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How does the bandwagon effect relate to selecting a physician for care?

August 14, 2013

IMG_3157Selecting a doctor is sometimes a difficult process. There may be several choices for our care. Doctors don’t generally advertise in the U.S., making it difficult to know what any doctor considers to be her or his best points for care. Education? Experience?

For most of us, one factor will be whether a doctor will be reimbursed by our health care insurance. But even after considering that constraint, we often have choices.

Online searches for information may help us sort out some of the characteristics of each person on our list. Input the physician’s name and you will be likely to find information about their education and experience. You often will also find comments from current or former patients. And you may even find rating systems, such as the use of one to five stars to rate the doctor–much like consumers rate products from cars to shoes.

Using the rating system as one piece of information to make a decision follows a long-established pattern of influence. The bandwagon effect acknowledges that what others think and do may help us make a decision about what to think or do. Those five stars give us a shortcut to having others tell us what they think and why. Sometimes, there are only two reviewers providing an assessment. Other times, there are hundreds and even more. If we see ourselves in some of their experiences, it just might save us some time and trouble.

What to drink on a hot day to get your antioxidants?

August 12, 2013

 IMG_3164I love cold water to quench my thirst on a hot summer’s day. But I also like to get some antioxidants in my beverage. In the summer, when I am in the park or on the water, brewing my own tea is seldom an option. I wondered whether the bottled teas had much of the good antioxidant factor left in them and found a research article that revealed — probably not. It looks like if I want a beverage from the store to stick in my cooler or pick up along the way, it might be a good choice to have pomegranate or Concord grape juice over ice.

Here is the ranking of beverages in one research study that looked at their antioxidant content: http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/jf073035s

Uncertainty, mammograms, and iodine–what do these things have in common?

August 10, 2013

IMG_3213As I looked at my grandson splashing about in the lake, I thought about the upcoming annual mammogram appointment. Last year, I had to go back for follow-up. That turned out to be an ultrasound and the ‘all clear’. More than ten years ago, I had a follow-up that required a needle biopsy but also worked its way to the ‘all clear’ signal. Because it had been so long ago, I wouldn’t say that I took my screening outcome for granted, but I didn’t feel uncertain about it the way that I did this year because of last year’s ‘call-back’.

I did a little research to settle my uncertainty while the days passed and I waited for my appointment. I searched for published science about what causes breast cysts. In one word, I came upon research linking iodine deficiency to breast cysts and a whole lot of other issues summarized by a physician in this Psychology Today article: http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/complementary-medicine/201108/iodine-deficiency-old-epidemic-is-back

Here is an example of one of the published research studies related to iodine deficiency and breast cysts: http://link.springer.com/article/10.1023/A:1008925301459#page-1 

I will be asking my primary care physician this week if I have iodine deficiency. In the meantime, while the technician took an additional x-ray picture at the screening, I did not get a call-back, and I did get a letter from the mammography site giving me the ‘all clear’ based on the screening.

It is interesting to ponder if this is a case of unintended consequences associated with communicating about the danger of consuming salt, which has been iodized to compensate for iodine deficiences noted in the 20th century.

Don’t forget sunblock…for you and your dogs

July 19, 2013

 caity and lucyScorching heat everywhere. Water. Water. Water. Stay hydrated. This was first reinforced for me when I was collecting my thesis data in Tucson, Arizona one summer and saw one patient after another come in with heat exhaustion.

And don’t forget the sunblock. Not just for you but for your furry family members, too. Turns out they need sunblock on their paws and sunscreen on nose, ears, anything ‘pink’–like belly. Use children’s and avoid paba in case your dog likes to lick.

Low vision and the Affordable Care Act [ACA]

July 11, 2013

Cosmos_largeI had my six month low vision doctor’s appointment this week. What is low vision? Well, it is impaired vision that cannot be corrected by eye glasses or surgery or medication, and interferes with daily living. I am not completely blind. But I cannot drive due to my impaired vision. I require some accommodations to assist me in my work. I hate stairs painted or carpeted all in one color. Movie theaters may as well be black holes.

I have been living with low vision since 2007. And it has been, excuse the pun, eye-opening. The tales I could now tell about disability and living with a disability, but that will be for another day. Today, I want to comment on ACA and low vision.

I asked my low vision doctor what ACA does for those with low vision. My doctor is fabulously upbeat. She said, “Well, it is a good news, bad news story. There are provisions for children’s eye care that we’ve never had before. On the other hand, there are NO provisions for assistance to people with low vision. According to the National Eye Institute at the National Institutes of Health, there are millions of people in the US living with low vision and about 135 million world wide [http://www.nei.nih.gov/lowvision/content/faq.asp]. That is a lot of people to ignore or put on the shelf, so to speak, because they cannot get assistance with work and daily living due to impaired vision. It seems that one of the biggest gaps in the ACA is outlining concrete strategies to address care for people living with disabilities. That is a very big oversight and one that has not perhaps gained the public’s attention as much as it should.

What is popcorn lung and why should we care?

July 5, 2013

beth garden lizard

Who knew that the vapor from butter flavoring for popcorn would turn out to cause lung disease? The irreversible illness mostly affects workers who breathe the vapor of butter flavoring, or Diacetyl. The scientific name of the condition is bronchiolitis obliterans.

Popcorn lung disease or popcorn workers’ lung is most commonly found in employees of microwave popcorn plants. This illness is frequently misdiagnosed by physicians as asthma, bronchitis, or emphysema.

 

One more reason to air pop your popcorn and forget spraying on the butter flavoring.

CESAR–Center for Substance Abuse Research: High school students’ use of nonprescribed prescription drugs

June 24, 3013

bicyclyingYou can sign up to receive a weekly fact sheet called CESAR FAX in your email. Go to http://www.cesar.umd.edu/cesar/cesarfax.asp. The May 6th, 2013 issue asked 3,884 U.S. high school students why they use prescription drugs without a prescription. The number one reason given by 18% was ‘to help me relax’ followed by’16% who reported  ‘to have fun’. If you add in the 13% who said ‘to help me forget my troubles’ and the 11% who said ‘to deal with pressures and stress of school’–you have 42% using prescription drugs that were NOT prescribed to them to deal with anxiety and stress.  We truly need to find creative programs to help high school students deal with their daily lives–programs that do not include prescription drugs that were not prescribed for the students using them.

Happy 80th Birthday to my Dad today! I am so blessed…

June 22, 2013

117_1754Today is Dad’s 80th birthday. We live too far apart to be together on many of these big life event days, and this is one of those days where a chat on the telephone just doesn’t quite do it. I am thinking about Dad and there are really so many thoughts but most of all, I just feel blessed to have a dad who shares his spirituality and his passion for nature, which really go hand- in- hand. He shares with me how the Lord has provided for him in immeasurable and unseen ways, and in concrete ways–as when a bike part broke on a ride out in the desert, only to turn the next bend walking his bike and finding in the path, something that would work to patch a repair, making it possible to ride again.

Some of you may know that I dedicated my ‘Talking about health’ book to my dad. And I observed that he always told me, “If it is important to you, then do it.” Along with that advice, he guided me to expect to work hard to do those important things. And he set an example of working hard.

Dad served in the Air Force during the Korean War and the Vietnam War. He was a crew chief on a B-52 bomber. After retirement from the Air Force, he worked for a civilian airport as a facilities and systems maintenance technician. Among my many inherited gifts from him, I love working with my hands in the garden and with wood. I am never afraid to pick up a tool and use it, whether I use it the correct way or not. I have mixed colors of stain to match old woodwork, refinished antique trunks, and repurposed screen doors as art above my fireplace. I know I do these things because Dad’s wood-working skills stir in me.   

Dad is not much of one for going to the doctor or for taking medication or having surgery. When he had to have open heart surgery, as I describe in the “Talking about health’ book, he did not let it stop him from being at his grandson’s wedding. He knew before my youngest sister knew that there would be a new granchild in the family–one that he had to heal for so he could take her fishing. And today, at the age of 80, he is enjoying conversations with his five children and looking ahead to a family BBQ tomorrow. Happy Birthday, Dad! 

 

 

 

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