Category Archives: Uncategorized

“Drinking several cups of coffee daily appears to reduce the risk of suicide in men and women by about 50 percent, according to a new study by researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH). The study was published online July 2 in The World Journal of Biological Psychiatry.

“Unlike previous investigations, we were able to assess association of consumption of caffeinated and non-caffeinated beverages, and we identify caffeine as the most likely candidate of any putative protective effect of coffee,” said lead researcher Michel Lucas, research fellow in the Department of Nutrition at HSPH.

The authors reviewed data from three large U.S. studies and found that the risk of suicide for adults who drank two to four cups of caffeinated coffee per day was about half that of those who drank decaffeinated coffee or very little or no coffee.”

Source: Coffee drinking tied to lower risk of suicide | Harvard Gazette

The hospital where I work ranked four stars, for what it’s worth. The scale runs from one to five stars. The nearby Mayo Clinic Hospital scored five. Although Kaiser says the system is new, I was looking up star rankings last January when I was looking for a job. Look up your favorite hospital here.

From Kaiser Health News:

“The [U.S.] federal government released its first overall hospital quality rating on Wednesday, slapping average or below average scores on many of the nation’s best-known hospitals while awarding top scores to dozens of unheralded ones.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services rated 3,617 hospitals on a one- to five-star scale, angering the hospital industry, which has been pressing the Obama administration and Congress to block the ratings. Hospitals argue the ratings will make places that treat the toughest cases look bad, but Medicare has held firm, saying that consumers need a simple way to objectively gauge quality. Medicare does factor in the health of patients when comparing hospitals, though not as much as some hospitals would like.

Just 102 hospitals received the top rating of five stars, and few are those considered as the nation’s best by private ratings sources such as U.S. News & World Report or viewed as the most elite within the medical profession.”

Source: Many Well-Known Hospitals Fail To Score 5 Stars In Medicare’s New Ratings | Kaiser Health News

The New York Times reports the details. Here’s a sample:

“Prosecutors, however, described [Philip Esformes] as the “mastermind” of a conspiracy that cycled some 14,000 elderly people in and out of nursing homes and assisted-living facilities, whether they needed medical care or not.

With the help of doctors, pharmacists, health care consultants and other medical personnel who got kickbacks for their roles, the facilities billed Medicare and Medicaid for high-priced drugs, medical procedures and health equipment that the patients either did not need or never received, prosecutors said.

In some cases, they charged, Mr. Esformes’s operation “preyed upon” the elderly patients by giving them narcotics so that they would have to remain longer in the care facilities to treat their addictions and “the cycle of fraud could continue.”

Source: U.S. Says Florida Network Defrauded Medicare and Medicaid of Over $1 Billion – The New York Times

Follow my advice and you’ll be much less likely to even need Medicare’s coverage.

“Whilst decrying rapid increases in drug spending and prices, elected officials have actually made it increasingly difficult for insurers to do anything about it. As payers, insurers are the only parties in the health care system who have both the means and the incentive to counter drug firms’ pricing power. For example, insurers have aggressively steered patients from branded to generic drugs, saving billions in the process. However, much of the growth in drug spending is attributable to new drugs that do not yet face generic competition.

In normal markets, monopolies face constraints on their pricing power. The higher they set the price, the less they sell. Insurers want to present drug companies with the same trade off, but as I describe here, numerous policies enacted in the name of facilitating patient access limit insurers’ ability to do so.”

Source: Insurers Can Reduce Drug Prices, If Policymakers Let Them

Click the link below for details. Some snippets:

“Found to varying degrees in all countries bordering the Mediterranean Sea, [the Mediterranean diet] was named in 2010 onto UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity list for seven countries, from Croatia to Cyprus, Greece, Italy, Morocco, Spain and Portugal.

But the diet, which the United Nations also praises for promoting hospitality, neighbourliness, intercultural dialogue and creativity, is going rapidly out of fashion.

“In Greece, it has decreased by 70 percent over the last 30 years, in Spain 50 percent,” Lluis Serra-Majem, head of the International Foundation of Mediterranean Diet, told AFP at a recent conference in Milan.

Less than 15 percent of the Spanish population still eats a Mediterranean diet, while 50 to 60 percent do so sometimes. Between 20 to 30 percent have ditched it altogether, Serra-Majem said.

And it’s the same in Greece, says Antonia Trichopoulou from the Hellenic Health Foundation. Unsurprisingly, over 65-year-olds are the best at eating traditional dishes, while the youngest generations have succumbed to the lure of fast food.

“The decline has various causes. We are witnessing a globalization of eating habits, with [the spread of] the ‘Western diet’,” said Serra-Majem, pointing a finger of blame at the growth of the tourism sector in particular.

It has been more marked in coastal areas, particularly in Spain or on Italy’s Adriatic coast.

“Uncontrolled tourism leads to high urbanization and… increased consumption of meat, refined flours and a reduction of the traditional diet, ” he said.

Source: Global push to make Mediterranean diet sexy again | Lifestyle | GMA News Online

Parker here. I doubt tourism is the major reason for the decline of the diet’s popularity.

Two diet books in one

I predict the name the evil driver in Nice is Mohammed

— Steve Parker, M.D. (@steveparkermd) July 15, 2016

OK, so I got the spelling wrong.

This is troubling…

“Among the many things New Yorkers pride ourselves on is food: making it, selling it and consuming only the best, from single-slice pizza to four-star sushi. We have fish markets, Shake Shacks and, as of this year, 74 Michelin-starred restaurants.

Yet most everything we eat is fraudulent.In his new book, “Real Food Fake Food,” author Larry Olmsted exposes the breadth of counterfeit foods we’re unknowingly eating. After reading it, you’ll want to be fed intravenously for the rest of your life.

Click the link for details.

Source: Everything we love to eat is a scam | New York Post

But women now are also about a half inch (2.2 cm) taller, so that explains it, right? Not by a long shot. The author of the article below blames unhealthy food, too much of it, plus physical inactivity. Since 1960, women’s average weight is up 18.5%, and men’s up 17.6%.

Click the link below for details. I quote:

The average American woman weighs 166.2 pounds, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. As reddit recently pointed out, that’s almost exactly as much as the average American man weighed in the early 1960s.

Men, you’re not looking too hot in this scenario either. Over the same time period you gained nearly 30 pounds, from 166.3 in the 60s to 195.5 today.

Source: The average American woman now weighs as much as the average 1960s man – The Washington Post

Steve Parker, M.D.

PS: You wanna do something about it? Send my book to someone you love.

PPS: Men are also a half inch taller.