The newest iteration of the Global Burden of Disease study, which tracks the prevalence of deaths and diseases worldwide, contains some good news: On average people are living about a decade longer than they were in 1980. But there's a catch: Health hasn't improved as fast as life expectancy overall, which means that for many, those long, final years are spent hobbled by illness and disability.
The nature of our old-age ailments has changed in recent years. The study, published this week in The Lancet and conducted by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington, uses a metric called "Disability Adjusted Life Years." DALYs, as they're abbreviated, combine the number of years of life a person loses if they die prematurely with the amount of time they spend living with a disability. Think of it as time you didn't spend living your #bestlife—because you were sick or dead.
In rich countries, the number one cause of these DALYs is not surprising: ischemic heart disease, which is associated with well-known Western issues like high cholesterol and obesity. But the number two condition is a little strange: plain, old-fashioned, ever-present, low back and neck pain.
Even when you include poor and middle-income countries, low back and neck pain went from ranking 12th as a cause of DALYs globally in 1990 to ranking fourth in 2015, the most recent year. In most countries, it was the leading cause of disability. DALYs from low back and neck pain increased by more than 17 percent from 2005.
The things that make us low-level miserable are now more likely to be simple aches and pains, rather than frightening, communicable diseases like diarrhea. That's encouraging, but it's still a little sad. People all over the world increasingly live long, great lives, only to spend their golden years slathered in IcyHot.
More ...
http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2016/10/how-back-pain-took-over-the-world/503243/?
Saturday, October 8, 2016
Friday, October 7, 2016
Your Surgeon Is Probably a Republican, Your Psychiatrist Probably a Democrat - The New York Times
We know that Americans are increasingly sorting themselves by political affiliation into friendships, even into neighborhoods. Something similar seems to be happening with doctors and their various specialties.
New data show that, in certain medical fields, large majorities of physicians tend to share the political leanings of their colleagues, and a study suggests ideology could affect some treatment recommendations. In surgery, anesthesiology and urology, for example, around two-thirds of doctors who have registered a political affiliation are Republicans. In infectious disease medicine, psychiatry and pediatrics, more than two-thirds are Democrats.
The conclusions are drawn from data compiled by researchers at Yale. They joined two large public data sets, one listing every doctor in the United States and another containing the party registration of every voter in 29 states.
Eitan Hersh, an assistant professor of political science, and Dr. Matthew Goldenberg, an assistant professor of psychiatry (guess his party!), shared their data with The Upshot. Using their numbers, we found that more than half of all doctors with party registration identify as Democrats. But the partisanship of physicians is not evenly distributed throughout the fields of medical practice.
More ...
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/07/upshot/your-surgeon-is-probably-a-republican-your-psychiatrist-probably-a-democrat.html
New data show that, in certain medical fields, large majorities of physicians tend to share the political leanings of their colleagues, and a study suggests ideology could affect some treatment recommendations. In surgery, anesthesiology and urology, for example, around two-thirds of doctors who have registered a political affiliation are Republicans. In infectious disease medicine, psychiatry and pediatrics, more than two-thirds are Democrats.
The conclusions are drawn from data compiled by researchers at Yale. They joined two large public data sets, one listing every doctor in the United States and another containing the party registration of every voter in 29 states.
Eitan Hersh, an assistant professor of political science, and Dr. Matthew Goldenberg, an assistant professor of psychiatry (guess his party!), shared their data with The Upshot. Using their numbers, we found that more than half of all doctors with party registration identify as Democrats. But the partisanship of physicians is not evenly distributed throughout the fields of medical practice.
More ...
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/07/upshot/your-surgeon-is-probably-a-republican-your-psychiatrist-probably-a-democrat.html
Thursday, October 6, 2016
A Letter to the Doctors and Nurses Who Cared for My Wife - The New York Times
After his 34-year-old wife suffered a devastating asthmaattack and later died, the Boston writer Peter DeMarco wrote the following letter to the intensive care unit staff of CHA Cambridge Hospital who cared for her and helped him cope.
As I begin to tell my friends and family about the seven days you treated my wife, Laura Levis, in what turned out to be the last days of her young life, they stop me at about the 15th name that I recall. The list includes the doctors, nurses, respiratory specialists, social workers, even cleaning staff members who cared for her.
"How do you remember any of their names?" they ask.
How could I not, I respond.
Every single one of you treated Laura with such professionalism, and kindness, and dignity as she lay unconscious. When she needed shots, you apologized that it was going to hurt a little, whether or not she could hear. When you listened to her heart and lungs through your stethoscopes, and her gown began to slip, you pulled it up to respectfully cover her. You spread a blanket, not only when her body temperature needed regulating, but also when the room was just a little cold, and you thought she'd sleep more comfortably that way.
You cared so greatly for her parents, helping them climb into the room's awkward recliner, fetching them fresh water almost by the hour, and by answering every one of their medical questions with incredible patience. My father-in-law, a doctor himself as you learned, felt he was involved in her care. I can't tell you how important that was to him.
Then, there was how you treated me. How would I have found the strength to have made it through that week without you?
More ...
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/06/well/live/a-letter-to-the-doctors-and-nurses-who-cared-for-my-wife.html?
As I begin to tell my friends and family about the seven days you treated my wife, Laura Levis, in what turned out to be the last days of her young life, they stop me at about the 15th name that I recall. The list includes the doctors, nurses, respiratory specialists, social workers, even cleaning staff members who cared for her.
"How do you remember any of their names?" they ask.
How could I not, I respond.
Every single one of you treated Laura with such professionalism, and kindness, and dignity as she lay unconscious. When she needed shots, you apologized that it was going to hurt a little, whether or not she could hear. When you listened to her heart and lungs through your stethoscopes, and her gown began to slip, you pulled it up to respectfully cover her. You spread a blanket, not only when her body temperature needed regulating, but also when the room was just a little cold, and you thought she'd sleep more comfortably that way.
You cared so greatly for her parents, helping them climb into the room's awkward recliner, fetching them fresh water almost by the hour, and by answering every one of their medical questions with incredible patience. My father-in-law, a doctor himself as you learned, felt he was involved in her care. I can't tell you how important that was to him.
Then, there was how you treated me. How would I have found the strength to have made it through that week without you?
More ...
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/06/well/live/a-letter-to-the-doctors-and-nurses-who-cared-for-my-wife.html?
Wednesday, October 5, 2016
Max Ritvo, Poet Who Chronicled His Cancer Fight, Dies at 25 - The New York Times
Max Ritvo, an accomplished poet who spent much of his life under the cloud of cancer while gaining wide attention writing and speaking about it, died of the disease on Tuesday at his home in Los Angeles. He was 25.
His mother, Dr. Ariella Ritvo-Slifka, confirmed his death.
Mr. Ritvo talked about his work and illness in interviews on radio programs including "Only Human" on WNYC and "The New Yorker Radio Hour." His poems have appeared in Poetry Magazine and The New Yorker, and his first published volume of poetry, "Four Reincarnations," will appear in the fall.
The poet Louise Glück, who taught Mr. Ritvo at Yale, called the book "one of the most original and ambitious first books in my experience," adding that his work is "marked by intellectual bravado and verbal extravagance."
Mr. Ritvo was 16 when he learned he had Ewing's sarcoma, a rare pediatric cancer. He had gone to doctors after feeling pain in his side. At first they suspected pneumonia, but fearing something worse they took a tissue sample while he was under sedation.
He woke up in a cancer ward.
"I remember thinking, 'This is so terrible!'" he told Mary Harris of WNYC. "'I'm just a young, acrobatic, wiry, handsome bloke of 16, and it's so sad for all these old people, because they must have run out of beds and I just have pneumonia.'"
A year of aggressive treatment brought about remission, and over the next four and a half years he finished high school and attended Yale.
The cancer returned in Mr. Ritvo's senior year. He nevertheless completed his degree in 2013 and this year earned a master of fine arts from Columbia University, where he became a teaching fellow. He also served as poetry editor at Parnassus: Poetry in Review.
Throughout his illness, he rejected the clichés of being an "inspiring victim of cancer," his mother said. He counseled other families going through treatment for Ewing's sarcoma, and spoke out often about the disease and the importance of research.
More ...
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/27/books/max-ritvo-poet-who-chronicled-his-cancer-fight-dies-at-25.html?_r=0
His mother, Dr. Ariella Ritvo-Slifka, confirmed his death.
Mr. Ritvo talked about his work and illness in interviews on radio programs including "Only Human" on WNYC and "The New Yorker Radio Hour." His poems have appeared in Poetry Magazine and The New Yorker, and his first published volume of poetry, "Four Reincarnations," will appear in the fall.
The poet Louise Glück, who taught Mr. Ritvo at Yale, called the book "one of the most original and ambitious first books in my experience," adding that his work is "marked by intellectual bravado and verbal extravagance."
Mr. Ritvo was 16 when he learned he had Ewing's sarcoma, a rare pediatric cancer. He had gone to doctors after feeling pain in his side. At first they suspected pneumonia, but fearing something worse they took a tissue sample while he was under sedation.
He woke up in a cancer ward.
"I remember thinking, 'This is so terrible!'" he told Mary Harris of WNYC. "'I'm just a young, acrobatic, wiry, handsome bloke of 16, and it's so sad for all these old people, because they must have run out of beds and I just have pneumonia.'"
A year of aggressive treatment brought about remission, and over the next four and a half years he finished high school and attended Yale.
The cancer returned in Mr. Ritvo's senior year. He nevertheless completed his degree in 2013 and this year earned a master of fine arts from Columbia University, where he became a teaching fellow. He also served as poetry editor at Parnassus: Poetry in Review.
Throughout his illness, he rejected the clichés of being an "inspiring victim of cancer," his mother said. He counseled other families going through treatment for Ewing's sarcoma, and spoke out often about the disease and the importance of research.
More ...
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/27/books/max-ritvo-poet-who-chronicled-his-cancer-fight-dies-at-25.html?_r=0
Sunday, October 2, 2016
Tom Brokaw: Learning to Live with Cancer - The New York Times
For most of my adult life I have answered the question "Occupation?" with one word: journalist. I still do, but now I am tempted to add a phrase.
Cancer patient.
Three years ago, at age 73, I learned that I had an incurable cancer called multiple myeloma. At the time the statistical life span for patients with the disease was five years.
That number has not changed, but I have. After three years of chemotherapy, a spinal operation that cost me three inches of height, monthly infusions of bone supplements and drugs to prevent respiratory infection, I am now almost as close to 80 as I was to 70 at the time of the diagnosis. I have lived 60 percent of those five years.
The cancer is in remission, and I take the word of my medical team that I am doing well and should beat the standard life expectancy. I still lead a busy professional and personal life. Biking, swimming, fly-fishing and bird hunting remain active interests — but in a new context.
Even in remission, cancer alters a patient's perception of what's normal. Morning, noon and night, asleep and awake, malignant cells are determined to alter or end your life. Combating cancer is a full-time job that, in my case, requires 24 pills a day, including one that runs $500 a dose. For me, bone damage brought persistent back pain and unwelcome muscle deterioration.
Constant fatigue is a common signature of cancer patients, which separates them from healthy friends and family members. It is also what brings cancer patients together.
More ...
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/02/opinion/sunday/tom-brokaw-learning-to-live-with-cancer.html?
Cancer patient.
Three years ago, at age 73, I learned that I had an incurable cancer called multiple myeloma. At the time the statistical life span for patients with the disease was five years.
That number has not changed, but I have. After three years of chemotherapy, a spinal operation that cost me three inches of height, monthly infusions of bone supplements and drugs to prevent respiratory infection, I am now almost as close to 80 as I was to 70 at the time of the diagnosis. I have lived 60 percent of those five years.
The cancer is in remission, and I take the word of my medical team that I am doing well and should beat the standard life expectancy. I still lead a busy professional and personal life. Biking, swimming, fly-fishing and bird hunting remain active interests — but in a new context.
Even in remission, cancer alters a patient's perception of what's normal. Morning, noon and night, asleep and awake, malignant cells are determined to alter or end your life. Combating cancer is a full-time job that, in my case, requires 24 pills a day, including one that runs $500 a dose. For me, bone damage brought persistent back pain and unwelcome muscle deterioration.
Constant fatigue is a common signature of cancer patients, which separates them from healthy friends and family members. It is also what brings cancer patients together.
More ...
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/02/opinion/sunday/tom-brokaw-learning-to-live-with-cancer.html?
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