Sear Carroll MD talks about a considerable amount of research that suggests there are non-drug interventions that can significantly reduce heart disease risk even among people with genetic predispositions to heart trouble. Given that heart disease is the leading cause … Continue reading
Pediatrician Aaron Carroll summarizes recent research showing the Medicaid benefits for children end up saving the federal government money. How is that possible? Because children who had health insurance through Medicare grow up healthier and are less likely to be … Continue reading
Most Americans know that we pay a lot for healthcare compared with other developed countries without necessarily better results, but there’s still a lot of confusion, notably about the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare). That’s based on a poll published January … Continue reading
As I mentioned a few weeks ago (link), overall U.S. life expectancy fell slightly in 2015. We should be careful about reading too much into a small one-year decline (it also fell in 1980 and 1993), but we shouldn’t ignore … Continue reading
One of the stranger developments in the United States over the last couple of decades has been a rise in rates of illness and mortality for non-Hispanic white Americans, especially women, the middle-aged, and those with low levels of education. … Continue reading
Most developed countries and many places in the U.S. require paid sick leave, and it turns out to have a lot of unambiguous benefits for businesses as well as sick employees and their coworkers and customers. But somehow a lot … Continue reading
OK, the headline might be a slight overstatement, but not much of one. At least in terms of the number of disease-causing bacteria, floors tend to be cleaner than kitchen counters and toilet seats cleaner than both. Seriously. Pediatrician and … Continue reading
Novelist and polymath John Green manages to cram a lot of information about the recent history, current state, and possible future of health insurance in the United States in less than ten minutes: Link: https://youtu.be/p3mYrOnq2Z4 For sources and background information … Continue reading
Pediatrician, writer, and medical school professor Aaron Carroll MD discusses the evidence that Medicaid has a large positive return on investment. Link: https://youtu.be/vx1-X9wpUk4 If you’re still young and healthy — just you wait — you might be among the people … Continue reading
Even people who inject themselves with drugs almost always realize the risk of sharing needles, and they do it anyway. That’s pretty much what it means to be an addict. So some places have experimented with making clean hypodermic syringes … Continue reading