Category: Meds

To anesthetize, or not to anesthetize: a pervasive dilemma of the GLP-1 era

Since the United States Food and Drug Administration approved exenatide in 2005, it took decades for the American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) to identify and address perioperative safety concerns, if any, among patients using glucagon-like pepti…

Why doctors risk jail time to treat pain and addiction

This is a strange time in America. While tools for treating pain and addiction, unchanged essentially from the late 1800s to the early 2000s, are now being developed, daring to try to utilize these medications and the science we have learned about them…

Transforming liver care: the evolution of MASH diagnosis and treatment

The term “revolutionary” is used too often in health care. New imaging modalities, pharmaceutical breakthroughs, advanced medical devices, and artificial intelligence are all regularly proclaimed to be revolutionary to attract interest and …

Transforming liver care: the evolution of MASH diagnosis and treatment

The term “revolutionary” is used too often in health care. New imaging modalities, pharmaceutical breakthroughs, advanced medical devices, and artificial intelligence are all regularly proclaimed to be revolutionary to attract interest and …

The DEA’s latest targets: doctors treating addiction instead of pain

I have been writing for a while about how the DEA will run out of targets for opioid prosecutions because most doctors are too terrified to treat pain, and now it looks like it has happened. Three doctors in Tennessee were recently convicted of prescri…

Xylazine: the lethal ingredient hiding in your pills

Xylazine has been found to be adulterating pills in America, and doctors will need to understand this new threat. First, xylazine is not “krokodil,” although it produces somewhat similar-looking skin ulcers.  Krokodil is a pseudonym for des…

Can weight loss medication interfere with ADHD meds?

Why bother going to work? If I didn’t work, I wouldn’t get paid, so there was that. But it seemed like a pointless exercise. I would stare at my monitor until it was time to go home. On some level I knew I should be, well, working, but I co…

Big pharma ignores low-cost migraine solution

If you are a fan of pharma, you might want to skip this article. Some pharma enthusiasts will call it a rant. By pharma, I mean avaricious pharmaceutical (a pleonasm) companies collectively. On the other hand, those of you who treat acute migraines wil…

AvertD: Can a simple test help reduce opioid addiction?

When I heard about the new AvertD genetic test, pronounced like “averted,” I was compelled to contact the CEO of SOLVD Health, the maker of AvertD, and ask him to answer some of my questions. To my surprise, he was willing to do so, and her…

Venture-backed telemental health care companies are creating a new opioid epidemic

More Americans are seeking mental health care than ever before, but many people receiving treatment have never met their psychiatrist in person—or even at all. Telemedicine has been growing in popularity for years, but the COVID-19 pandemic sent tele-h…