is as valuable as a cardiologist with 25+ years experience. But in�...

Scary Thought: A Treatment for Impulse Buying

Neuromarketing — Thu, 07 Oct 2010 12:43:14 +0100

Here’s a thought that would terrify many marketers… what if consumers prone to impulsive behavior decided to take a pill to quiet those impulses? While clearly lack of impulse control is a serious issue for some individuals and can lead to extreme behavior, marketers of everything from checkout lane mints to Porsches depend to some [...] CommentsThis will have to happen: - These self-harming behaviors are ... by Rich and Co.Ramon, I agree that the world would certainly be a different ... by Roger DooleyI think in the long run it will be better for us humans. ... by RamonRelated StoriesBit Pickles & Fuzzy OlivesPaper Beats Digital For EmotionNeuromarketing Standards Battle Ahead? (Source: Neuromarketing)

The Weekly Scoop in Healthcare Social Media #36

Fox ePractice — Fri, 10 Sep 2010 18:40:19 +0100

This article addresses how much time users spend on Facebook, the effectiveness of Facebook ads and trends among online merchants. Read the report… // < ![CDATA[ new TWTR.Widget({ version: 2, type: 'profile', rpp: 2, interval: 6000, width: 250, height: 250, theme: { shell: { background: '#e4eff2', color: '#007e9a' }, tweets: { background: '#FBFBFB', color: '#595959', links: '#007e9a' } }, features: { scrollbar: false, loop: false, live: false, hashtags: true, timestamp: true, avatars: false, behavior: 'all' } }).render().setUser('amyporterfield').start(); // ]]> This Week’s The Chair of Cheer “The Chair of Cheer” is our pick of the week display of great social media execution in the healthcare industry. ...

Doctors Wanted For Hazardous Journey

Better Health — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 12:00:38 +0100

“MEN WANTED FOR HAZARDOUS JOURNEY. SMALL WAGES, BITTER COLD, LONG MONTHS OF COMPLETE DARKNESS, CONSTANT DANGER, SAFE RETURN DOUBTFUL. HONOR AND RECOGNITION IN CASE OF SUCCESS.” With this want ad, circa 1914, Sir Ernest Shackleton recruited 28 souls with an unimaginable challenge: To cross the unexplored Antarctica on dogsled. The polar explorer knew exactly what human characteristics he needed to pull off such a feat and understood that straight talk would resonate with a few select men. Shakleton and his crew boarded their ship, the “Endurance,” and sailed the world’s most dangerous oceans straight into harms way — still considered one of the world’s greatest survival stories. Amazingly, all men survived against unimaginable odds. Their story reminds us that we a...

If This Were Your Child, What Would You Do?

Better Health — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 12:00:30 +0100

Many times when faced with a clinical dilemma, a parent will turn to me and ask: “What would you do if this were your child?” When faced with this question, I never quite know what to say. And each time I feel a little on-the-spot. But why is that? Aren’t I comfortable recommending for someone else exactly what I would do for my own child? After all, what have I got to hide? Here’s the problem: The decisions we make as parents involve our values, tolerance of risk, level of concern and frustration, prior health experience, and religious belief — to name but a few. There’s no way to fully tease those things from the parent sitting across the room. (more…) *This blog post was originally published at 33 Charts* (Source: Better Health)

Odd Side Effects: Reduces Homosexuality

World of Psychology — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 17:05:29 +0100

A particular kind of hormone treatment therapy to treat a rare birth defect is getting unwanted attention for one of its possible side effects — reducing the likelihood that the baby will be homosexual. The treatment is used to prevent genital abnormalities in the baby. Normally, of course, such treatment would be unremarkable and nobody would much care. But some gay and lesbian groups seem to be outraged by this treatment, and want to turn a medical decision and medical issue into a political one. Should such medical therapies be regulated by the government? Or should they be left to the judgment of the patient and the doctor? A hormonal treatment to prevent ambiguous genitalia can now be offered to women who may be carrying such infants. It’s not without health risks, but to...

More Babies For Diabetic Mommy?

Better Health — Sat, 14 Aug 2010 18:00:57 +0100

While I was at CBC a few weeks ago, one of the staff members asked me if I was planning on having more children. “I don’t think so,” I said, without hesitation. ”I love my daughter endlessly, and now that she’s part of my family, I can’t imagine my life without her, but I can’t lie to you. I didn’t enjoy being pregnant. I wanted a baby, but spending nine months pregnant was very, very stressful.” The staff member who asked the question looked disappointed. And in that moment, I sort of wish I had lied. “Oh, you look disappointed. I’m sorry! It’s not just because of diabetes stuff. It’s my own personal preference. I don’t want to lie!” And I won’t lie. The end result of my pregnancy was ...

Best of Our Blogs: August 10, 2010

World of Psychology — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 12:26:12 +0100

I’m an avid reader who’s been alternating between five to ten very different books lately. Why so many? Well it’s still summer and I’m soaking every bit of it while I can. One that’s been taking much of my attention is The Anxiety & Phobia Workbook by Edmund J. Bourne, Ph.D. While the title isn’t very sexy, the read is very illuminating. Why? It talks about the comprehensive (what I’ll call) diet plan for someone suffering from anxiety and phobia. One of the topics it covers is negative self-talk. The kind that often exacerbates anxiety and is also described as one of five mind traps in this week’s top post. It also talks about the importance of exercise, meditation and even nutrition. All things that can help ease your anxiety so that yo...

Taking flight

Turquoise Gates — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 14:48:00 +0100

He stands tentative. Opening his orange beak wider and wider as I walk closer. He's more skittish than the other shore birds and gulls. Doesn't like to be close to other people.He pulls his wings up high and gathers air under them and lifts off. Just parallel to the ground at first. Almost as if he might not have it in him to stay aloft or climb higher.Finally, he starts to make upward progress. His beak still hangs open in fear of me, as if by talking to me he might scare me further away. His wings are hinged and the lines go straight, then up to gather more air, then hinged in two, a 90 degree angle as he swoops it away underneath himself.Finally, closer to the waves, he catches the updraft. Here his flight becomes beautiful again, th...

How To Make Decisions

Life Coach Blog: The Discomfort Zone : — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 23:06:23 +0100

I ran an offer to my newsletter subscribers last week called Kick Ass Life Coaching (click the link if you want more information). I was offering 5 places at less than half my normal rate for 3 sessions of life coaching designed to get to the core of any problem quickly and effectively. I full expected with less than 500 subscribers to be carrying over most if not all of the places to offer my blog readers, but much to my surprise it sold out in about 4 hours. Or at least I though it did, however one of the people has since gone awol on me, so I still have a slot open. If you’re interested, contact me a.s.a.p. and we can set it up. A couple of people have e-mailed to ask if I’ll do this again next month. At this point I honestly don’t know, July is my quietest month of the year and A...

DTC Genomics adjusts for regulations. 23andCGC?

Gene Sherpas: Personalized Medicine and You — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 22:26:00 +0100

In a blatantly obvious, why the hell werent they doing that in the first place? move.23andSerge acknolwedges, finally, that they ARE Providing clinically important work. Duh, Since the website won't let me copy the presser, I will quote, with my own translation through business BS speak."23andMe customers now have the option to speak with a board certified genetic counselor" -Translation, we realized that by testing BRCA mutations we put people at risk and needed some back up from someone who knows what the FCUK they are doing opposed to a VC billionaire babe and ruby on rails programmer kids.-Because, frankly, we don't want to get sued or go to jail......Like Liz Dragon...... "We chose Informed because they were the leading independent genetic counseling provider"-Translation, we alienate...

The Golden Ticket

Turquoise Gates — Mon, 10 May 2010 17:35:00 +0100

The devil, who has for the most part ignored you up to that point since you weren't a threat, starts to take notice. And so do other people. Believers and unbelievers alike may become your adversaries. Remember what happened to the boy David when he decided to fight Goliath? His brother attacked him angrily. Then Saul, the king, challenged him, "You're just a boy." Then Goliath himself mocked David. In that moment, David had no supporters except the Lord. Get in the battle and see what happens. ~Tim Haring, April 30th devotional for Faithwalkers journal, available in it's entirety hereThis has definitely been my experience. At certain points along this difficult road, as I follow God like a blind woman down a path I didn't choose that leads to a destination I am totally unsure of, I have f...

A “Decision Tree” For Personalized Medicine

Better Health — Mon, 10 May 2010 14:00:09 +0100

What’s amazing is that despite the vocal movement to empower patients, no one has put together a well-referenced, readable book to help patients understand how they should use personalized medicine to influence their health — until now. Enter The Decision Tree: Taking Control of Your Health in the New Era of Personalized Medicine (Rodale 2010), something of a blueprint of patient liberation written by Thomas Goetz, executive editor of Wired magazine. It offers constructive narrative not only about the importance of the decisions we make but how to apply the concept of an old-fashioned decision tree in making those decisions. (more…) *This blog post was originally published at 33 Charts* (Source: Better Health)

Mid-night journal

Turquoise Gates — Mon, 03 May 2010 08:58:00 +0100

Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. ~ Philippians 4:6This verse is an oldie, but goody (my brother Daniel used to say that as a small boy, and it still tickles me deep within to say it). Tonight I am up as the first pink glaze of sun appears in the pines out my bedroom window, heralding the end of night and beginning of another morn...up all night trying hard to put actions to this verse. It has been a night of prayer, a night of reading, a night of closing my eyes in near delirium and still the prayers flow and the sleep does not come.How many times had patients sat there waiting for her to announce her decision after a similar moment of respite? Invariably the decision was based on science and s...

More Dating Choices = More Shallow Decisions

World of Psychology — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 17:10:18 +0100

In our fast-paced, consumer-driven society, we often believe — wrongly — that more choices are always better. But as we’ve shown time and time again, too many choices is just as bad as too few choices. Nowhere is this more true than in the world of dating, where previous research has demonstrated the downsides of too many online dating choices. That’s why online dating websites like Match.com work hard to try and limit your choices (although they don’t always do a good job at it). And that’s why eHarmony makes a big deal about using personality characteristics to match you at a “deeper level” (there’s no research to back eHarmony’s claims — it’s just marketing). Today, we add yet another study to the pile of research d...

Internet has more influence on healthcare decisions than other mediums

ePharma Summit — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 15:29:00 +0100

(Source: ePharma Summit)

Tethered

Turquoise Gates — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 12:00:00 +0100

Tether. Rope. Just a tool. Infinitely less treasured and considered than whatever precious cargo it anchors. It's frayed ends continue to go unnoticed unless they split far enough to break, let loose the treasure.I never gave a thought to the thousands of tethers God formed inside me while I still slept inside my mother's womb. My frame was not hidden when You formed me in the secret place. One day in 2008, just after the birth of my son, a cascade of events started. Aaron and I pored over medical journals and came to the conclusion that we should at least try to be done having children. Sever the tether between ovaries and uterus. It was an odd decision to make, in the day of vasectomies. But that is what the two of us had peace with. So I went under surgeon's knife and closed a chapter i...

Why Psychologists Shouldn’t Prescribe

World of Psychology — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 09:54:19 +0100

Beware psychiatrists bearing gifts. If psychology wants to remain a science based upon the understanding of human behavior — both normal and abnormal — and helping those with the “abnormal” components, it would do well to avoid going down the road of prescription privileges. But perhaps it’s already too late. We first noted this disturbing trend in 2006, how they were shot down 9 out of 9 times trying to gain prescription privileges in 2007, and why prescription privileges for psychologists will eventually drive psychiatrists out of a job. We also noted that one of the programs setup to help psychologists get prescription training wasn’t a “college” at all. The fundamental problem with psychologists gaining prescription privileges is the inev...

Home is heaven

Turquoise Gates — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 20:19:00 +0100

We are home for the weekend. The neurologist at Mayo, Dr. Suresh Kotagal, seems as concerned as we are...although more certain that Amelia won't become critically ill in the next few days. The schedule at Mayo is such that her first test was not able to be scheduled until Tuesday. However, we do have a plan of action if she should become more ill between now and Tuesday - involving a "lights and sirens" ride from Luther to Mayo for in-patient care. Knowing that makes me feel confident enough to be home.Today I am busy utilizing the kind help of the York girls as we rearrange furniture in order to fit a hospital bed into the small room the children sleep in. Amy needs to have her head elevated at all times to avoid complications related to the increased pressure surrounding her brain, and a...

10 Types of Female Friends

World of Psychology — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 13:29:49 +0100

Awhile back I wrote about the four kinds of friends you need in your life to become more resilient. Now let’s talk about the kind of friends you actually have! Or at least the 10 types of female friends described by author Susan Shapiro Barash in her new book, Toxic Friends: The Antidote for Women Stuck in Complicated Friendships. (I promise to follow up with one for the guys, okay?). For her book, Shapiro interviewed 200 women of assorted backgrounds and ages, and asked them all kinds of nosy questions about their friends. The result is a labyrinth of 10 types of female friendships. I have excerpted the following descriptions from her book: 1. The Leader The leader is the friend we feel we must have, the one who can make or break our social lives. Being the leader renders one a R...

Walking the balance beam

Turquoise Gates — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 17:14:00 +0100

"Methotrexate is a chemotherapy drug that targets rapidly dividing cells. Which is all the placenta is, really."Really?Call me old-fashioned - I thought it was a divinely perfect organ for the nourishment of a tiny, helpless human being a few cells this side of oblivion, on it's way to all that loveliness we call baby. When I heard the obstetrician talk in this way about the baby growing inside me, something seriously snapped. I am struggling with anger, distrust, and sarcasm as I deal with our care providers in Eau Claire - from the midwives who hung me out to dry on the abortion issue, to the physicians who missed Amelia's encephalitis for weeks on end. It is such a struggle to balance acceptance, submission, a quiet spirit, humility, my belief in a cursed world and a loving Jesus...wit...

Why Sleeping On It Helps

World of Psychology — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 16:35:15 +0100

We’re often told, “You should sleep on it” before you make an important decision. Why is that? How does “sleeping on it” help your decision-making process? Conventional wisdom suggests that by “sleeping on it,” we clear our minds and relieve ourselves of the immediacy (and accompanying stress) of making a decision. Sleep also helps organize our memories, process the information of the day, and solve problems. Such wisdom also suggests that conscious deliberation helps decision making in general. But new research (Dijksterhuis et al., 2009) suggests something else might also be at work — our unconscious. Previous research suggests that sometimes the more consciously we think about a decision, the worse the decision made. Sometimes what’s...

Twombly and Iqbal: Reality Check

Cato-at-liberty — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 20:07:59 +0100

In Bell Atlantic v. Twombly (2007) and Ashcroft v. Iqbal (2009), the Supreme Court gave trial courts more latitude to dismiss a lawsuit at a very early stage, before the parties have had a chance to engage in discovery (the often lengthy and expensive fact-finding stage of civil litigation), if judges think the suit is not founded on “plausible” allegations of wrongdoing. There’s a rich, angry debate about the effect the decisions will have on dismissal rates of meritorious suits in lower courts. But the consensus among academics seems to be that both decisions will trigger a sea-change in lower court practice—one deeply unfavorable to plaintiffs. We won’t know the real effect of these decisions for many years to come. But a 2007 study by the Federal Judicial Center on the eff...

Genetic Testing for Cancer Could Save Your Life

Life with Breast Cancer — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 18:14:17 +0100

I think it is great that there are Web sites and organizations dedicated to making everyone aware of the genetic risk for breast cancer. Being aware is not enough though. People need access to the test. Unfortunately many insurance companies have stringent rules as to who gets tested. At over $3,000.00 a pop I’m sure they’re just trying to save a little money; they are a business after all. And, at over $3,000.00 a pop, most people who are denied the test by their insurance carrier or don’t have insurance coverage can’t afford it. This is sad, this test can save lives, in fact, this test can save a whole family. It made the difference for my family. I tested positive, which got Sister to get the test, when she tested positive her oldest daughter Nicole got the test....

What would you do – My decision and rationale

Medic999 — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 14:43:31 +0100

Oh the joys of clinical decision making!! Its been fascinating to read the comments coming in. The poll results also show the same split, not far off a 50:50 for performing a blood glucose test in the back of the ambulance as apposed to waiting until we get the child to the A&E. So heres what I did….Its neither right or wrong, but its what I did and why I did (or didnt) do it. As I got on the ambulance, my partner for the shift was just about to take a BM from the child. In our vehicles, we only have a one size fits all lancet, not a choice of adult or paed lancets. He looked at me with those eyes we all know, the ones that say ’should I be doing this’. We had a very quick discussion which went something like….. Dad says baby is almost back to normal now Baby d...

PHG Foundation and my point.

Gene Sherpas: Personalized Medicine and You — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 11:49:00 +0100

A long time ago I had a post entitled "Beware Doctors Bearing Genetic Tests" back in April of 2007. It was an interesting post where I point out that this wonderful GI doctor who was IVY league trained completely hashed genetic testing for HNPCC.I went on to explain the shortcomings with Internists in interpreting APC testing for familial adenomatoid polyposis coli. 1 in 3 misinterpret tests.....Wait till you see the DTC interpretation!Everyone who gets all in a huff when I say that these DTC genetic tests should be regulated. But I am here to say there is a good reason for it, and it has nothing to do with the people getting the tests.......There is now threat of public harm.....But first let me explain my frustration. Saturday I was on Twitter and Daniel MacArthur and I had a conversatio...

Genetic Counseling and it’s Influence on Breast Cancer Decisions

Life with Breast Cancer — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 21:46:29 +0100

Genetic counseling was a choice I made. I decided to have genetic counseling to determine if I had a genetic predisposition to breast cancer; it was in conjunction with my decision to have reconstructive surgery. My oncologist and I were discussing the options available to reconstruct the breast that had been removed. After having a breast cancer diagnosis I had questions as to whether I should consider prophylactic removal of my other breast to reduce the risk of breast cancer in my remaining breast. He was aware of the other cancers in my family and so suggested that genetic counseling could help me determine the risk for another breast cancer diagnosis. Testing positive for the BRCA II gene mutation created new issues. How my sister would be affected, her girls and my children was the...

Fewer Choices Result in Better Efficiency

Productivity501 — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 03:29:10 +0100

There was a study published in 2003 by the Journal of Psychology that attempted to measure how helpful time management training was for employees. They sent a group of employees to a 1 and 1/2 day seminar on time management and then compared their self-assessment one month later with a control group. The study showed that individuals who had been through time management training believed that they significantly decreased their avoidance behavior and worry. They also reported that they had an increased ability to manage time. (Notice that the study wasn’t trying to measure their actual skill level, only their perception of their skill.) This is, of course, a great study for all the consultants who would love to come into your company and teach time management techniques. The auth...

Introducing How to Find a Good Therapist

World of Psychology — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 17:51:28 +0100

One of the common questions we receive here at Psych Central is, “You always talk about the importance of finding a good therapist in order to be successful in psychotherapy; so how do I go about doing that?” Over the years, I’ve written an article or two about this topic. Now I’m pleased to present something better — a complete, free online e-book to finding a good therapist. How to Find a Good Therapist is a simple how-to guide written by Ben Butina. Ben Butina is a therapist and trainer, and is the executive director of Westmoreland Marriage. You can learn more about this book and how to order bulk paper or e-book copies of at the book’s website, www.howtofindagoodtherapist.com. Psychotherapy is often a process shrouded in some mystery. How does one ...

23andMx looking to cook the books in CA with SB 482

Gene Sherpas: Personalized Medicine and You — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 15:56:00 +0100

Daniel MacArthur and I have been noticing something and he decided to cover it today, which is why I have decided to provide a counterpoint here....Also GenomeWeb published on this. SB 482 is a bill I glossed over in a post in the past and was recently interviewed for in the San Jose Mercury News....... Daniel leads this as 23andMx leading the regulatory push.....but this is more insidious than that. This is 23andMx trying to cook the books and create laws which exempt them from the stringent regulation which they should receive...... I told this to the newsies over at San Jose on Sunday, so I am going to post this today...... It turns out that this bill SB 482 essentially exempts DTC companies from facing the harshest regulations that medical providers/labs have to face From Daniel"In oth...

GAPPNet, Hacked Records and ICOB

Gene Sherpas: Personalized Medicine and You — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 12:44:00 +0100

Happy Donut Day Everyone!"Wha?"That's what I said as I walked into my Dunkin Donuts across the street from our new HQ. The guy saw me coming in, prepped my coffee, Large Blueberry, Milk and Sugar......As I went to pay, he said, "Happy Donut Day" I barely understood what he said when the manager said "Pick your donut, FREE"OMG, as if I wasn't fat enough. How many other of my readers took the free Donut today. I looked around in my DD and it seemed everyone took the donut.People certainly are game for free......... Speaking of FREE, the Coriell Personalized Medicine Collaborative is in essence a Navi/23andM- scan for FREE. I just got some more results this week. I don't have Hemochromatosis HFE type, Hooray! This can be yours as well.....That is if you are willing to participate in the study...

Guideposts in a life of daily pain

Life with Chronic Pain — Wed, 27 May 2009 21:41:50 +0100

One of my favorite magazines, which I’ve been reading for 30 years, is Guideposts magazine, founded by the Rev. Norman Vincent Peale and his wife, Ruth Stafford Peale. I’ve enjoyed that particular publication in good times and bad. One of the aspects of it I think I’m most fond of is that it embraces all religious faiths, without showing prejudice or preference so none are segregated or left out. This matter of finding our way in life, following our own guideposts, seems to be independent of any particular religious faith. Faith is faith. I apologize if that offends any of you; but it is my belief as I have lived a considerable number of years and witnessed the hardships of the Jews over the years, the bigotry toward the Catholics in some parts of the country and the judg...

A Disease of Little Decisions

Diabetes Daily — Tue, 26 May 2009 17:32:41 +0100

Diabetes is such a unique condition. While the basics are the same for all of us living with type 1, and many of those living with type 2, our bodies are all very different, and we all have to adopt different management techniques.I think that everyone being different makes it harder to deal with. Nobody can tell you what to do, only what they have done and learned through much... (Source: Diabetes Daily)

90210’s Portrayal of Bipolar Disorder

World of Psychology — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 16:32:46 +0100

Whenever TV and movies portray a person with mental illness, it’s usually a “crazy schizophrenic,” an ax-wielding sociopath, a violent, drug-addicted mental patient or an insane asylum escapee — or a combo of all four. Either way, that person is almost always hopeless, dangerous and deranged. When the news media tries to tackle mental illness, it’s typically after a horrific tragedy has occurred. A writer for the University of Wisconsin-Madison Daily Cardinal explains: “The script usually goes as follows: tragic event occurs, media pounces, the feeding frenzy begins, the public is inundated with endless graphic and heart-wrenching details, pundits and analysts play the blame game until the next media firestorm occurs.” Stigma in mainstream media is nothing new, and ...

Death Knell to Cancer Genetic Counseling?

Gene Sherpas: Personalized Medicine and You — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 12:07:00 +0100

ACOG has finally come around. They are now beginning to realize that it IS the responsibility of the OB/GYN to evaluate cancer risks. In this case BRCA1/2. Soon I imagine they will learn to appreciate the risk of Lynch Syndrome with their Endometrial cases.All of this could spell trouble for the cancer genetic counselors in this country. OR it could mean a bunch of referrals. It all depends........ACOG practice bulletin 103 recently published says "Women may wish to discuss their personal and family history of breast and ovarian cancer with their physician in order to determine whether any further genetic assessment is warranted."Well, with Myriad in your office saying, "Doc, you can do this test. And SHOULD do this test" It is going to be hard not too. Especially with ACOG now saying that...

Family History beats fancy Genetic Test! Again!

Gene Sherpas: Personalized Medicine and You — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 11:35:00 +0100

I was talking to the president elect of the ACMG the other day about something that could be pretty useful. I told him that even though we disagree about the role of DTC, I laud his efforts towards education.Our teaching point should be plain and simple. The family history is the best addition to the geneticist's history and physical. It separates them from other specialities. It is a help towards clinical judgement and use of testing. This is precisely the thing that will keep geneticists from being replaced by eager self-testers and Online "web apps" to teach patients about their 6 billion base pair report.In genetics we all know of benign variants in genes and hell, even chromosomes. Changes which in the grand scheme of things may never make a difference......that's because clinical alw...

Another B.S. PR Move, Congrats Public Relations!

Gene Sherpas: Personalized Medicine and You — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 14:01:00 +0100

Ok,To Quote Diane Sawyer "Is there any way that they could just report the diseases you can prevent?"That was on Good Morning America today. I swear 23andME's PR firm has a plant in ABC.So let me explain the clinical scenario. A woman walks into the OB's office carrying 30 pages of information on 90 different diseases. The super swamped OB has 15 minutes for the patient. In that time they need to go over sexual history, health history, anticipatory guidance regarding possible pregnancy, maybe perform a pap smear.....and suddenly, the OB gets ambushed with a 30 page hand out......The Patient "Umm I was wondering, if I have a 1.37 Odds Ratio of having a heart attack, could I prevent my baby from having this?"That is the story with 23andMe's new push for samples to sell to third parties.........

Give Your Self-Esteem a Boost - Awaken Your Intuition

Armstrong Method — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 09:50:28 +0100

Do you suffer from low-esteem? Do you question your choices and often doubt your decisions? Is your self-talk negative? Are you your own worst critic? Have you thought of using your intuition to give your self-esteem a boost? What is Intuition? Intuition is an immensely powerful tool that’s available to everyone. I am a big fan of intuition and I speak of it often in my classes and workshops. A natural ability, intuition is something deep within us all. It is a powerful sense of knowing something without a logical rationale for how it is known or where the information came from. For many of us, our upbringing during childhood forced us to abandon our intuition at early ages because it was considered abnormal, childish or freakish to entertain such an irrational idea as inform...

Over 200 studies! What is BS? What is Real?

Gene Sherpas: Personalized Medicine and You — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 13:42:00 +0100

With the advance of genome wide associations we need to collate them and evaluate them. A research physician associate of mine told me that on average 9 out of 10 association studies will eventually be proven incorrect. His research, not mine.That is a pretty huge number. But it is with that mindset in which I review GWAS. What do I look for? How do I evaluate them? There have been some good articles recently in JAMA which illustrate some of the key concepts.In genetic studies, one potential cause of spurious associations is differences between cases and controls in ethnicity, a situation termed population stratification. Was measurement of the genetic variants unbiased and accurate? Methods for determining DNA sequence variation are not perfect and may have some measurement error. Do the ...

Recessionary Discretion......HotCoupons4U!!

Gene Sherpas: Personalized Medicine and You — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 12:22:00 +0100

Yes, I am a big fan of the race to the bottom. At least in the case of SNP scanning. We have seen Navigenics drop their price, deCode drops off the earth and 23andMe???? Well, in a discretionary move they show use the true value of SNP scans.....I give you HotCoupons4U.....The 23andMe special, pay close attention...From the website.....Featured Savings & Discount DealsWin $5000 A Week For Life (Expires 2/26/2009)Win $25,000 Room A Day (Expires 3/6/2009)Dicks Sporting Goods Coupon: $10 OFF (Expires 4/30/2009)Win a Smart Fortwo Car or $14,000 Cash (Expires 10/31/2009)Get Free Nutrish Dog Food Sample (On Going)Honey Baked Big or Small Ham Feast (On Going)$3 Off Disney DVD in The Store (On Going)ToysRUs Free Shipping on Select Toys (On Going)Victoria's Secret December $10 off Any Purchase ...

New Year’s resolutions and Crohn’s disease

Life with Crohn's — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 19:00:11 +0100

Happy New Year, all! Wow, I cannot believe that it is 2009 already. I hope that you took some time off during the holidays and were able to relax. I took almost two weeks off and for the first time in a few years, was able to relax and enjoy myself. Of course, a few nights my family had no dinner prepared for them because I was too busy playing video games and reading books (which usually never happen). But my family managed without the prepared food just fine (there is a lesson in here somewhere I think…). My sister and her family were here until the 29th and it was so great to see them and hang out (at our house for once!). We lived in Europe for the last 5.5 years but now that we have a house in the United States, it is easier for people to come and stay with us. We are very happy...

When is a good time to start to ‘accept’ chronic pain?

HealthSkills Weblog — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 07:21:06 +0100

Acceptance is a real buzz word in many chronic health and wellbeing writing at the moment. This is partly due to the popularity of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and similar therapies, and possibly also due to the wide range of health problems that don’t respond to medical interventions. As that wonderful movie said ‘Perhaps this is as good as it gets‘. Some studies show that acceptance is one of the greater predictors of ’success’ in a pain management programme (eg McCracken & Eccleston, 2003; Morley, Davies & Barton, 2005; Paez-Blarrina et al., 2008). And it’s certainly something participants ask about often in the pain management programme I work on - when should I start to accept this pain? I can’t exactly answer that question ...

Decision making and cognitive psychology iii

HealthSkills Weblog — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 18:29:29 +0100

OK, I said yesterday that I’d discuss debiasing, and I didn’t - so I will today! Firstly, researchers have identified that ‘experts’ are typically over confident about their decisions. (Henrion & Fischhoff, 1986) One solution has been to ‘motivate’ clinicians to be accountable for their decisions, for example, by providing them with a total capped budget for treating all the patients in their area. The reasoning is that poor decisions will be less likely to be made if an error costs. Schwab finds three problems arising from this argument - 1. Methods that increase cognitive effort are useful only when the original decisions were made in a superficial way. 2. Accountability can actually exacerbate biases when judgments are based on the wrong informat...

Decision making and cognitive psychology ii

HealthSkills Weblog — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 18:26:30 +0100

Yesterday I discussed several systematic biases that are known to influence decision making. Today I want to look at two more - and briefly some thoughts about ‘debiasing’ (if that’s a word!). Imagining the consequences of a decision is a really influential part of making that decision - cognitive psychologists call this ‘affective forecasting’. What this means is that people imagine how it will feel emotionally if they make a certain choice. While it seems that humans are pretty good at identifying whether they’ll feel good or bad about their choice, what they don’t do so well is estimate how long they’ll feel this way, or how intense that feeling will be. Wilson and Gilbert are researchers who look at this area of decision making, and...

In the New England Journal Again! CRP genetics!

Gene Sherpas: Personalized Medicine and You — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 11:25:00 +0100

Trick or Treat..... That's Russ Altman, Disguised as a Wolf-Man!!!First the Treat!Ok, so I hate to say it, but I am firmly convinced that the New England Journal of Medicine has been taken over by geneticists!!! I jump for glee as I open a new edition and see genetics plastered all over it.....just like the week before......and the week before that! It is true....medicine will soon be a small sub specialty of genetics!!!!!! At least if the NEJM has their way with it!Now for the TrickBut then I stop....pinch myself and ask "Now which company will rush to market with these findings???"""The biggest danger to Personalized Medicine is not the lack of physician understanding. Nor is it the lack of good reimbursement systems. Nor is it the lack of education in medical school. Nor is it the lack ...

October check-in - how is your Crohn’s today?

Life with Crohn's — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 23:19:45 +0100

Hello everyone! Hope you are feeling hopeful today. Today’s blog’s topic is our monthly tag-up to let each other know how we are doing and feeling. I hope that you write in, and I look forward to your comments! I will start by telling you how I have been doing this month. Awful!! Okay, it is not so bad, but still, I would not mark this month up as being one of the good ones. I have been in a really bad mood about everything lately. I am very tired from all of this hurricane business and just plain tired of everything. We finally got our power back – after two weeks – and moved back into our house (Yay!). We were staying with my in-laws because I had moved over there before the storm and there was really no reason to come back to an un-powered home when my husband finally returned....

The Sherpa's Plan: Criminal Acts for 200 Bucks. Enter the Nurse Geneticist!!

Gene Sherpas: Personalized Medicine and You — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 10:15:00 +0100

There is a storm coming. The way clinical genetics services are delivered in academic centers needs to change. Trying to make money through incident services could costs counselors and genetics departments everywhere. Billing through an extender leverages the already busy clinician and helps us see many patients.When a physician needs to bill for an extender they pick an NP or a PA. If they pick a CGC and never see the patient, bill for a clinical consult, and have someone forge their name, then they could be in a little bit of trouble. Especially with Medicare.....Yet that is precisely what is happening in a majority of medical centers in the country. In my unscientific poll, 15 of the top 30 institutions who host cancer genetics clinics are doing this exact thing. I won't point fingers a...

Sherpa's Plan: Lack of Qualified Education Sources

Gene Sherpas: Personalized Medicine and You — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 10:33:00 +0100

I have received great response to our HelixGene Foundation. We are quickly building our community. It is so heartening to see everyone support this effort. It is frankly, breath taking!Today I will be headed to a wonderful company. They are called Cine-Med. They are joining forces with the Sherpa to create Genomic CMEs. We have some great ones that are fast approaching launch. My mentor told me that I am doing to much. But I have to tell you, I am not doing enough. I need your help. Help empower physicians to learn and practice Genomic Medicine!Remember what I said about NCHPEG.....only 6 of 100 primary care physicians had ever heard of them. Instead they would rely on the Sunday NY Times. There has to be a better way! Either we launch a multi-million dollar awareness campaign for NCHPEG o...

Chronic disease and natural disaster preparedness

Life with Crohn's — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 20:07:55 +0100

We have made it through the storm and, all in all, feel very lucky. My daughter and I evacuated our house and went to stay at my in-laws’ house on the west side of town. My husband had been in Indonesia during the ordeal but came home last Thursday- which made me feel better. We were lucky that there was a cold front that moved through the area and I know everyone in Houston was grateful for that. Our house has suffered some damage from water (only in one room) and I hope that our wood floor is not ruined. The wood in the other rooms may be at risk too without the power because of the humidity. At least it is not as hot and humid as it could be. Our fence is gone, and our trees are down, but that’s about all. We are lucky compared to a lot of people. On top of everything that i...

Preparing for Hurricane Ike during a storm of fears

Life with Crohn's — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 00:04:05 +0100

Editor’s Note: Kelly wrote this post last week before Hurricane Ike hit her hometown of Houston. I was laying here trying to sleep, and I couldn’t help thinking about stress management. I am laying here thinking about stress management because I have been under a lot of stress this last week, and I am in need of some sort of stress management. Last Sunday, my husband left for Indonesia and since he is so far away (12 hours ahead) I have been a little anxious. He is also in a remote area, so it is not easy to get in touch with him. Before he left, hurricane Ike was still far away and forecasted to hit in Mexico. Now, on the Thursday night before Ike is to hit, he is projected to come right over us. They have evacuated my county and so my daughter and I are at my in-law’s h...

The Situation of Constitutional Beliefs - Abstract

The Situationist — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 14:31:02 +0100

Joshua Furgeson, Linda Babcock, and Peter Shane have a new article that will be of interest to many readers of the Situationist: “Do a Law’s Policy Implications Affect Beliefs About Its Constitutionality? An Experimental Test,” 32 Law Hum. Behav. 219 (2008). Here’s the abstract. * * * Although a substantial empirical literature has found associations between judges’ political orientation and their judicial decisions, the nature of the relationship between policy preferences and constitutional reasoning remains unclear. In this experimental study, law students were asked to determine the constitutionality of a hypothetical law, where the policy implications of the law were manipulated while holding all legal evidence constant. The data indicate that, even with an incen...

Burrill Report....deCoded

Gene Sherpas: Personalized Medicine and You — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 09:00:00 +0100

Consumers are worried about developing genetic based diseases, but remain reluctant to use genetic tests that will provide early warning signs.That is the lead statement in the executive summary from the Burrill and Company Personalized Medicine and Wellness report issued last week. Many may ask "What's this report have to do with me?" many have even doubted the validity of the report in favor of the blogosphere......In the arena of Genomic Medicine, I would say the blogosphere is pretty one sided.....IN fact, that is why the Sherpa is popular. Until I started blogging, this place was pretty much a mutual admiration society. Further proven by the backlash I received when I said that governmental regulation was coming and then came.So let's go back to the poll.....Second LineCompanies need ...

Daniel is a Great Guy!

Gene Sherpas: Personalized Medicine and You — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 18:39:00 +0100

I wanted to post quickly today on a this whole turf topic again. I thank Daniel over at Genetic-Future (Pound for pound the best new blog in this arena). It took some discourse to figure it out.What happens normally with genetic testing?Traditionally a lab scientist, being PhD or MD runs the lab and when results are in writes a report that is to be delivered to......Guess who? A physician. That physician or genetic counselor working with the physician interprets the report clinically at the interface of the patient.......presenting the patient the results and the clinical implications. (This is the part that laboratory scientists often never see)Eureka! I have finally figured out this whole play!!!! Why is the state cracking down? When these DTC companies, Genetic, SNP, or not deliver resu...

Newborn Screening for Alzheimer's Disease?

Gene Sherpas: Personalized Medicine and You — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 11:30:00 +0100

Don't Forget that Gene Genie is up at Neurophilosophy so check it out!I want to thank the Connecticut Geriatric Socitey for inviting me to speak at their wonderful group's Annual Meeting. It was a lively time and the Salmon was excellent. At the end of the lecture we had a lively debate with several clinicians. Family history is king when it comes to Alzheimer's Disease. APOE e4 testing is not super worthwhile, unless you identify ApoE e4 in an affected and then work the family up that way. But the 3 gene panel for Early Onset Alzhemier's is definitely a must. Provided the 3 tenets of Informed Consent are met.What are those 3?1. A plan of action for results. "What would you do if you had a positive or negative or uncertain test result?2. Are you Psychologically prepared to handle the resul...

Genetic Susceptibility to Cancer

Gene Sherpas: Personalized Medicine and You — Wed, 28 May 2008 14:10:00 +0100

I love the pen. It has the ability to befuddle, convince, coerce, and give false or true hope. This is the case with journal articles. I am always amazed by what is reported and what is real. You see, the Buddhists will tell you that all reality is merely false. Why? Because perception is what we view to be reality. Since reality needs to be constant, yet perception not only changes but is viewer dependant....it is not constant. Hence, there is no spoon.This is the case with a recent article published in JAMA's clinician's corner. The article entitled "Genetic Susceptibility to Cancer" did something wonderful. It took 161 meta and pooled analyses encompassing 18 cancer sites and 99 genes/344 variants (Trust me, this took some heavy lifting) and evaluated for Odds Ratios and evaluated stati...

The Epi-Genomic Canary

Gene Sherpas: Personalized Medicine and You — Tue, 13 May 2008 13:51:00 +0100

So many people talk about guniea pigs as the research subject. I think this is a disservice for the pigs. Personally I think the Shaft Canary is a much better analogy. You see, the subtle changes from the human guinea pigs may not make big headlines or get the public to listen....But, the canary in the shaft always makes big press.If you don't know what I am talking about, let me explain. One of coal miners earliest and continuous problems was carbon monoxide. It can kill fairly quickly. But way back when, there were no gas detectors.....we had a vey limited ability to identify the dangerous gas. So what did they do? They carried a surrogate into the mine...The canary was a pretty easy to read detector. If the bird died, then you should leave the mine shaft. With our ever expanding set of ...

276 pages of pure reality!

Gene Sherpas: Personalized Medicine and You — Thu, 08 May 2008 19:19:00 +0100

Have you read it? Come on.....You didn't. Well, you are missing out. Back in 2004 I started watching the Secretary's Advisory Committee on Health, Genetics and Society. But even more importantly I began watching back meetings that were webcast, including the SACGT. I studied the players in the field, the advisors, the government. I began to notice trends and agendas. This is why I saw all of the regulations coming. I began emailing members, speaking with advisors, and learning how and when all of the issues would arise and then be solved. Then in 2005 I began to develop the business plan for Helix Health. The safest climb to the summit is with trained genetics professionals like the ones we have. The riskiest is D-I-Y. The SACGHS is against D-I-Y...notably this 276 page report goes into th...

Oprah, Oprah, Oprah!

Gene Sherpas: Personalized Medicine and You — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 14:06:00 +0100

In a gut wrenching episode of Oprah the other day Randy Pausch spoke about pancreatic cancer. It is a scary disease as almost everyone dies from this cancer AND it is so difficult to detect. He is correct, we know so little about pancreatic cancer. We know so little about its pathoetiology(Cause of). We are learning a little about pancreatic cancer genetics. But what scares the hell out of me is when a well respected pulmonologist and critical care specialist comes up to me today and says "My wife's father had pancreatic cancer. She's scared to death about getting it. She saw on Oprah a genetic test and something called 23andMe. Can you help me get these tests?"Woah......Big fella!!!! I spent 30 minutes going over familial pancreatic cancer, doing a quick family history and coming up with ...

Happy Law Students, Happy Lawyers - Abstract

The Situationist — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 19:00:56 +0100

This article draws on research into the science of happiness and asks a series of interrelated questions: Whether law schools can make law students happier? Whether making happier law students will translate into making them happier lawyers, and the accompanying question of whether making law students happier would create better lawyers? After covering the limitations of genetic determinants of happiness and happiness set-points, the article addresses those qualities that happiness research indicates are paramount in creating satisfaction: control, connections, creative challenge (or flow), and comparisons (preferably downward). Those qualities are then applied to legal education, while addressing the larger philosophical question, What if happiness were a goal of law schools? The authors ...

Too good to miss

Gene Sherpas: Personalized Medicine and You — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 00:34:00 +0100

Ok....so I have been reading Hsien's discussions about DTC testing good or evil?This spirited debate is very important. Everyone has concerns about regulations. It is the reason why 23andMe jumped the non-clia certified lab ship (And probably Why Andrew's results were delayed) But it is also why LabCorp has now locked out all other corporate genomic companies for now....This debate is going to boil down simply to this...I posted yesterday and maintain this position"Predisposition is Pre-Disease". This is the case with BRCA testing, it is the case with some robust SNPs. The ICD10 codes will catch up with this....If it is not the case (i.e. for entertainment purposes only, NO HEALTH IMPLICATIONS) then they don't need medical regulation.So I ask, are the SNPs which are being tested for and re...

Back to the Basics.

Gene Sherpas: Personalized Medicine and You — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 13:22:00 +0100

I used to play football and had a coach who said "If you block and tackle better than anyone, then you will win championships"I thought he was crazy. I thought you had to have super talent to win. But year after year it is clear in the NFL that teams who block and tackle better...win. You know this to be true in all sports.So here at the Gene Sherpa, I am going back to the basics. I have been getting away from that and being a little preachy and in fact turning into a tabloid...While it does generate alot of blog hits.....Searches for Navigenics has sent my hit rate rocketing on FeedBurner....I think we need to report on how we are doing in our progression to Genomic Medicine.So when I open this month's edition of Internal Medicine News "The Leading Independant Newspaper for the Internist-...

A New Hope

Gene Sherpas: Personalized Medicine and You — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 18:12:00 +0100

I just got out of a meeting with a Very Nice Angel Investor. He had some really interesting ideas that I am dying to tell you about....but I just can't.....for now.But what I can do is now tell you about how sad I am that I missed "Navigenics 2008 Opening Day" I don't know who was pitching...but from what I heard it was a success. Speaking of success, I just had another patient come to me with the magic 84 page printout. It will be interesting to see how the Mayo study comes out regarding all of these lab reports and patient comprehension. A few days ago a patient was seen by us for Pharmacogenomic analysis and he was puzzled by the laboratory reports and data. He actually thought that the boiler plate information on the bottom of the report was actually personalized. He asked "If I only h...

T minus 21 hours

Gene Sherpas: Personalized Medicine and You — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 01:11:00 +0100

Till Navigenics Launch.......Stay Tuned!-Stevep.s. Congrats to Amy over at....oh wait...she hasn't started a blog yet ;) But in all seriousness, congratulations. Thanks to Jonathan at Tree of Life for leaking this...... (Source: Gene Sherpas: Personalized Medicine and You)

4 Days too long

Gene Sherpas: Personalized Medicine and You — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 12:42:00 +0100

As I sit here in the Sheraton New Orleans before our presentation I am re-living my days here in New Orleans....When we arrived I immediately had to go get Jambalaya.....and then diarrhea..........The next day I went to the "World Famous" Cafe DuMonde....I was filled with excitement about this exotic sounding place.....If I only would have google'd it first. When I approached the cafe from Jackson Square I saw what seemed to be perhaps a beach side cafe with a starving artist out in front of it.....I must admit when I got in the Green and White Awning open air cafe I saw a neat business model and tasted what I deem "smooshed funnel cake". It turns out at the Cafe Du Monde, the waiters take your order, pay the cashier...almost as if they are reselling the goods........meaning the Beignet! T...

500 Hospitals want to know....

Gene Sherpas: Personalized Medicine and You — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 19:11:00 +0100

Lots of stuff happening online today. I just left a conference call where I was the invited guest panelist along with Robert Resta CGC. The Advisory Board Company and The Innovations Center presented an Issue Brief entitled-The Genetic Testing Frontier: Impact on Clinical Care, Market Opportunities. Hundreds of hospitals were online wondering how they too can get a piece of the action.....Also....did anyone read the Washington Post today? Genetic Testing Gets Personal again another article on this "revolution" non subscription link here"We call it consumer-enabled research," said Linda Avey, co-founder of 23andMe, based in Mountain View, Calif. "It's about changing the paradigm of how research is done."Well Said.......You could also call it uninformed cohort analysis...."Free Kits?" Come-O...

My Start to Becoming a Tubal Reversal Specialist

Tubal Reversal Blog — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 23:32:29 +0100

After my first meeting with Dr. Berger, I drove home and was ecstatic our conversation went so well. I did not know what to expect when I first visited the center but my visit was everything I could have hoped for. Immediately when I got home I told my wife about my experience. I had never told [...] (Source: Tubal Reversal Blog)

CF "success" story

Gene Sherpas: Personalized Medicine and You — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 15:51:00 +0100

Today I am writing about something I call truly Personalized Medicine. This topic hits near and dear to my heart and I am going to talk about this because it is an ethical dilemma. The recommendations for genetic screening by the American College of Medical Genetics, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, and the National Institutes of Health were issued in 2001. According to recent letter in the NEJM it turns out that the birth rate of children with Cystic Fibrosis has dropped. The number of infants born with cystic fibrosis in Massachusetts decreased by 50% from one four-year period to the next according to this letter in the NEJM. They attribute this to the Newborn screening available in Massachusetts since 1999. In addition they also report a drop in those patients bo...

Consenting to Tubal Ligation During Childbirth

Tubal Reversal Blog — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 19:37:16 +0100

I received an email message today from a patient that prompted me to write about informed consent for tubal ligation. (See my previous blog about informed consent for tubal reversal.) Here is the message that was sent to me. Hello, Dr. Berger, You performed tubal reversal surgery on me on 10/29/07, and I just found out [...] (Source: Tubal Reversal Blog)

FDA to require contraceptives to contain new warnings

Women's Bioethics Blog — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 21:15:00 +0100

(Source: Women's Bioethics Blog)

Your Brain Benefits From Blowing It

BrainBasedBusiness — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 15:57:42 +0100

It turns out that we learn more than we thought … from blowing it. Brain experts tell us why. Simply put ... even my dinner that blew up – or your latest ramshackle results ... could hold decision making advantages. How so?Mistakes are seen in research ... to show an alert system in the brain. Check out this newly identified early warning system … at the University of Exeter in England site.Participants were asked to imagine they were doctors, and asked to identify diseases based on images from fictitious blood samples. Yikes -- can you imagine a group of fake doctors looking at a bunch of fake blood samples? A perfect recipe for slips and blunders. What did it show?Interestingly, the brain reacted to previous slip-ups with a...

A Brain's Path to Eureka or Skewed Conclusions

BrainBasedBusiness — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 17:11:05 +0100

Did you know that your brain uses a unique evidence gathering process to take in information? Then it decides what possibilities are evident ... before you draw conclusions.Interesting new research points to a brain’s pathway toward making decisions that include eureka or screwed skewed judgments. Using innovative techniques and analysis, researchers pinpointed brain areas used to make decisions. What did they find? It seems that the human brain’s evaluation areas differ from areas that operate communication or thinking. How so? Dr. Wheeler mapped the brain’s process that enables decision-making, by tracking mental activity observed through magnetic imaging. Check out yesterday's details of this study to see its significance for those who gather s...

Business Driven by Fear

BrainBasedBusiness — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 04:57:08 +0100

Because fear plagues us daily through perceived lack of security … Bruce Schneier, author and world leader on computer security ... argues we often stop thinking sensibly about real security … or about how to create genuine safety. Does your business operate on fear?Brain specialists tell us that lasting success thrives more on what elevates us ... than what scares us. How so? Driven by fear … 1. We fail to take risks for progress and tend to follow steps toward false security. It’s much the same as US policy where war and violence seem fueled by fear.2. We make poor decisions … based more on over-charged emotions than on rational wisdom.3. We waste resources trying to avert short term fear factors … and the...

Decisions are More Subjective Than You Think

BrainBasedBusiness — Wed, 22 Aug 2007 15:08:05 +0100

Most decisions are intuitive – and more subjective drawstrings than reality anchors secure the average decision, than most people realize. Yikes – then how do solid facts learned over a lifetime fit into selections people make? It turns out that the human brain easily plays tricks and research shows how these impact decisions we make. When it comes to conflict or consensus, say … or pretty much anything that could be risky … we sometimes decide on plans that make us feel secure rather than plans that are secure. How then do people decide? You’ll likely be surprised to discover that decision making is often more subjective – and it’s based on several illusions of the mind to see a better option where one may not exist. Research shows that what you...

Why Smart Workers Make Dumb Decisions

BrainBasedBusiness — Sun, 19 Aug 2007 22:52:23 +0100

When people are faced with choices that involve risk, the human brain leaps into conflicts that only reflective thinkers can sort out well. How so? Believe it or not, smart neurons actually tend to make dumb choices at times — all because of complex chemical processes. Take a person who weighs the risk factors for a big promotion. That person’s front brain might tell him this position would be sheer misery. It highlights the facts … such as … the new CEO’s arrogance … or workers’ well known apathy in the new department. That’s only one side though, and while it may make sense to the front brain the middle brain refuses to listen. Instead that area of the brain shows only sheer delights from a big raise in salary, new resp...

5 Reasons Bad Bossess Get Their Way and 5 Tips to Get Yours

BrainBasedBusiness — Sun, 05 Aug 2007 16:56:34 +0100

Believe it or not brain based research points to reasons for bad leadership - where few people think to look. Workers suffer daily from poor decisions made while bad bosses get rewarded because…1. Blame usurps the courage it takes for change. Look at those who learn the skills for change that improve any workplace and you’ll also see laughter, good will and passion for growth. 2. Action plans for peaceful solutions appear missing on the opposite side. Consider the person who longs for peace when a leader insists on war, for instance. Naming the problem repeatedly can add an advantage to the bad leader … if there is no solution to violence proposed. 3. Poor tone separates decisions from benefits that could come from other choices. Some people just o...

Extend your life by making the right choices

The Cardio Blog — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 04:00:00 +0100

Filed under: Diet, Prevention, ExerciseDid you know that your life expectancy will shift within 3 months of adopting new lifestyle changes? If that's the case then we all better make sure we're making good healthy changes, and not negative ones. What if every three months you could get an updated personalized life expectancy calculation? I bet that would be great motivation to really get serious about making heart-friendly lifestyle choices.The #1 best thing you can do for your body and your health is get moving. Exercise will do wonders for your body both inwardly and outwardly, and it can even help make eating better easier. A close 2nd to exercising regularly is eating right. Eating healthy natural foods can help lower your risk for some common ailments like obesity, diabetes, and heart...

Research Links What We Know to What We Do

BrainBasedBusiness — Sat, 02 Jun 2007 15:10:36 +0100

This study showed how cognitive information regulates the coding of motor information through neurons in the basal ganglia. How so? Cells network between purely cognitive and purely motor information. Although it’s still in the early stages … this research encourages people to consider gaps between what we know as a way to improve what we do. What do you think? (Source: BrainBasedBusiness)

Locally advanced breast cancer: Chemo before surgery

The Cancer Blog — Fri, 04 May 2007 04:00:00 +0100

Filed under: Breast Cancer, Drug, Chemotherapy, Clinical Trials, Research, SurgeryChemotherapy given before surgery to remove cancer is called neoadjuvant treatment. An oncologist might recommend this based of the size of the tumor -- it being very large. The idea is to shrink the tumor and then have surgery to remove the cancer. Having chemotherapy administered while the tumor is still there can show what drugs are working and what drugs have no effect on the tumor. Chemotherapy when started immediately, not after surgery with healing time needed, gives the patient systematic treatment right away. This could be beneficial and is why physicians might recommend this form of treatment. The truth is they don't know if it is better or not. Of course, every case of breast cancer is different. W...