Category: General Medicine

Within the last 30 years, attention has been drawn to the relationship between aspirin use, cancer development, and cancer survival. I have posted several blogs on this topic, the most recent of which reported on prevention of colorectal and other gastrointestinal cancers. Now, JAMA has published a thorough analysis of data gathered by the Prostate, Lung, Colorectal and Ovarian (PLCO) Cancer Screening Trial... keep reading

Here’s hot-off-the-presses news regarding the protective benefit of metformin against a nasty side effect of androgen deprivation therapy (ADT). ADT means cutting off a man’s androgens (male hormones, including testosterone) in order to stop advanced prostate cancer in its tracks. ADT is effective in halting the progression of PCa, but it comes with a price... keep reading

When boys become curious about sex, their eager ears pick up tons of misinformation from their buddies and schoolmates. However, it wasn’t that long ago when adults themselves told outright lies about sex. They probably did so in an effort to curb young rascals’ budding sexual impulses. For instance, they promulgated the myth that playing keep reading

When I came across a report about a new study connecting antibiotic use with risk of colon cancer, I knew it was worth sharing. Here’s the backstory: In April 2021, Akimoto et al. published an article entitled “Rising Incidence of Early-Onset Colorectal Cancer – A Call to Action.”[i] They wrote: The incidence of early-onset colorectal keep reading

Go online and do a search for “how to measure a wound.” You will find general principles, but you’ll also discover small variations in instructions on how to measure an open wound. How long is it? How wide? Are there irregular spaces below the skin surface or the floor of the wound where infection could keep reading

Medical school is not for the faint of heart, and just as in other professions, passing an exam to qualify for licensure is a dreaded ritual. The Royal College of Radiologists is not a “college” the way we normally think of such an institution. It is a society chartered to promote the science and clinical keep reading

Are you a philosopher? If you said no, I invite you to think again. We associate philosophy with ancient Greeks like Plato, medieval thinkers like Thomas Aquinas, or Age of Enlightenment intellectuals like John Locke. However, if people ponder, even if only briefly, “fundamental truths about themselves, the world in which they live, and their keep reading

No one is born knowing the names of all the objects around them. We learn them as parents, older siblings and others show us the object and say its name, or point to things in picture books and repeat the word that matches it. We learn words like cup, ball, shoe, bunny, blanket for items keep reading

Imagine this scenario. Your doctor orders a pelvic CT scan to check if the pain you’re experiencing is due to a kidney stone or other blockage. After the scan, he says, “I’m happy to tell you there’s no evidence of stones and your kidney looks fine. Oh, and incidentally, you have prostate cancer.” Of course, keep reading

What do the Dead Sea Scrolls have in common with diagnosing disease? This blog takes a detour from Artificial Intelligence (AI) in medicine to a different realm before circling back to clinical use: how many individual scribes contributed to the Dead Sea Scrolls? The Dead Sea Scrolls In 1946, a treasure trove of ancient Jewish keep reading