Life just got more complicated.  Not only must we comb through our cell phone bills for the nefarious "huh?" phone charges, our charge card statements for the outrageous "why me" finance/late charges, monitor the cr#*p out of your kid's Facebook presence/friends, and channel Harold McGee at the grocery store, but now, spend that free time you don't have perusing the medical journals for the latest news/updates that could affect your Life with a capital L.  Wait, aren't your doctors supposed to be doing this?  Well, yes, they are.  But, it's no surprise they have the ear of the big-pharma, they're bogged down the insurance paperwork, all while they try to put their children through Stanford. 

This time last year, there was some interesting reporting in NYT, Science & Health section(1).  Authors Ralph H. Blum and Dr. Mark Scholz, in their book on prostate cancer suggest that nearly all of the 200,000 cases of prostate cancer are over treated.  Given that most of them are slow growing, they should be managed as a chronic condition rather than the 50,000 "radical prostatectomies" of which more than 40,000 are unnecessary per the authors.  According to Dr. Scholz:  ". ..the vast majority of men with prostate cancer would have lived just as long without any operation at all. Most did not need to have their sexuality cut out."   A recent study in The New England Journal of Medicine suggested that the operation extended the lives of just 1 patient in 48.  The side effects--incontinence, impotence, and shrinking of the penis. 

Does this sound a bit eerily familiar?  I recall when Mother's Little Helper was not just a Rolling Stones lyric. Many women in the 60s and 70s, my mother included, were easily given Valium for managing their anxiety, sleeplessness or, shall we say, general unhappiness.  I wonder whether the doctors mentioned the addiction word. Today, it's anti-depressants and mood-stabilizers.  Another phenomenon, my mother again represented, was the hysterectomy.  A 1981 Centers for Disease Control study found 15% of hysterectomies were questionable, and a 1990 Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Illinois study showed about one-third to be medically unnecessary.(2)  And, while we're at it, what about the tonsillectomy.  Along with hysterectomies it was then one of the two most commonly performed surgical procedures.  A clinical trial eventually showed the reasons for which children had their tonsils removed were inappropriate(3). Read more about tonsillectomies in last week's New York times Science section.  

Last year, an article in the Press Democrat was entitled:  "Early Surgery Cuts Cancer Risk" and subtitled "Study: Pre-emptive removal of breasts, ovaries aids women with specific cancergenes."  Yikes!  How many women have been called back for multiple boob smashings (mammograms) and eventually had breast biopsy because their dense breast tissue could be hiding something suspicious(4). How about an abnormal Pap smear?  Between 10 and 60 percent of all Pap smears are incorrectly analyzed. False negatives, which are far more common than false positives, may be reported 20 and 45 percent of the time.  Statins?  Calcium?  Want another? It was reported that mental exercises retard the onset of dementia (we know this), but once you have it, the crossword puzzles, reading, museum visits, actually hasten the disease.(5)  Want more?  Check out the dangers of Bluetooth cell phone devices. 

 What to do, what to do? If this were a blog, I can now see the scads of posts from those whose lives have been saved by medical testing and interventions.  I don't have an answer, but it behooves us to ask lots of questions of our doctors and to do some independent research.  If your doctor is not willing to answer your questions or accept other opinions, then seeing another doctor may be necessary.  Ultimately, the best thing we can do is stay healthy and happy--have your apple-a-day, take a 20 minute brisk walk, sit quietly for 10 minutes and exhale already! 

1)  http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/08/30/a-rush-to-operating-rooms-that-alters-mens-lives/

2) http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0815/is_n170_v18/ai_13218625/

3) Mine were removed

4) Me, again.

5) http://pagingdrgupta.blogs.cnn.com/2010/09/01/brain-exercises-delay-speed-up-dementia/?hpt=C2

*Recycled from last year with some updating. 

[Want to read some of my earlier posting.  You can find them here.  Enjoy.]  

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