A logical mind dealing with an illogical world
“The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” Franklin D. Roosevelt To be perfectly clear, I am not a virologist, epidemiologist, or public health expert. I am a plastic surgeon, i.e. a physician, with forty two years of practice experience and more than average knowledge of the human body than most people. I …
Continue reading “Is it time to rethink our response to Covid-19?”
A recent article in Lake Healthy Living magazine (A Healthy Debate About Vaccines, September 2019) suggested that there is a debate about childhood vaccination. The article was, in my opinion, a well-intentioned but misguided effort that misrepresented the issue as a real debate. This is my response, as a physician, father, and grandfather. If there …
Continue reading “The contrived controversy of childhood vaccination”
“Mohs, which stresses taking thin margins, has no place in treating invasive melanoma.” It is a classic case of a hammer in search of a nail. Slow Mohs surgery for melanoma not only makes no sense, it is a bad idea that compromises treatment of this potentially deadly cancer. While Mohs surgery still carries the …
I went to see the new Downton Abbey movie reluctantly. My wife and her friends, all fans of the popular series, set up the evening for our group of five couples. None of the husbands were thrilled but we have all been married long enough to know that now and then you take one for …
The Jokes on you Flu season 2019 is upon us. Trust me, you don’t want to get the flu. By that I mean the Flu, influenza virus, i.e. the real flu, not simply a winter cold. The flu is a cold on steroids. It is to a cold what King Kong is to a gorilla. …
Money talks and, at up to $2500 per patient, it practically shouts. No, this isn’t about the historical gunshot in Lexington, Massachusetts that marked the start of our revolutionary war of independence. I am referring to a shot much less revolutionary and much more controversial: the O-shot for women. What’s that you say? What is …
Continue reading “The shot heard (not quite) round the world”
“It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you in trouble; it’s what you know that just ain’t so.” Samuel Clemens I am going to make some generalizations here. As with all generalizations, there are exceptions, but I believe my premise holds true enough to be valid. The trajectory of medicine seems hellbent on lowering …
Continue reading “Confidence is wonderful…until it becomes overconfidence.”
“It is health insurance by sleight of hand” Like many social programs, Medicaid, government subsidized health insurance for the indigent, was based on the laudable premise that the poor deserve good health care. Its implementation, however, has been less than stellar. In fact, I and half of my physician colleagues consider it a failed program. …
Continue reading “Medicaid- the failed promise of Obamacare”
Is mold toxicity the new cash cow for unscrupulous practitioners? Mold, fungi, yeast. They are literally everywhere. Yeast are so ubiquitous that you can make sourdough bread starter just by leaving some warm water mixed with flour out in the open for a few days. Yeast from the environment will populate the liquid and ferment …
Thinking long term is not a strong suit of the young Among the controversies surrounding breast implants, and there are many, is the claim that many patients are not fully informed about the risks and limitations of the surgery, both immediate and long term. It is true that some surgeons gloss over risks or underplay …
Continue reading “Thinking long term is not a strong suit of the young”
Musings on Medicine and Life