Category Archives: Medicine
Cancer Statistics 2023
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 16th January 2023At the start of every year the American Cancer Society issues the latest cancer statistics. This year the data were released in two publications, both of which are found at the end of this article. Some of the salient features of the data are discussed below. I’ll start with prostate cancer which seems to eternally…
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Prescription Opioids and Death
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 8th January 2023Effect of Prescriber Notifications of Patient’s Fatal Overdose on Opioid Prescribing at 4 to 12 Months is the title of a short paper on the JAMA Open Network. It describes what happens when a physician or physician extender receives a letter from the county medical examiner informing him that his patients has died from an…
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Damar Hamlin and Commotio Cordis
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 3rd January 2023Buffalo Bills defensive back Damar Hamlin collapsed last night after making a tackle during the Monday night football game. He is said to have suffered a cardiac arrest and is hospitalized in critical condition. All I have to go on are the press reports and the video of the event. Look at it below and…
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National Health Service in Trouble – Again
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 16th December 2022The UK’s NHS is now hit with a nurses strike, though only for a day. The nurses say they are overworked and underpaid. They are. They want an increase in pay of 5% above inflation. That works out to 15.7%. The independent pay board which sets their salary recommended a 4% increase. The nurses’ pay…
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The Science Deniers at the New England Journal of Medicine
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 3rd December 2022[This article appeared today in American Greatness.] The New England Journal of Medicine has published Protecting Transgender Health and Challenging Science Denialism in Policy. It is the latest example of using denialism to denigrate any opinion contrary to that of the latest set of experts to claim sovereignty over a controversial subject. The technique is…
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Lowest US Life Expectancy Since 1996
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 12th October 2022Life expectancy dropped by 3 years for US men and 2.3 years for US women between 2019 and 2021, according to provisional life expectancy data from the National Center for Health Statistics. During this period, US life expectancy dropped to about 73 years for men and to about 79 years for women, the lowest levels since 1996….
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Heather Mac Donald on Medicine
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 7th August 2022The outstanding public intellectual, Heather Mac Donald has written a penetrating analysis of the current state of medical education, practice criteria, and organizational structure. Appropriately called the Corruption of Medicine, it details the horrible pit the profession has thrown itself into. Gone is first do no harm. In its place is the patient be damned…
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Y Chromosome Loss and Heart Disease
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 16th July 2022Below is a release from the American Association for the Advancement of Science. It summarizes a study published in the AAAS’s journal Science. It deals with the previous observation that loss the the Y chromosome in white blood cells with an increase in cardiovascular disease and death. Whether this loss of the male sex chromosome…
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More on Symptomatic COVID and Vaccination
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 23rd June 2022The New England Journal of Medicine has published online Effects of Previous Infection and Vaccination on Symptomatic Omicron Infections. The study by the Cornell Medicine–Qatar group of investigators has received some attention in the lay press and has even been interpreted as showing that under certain circumstances that vaccination increases the likelihood of contracting the…
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Do It Yourself Screening for Kidney Disease
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 10th June 2022Chronic Kidney Disease is often asymptomatic. The commonest causes are diabetes and hypertension.There are a number of tests that clinicians use to both detect and measure the severity of impaired kidney function. Levey and colleagues examine the use of these tests in a review article in the June 2, 2022 issue of the New England…
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About Neil Kurtzman
Neil A Kurtzman MD is the Grover E Murray Professor Emeritus and University Distinguished Professor Emeritus, Department of Internal Medicine at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center in Lubbock. He has combined careers in clinical medicine, education, basic research, and administration for more than 30 years.› Read the biography
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