During an in class presentation, a representative from Fletcher Allen talked about spirituality in health care. Or rather, it was the lack of spirituality in health care. Statistics presented during this class lecture said that while the overwhelming majority of Americans believe in God, only about 2/3 of their physicians do. This presents a staggering disparity in the beliefs of the people receiving care and the people providing this care. While it may seem that a doctor’s or a patient’s beliefs should not alter the care that is received, it does have an impact. For 1/3 of doctors, spirituality is not something that comes up for them in their daily lives, and they may see it as having little importance. But, for almost all of Americans, spirituality is not only something that comes up everyday, it is also something that plays an incredibly important role in their lives. Therefore, it is imperative that physicians are sensitized to this aspect of their patients’ lives.
I feel that this understanding is most important for those physicians that are working in life threatening fields, such as emergency medicine and oncology to name a few. The Fletcher Allen presenter brought up the concept of taking a spiritual history of a patient along with all the other information that is collected. I believe that a process that gathers the importance of spirituality to the patient should become routine and the doctor can use the information gathered here in the patient’s further treatment. It is important that the physician be comfortable discussing spirituality openly with the patient. As has been seen in cases of people with life threatening diseases, the patient’s mental wellness can play a huge role. The doctor being attentive to spirituality should become more commonplace, no longer a topic outside the scope of a physician.
Monday, April 30, 2007
Drugs are a Dime a Dozen…
Drugs are a Dime a Dozen…
by Amy LaCroix
We’ve all seen them, one TV advertisement after another for newly available drugs for every “syndrome” and “disorder” imaginable, ranging from ‘Restless Leg Syndrome’ to ‘Idiopathic Short Stature Disorder’. Nowadays, flipping on the television is becoming less and less about the entertainment and more of a review of what hot new medications we should be running to our doctors for that claim to be able to solve your everyday nuisances and worries. To think, in the past all we had to worry about was advertisers brainwashing our kids into thinking that the cool new snack on the market would make them popular in school. Now what we have are unethical appeals to our innate sense of helplessness as human beings with medications that are supposed to help us feel better about our unfulfilled lives.
Recently, artist Justine Cooper has designed a satirical website detailing her new miracle drug “Havidol”. The drug claims to treat “Dysphoric Social Attention Consumption Deficit Anxiety Disorder” or DSACDAD. A person with limited medical and educational background might see an ad for a similar drug on television and completely believe that this ‘newly discovered disorder’ is the cause of all their problems and immediately get an appointment for a prescription from their physician. Despite how hilariously entertaining the claims and side effects of this fakey drug are (one of these being possible inter-species communication), this spoof is not that far from the reality of how the pharmaceutical industry is medicalizing things that used to be just a part of life.
Where should the industry draw the line? Should doctors be asked to prescribe such unsubstantiated drugs to their patients, when news of the disorder has just been made available? Shouldn’t such “disorders” be more of a job for a psychiatrist and not another potentially harmful drug? Is it ethically responsible for the pharmaceutical industry to target a depressed and socially underdeveloped audience that might be watching infomercials at
Combating the Genetic Battle of the Bulge?
Its official, obesity is genetic. The gene, known as FTO, was recently discovered by scientists at Oxford University after several years of research.
In an article published on ScienceDaily.com titled “Eat to Live: Obesity’s officially genetic,” the research leading to the discovery of FTO is revealed. Scientists compared 2,000 genomes of people with type 2 diabetes to 3,000 genomes of health individuals and found an interesting link between one variation of FTO and obesity. As stated in the above article, “The scientists established that 16 percent of people had the weakest genetic composition. They were found to have two copies of the high-risk version and to carry an average of 7 pounds excess weight, with 15 percent more body fat. This percentage, one in six people, has a 70-percent greater risk of becoming obese” while those with one high-risk and one low-risk gene had a 30 percent chance of developing obesity.
It is important to emphasize the relatively moderate amount of excess weight associated with a high-risk genetic composition. Note: FTO does not account for the 20, 40 or even 100 pounds obese patients often struggle with. There comes a point where diet and exercise must be taken into consideration. Don’t waste your time waiting for the magic drug that will slim your figure in a matter of weeks, it just ain’t worth it. Go for a walk, even if it is to the local grocery store to get some Ruffles and dip for TBS’s M*A*S*H re-run marathon that you simply must watch all afternoon.
Why change your lifestyle habits now? Well, those living in Rio de Janeiro with obesity have been forced to share medical equipment with local racehorses because standard medical equipment doesn’t support their bodies. How humiliating is that? Wouldn’t you rather lose those extra pounds by making healthy lifestyle changes than be sent to the local horse barn to get weighed and essentially be treated like an animal? I certainly would, even if nature had already decided that I would never fit into a pair of size 2 genes….err, jeans.
In an article published on ScienceDaily.com titled “Eat to Live: Obesity’s officially genetic,” the research leading to the discovery of FTO is revealed. Scientists compared 2,000 genomes of people with type 2 diabetes to 3,000 genomes of health individuals and found an interesting link between one variation of FTO and obesity. As stated in the above article, “The scientists established that 16 percent of people had the weakest genetic composition. They were found to have two copies of the high-risk version and to carry an average of 7 pounds excess weight, with 15 percent more body fat. This percentage, one in six people, has a 70-percent greater risk of becoming obese” while those with one high-risk and one low-risk gene had a 30 percent chance of developing obesity.
It is important to emphasize the relatively moderate amount of excess weight associated with a high-risk genetic composition. Note: FTO does not account for the 20, 40 or even 100 pounds obese patients often struggle with. There comes a point where diet and exercise must be taken into consideration. Don’t waste your time waiting for the magic drug that will slim your figure in a matter of weeks, it just ain’t worth it. Go for a walk, even if it is to the local grocery store to get some Ruffles and dip for TBS’s M*A*S*H re-run marathon that you simply must watch all afternoon.
Why change your lifestyle habits now? Well, those living in Rio de Janeiro with obesity have been forced to share medical equipment with local racehorses because standard medical equipment doesn’t support their bodies. How humiliating is that? Wouldn’t you rather lose those extra pounds by making healthy lifestyle changes than be sent to the local horse barn to get weighed and essentially be treated like an animal? I certainly would, even if nature had already decided that I would never fit into a pair of size 2 genes….err, jeans.
For further information regarding the discovery of FTO, check out: http://www.sciencedaily.com/upi/index.php?feed=Science&article=UPI-1-20070413-18385500-bc-eat2live-obesity.xml.
For learn more about being obese in Rio de Janeiro, go to:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17949176/
For learn more about being obese in Rio de Janeiro, go to:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17949176/
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