Medicare and Alternative Medicine

Medicare is paying for nonsense.

/ November 15, 2022

Aromatase inhibitors and acupuncture in breast cancer: Spinning a negative study, four years later

Four years ago, I wrote about an essentially negative study looking at whether acupuncture could alleviate joint pain caused by aromatase inhibitors, a common treatment for estrogen-sensitive breast cancer. The study's back, and it doesn't look any more positive.

/ November 14, 2022

The 2022-2023 Respiratory Virus Season Hits Early and Hard: Part 1

RSV, and a few of it's buddies, are back with a vengeance this year and hitting young children earlier and harder than during typical respiratory virus seasons.

/ November 11, 2022

Facebook promoting dangerous and even banned supplements

A Consumer Reports analysis found little oversight of supplements marketed by Facebook.

/ November 10, 2022

Study – For Lowering Cholesterol, Statins Work, Supplements Don’t

A study comparing a statin drug and six common supplements to placebo shows that only the drug lowers bad cholesterol.

/ November 9, 2022

Geriatric Preventive Medicine Appointments Covered by Medicare

Medicare offers free preventive medicine visits for those over 65: the Welcome to Medicare visit and the Annual Wellness Visit. Increased awareness of these benefits would improve health care, save taxpayer money, and reduce inequities of preventive medicine care for underserved populations.

/ November 8, 2022
Snake Oil apostates

The appeal of being a medical “apostate”

There has long been a huge appeal in medicine that derives from being an "apostate". Since COVID-19 hit, apostasy has become like a drug among too many doctors, and social media has amplified the popularity of "medical apostates" beyond anything I've seen previously.

/ November 7, 2022

Letter to a Medical Student: You Erred. You Are Owed an Apology.

While you are an adult who is responsible for your own words, the editors of Sensible Medicine did you a grave disservice by letting you publish your article.

/ November 6, 2022

Was Closing Schools an Obvious and Colossal Mistake?

Maybe it was a mistake to close schools. However, those who make this claim should honestly grapple with what would have happened had nothing been done rather than indulge an absurd fantasy that everything would have been fine and dandy.

/ November 4, 2022

Risk of Myocarditis Following COVID-19 Vaccine

Risk of myocarditis following mRNA vaccines is real but tiny, and far outweighed by the benefit of vaccines.

/ November 2, 2022