Snippets about: Medicine
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Psychedelics Reveal Mind-Boggling Vistas Of Consciousness
Psychedelic drugs like LSD, psilocybin, and DMT can produce extraordinary states of consciousness that feel personally meaningful and spiritually significant. Users often report the following:
- Profound feelings of awe, sacredness, and gratitude
- Ego-dissolution and a sense of merging with the universe
- Vivid hallucinations of otherworldly landscapes and beings
- Deep psychological insights and a new perspective on life
- Experiences of seeming to transcend space and time
While they can occasion powerful mystical experiences, these experiences alone do not necessarily translate into long-term psychological benefits or spiritual maturity. Psychedelics can also be dangerous if used recklessly.
Section: 1, Chapter: 5
Book: Waking Up
Author: Sam Harris
The Lifecycle of an Atherosclerotic Plaque
Atherosclerosis, the buildup of plaques in the arteries, is a lifelong process:
- It begins when LDL particles penetrate the endothelial lining of the artery and get stuck in the subendothelial space.
- Retained LDL undergoes oxidation, triggering an inflammatory response. Macrophages engulf the oxidized LDL, becoming foam cells.
- Smooth muscle cells migrate and proliferate, laying down collagen and other fibers to form a fibrous cap over the lipid-rich plaque.
- The plaque grows slowly over decades. Some become calcified, others remain 'soft'.
- Rupture of the fibrous cap can trigger a clot, leading to heart attack or stroke.
This process can begin in adolescence and progress silently for decades before causing symptoms. Early intervention is key as advanced plaques are harder to stabilize.
Section: 2, Chapter: 7
Book: Outlive
Author: Peter Attia
Does Ozempic Rob Food Of Both Pleasure And Pain?
The dominant theory is that Ozempic curbs appetite by dialing down food rewards. But brain imaging suggests it may be more about dialing up food "anti-rewards":
- Normally fatty/sugary food triggers a big dopamine (reward chemical) spike
- Ozempic doesn't seem to numb this food "high" - dopamine still spikes
- But on Ozempic, the brain's "aversion centers" also light up intensely to fatty/sugary food
- These zones generate negative feelings - disgust, fear, anxiety, restraint
So Ozempic may not rob food of pleasure so much as pair that pleasure with equal and opposite pain - an "aversion signal" that overwhelms reward and drives behavior change.
Section: 1, Chapter: 7
Book: Magic PIll
Author: Johann Hari
Deadly Microbes Evolved From Domesticated Animals
Many of the major human infectious diseases, including smallpox, flu, tuberculosis, malaria, plague, measles, and cholera, evolved from diseases of domesticated animals. These diseases emerged after the development of agriculture, when humans began living in dense populations in close proximity to domesticated animals. The domesticated animals themselves acquired the diseases from wild animal populations.
Section: 3, Chapter: 11
Book: Guns, Germs, and Steel
Author: Jared Diamond
How a 12-Year-Old Girl Developed a Better Cancer Drug Regimen
In the 1960s, childhood leukemia was a death sentence. Chemotherapy existed but inevitably failed as the cancer returned after apparent remission. Most doctors used chemo sparingly, thinking stronger doses would be too toxic for children.
Dr. Jay Freireich, an iconoclastic cancer researcher, tried the opposite approach. He used maximum dose chemo continuously rather than in one short burst. His regimen was brutal on children and caused immense suffering. But it worked - achieving the first-ever cures of childhood leukemia.
Freireich was uniquely suited to this approach because he had a horrific childhood himself - abandoned by his severely depressed mother at a young age, constantly hungry and in need. To him, imposing suffering to achieve a cure was a more tolerable trade-off than for researchers from more comfortable backgrounds.
Section: 2, Chapter: 5
Book: David and Goliath
Author: Malcolm Gladwell
Reversing Obesity Slashes Disease Risk
Bariatric surgery, which reduces weight comparably to the new weight loss drugs, shows the power of substantial weight loss to improve health. In studies of severely obese people, in the 5 years after bariatric surgery:
- Diabetes disappeared in 75% of patients
- Hypertension resolved in 60%
- Risk of dying from diabetes fell 92%
- Risk of cancer death fell 60%
- Risk of heart disease death fell 56%
- Overall mortality risk fell 40%
This suggests if Ozempic can reverse obesity, it may dramatically cut the risk of obesity-related disease and death as well.
Section: 1, Chapter: 4
Book: Magic PIll
Author: Johann Hari
Our Broken Satiety Resurrected By Ozempic
Modern processed food has systematically undermined our natural feeling of satiety (fullness), driving overconsumption and obesity. Now Ozempic and similar drugs act to artificially boost satiety by mimicking natural gut hormones. In essence, an artificial solution (drugs) is correcting an artificial problem (broken satiety caused by processed foods).
"Obesity is an artificial problem in the sense that [we now eat] highly energy-dense foods that normally [don't exist] in nature...And now we've come up with an artificial solution, which is to fix the artificially undermined satiety through an artificially designed drug." - Michael Lowe, hunger and obesity researcher.
He argues we should focus on fixing the unnatural food environment rather than resorting to drugs.
Section: 1, Chapter: 3
Book: Magic PIll
Author: Johann Hari
Obstetric Nightmares - How Gynecology Used The Bodies Of Poor & Minority Women
In the 1840s, Dr. Marion Sims, the "father of gynecology," performed experimental fistula surgeries on enslaved women without anesthesia. One 17-year-old girl, Anarcha, endured 30 surgeries over 4 years. Sims subscribed to the racist belief that Black people didn't feel pain like white people. He later experimented on poor Irish immigrants. The field of gynecology was built on the bodies of society's most vulnerable women, a legacy that continues to impact care disparities today.
Section: 1, Chapter: 2
Book: I'm Sorry for My Loss
Author: Rebecca Little, Colleen Long
Intensive Care Medicine Demonstrates The Staggering Complexity Clinicians Face
Gawande uses intensive care medicine as a prime example of the staggering complexity modern medical professionals must handle. In the US, over 5 million patients are admitted to ICUs each year. For a single patient:
- An average of 178 individual actions are required per day, from administering drugs to suctioning breathing tubes to calibrating machines.
- Doctors must diagnose and treat an endless variety of life-threatening issues across every organ system.
- A single misstep can cascade into disaster. One study found that even in the best ICUs, the average patient experiences almost two errors in care per day.
The complexity strains clinicians to the limits of human ability. 50% of ICU patients end up experiencing a serious complication, and each one decreases the odds of survival sharply. To maintain consistent success, we need systems that enhance expert clinicians' abilities.
Section: 1, Chapter: 1
Book: The Checklist Manifesto
Author: Atul Gawande
The Dissonance Of Ultrasound - Medical Miracle Meets Moral Dilemma
Routine ultrasounds, available since the 1980s, have allowed parents to "meet" their babies earlier than ever before. However, their cultural impact has been mixed.
Ultrasounds operate in both medical and emotional registers simultaneously. They can bring joy or grief, provide vital diagnostic information or be used as political theater (as with pre-abortion "heartbeat checks"). They complicate our understanding of life before birth.
Section: 1, Chapter: 5
Book: I'm Sorry for My Loss
Author: Rebecca Little, Colleen Long
Patients' Changing Priorities as Illness Progresses
Gawande cites research showing that terminally ill patients tend to care less about survival and other traditional medical priorities than about:
- Avoiding suffering
- Strengthening relationships with family and friends
- Maintaining dignity and control over daily life
- Having a sense that their life is complete
But these priorities often go unspoken in a system focused on beating disease. Even facing certain death, only a third of terminal cancer patients report end-of-life discussions with doctors. As a result:
- 40% get chemotherapy in their last two weeks, usually with little benefit
- Two-thirds never enter hospice care or only in the last few days
- Half die in hospitals or nursing homes, often tethered to machines, in pain, with family unprepared
Patients need guidance weighing not just medical options but existential ones, while still supporting their need for hope.
Section: 1, Chapter: 6
Book: Being Mortal
Author: Atul Gawande
The Looming Ozempic Eating Disorder Epidemic
Eating disorder experts are sounding the alarm about Ozempic. They warn the drug's staggering power to curb appetite is "rocket fuel" for those already prone to disordered eating. Key concerns include:
- Anorexia-prone people abusing the drug to achieve dangerous thinness
- Ozempic disrupting hard-won progress in intuitive eating and body acceptance
- Inability to recover natural hunger cues after Ozempic dependence
- Slippery line between "legitimate" medical use and eating disorder abuse
With Ozempic, the age-old pressure for women to shrink themselves now has a new chemical enforcer. As one expert put it: "Dieting is out, while elimination is in." Specialists fear an explosion of life-threatening eating disorders if the drug's use continues unchecked.
Section: 1, Chapter: 10
Book: Magic PIll
Author: Johann Hari
The Dysfunctional Dance Of Doctors And Lawmakers
In states with strict abortion bans post-Roe, medical professionals are struggling to navigate vague legal language and provide appropriate care without risking their licenses or freedom. Common dilemmas include:
- When a pregnancy complication becomes "life-threatening" enough to allow termination
- Whether mental health crises like suicidality qualify for health exceptions
- How imminent the risk of death or disability must be to avoid prosecution
- Lack of clear definitions around terms like "abortion" vs "miscarriage management"
Doctors report delaying care, avoiding certain procedures, or sending patients out of state rather than risk a felony charge. Hospital lawyers have become de facto consultants on routine OB-GYN decisions. Politicians without medical expertise are setting unworkable standards that put pregnant people in danger.
Section: 3, Chapter: 10
Book: I'm Sorry for My Loss
Author: Rebecca Little, Colleen Long
No Current Sleep Medications Produce Naturalistic Sleep
Historically, sleeping pill compounds were blunt instruments that induced a state of sedation and unconsciousness through widespread inhibition of neural activity. Problems with these first-generation sleep drugs included:
- Altered electrical brain wave activity during sleep
- Inhibited restorative slow-wave sleep and dreaming
- "Hangover effect" of morning grogginess and dizziness
Newer "Z-drug" sleeping pills like Ambien are somewhat more selective in their neurochemical effects, but still do not induce truly natural sleep. They tend to:
- Shorten sleep onset latency but do not increase total sleep time
- Leave individuals vulnerable to complex partial amnesia and sleep behaviors
- Cause rebound insomnia when discontinued Current pharmaceuticals are not an adequate long-term solution for sleeplessness. They induce sedation more than naturalistic sleep, and come with significant risks and side effects.
Section: 4, Chapter: 14
Book: Why We Sleep
Author: Matthew Walker
"Nobody dies on my watch"
"This ethos is ingrained in anyone who goes into medicine: nobody dies on my watch. We approached our cancer patients in the same way. But very often it was clear that we were coming in too late, when the disease had already progressed to the point where death was almost inevitable."
Section: 1, Chapter: 1
Book: Outlive
Author: Peter Attia
12 Potential Risks Of Ozempic
The author outlines 12 potential risks associated with Ozempic and similar drugs:
- "Ozempic face" and "Ozempic butt" - rapid weight loss can leave facial skin and buttocks saggy
- Thyroid cancer - some evidence GLP-1 drugs may boost risk by 50-75%
- Pancreatitis - GLP-1 drugs linked to 9x higher risk of sometimes fatal pancreas inflammation
- Stomach paralysis - 3.7x higher risk of digestive tract "freezing"
- Loss of muscle mass, increasing frailty/fall risk in elderly
- Malnutrition from appetite suppression
- Risk of shortages for diabetes patients as weight loss use soars
- Off-brand, possibly contaminated versions proliferating as demand outstrips supply
- Depression/anhedonia if drugs "numb" pleasure from food and life
- Unknown long-term risks that may only emerge years later
- Suicidal thoughts - flagged as a potential risk by European regulators
- Potential developmental harms if used by pregnant women
Section: 1, Chapter: 5
Book: Magic PIll
Author: Johann Hari
The Inadequacy of Nursing Homes in Serving Seniors' Needs
In Chapter 3, Gawande traces the history of nursing homes, which arose as hospitals became unable to house elderly patients needing an institutional level of care. However, rather than being designed to optimize quality of life, nursing homes were modeled on hospitals and operated according to priorities of safety, efficiency and convenience for staff. They become "total institutions" that rob residents of privacy, autonomy and connections to the outside world. Even as conditions have improved, nursing homes remain woefully inadequate in meeting the full range of social and emotional needs of the elderly.
Section: 1, Chapter: 3
Book: Being Mortal
Author: Atul Gawande
Our Cruelest Failure
"Our most cruel failure in how we treat the sick and aged is the failure to recognize that they have priorities beyond merely being safe and living longer."
Section: 1, Chapter: 6
Book: Being Mortal
Author: Atul Gawande
How the Male Default in Medical Research Harms Women
Women have been historically excluded from medical research, with serious consequences for their health.
Clinical trials have long used mostly male participants, assuming that results will apply equally to women. Even in female-prevalent conditions like chronic pain and autoimmune disorders, studies often fail to enroll enough women or analyze sex differences
Textbooks and medical education continue to treat the male body as the default, with women's health seen as a niche topic. As a result, women face higher rates of misdiagnosis, adverse drug reactions and unrelieved symptoms than men The male default in medical knowledge is not just scientifically inaccurate - it is deadly for women.
Section: 4, Chapter: 10
Book: Invisible Women
Author: Caroline Criado Perez
WHO's Safe Surgery Checklist Proves Remarkably Effective Across The Globe
Gawande describes his experience leading the World Health Organization's initiative to reduce surgical complications globally. His team developed a 19-item safe surgery checklist that could be applied in operating rooms worldwide:
- Before anesthesia, to confirm the patient's identity, allergy status, airway risk, etc.
- Before skin incision, to ensure all team members are introduced, antibiotics are given, critical steps reviewed, etc.
- Before the patient leaves, to ensure instrument/sponge counts are complete, specimens are labeled, equipment problems addressed, etc.
Eight hospitals tested the checklist with a combined 4,000 patients. The impact was remarkable:
- Major complications fell 36% on average, from 11% to 7%.
- Deaths fell 47%.
- Infections fell almost 50%.
- The percentage of procedures with missed safety steps fell from 6% to 1%.
Despite the checklist taking only 2 minutes to complete, it significantly improved surgical outcomes in a wide range of settings.
Section: 1, Chapter: 5
Book: The Checklist Manifesto
Author: Atul Gawande
The Problem Of Extreme Complexity In Modern Medicine
In the introduction and first chapter, Gawande outlines the immense complexity that has arisen in medicine and other professional fields in recent decades. With the explosion of knowledge and technology, even routine procedures like surgery now involve coordinating hundreds of critical steps between multiple team members. This complexity exceeds the ability of even the most skilled individuals to get everything right consistently. Gawande states "the volume and complexity of what we know has exceeded our individual ability to deliver its benefits correctly, safely, or reliably. Knowledge has both saved us and burdened us."
Section: 1, Chapter: 1
Book: The Checklist Manifesto
Author: Atul Gawande
The Job of a Doctor
"We imagine our job is to ensure health and survival. But really it is larger than that. It is to enable well-being."
Gawande argues that the job of doctors is more than just ensuring health and survival - it's enabling overall well-being, especially at the end of life. This requires understanding patients' priorities beyond just living longer and working to achieve what matters most to them.
Section: 1, Chapter: 1
Book: Being Mortal
Author: Atul Gawande
2 Defining Properties of Cancer Cells
Cancer cells differ from normal cells in two crucial ways:
- Loss of growth control: Normal cells stop dividing in response to anti-growth signals and when they contact other cells. Cancer cells ignore these brakes and keep proliferating.
- Metastasis: Cancer cells gain the ability to break away from the primary tumor, invade through blood vessels or lymphatics, and establish new tumors in distant organs. This process of metastasis is what makes cancers so lethal.
Understanding these fundamental properties is key to developing targeted therapies. Much research focuses on disrupting cancer's growth signaling pathways and blocking the multi-step process of metastasis.
Section: 2, Chapter: 8
Book: Outlive
Author: Peter Attia
"Heartbeat Bills" Break Doctor-Patient Trust
"The issue, I think, and why confusion is the norm is that the procedures and medications that we use to treat pregnancy loss or miscarriage or fetal loss that someone did not choose are the same as treatments and medications that we use to treat and provide abortion care—which in this case means a pregnancy that ends because someone makes a decision to end it." - Dr. Lisa Harris, ob-gyn and miscarriage specialist
Many patients are shocked to learn the same pills and procedures are used for voluntary abortion and miscarriage. Heartbeat bills, which ban abortion after electrical cardiac activity is detected (around 6 weeks), make no exception for pregnancies that are already miscarrying with a doomed "heartbeat." This forces patients to carry dead or dying tissue, risks sepsis, and shatters trust that doctors are making decisions based on medical best practices rather than shifting political winds.
Section: 3, Chapter: 10
Book: I'm Sorry for My Loss
Author: Rebecca Little, Colleen Long
Why Medicine Needs To Learn From Construction's Approach To Complexity
Gawande contrasts the approach taken to complexity by medicine versus construction. Historically, both relied on the "Master Builder" concept - a single highly-skilled individual who uses their expertise to design and oversee the entire project. But by the mid-20th century, construction projects became immense in scale and complexity and so the construction industry transformed itself. Instead of relying on individual experts, they developed systems to coordinate teams of specialists using standardized procedures and checklists.
Yet in medicine, Gawande argues, we still largely take the "Master Builder" approach, expecting individual physicians to manage immensely complex situations using their memory and individual judgment. Like construction, we need to embrace the power of systems and checklists to support and enhance physician expertise.
Section: 1, Chapter: 3
Book: The Checklist Manifesto
Author: Atul Gawande
The Rise And Fall Of Infectious Diseases
For thousands of years, epidemics were the most important cause of human mortality. The Black Death, which began in the 1330s, killed between 75 million and 200 million people - more than a quarter of the population of Eurasia. In England, 4 out of 10 people died. In the city of Florence, it was 1 out of 2.
However, in the last few decades, we have managed to rein in this threat. Though infectious diseases still kill millions every year, they are no longer the leading cause of death globally. This is a result of improved hygiene, better nutrition, new medicines, and most importantly - a scientific understanding of diseases. As our scientific knowledge grows, we can expect to reduce the impact of infectious diseases even further.
Section: 1, Chapter: 1
Book: Homo Deus
Author: Yuval Noah Harari
The Sordid History Of Dangerous Diet Drugs
Over the past century, a series of "miracle" diet drugs have been hyped, only to later prove disastrous:
- 1930s: DNP, an industrial chemical, caused cataracts, blindness and cooking people from the inside at high doses
- 1940s-1970s: Amphetamines soared in popularity but caused addiction, psychosis and heart damage
- 1990s: Fen-phen was hailed as the "holy grail" but caused heart valve damage and lung disease, killing patients like 27-year-old Mary Linnen. Drug companies hid the risks and had to pay $12 billion in settlements.
This pattern of hype, then harm, raises crucial questions about the safety of Ozempic and whether it will be the next chapter in this dark saga.
Section: 1, Chapter: 5
Book: Magic PIll
Author: Johann Hari
A Doctors' Vital Duty
Gawande argues that a key responsibility of clinicians is to help terminally ill people and families find the courage to navigate the uncharted waters of critical illness and dying well. This means:
- Initiating candid discussions about what to expect as disease progresses
- Providing information, experience, and recommendations to guide difficult choices
- Eliciting goals, priorities, and wishes along with the medical details
- Acknowledging emotions and existential concerns in addition to bodily ones
- Affirming the patient's continuing value and the importance of their priorities
- Marshaling resources to help them achieve meaningful aims with the time that remains
In short, it means being an "expert guide and partner" in shaping the end of life, not just the illness. Defaulting to medical solutions neglects the fuller, harder human needs at this juncture.
Section: 1, Chapter: 8
Book: Being Mortal
Author: Atul Gawande
Ozempic - A Drug That Boosts Self-Control?
Ozempic and similar drugs were initially thought to work solely in the gut to increase satiety. But new research suggests they also act powerfully on the brain, potentially boosting self-control across the board. Key findings include:
- GLP-1 receptors are found extensively in the brain's appetite and reward centers
- Stimulating these receptors in rats reduced cravings for junk food but not healthy chow
- The drugs also reduced cravings for cocaine, alcohol, nicotine in rats - by up to 50%
- In human anecdotes, the drugs reduce addictive urges around alcohol, drugs, gambling
This raises fascinating questions - could obesity drugs help treat addiction and impulsive behavior more broadly? Are we on the cusp of a self-control revolution?
Section: 1, Chapter: 7
Book: Magic PIll
Author: Johann Hari
Use Of Surgical Checklist Spread Rapidly Worldwide
After the results of the WHO surgical checklist study were published, showing a 36% reduction in complications and a 47% reduction in deaths, its use spread rapidly:
- Within 18 months, 2,000 hospitals worldwide had adopted the checklist
- Countries from the UK to Jordan to Thailand mandated the checklist in all hospitals
- 20 U.S. states saw 25% reductions in post-surgical death rates after statewide checklist implementation
The demonstrated power of the checklist to save lives and prevent harm led to enthusiastic embrace by many health systems globally.
Section: 1, Chapter: 7
Book: The Checklist Manifesto
Author: Atul Gawande
The Dark Side Of Numbing Rewards?
If Ozempic works by dialing down the brain's reward centers, that raises troubling possibilities. Could it dull all pleasure and motivation, not just around unhealthy temptations? Might it cause a joyless, depressed mental state called anhedonia? There's no clear proof of this yet, but it's a legitimate concern that needs monitoring, especially given the staggering numbers of people jumping on these drugs. Users should be aware of this potential trade-off. Policymakers and drugmakers must consider the massive implications if tens of millions are walking around with pharmacologically numbed reward systems.
Section: 1, Chapter: 7
Book: Magic PIll
Author: Johann Hari
The Three Rules Of Epidemics
Gladwell introduces the concept of social epidemics - that ideas, products, messages and behaviors spread like viruses. The book will explain the three rules that cause them to "tip" into widespread popularity:
- The Law of the Few: a handful of exceptional people play an outsize role in spreading ideas
- The Stickiness Factor: there are specific ways to make a message memorable and "sticky"
- The Power of Context: epidemics are sensitive to the conditions and circumstances of the times and places they occur
These three elements can cause rapid, dramatic changes in society - often unexpectedly and inexplicably.
Section: 1, Chapter: 1
Book: The Tipping Point
Author: Malcolm Gladwell
Recognizing the Limits of Modern Medicine in Old Age
In the introduction, Gawande laments that medical training taught him little about aging, death and how to help patients navigate the final phases of life. The medical system is geared toward trying to fix health problems, often without appreciating the limits of what doctors can do for elderly, frail patients facing mortality. As people live longer, doctors are often ill-equipped to improve the quality of their patients' waning days.
Section: 1, Chapter: 1
Book: Being Mortal
Author: Atul Gawande
Prozac Can Be A Useful Shortcut
For people who struggle with anxiety, negativity and pessimism due to their inborn temperament (neurochemistry), Haidt believes Prozac and similar antidepressants can be a legitimate shortcut to a healthier mood baseline. While the ideal may be to change one's thinking habits directly through therapy, this is very difficult for some people. Responsible use of medication combined with therapy and other healthy habits can make real change possible that would otherwise be out of reach. It provides a stepping stone to implementing other positive practices.
Section: 1, Chapter: 2
Book: The Happiness Hypothesis
Author: Jonathan Haidt
The Dilemma Of Unregulated "Off-Brand" Ozempic
With demand far exceeding supply of brand-name Ozempic, many are turning to unregulated, possibly dangerous alternatives:
- "Compound" drugs made in dubious labs, often overseas
- Drugs that are completely mislabeled and aren't semaglutide at all
- Drugs obtained without doctor oversight and used at improper doses Experts warn these carry completely unknown risks, from contamination to incorrect ingredients. But for many, it feels like the only accessible option.
This dilemma highlights systemic issues - an obesogenic food environment, sky-high brand-name drug prices, and lack of universal health coverage. Individuals will have to weigh risks carefully, but real solutions require systemic changes.
Section: 1, Chapter: 5
Book: Magic PIll
Author: Johann Hari
The Vicious Cycle of Gender Bias in Heart Disease
Heart disease is often thought of as a "male disease", but it is actually the leading cause of death for women worldwide. However, women with heart disease face a vicious cycle of gender bias in medical care:
- Diagnostic criteria for heart attacks are based on male symptoms, so women's heart attacks are often missed or misdiagnosed as anxiety or indigestion
- Risk calculation scores underestimate women's risk of heart disease, as they are based on male-pattern risk factors and outcomes
- Clinical trials for heart disease treatments often exclude women or fail to analyze sex-specific effects, leading to less evidence-based care for women
- Women are less likely to receive aggressive treatment for heart attacks and heart failure, even when they have the same severity of disease as men
- As a result, women have worse outcomes and higher mortality rates from heart disease than men. Closing the gender data gap in heart health is crucial to saving women's lives.
Section: 4, Chapter: 11
Book: Invisible Women
Author: Caroline Criado Perez
Weighing Risks - Dangerous Obesity Vs Dangerous Drugs
Individuals considering Ozempic have to weigh two sets of serious risks - the well-established dangers of obesity (diabetes, heart disease, cancer, etc) vs the more uncertain risks of powerful new drugs. While these drugs seem to reduce obesity risks, they may carry risks of their own. There are no easy answers, but an honest consideration of this tradeoff is essential.
The author's friend Judy makes the case for taking Ozempic despite its risks and limitations. She compares it to her taking chemotherapy for cancer - an imperfect treatment made necessary by dire circumstances. While in an ideal world we'd solve obesity by fixing the food environment, Judy argues we have to act to save lives now with the tools available, even if they are artificial and risky. The house is already on fire - we can't wait for better building codes before putting it out.
Section: 1, Chapter: 3
Book: Magic PIll
Author: Johann Hari
Tylenol Reduces The Neural Response To Social Rejection
In a remarkable study, researchers found that Tylenol (acetaminophen) reduced the pain of social rejection. Subjects took Tylenol or placebo daily for 3 weeks. Then they played a ball-tossing game while undergoing fMRI brain scans.
During the game, the other "players" (actually computer-controlled) began excluding the participant. For those who took Tylenol, both self-reported hurt feelings and neural responses to rejection in pain-related brain areas were significantly diminished compared to the placebo group. This suggests the brain processes social and physical pain similarly.
Section: 1, Chapter: 4
Book: Subliminal
Author: Leonard Mlodinow
Small Number Of "Super-Prescribers" Write Huge Share Of Opioid Rxs
The opioid epidemic was fueled by a tiny minority of doctors who prescribed huge volumes of the drugs, responding to pharma company marketing. During the height of the crisis, analysis shows that:
- The top 1% of prescribers wrote 49% of opioid prescriptions
- Some wrote over 1,000 times more Rxs than the average doctor
These "super-prescribers" - numbering just a few thousand nationwide - enabled widespread misuse, while most doctors prescribed cautiously. Gladwell argues any successful response to such crises requires identifying and intervening with the most extreme "superspreaders."
Section: 3, Chapter: 9
Book: Revenge of the Tipping Point
Author: Malcolm Gladwell
The Rise Of The "Medicalization Of Miscarriage" In The 19th Century
In the mid-1800s, miscarriages started shifting from a private event managed at home to a medical issue as more poor women delivered in charity hospitals. Fetal specimens collected from these losses were displayed in doctor's offices as proof of their scientific prowess, in contrast to midwives. This "medicalization of miscarriage" coincided with:
- Advancing fields of embryology and anatomy
- Proliferation of all-male medical schools needing cadavers
- Campaigns to outlaw midwifery and abortion
- Nativist fears about falling white birth rates
Women's personal experiences, as revealed in diaries, showed a range of emotions from relief to grief. The notion of miscarriage as a shameful personal failure didn't arise until the 20th century.
Section: 1, Chapter: 2
Book: I'm Sorry for My Loss
Author: Rebecca Little, Colleen Long
Books about Medicine
Medicine
Philosophy
Life
Being Mortal Book Summary
Atul Gawande
In "Being Mortal," surgeon Atul Gawande argues that medicine must shift its focus from simply extending life to enabling well-being, especially for the elderly and terminally ill, by helping patients and families courageously face mortality and define what matters most in their final days.
Health
Feminism
Medicine
Politics
I'm Sorry for My Loss Book Summary
Rebecca Little, Colleen Long
"I'm Sorry for Your Loss" is a groundbreaking exploration of the cultural silence, medical myths, and legal quagmires surrounding miscarriage, stillbirth, and abortion in America, weaving together personal stories, historical context, and expert insights to envision a world where no one has to grieve alone.
Health
Medicine
Science
Nutrition
Magic Pill Book Summary
Johann Hari
In "The Magic Pill," Johann Hari takes readers on a deeply personal and rigorously researched journey into the complex world of obesity and the revolutionary new weight-loss drugs that promise to fight it, grappling with the profound ethical, societal, and scientific questions they raise about our relationship with food, health, and the future of our bodies.