The Dr. Oz Show and "The Doctors" may not be as accurate as you think

View image | gettyimages.com

It seems that most doctors these days cannot go a day without having patients mention Dr. Oz or The Doctors TV show.  Patients will often tell their doctors that they read about a specific test or treatment on one of these shows and would now like to try them.  This can sometimes lead to frustration for the patient and the doctor.  The question is, are these shows correct in their medical recommendations?

The British Medical Journal just released a study that looked at claims made by The Dr. Oz Show and The Doctors.  They randomly selected 40 episodes of each show and evaluated all of the recommendations made in these episodes.  They found that there was evidence for only 54% of the 160 total recommendations in medical literature.  On The Dr. Oz Show, there was no evidence for 39% of claims and 15% of the claims were actually the OPPOSITE of true medical recommendations.  On The Doctors, 63% of the recommendations were supported by medical literature and 14% of the recommendations were again opposite of medical standards.

If those numbers aren't shocking enough, there is one more important number.  The study found that "Disclosure of potential conflicts of interest accompanied 0.4% of recommendations."  This number indicates the honesty of these shows in promoting products that they are affiliated with.  For instance, if Dr. Oz is promoting a new type of herbal tea for weight loss and he is the spokesperson for that tea, he should be disclosing this information.  However, only in 0.4% of the cases was this ever disclosed.  In fact, Dr. Oz was summoned by Congress for his promotion of the green coffee bean diet for these very reasons.

Health is a very sensitive topic because it can be a roller coaster of emotions.  Patients go to their doctors and ask for advice under the assumption that their advice is based on at least some type of evidence.  Often times a doctor may make a recommendation and may tell the patient that there is not enough evidence for this yet but that isolated cases have shown positive results.  This is perfectly acceptable because not every recommendation has a large number of studies to back it up.  However, making claims on national television that are not supported or are at times completely incorrect is unethical.  Be an advocate for your health and form a trustworthy relationship with your doctor.  They would be happy to answer your questions and work with you.  The doctor-patient relationship is a sacred one, not one that can be had with a television set.  So the next time you watch one of these shows, do your own research or ask a doctor with an unbiased opinion.  It may save you a few bucks, and your life!

Think young, live longer

View image | gettyimages.com

At a certain point in life, many people feel they are younger than their actual age.  It turns out this may actually have a relationship with how long they may live down the line.  A recent study in the UK by Dr. Steptoe and Dr. Rippon tracked 6489 patients with an average age of 52.  These individuals were asked how old they felt and the results were classified into 3 groups:  1) those that felt close to their actual age (1 year older to 2 years younger), 2) those who felt more than 1 year older than their actual age, and 3) those that felt 3 or more years younger than their actual age.  This seems rather silly at first, but the results that followed were pretty astonishing.

These three groups were then followed for 99 months.  It turns out that the crude mortality (death) rate was 14.3% in those who felt younger, 18.5% in those who felt about close to their actual age, and 24.6% in those that felt older than their age.  This indicates that those who felt younger had a lower rate of death than those who felt older.  So is this a simple case of mind over matter?  Yes and no.

I think it is important to take a look at why people feel the way they do.  Those that felt younger than their actual age likely had reasons to feel that way.  They may have exercised, had less stress, enjoyed life more, and had a better outlook.  On the other hand, those that felt older may have led a sedentary lifestyle, gotten less sleep, had more stress, etc.  Having said that, the perception that you are younger than your actual age definitely has benefits.  It likely causes you to be more active, eat better, and want better for yourself.  While this sounds logical, it had never before been demonstrated in such a large study.  So the bottom line is: live forever young and it may help you live longer.

Flu vaccine may be less effective this year

View image | gettyimages.com

The Centers of Disease Control (CDC) put out a health advisory to physicians last week in regards to this year's influenza (flu) vaccine.  The advisory stated that the vaccine this year may be less effective than usual because of antigenetically different or "drifter" strains that have surfaced.  What does this mean?  A quick run down on the influenza virus and vaccines in general will make this clear.

The influenza virus has many strains.  These strains are structurally different just slightly, but enough to have their own identity.  It's almost like hair color.  It's still hair, but it can be black, red, brown, or even blue in some teenagers.  In the same way, the influenza virus has differences.  Every year, the flu vaccine is developed in order to provide immunity against the most common strain for that year.  However, this is somewhat of a guessing game.  The flu vaccine is actually developed earlier in the year with only a very small sample size of influenza strains that have been captured.  For that reason, a flu vaccine does not cover every single strain of the flu, only the one(s) that we predict will be the most common this year.

That takes us back to this year's flu vaccine.  This year it was predicted that a specific type of H3N2 strain of the flu would be the most common.  So they developed the vaccine that was appropriate.  Now they have discovered that as many as 50% of the strains in the population may be different than the strain that the flu vaccine covers.  The strain is still H3N2, but it's like instead of having brown hair, you've thrown in red highlights.  This subtle change is enough that the body will not be able to form antibodies to it and it can still lead to an infection.

The flu vaccine is never perfect because there are so many different strains and it is almost impossible to protect all of them.  Even if the flu vaccine covers 100% of the most common strain for the year, you can still get the flu from uncommon strains.  So the question is, do we vaccinate?  The recommendation from the CDC is still to receive the flu vaccine because protecting against 50% of the strains is better than not protecting against any.  What we will see though is that the flu season this year may be pretty bad in most parts of the country and more people will need anti-viral medications at the first onset of the flu.  So remember to get your flu shot this year, just be aware that a brunette with red highlights may still spoil the party.

Have you or will you get a flu shot this year?

Yes

No

Undecided

create a poll

CDC says circumcision may be beneficial

Circumcision is an age old practice throughout the world and has become common practice in the  United States as well.  It is a procedure in which excessive foreskin from a newborn is surgically removed at birth.  The thought is that removing the skin prevents germs from causing infections as a child and as an adult.

How is it done?  Within a couple days of birth, a newborn is given sugar water to suck on and remain distracted.  Then a small needle is used to inject numbing medicine at the base of the penis to make the entire penis numb.  This works very well if done correctly.  A special tool is then used to protect the penis and cut off the excess skin.  The entire procedure takes 10 to 20 minutes to complete.

Anti-circumcision groups have said that this practice is inhumane and painful to a newborn.  In reality, how much more painful is this compared to blood draws and vaccines?  The most painful part is the injection for numbing, but this is again no different than shots and needles used to draw blood.  The other question was, is it effective in preventing infections?

Today the CDC released guidelines that show circumcision can:

• Cut a man's risk of getting HIV from an infected female by 50 to 60 percent
• Reduce the risk of herpes and HPV by 30 percent or more
• Lower the odds of urinary tract infections in infancy and penile cancer in adulthood

These are pretty significant points that the CDC is making.  However, opposition groups will surely make a lot of noise to refute this.  Personally, I have seen many patients that wish they were circumcised.  Some patients get fungal infections frequently due to moisture, some with those infections mentioned by the CDC.  In the end, every parent has a choice to make and nobody can fault them for their decision in either direction.  With these new facts, it will also be interesting to see if insurance companies will have to cover the procedure as a standard of care.  If this happens, expect more individuals to make the choice to circumcise.