Category Archives: General Health

“A Healthy Diet’s Main Ingredient? Best Guesses”

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A recent commentary from the NY Times (A Healthy Diet’s Main Ingredients? Best Guesses) explores some of the failed efforts to improve health by reducing fat or eliminating eggs and explains why these are no longer recommended.  The article has a 12 minute video which reviews some of the confusion regarding dietary recommendations.

Here’s an excerpt:

Conventional wisdom held that fat was bad, period, with relatively few Americans distinguishing between saturated fats (meat, eggs, dairy products) and healthier unsaturated fats (fish, vegetable oils, nuts). Typically, people turned to breads, cereals and potatoes — and to sugary soft drinks — for the calories they no longer got from protein-rich foods…The result? Carbo-loading Americans grew fatter. “We put the whole country on a low-fat diet,” Mr. Taubes said, “and, lo and behold, we have an obesity epidemic.”…

New guidelines are expected to be issued this month by the Departments of Agriculture and of Health and Human Services, which tend to follow the recommendations of an advisory committee. One likely eye-catcher is a new assessment of cholesterol, long an archvillain. It seems destined for rehabilitation to some degree. Months ago, the advisory committee concluded that the dietary intake of cholesterol (the body produces this waxy, artery-obstructing matter on its own) had no real effect on blood levels of LDL, the so-called bad cholesterol. “Cholesterol,” the committee said, “is not a nutrient of concern for overconsumption.”

There is a conspicuous American tendency to cling to a favored diet as the gateway to good health, keeping weight down, staving off cancers and banishing heart attacks. A consequence is an abundance of regimens — vegan, gluten-free, Paleolithic, fruitarian and many more — each promoted by its adherents as the one true path.

But nutrition experts, including those in this Retro Report, caution that life is complex, and that we are more than what we eat.

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About Mentors

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I found a recent perspective (Y Tache. Gastroenterol 2015; 149: 1662-65) on mentoring of interest, particularly on the historic basis which I had forgotten.

“In Homer’s book, the Odysseus, Mentor was a loyal friend and adviser to Odusseus (Ulysses), King of Ithaca.  When Ulysses left his kingdom to participate in the Trojan War, he entrusted Mentor with the education of his son, Telemachus…This character of Greek mythology became famous only at the beginning of the 18th century in the context of the didactic French novel entitled “Les Aventures de Telemaque.”

My take: it is interesting to understand where the term “mentor” comes from.  I feel fortunate to have had some terrific mentors.

 

 

The Push to Improve Diagnosis

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The Institute of Medicine’s (now called the National Academy of Medicine) “Improving Diagnosis in Health Care” (the link includes a link to a 1-hour briefing) is receiving a lot of attention. One recent commentary (H Singh, ML Graber. NEJM 2015; 373: 2493-95) elaborates on this issue. The IOM reports notes that “diagnostic errors affect at least 1 in 20 U.S. adults in outpatient settings each year, or 12 million adults per year.”

The report recommends “strengthening teamwork, reforming the teaching of diagnosis, ensuring that health information technology (IT) supports the diagnostic process, measuring and learning from errors in real-world practice, promoting a culture of diagnostic safety, reforming the malpractice and reimbursement systems, and increasing research funding.”

My take: This report highlights an enormous challenge for the healthcare system.  While IT support in theory sounds like it could help, right now IT isn’t helping much.  Many physicians are bogged down inputting data and trying to find enough time for critical thinking.  There is a lot of work ahead.

“Aging Elephant in the Room”

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Happy New Year!

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“Adults are just obsolete children” –Theodor Seuss Geisel

So, begins an interesting commentary (B Kinnear. JAMA pediatrics 2015; 169: 1081-2 -thanks to Ben Gold for this reference).

This editorial discusses a growing problem of patients older than 21 years of age seeking care in pediatric institutions.  Currently, ~15,000 admissions occur annually in the U.S..  At the author’s institution (Cincinnati Children’s), the average daily hospital census was 15.7 patients between 2012-2014.  In fact, at Cincinnati, which has an adult care hospital across the street, they have developed a team to care for these patients: “the Hospital Medicine Adult Care team.” In addition, they have established protocols to recognize and initiate treatment on problems like acute coronary syndrome, pulmonary embolism, and acute stroke.

The author argues that age should not be the only factor determining which institution would offer the best care.  Some cognitively impaired adults with cerebral palsy may be better-suited at a pediatric facility and some obese teenagers with type 2 diabetes and hypertension may fit better at an adult care hospital.

Common barriers to transitioning to adult care hospitals:

  • Lack of adult health care professional knowledge and comfort by adult health care physicians
  • Poor communication between pediatric and adult care providers
  • Families fear of leaving established care settings

These adults in pediatric care settings do have increased length of stays and greater odds of mortality than adolescents, even when adjusting for  the increased number of chronic conditions.  Thus, it is not entirely clear that outcomes will be improved by retaining this vulnerable population at pediatric institutions.  Much of this question will be determined by the institutional resources available for their care.

My take: I worry that keeping adults (patients >21 years) in pediatric institutions is a mistake.  There are increasing numbers of vulnerable patients and their needs should be addressed by adult care providers.

Isle of Palms, SC

Isle of Palms, SC

More on Staying Up All Night

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In September, this blog (Does Staying Up All Night Affect Surgery the Next Day …) noted a recent study indicating that adverse surgical outcomes with elective daytime procedures were similar irrespective of whether the surgeon had operated overnight.  Some of the letters to the editor on this study were of interest.  In one, the authors note that sleep deprivation was associated with a lower adenomatous polyp detection rate on colonoscopy but was not associated with major complications like death or perforation (M Benson et al. Am J Gastroenterol 2014; 109; 1133-7).  Thus, the letter contends that there are likely to be subtle effects of sleep deprivation on physician performance that could require more sensitive quality metrics.

Another letter notes that extended work was associated with an increased risk of motor vehicle accidents by interns.  The monthly risk increased 16.2% for every extended work shift (LK Barger et al. NEJM 2005; 352: 125-34).  Thus, sleep deprivation could represent a hazard for the physician themselves as well as their patients.

My take: I’m sorry I didn’t quite follow this post. (I was on-call last night.)

Lights at Life University

Lights at Life University

Increasing Rates of Professional Burnout

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A recent study (T Shanafelt et al. Mayo Clin Proc. 2015;90(12):1600-1613) indicates that there may be increasing rates of physicians with “Professional Burnout.”  The study is limited by suboptimal response rates but provides some useful information on this topic.

Full text article: Changes in Burnout and Satisfaction With Work-Life Balance in Physicians and the General US Working Population Between 2011 and 2014

Results: Of the 35,922 physicians who received an invitation to participate, 6880 (19.2%) completed surveys. When assessed using the Maslach Burnout Inventory, 54.4% (n=3680) of the physicians reported at least 1 symptom of burnout in 2014 compared with 45.5% (n=3310) in 2011 (P<.001). Satisfaction with work-life balance also declined in physicians between 2011 and 2014 (48.5% vs 40.9%; P<.001). Substantial differences in rates of burnout and satisfaction with work-life balance were observed by specialty.  In contrast to the trends in physicians, minimal changes in burnout or satisfaction with work-life balance were observed between 2011 and 2014 in probability-based samples of working US adults, resulting in an increasing disparity in burnout and satisfaction with work-life balance in physicians relative to the general US working population.  After pooled multivariate analysis adjusting for age, sex, relationship status, and hours worked per week, physicians remained at an increased risk of burnout (odds ratio, 1.97; 95% CI, 1.80-2.16; P<.001) and were less likely to be satisfied with work-life balance (odds ratio, 0.68; 95% CI, 0.62-0.75; P<.001).

The indices that the authors studied included measures of the following (Table 2):

  • Emotional exhaustion
  • Depersonalization
  • Personal Accomplishment
  • Depression: 38% (2011) –>39% (2014)
  • Suicidal ideation: 6.4% (2011) and 6.4% (2014)
  • Burned out rate: 45.5% (2011) –>54.4% (2014)
  • Career satisfaction (would become a doctor again): 70% (2011) –>67% (2014)

Satisfaction with work life balance (Figure 1):

  • Pediatrics generally better than other fields, but close to 50% in 2014 were not satisfied compared with about 40% in 2011 (P <.05).

Take-home message from authors:

Burnout and satisfaction with WLB among US physicians are getting worse. American medicine appears to be at a tipping point with more than half of US physicians experiencing professional burnout. Given the extensive evidence that burnout among physicians has effects on quality of care, patient satisfaction, turnover, and patient safety, these findings have important implications for society at large. 11-20.  There is an urgent need for systematic application of evidence-based interventions addressing the drivers of burnout among physicians. These interventions must address contributing factors in the practice environment rather than focusing exclusively on helping physicians care for themselves and training them to be more resilient.

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Zion National Park

Zion National Park

 

The Ecology of Microscopic Life in Household Dust

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An interesting article about the fungi and bacterial in our households –has implications for our microbiome and for our predilection for allergies: full text: The Ecology of Microscopic Life in Household Dust

Barbera ́n A et al. The ecology of microscopic life in household dust. Proc. R. Soc. B 282: 20151139. http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2015.1139 (reference from KT Park’s twitter feed)

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This article was summarized in by Mark Fischetti in Scientific American: full text: Men and Women Alter a Home’s Bacteria Differently

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NY Times: End the Gun Epidemic in America

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Full link: End the Gun Epidemic in America.  This editorial published on A1 in the Dec. 5 edition of The New York Times. It is the first time an editorial has appeared on the front page since 1920.

An excerpt:

It is a moral outrage and a national disgrace that civilians can legally purchase weapons designed specifically to kill people with brutal speed and efficiency. These are weapons of war, barely modified and deliberately marketed as tools of macho vigilantism and even insurrection. America’s elected leaders offer prayers for gun victims and then, callously and without fear of consequence, reject the most basic restrictions on weapons of mass killing, as they did on Thursday. They distract us with arguments about the word terrorism. Let’s be clear: These spree killings are all, in their own ways, acts of terrorism.

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“New Math on Drug Cost-Effectiveness”

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Competing commentaries on rising drug prices:

  • Bach PB. “New Math on Drug Cost-Effectiveness” NEJM 2015; 373: 1797-99
  • Chin WW. “A Delicate Balance –Pharmaceutical Innovation and Access” NEJM 2015; 373: 199-1801)

Dr. Bach’s commentary focuses on the exorbitant costs of many medications.  His key points:

  • “The rate of introduction of new and expensive drugs has accelerated; the pace of conversion to generics is slowing; the prices of many generics are rising; and expensive drugs are now being introduced for conditions that affect millions of people rather than thousands.”
  • “Drug prices are increasing more rapidly than their benefits.”

Dr. Chin counters that there have been more than 500 new medications that have been approved in the United States since 2000.

  • “The United States relies on competitive markets to set prices and encourage innovation —a system that, as I see it, is working well.”
  • “The…hepatitis C medications, with cure rates above 90% are a good case study: within a year, competing medications entered the market, driving down prices by about half.”
  • “Any centralized government-purchasing model would probably result in drastically limited choices for physicians and patients.”

Another “must-read” on this topic comes from Ezekiel Emmanuel & the NY Times: I Am Paying for Your Expensive Medicine  Here’s an excerpt:

In July, the Food and Drug Administration approved the first of two new PCSK9 inhibitors that lower the bad type of cholesterol, LDL. Studiessuggest that they can reduce it by up to 60 percent, … and reduce it up to 36 percent more than statins… However, there are no definitive data on how much these drugs actually reduce heart attacks, strokes and deaths from heart disease…the retail price for a prescription would be more than $14,000 per patient per year. The price is particularly steep given that these drugs may need to be taken for the rest of the patients’ lives. How much patients pay directly would depend on their insurance plan….even if the price came down to about $11,000 per patient per year, and only 1.1 million of the roughly 23 million middle-age Americans with high cholesterol actually took these drugs, the bill would be so high that for a typical insurance plan, “annual insurance premiums would increase by $124 for every person” in the insurance plan…

As the PCSK9 story is making clear, the drug cost debate is now beginning to focus on two questions that are currently unresolved: First, how do we determine value so the perspectives of all Americans are considered? Second, how do we implement and enforce that determination of value?…

Many people hope that the drug industry will self-regulate, using value-based pricing of its new drugs. But if past experience is any indication of future behavior, self-regulation may be a pipe dream. 

My take: I don’t agree with Dr. Chin that our system has the right balance at this time, though he is right that too much interference could slow innovation.  In my view, recent high-profile excesses by pharmaceutical companies have strengthened the argument for more government intervention.

Morning in Sandy Springs

Morning in Sandy Springs