Prenatal and Postnatal BPA Exposure

Bisphenol-A (BPA) is a chemical used in a variety of everyday consumer products, including bicycle helmets, the plastics used to manufacture water bottles, baby bottles and utensils and the linings of many food cans. For more than a decade scientific evidence has accumulated to suggest that exposure to BPA, a chemical that is useful as . . . → Read More: Prenatal and Postnatal BPA Exposure

Quality-Focused Care Misses The Mark

“‘Nothing Is Broken’: For An Injured Doctor, Quality-Focused Care Misses The Mark.’” By Charlotte Yeh, Health Affairs.

When a physician winds up in the emergency department, providers put quality metrics and testing before her actual needs.

It was just after 6 o’clock in the evening on Wednesday, December 7, 2011—Pearl Harbor Day—when I left my . . . → Read More: Quality-Focused Care Misses The Mark

New NHS statins guidance ‘risks harming patients’

“New NHS statins guidance ‘risks harming patients.’” By Edward Malnick, The Telegraph.

Telling millions of healthy people to take statins risks harming ‘many patients over many years’, doctors warn Jeremy Hunt, the Health Secretary, and watchdogs.

Proposals to advise 12 million people to take statins could have “worrying” consequences because the plans were borne out . . . → Read More: New NHS statins guidance ‘risks harming patients’

The Difference Between Cancersploitation and Art—According to a Cancer Survivor

(TIME) — Whether we view cancer films as outsiders or insiders, the best movies in the genre provide catharsis.

In The Fault in Our Stars, Hazel, the story’s teenage protagonist played by Shailene Woodley, wears a t-shirt imprinted with Magritte’s famous painting of a pipe, ceci n’est pas une pipe (“this is not a pipe”). . . . → Read More: The Difference Between Cancersploitation and Art—According to a Cancer Survivor

Review: Decoding Annie Parker

“Review: Decoding Annie Parker.” The Risky Body blog.

Decoding Annie Parker tells the story of two women; Annie Parker, a three time cancer survivor and the geneticist Mary-Claire King whose discovery of the breast cancer BRCA gene mutation is considered one of the most important discoveries of the 20th century.

I see why BRCA+ women . . . → Read More: Review: Decoding Annie Parker

ASCO: Herceptin Still a Boon for Small Breast Tumors

“ASCO: Herceptin Still a Boon for Small Breast Tumors.” By Michael Smith, MedPage Today.

The monoclonal antibody trastuzumab (Herceptin) was beneficial for women with small tumors, according to a new meta-analysis of the randomized trials of the drug. It also was equally beneficial in hormone receptor-positive and -negative disease, according to Ciara O’Sullivan, MD, of . . . → Read More: ASCO: Herceptin Still a Boon for Small Breast Tumors

Is This Science or Censorship? Statin guidelines, heart disease, and threats to evidence-based publishing

There are two parts to this story. The first involves a scientific debate about new guidelines for prescribing cholesterol-lowering drugs. The second is about threats to that scientific debate, as an industry heavyweight in support of the guidelines holds court in mass media to demand retraction of two research articles (published in the international medical . . . → Read More: Is This Science or Censorship?

Choosing Contralateral Mastectomy

Contralateral prophylactic mastectomy (CPM) is a procedure in which a woman with breast cancer in one breast has both the affected breast and the healthy breast removed at the same time. Between 1998 and 2008, CPM procedures increased 15 percent per year among breast cancer patients in the United States. While removing a healthy breast . . . → Read More: Choosing Contralateral Mastectomy

A Poem from Navigating the Old Road

“I’VE BEEN DIAGNOSED…”

 

she said to me across the small

round table in the clattering coffee shop

on what had been a normal Tuesday morning.

 

No! I wanted to cover my ears,

but I watched the foul words leak from her lips

and fill the room

like a thick fog in . . . → Read More: A Poem from Navigating the Old Road

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