DOCTOR FILES: When the Unknown Is Not So Bad
“DOCTOR FILES: When the Unknown Is Not So Bad” – Los Angeles Times
“DOCTOR FILES: When the Unknown Is Not So Bad” – Los Angeles Times
For decades, the pharmaceutical industry has been highly profitable. The recipe for such profits has been pretty simple for most of the last half-century–discover a chemical or molecule that treats a common problem, like hypertension or diabetes or erectile dysfunction, and make billions of dollars while that product is still under patent protection. But of…
The world is complicated. It’s hard to know what the federal government should do about a whole range of problems. That’s why most people take a shortcut, and judge policies based on their opinion of the people who support or oppose those policies. If you like someone, and he supports a policy, then you are…
In a clever study, secret shoppers called primary care offices in an attempt to make a new patient appointment. People with Obamacare insurance, or “marketplace plans” in the below figure, had a hard time finding appointments. But so did people with traditional insurance. But there’s a bigger takeaway, one slightly obscured by the misleading y-axis,…
A recent Gallup poll asked people how they would rate the honesty and ethical standards of people in a wide range of professions. Not surprisingly, Congress didn’t come out very well on this poll, rating even below car salespeople on these traits. Among highly paid professionals, physicians came out on top. Physicians are still highly…
Lots of us eat when we are stressed. But did you know that even when we are not currently under stress, the amount of food we eat might be influenced by the stress we experienced as children? That’s the conclusion Sarah Hill, a psychologist at TCU, wants us to draw from several studies she ran…
Poverty wreaks havoc on children’s lives, stunting their intellectual development and harming their health. Children raised in poverty experience declines in growth and development, becoming susceptible to numerous otherwise preventable illnesses in the process. Tragically, almost 1 in 5 American children live in poverty: Republicans and Democrats must agree on the importance of helping American…