Dr. Dean Ornish seems to be getting too much inspiration from other Huffington Post Living Section bloggers, who appear on the site when they need to promote themselves and their friends.  

 In what can be described as nothing other than an informercial, Ornish, the Post's Medical Editor,&n… Read full post »

 I appeared on NPR's Talk of the Nation last Monday to discuss my Salon article on medical malpractice reform.   To no surprise, I was on hot seat in the virtual doctor's lounge, as physicians called in with their concerns--and gripes--about my point of view that tort re… Read full post »

If you want to get insights into the problems of our health care system, you should certainly listen to policy makers like Peter Orzag, browse economist Uwe Rhinehardt's blog, or read Atul Gawande's recent article in the New Yorker.

But you should also look at a mural by Washington DC… Read full post »

Like most people, I had never heard of Joe Wilson until his angry outburst in the biggest town hall of them all, the U.S. Congress.  Unfortunately for him, it's hard to see Wilson beyond anything other than a symbol of everything that's wrong with modern American politic… Read full post »

As the author of several best-selling books about health and wellness, and one who runs a prestigious wellness center on the East Coast, Dr. Mark Hyman is one of the most recognized medical experts on the Huffington Post.  Hyman helped to pioneer functional medicine, a s… Read full post »

It looks like the Huffington Post's honorary/unpaid Medical Editor, Dr.Dean Ornish, walked into the same trap that Whole Foods CEO John Mackey did.

 Mackey got a lot of flack when he wrote an oped in the Wall Street Journal on health care reform, one in which he/… Read full post »

It's hard to figure out where the Republican Party stands on health care reform.  Just ask Chairman Michael Steele, who seems as vexed as you, me and everybody else. 

Just take these side-by-side excerpts form Steele's oped piece in the Washington Post and his follow-up interview… Read full post »

 

Click on the Living Section of the Huffington Post today (August 24, 2009) and you'll see large photo of a woman rubbing her breasts. 

 The large lavander-colored  headline above it "Protect Your Breasts With Vitamin D"

The post is written by Dr. Christiane Northrup, wh… Read full post »

Over the past month, our national discussion about health care has gone from bad to worse to embarrassing.  

That's because any dialogue about how to fix health care--like refocusing on making the primary care-patient doctor relationship stronger, using electronic medical… Read full post »

 Off and on during the current health reform debate, politicians, leaders and pundits have raised the issue personal responsibility. For instance, take these now infamous comments from the John Mackey, the CEO of Wh… Read full post »

my piece in Salon, "The Huffington Post is Crazy About Your Health" focuses on the dubious medical advice espoused by many of  its bloggers.  Here are some more thoughts about the Post and Ms. Huffington.

In her 2006 book, On Being Fearless, Arianna Huffington wrote ab… Read full post »

By all accounts this is crunch time for President Obama on health care reform, and things couldn’t be more tenuous.  In the past several weeks, we’ve seen unified Republican opposition to his ideas, a revolt against reform from leaders inside his own political party, and the head of/… Read full post »

When I was a kid growing up in Los Angeles, there was this local TV show my dad used to enjoy watching called “Fight Back with David Horowitz.”  Basically, Horowitz, a TV reporter and consumer advocate, used to put the claims a manufacturer made about thei/… Read full post »

Last Wednesday's  headline in the Wall Street Journal may have surprised you.  It read:  "Wal-Mart Backs Drive to Make Companies Pay for Health Coverage."   The article discussed Wal-Mart's open support for an employer mandate requiring all but small businesses to provid… Read full post »

 Like most doctors yesterday, I was in the busy seeing a full schedule of patients when President Obama addressed members of the American Medical Association at their annual meeting in Chicago.  The speech was billed as a crucial confron/… Read full post »

Late last week Oprah Winfrey, amid growing criticism of how she covers health issues on her show, issued a statement defending herself:

"For 23 years, my show has presented thousands of topics that reflect the human experience, including doctors' medical advice and personal health stories that h… Read full post »

With Summer upon us, I thought it would be nice to lighten things up with a little medical contest. 

Early OS'ers will probably recall "Name that MD, Round 1" last summer, where I put up pictures of doctors (real or imaginary). You then can participate in the quiz and sco/… Read full post »

We've become accustomed the notion that media violence is bad for children, and that exposure to it can lead to all kinds of problems, including violent behavior.  Those us who remember Columbine in 1999 will certainly recall  reports that the killers played the videogame Doo… Read full post »

A post, "Yes, Actually I CAN Judge the Chemo Kid"  , on DailyKos in response to my piece Don't Judge the Chemo Kid" about Daniel Hauser, caught my eye.  It's written by a blogger who goes by the name Turkana, who is a cancer survivor.  

 After an excerpt of my piece… Read full post »

My column this month in Salon criticizes Oprah Winfrey's approach to science and medicine.   A lot of the piece focuses on Bioidentical Hormones (BH), which Winfrey's guests endorsed in two episodes that aired earlier this year, one featuring Robin McGraw /… Read full post »

It's definitely Springtime for facemask makers as citizens all over the world don them in an attempt to protect themselves from swine flu.  Indeed, some have taken to pimping their mask out, as did the young man below:   

 Facemasks actual… Read full post »

Kudos to the Centers for Disease Control for marching onto the Internet to share information related to swine flu with us.  For those who are looking for information, there are several ways to track the latest:

 (Note: not an inclusive list, so if readers know others, le… Read full post »

Tommy Franks supposedly said, "we don't do body counts."

So a few doctors did it for him:

Today's New England Journal of Medicine has an article reviewing civilian deaths in Iraq, and framing the enormous loss of life as a serious public health problem. 

The aut… Read full post »

As a physician, I’ve been struck by how much our nation’s discussion of economic matters has started to resemble how we talk about sick patients.  To see what I mean, just read the following fable:         

&n… Read full post »