Editorials:
I Just Want My Kid to Learn Algebra. Does That Make Me a Culture Warrior?
My College Students Are Not OK
Apple Podcasts:
A History of Rock in 500 songs—delightful exploration of songs we all grew up with and the background stories as well as demonstrating the inspirations for the melodies—it is all quite educational. For me? So far: Light My Fire (#148) , God Only Knows (#142), Hot Town, Summer in the City (#143).
Medical Culture: American Family Physician is the journal I use to maintain contact with my medical world. Two editorial pieces were found in the April edition that has relevance for all of us, especially with the Covid Wars in mind.
Where Clinical Practice Guidelines Go Wrong: Consider all the mixed messages about how to best manage Covid—for “the people” not to mention you, a person. This editorial reviewed a less controversial topic: how to treat high blood pressure. There were no less than 68 guidelines published by various authorities between 2010 and 2018. They agreed with each other regarding specifics (which medications, which order to use them) and confidence in the recommendations (statistical confidence in their conclusions) only 32% of the time…………We are intelligent creatures with different experiences and biases. Doctors are no better than other groups coming to consensus around specific recommendations.
2) Why Physicians Should Not prescribe Aducanumab for Alzheimer Disease: This sounds a bit esoteric but it is not. Your coverage for medications under Medicare leans on a process of study and recommendation by “experts.” The advisory committee for this drug voted 9:1 against recommending it. It was still approved. The point? The drug is expensive and cannot be shown to change the progression or symptoms of Alzheimer’s. Its use is associated with a slower set of changes on MRI scans…………….There is a process, which was followed to the point that an exception was made. And then there is Big Pharma in bed with a Government regulatory agency.
TV: Youtube has great biographies which I found quite entertaining this month: Henry Ford, JP Morgan, The Rockefeller family to name a few. There is a lot on early Christianity that is also quite interesting a la Mary Magdalene. Don’t forget to read Lamb by Christopher Moore.
Movies: I am lukewarm about Belfast. Do NOT see The Northman. I will never get those two hours and twenty minutes back.
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