Andrew Griffith's Blog, page 24

Exercise Study Finds Too Much of a Good Thing Tied to Poor Mental Health | Psych Central News

An interesting study linking exercise to mental illness, and noting that the reduced benefits of too much exercise. Moderation is better (I like this message!). Quote: “The largest mental health differences occurred with two to four hours of exercise per week,” wrote Yeon Soo Kim, M.D., and colleagues at Teachers College, Columbia University. “Beyond four [...]

Life, Interrupted: Hurricanes and Cancer – NYTimes.com

Yet another aspect to Hurricane Sandy and its impact of ongoing cancer (and other) treatment  from Suleika Jaouad. Just another worry to add to the normal chemo and cancer-induced worries. Quote from one of the relatively lucky ones: I was lucky to be able to make arrangements to stay with friends who live near the [...]

Let Me Tell You What’s Wrong With Me – NYTimes.com

Quite a funny piece on the aging process, all too true in many aspects. Quote: In our youth, we smoked pot and talked about the bands we loved. As we became older, we sipped wine and talked about our children. Now that they are grown, we drink green tea all those antioxidants and talk about [...]

Suicide by Choice? Not So Fast – NYTimes.com

Good and moving opinion against assisted suicide by a life-long disabled person, who notes the social pressures influencing individual choice: My problem, ultimately, is this: I’ve lived so close to death for so long that I know how thin and porous the border between coercion and free choice is, how easy it is for someone [...]

Every single junk food meal damages your arteries, new study reveals

While a small study, the results are nevertheless fairly devastating: The results were established in 28 non-smoking men, who ate the Mediterranean-type meal first and then the junk food-type meal one week later. Before beginning, the men underwent an ultrasound of the antecubital artery at the elbow crease after fasting for 12-hours to assess their [...]

There Is More to Life Than Death — NEJM

A good piece by Pamela Hartzband and Jerome Groopman, and medical decision-making, risk, and choice, the related uncertainties related to quality of life, and that quantification has its limits. Quote: Daniel Kahneman, the cognitive psychologist and Nobel laureate, in addressing a meeting of medical decision analysts, likened efforts to quantify the experience of illness using [...]

Sandy Wiped Out NYU Lab Mice, Dealing Blow to Medical Research | LiveScience

In the broader perspective of the devastation caused by Hurricane Sandy, this is a small item but of interest given the potential impact on ongoing and future medical research: “We are deeply saddened by the loss of these animals’ lives and the impact this has on the many years of important work conducted by our [...]

Pushing Out Bad Memories – NYTimes.com

A short article on the techniques the brain uses to ‘forget’: either block out a bad memory or recall a substitute memory. Take the case of a fight with a loved one, said Roland Benoit, a cognitive neuroscientist at the Medical Research Council Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit in Cambridge, England. “You don’t want to [...]

Improve doctor visits by bringing checklists to check ups

Another in a good series of posts on improving doctor visits. In additional to the usual ‘what to bring’ list, this post provides good guidance on asking the right questions: If you are given a new diagnosis, find out the following: How certain are you about this diagnosis? What else could this be? Are there [...]

Let’s help patients with the tradeoffs in medicine

Some reflections by Holly Witteman on how to help patients and their families deal with medical trade-offs and options. Quote: What makes health tradeoffs especially tough is that they incorporate uncertainty. It’s one thing to choose between the butter and the butter money. It’s quite another to choose between a 15% chance of butter and [...]