We are making headway in the fight against preventing, detecting, and treating cancer. You may already know that genes may someday hold the answers to treating, detecting, and even preventing cancer. Improved Genetic Therapy for Cancer Treatment You may also have heard that genetic therapy carries with it risks. But, according to the Genetic…
In its 2015 Report Overview, the Clinton Foundation calls prescription drug abuse (leading to overdose) an imminent public health threat that kills “more people than motor vehicle accidents.” The CDC reports that, during 2014, a total of 47,055 drug overdose deaths occurred in the United States. Indeed, that is a large number of tragic…
A recent CNN article written by Lisa Drayer describes the techniques that food manufacturers use to develop foods that will be more desirable and, thus, more marketable. There’s a wonderful book on the topic called Salt Sugar Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us by Michael Moss. Both Drayer and Moss agree that the…
Emotional Trauma Affects Boys and Girls Differently More than a decade ago, I published an article proposing a tool that providers could use to help assess the risk of someone’s developing opioid aberrant drug-related behaviors if prescribed an opioid. The instrument is commonly called the opioid risk tool, and it is still commonly used today.…
Are Pharmacies Blackballing Physicians Writing Opioids? A colleague, Dr. Bill Jones (not his real name), recently wrote me about a serious threat to his career. One of Dr. Jones’s patients, who is on chronic opioid therapy, told him that the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) had blackballed him. The patient tried to get a prescription for…
A 57-year-old firefighter with chronic neck and back pain left a comment on my blog to ask: If they can send a man to the moon, why can’t they make a medication with no side effects that is not addictive and that can control pain? My response is that we do have the ability,…
“Last Week Tonight” is a late-night television show that satirizes the news. Therefore, you probably wouldn’t expect the show’s host, John Oliver, to make the news. Yet he did (see Rolling Stone, Time, Newsweek, Slate, and more) when he did a segment about the opioid crisis. Using Humor to Discuss the Opioid Crisis Oliver tackled…
Why Joking About OIC Isn’t Funny According to a recent Washington Post story, six in ten American adults take prescription drugs, and this has created a “vast market for new meds to treat the side effects of the old ones.” The article is titled: “The drug industry’s answer to opioid addiction: More pills.” The article…
“Abuse of opioid painkillers and heroin has been spreading throughout the U.S. population, from inner-city youths, jobless rural residents and high school students to wealthy suburbanites, young professionals and pop stars,” according to Peter Katel‘s recent CQ article, “Opioid Crisis: Can recent reforms curb the epidemic?” He continues, “More adults use prescription painkillers than cigarettes,…
PRESCRIPTION OPIOIDS MUST BE USED WITH CARE Our country is currently facing a crisis. The CDC estimates that opioids were involved with more than 28,000 deaths in the U.S. in 2014. The CDC estimates that at least half involved a prescription opioid. The numbers are staggering. Opioids cannot simply be dismissed, however. Despite the inherent…
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