On the one hand, a large study that was published a while ago known as ASPREE (don’t ask) concluded that elderly users of daily low-dose aspirin, which we always defer to as ASA, were actually at increased risk of dying compared to people who weren’t using daily ASA, which ran counter to several previous studies […]
I can’t emphasize it enough, but then, so many of you still aren’t paying enough attention: Every drug has side effects and potential complications (aka adverse effects). And those AEs happen to people. And the person the AE happens to may be you. And afar too often, we don’t discover what those AEs are until […]
I have atopic eczema, and although my case is quite mild, it still bothers me quite a bit with itching (especially in unexpected places, and at unexpected times). So I understand the frustration that eczematous people have to put up with and I’m sorry to add to their burdens, which also include added higher risks […]
I know a middle-aged nameless someone who told their doctor that they had gained a few pounds over a few years. So, as is pretty routine these days, they were promptly tested for their thyroid hormone level, even though they had absolutely no symptoms of low thyroid hormone levels, that is, no coldness, no sluggishness, […]
If you’re as weird as me, then you’ve no doubt often wondered why, if “cholesterol” is really as deadly as it’s made out to be (especially that “bad” form of lipids known as LDL), then why are at least half (perhaps as many as 3/4) of all heart attacks said to occur in people with […]
It’s a Jewish superstition that I for one am completely in accordance with: Never admit that things are good because gremlins and devils and dybbuks and all those other potentially malignant spirits are listening and if they hear you’re doing well, they will soon change that. So a few days ago, I posted an item […]
If you were paying attention to medical headlines last week, you would have noticed that nearly every news source that carries medical stories had at least one item with a headline such as “Watch out for ‘feather duvet lung’ caution doctors” (this one was from the Medical Express web site). Or “Your Duvet Could Be […]
A few years ago, I suffered 2 concussions over a short period of time, both of them because I am a klotz so it’s no surprise to anyone who knows me that I walked into a glass door (the door survived, I saw stars and felt weird for several days), and I fell down a […]
Wanna know how quickly viruses mutate to become resistant to medication? Well, even if you don’t wanna know, read on because this is a really, really serious issue. This is from the Endpoint New website: “In 2018, Shionogi rolled out Xofluza in Japan as a one-dose kill for influenza, with Roche following suit in the […]
So over the last several years, about the most maligned class of medications has been that group called proton pump inhibitors (PPIs), drugs that are highly effective at lowering acid output of the stomach, which is why they are used for a host of conditions but most prominently for the epidemic of acid reflux, a […]