Do Missing Child Posters Work?

On 6/7/12 The Today Show ran a story about missing children. They ran an experiment to see what people would do if they saw posters of a missing child, then actually saw the child. Working in conjunction with police and hidden cameras, they used a child actor, accompanied by a man acting brusquely. A number of people showed concern after seeing the poster then the child, but most people did not call the police. Their conclusion was that we need to pay more attention. But I think they drew the wrong conclusion. We are bombarded everyday with all kinds of visual information. Paying attention does not always suffice, as evidenced by this video.

I think a better conclusion to their study was that we need to find better ways to encourage people to act. People may not call because they are afraid they may be wrong, they fear getting involve, or for other reasons. I’d suggest doing some psychology experiments with posters displaying different messages: 1)If you see this girl, call 911, 2)If you think you saw this girl, but you’re not sure, call 911, 3)Imagine this was your daughter, what would you want people to do if they thought they recognized her?, etc.

It’s heart wrenching to see missing children posters. Perhaps a better understanding of what keeps people from following through when they identify one, will help save more.

Exam Room Miscommunication

In school were you ever challenged to explain to someone how to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich using words only? It’s harder than it sounds. Similarly it’s sometimes difficult to explain to a patient what I want them to do, at times to humorous effect. If you see yourself in any of the examples below, don’t take offense. I’m laughing with you, not at you!

As I bring an exam light up to check patient’s eyes, they often open their mouth, thinking I want to check their throat.

When checking guys for hernias I tell them to turn their head and cough. Men often turn their head to the left when I check their right side, then turn to the right when I check the left. The only purpose of having them turn their head is to not cough on me! Before doing this part of the exam I tell them to drop their drawers so I can check them for a hernia. I like to then slide forward the 2-3 feet on my stool, that has rollers, but guys often take a step towards me first, then I have to make sure I don’t butt heads when they naturally bend to drop their underwear. I also like to go to their right side so I don’t have to bend my wrist back, but in an attempt to be helpful, they often turn to the right to face me, so I have to slide farther to the side, thus doing a hernia check dance.

When I have people sit up on the exam table, they often start to lay down. I just want them to sit first since I like to examine their neck and listen to their lungs first. If not doing a full physical, I usually just pull up the shirt to listen to their lungs from the back side. When I then have them lay down, patients usually reflexively pull their shirt back down, but then I have to lift it back up to listen to their heart.

When patients have pain, such as in their abdomen, I’ll ask them to tell me if it hurts as I press in various areas. In an attempt to be helpful, patients off start pushing on their stomach themselves to try to find the tender areas, and sometimes will spend a fair amount of time doing so. I usually joke that they can examine themselves on their own time, but now it’s my turn.

Ask the Doc: Human Growth Hormone

On this site I’m unable to answer patient specific questions, but as time permits, may answer questions of a general interest.

Question:

I have been working out with a personal trainer with weight training and have been doing running on my own. I have been getting much stronger although I haven’t lost much weight. I asked the trainer why it takes longer to recover from a strenuous session at age 66 than it did when I was younger. She said that as we get older we have very little HGH in our system and that a small dose of HGH would help me recover quicker and she could push me harder. Would a small dose of HGH be beneficial for training? I know that testosterone creams etc. have a lot of side effects which are not good but how about HGH?

Answer:

Human Growth Hormone, or HGH, is a hormone that regulates growth, and decreases with age, as well as from obesity. It is one of many factors why, all other things equal,  66-year-olds aren’t as strong or fast, or recover as quickly, as when they were younger. With age lung function gradually declines, the cardiovascular system is less robust, testosterone levels fall in men, etc. In one of his movies, Warren Miller said something like, “If a 40-year-old says they sky as well as when they were 20, they are either lying, or they weren’t very good when they were 20!”

Human Growth Hormone is only approved by the FDA in limited circumstances, not including the normal decline with aging, and it’s expensive. It probably does build muscle, and for this reason is banned by the Olympics and some other sports institutions. It also has potential side effects.

Getting adequate sleep, regular exercise, eating healthy, and managing stress, are the most important things you can do to boost your growth hormone and improve your endurance.

Cruise Health

As I wrote about last time, I attended the ACP Internal Medicine 2012 meeting in New Orleans. Afterwards my wife and I took a cruise on the Carnival Conquest ship that left from New Orleans and stopped at the ports of Cozumel, Jamaica and Grand Caymen.

On the first day of the cruise there is a mandatory safety briefing on deck where they discuss such things as how to board the lifeboats in the event of an emergency. The announcer appropriately discussed the importance of washing hands, but incorrectly said, “the hotter the better.” When it comes to washing your hands, cold water works as well as hot water, except that if it’s cold, people won’t wash their hands as long because it’s uncomfortable. The same is true if the water is too hot. Thus warm water is recommended.

We took an excursion to see the Mayan ruins of Tulum near Cozumel, Mexico. Before leaving the ship we were warned not drink the local water. Near the ruins in a tourist shopping center I was tempted to eat at a Häagen-Dazs ice cream stand. I figured the ice cream was safe, but I worried about the water used to clean the scoops. It was probably safe, but I didn’t want to take a chance.

Obesity is a common problem in the United States and elsewhere, and is particularly a problem in the South. This was reflected in the passengers having embarked in New Orleans. Although people understandably eat excessively on a cruise, to which I’ll take the 5th Amendment, there are opportunities to do some healthy things on a cruise. I took advantage of their gym and exercised every day, though few did. Most of the time half the people exercising were crew members.

While looking for something else, I happened to walk by an ongoing talk on Secrets To A Flatter Stomach. I sat down and listened. The speaker was a personal trainer, certified by the Australian Institute of Fitness. He was buff, which automatically makes one feel he knows what he’s talking about. In fact his advice on exercise and nutrition was sound, and he did a great job explaining things. He then talked about detox and the need to get rid of toxic water trapped around fat. They invited people to sign up for a 1 hour personal analysis and consultation at a 2 for 1 special of $35. I spoke with the speaker’s colleague, a man from Scotland, and also buff. I asked if they would be repeating the lecture as I thought my wife would enjoy hearing it. He said he would cover the same material at the consultation, and more, and do an analysis with equipment not available in the United States (this model is available in the US and seems close to the 310e V8.0 they used). I was skeptical about the detox, but the cost was pretty low so I signed up.

At our meeting he first had us fill out questionnaires about our health, including what medications we were taking and why. I purposely didn’t answer the question about occupation, but admitted I was a physician when he later asked. He then went on to tell me he had a BSC degree in Sports Science from the University of West of Scotland, which he said was about equivalent to a physician in the United States. It’s not. He ran a bio-electrical impedance test attaching an electrode to the ankle and wrist. Running a very low voltage and current, that you cannot feel, through the body, it calculates body fat, lean body weight, body water and metabolic rate. The calculations require the body weight, which he asked about, but did not measure (towards the end of a cruise the actual weight is likely to be significantly higher than the stated weight!). Although the equipment he used may not be available in the US, it’s similar to the Tanita bathroom scale I have at home. My device calculates body fat, though you have to do your own calculations to derive the other numbers, and the results he obtained were very similar to my results at home.

He said I needed to lose 6.1 lbs of fat, and admitted I was among the healthiest he had tested on the cruise, but that I also had  12.5 lbs of toxic water to remove. According to his handout, that put me in the level of, “High levels of accumulative toxic waste circulating the cells of the body. Damage to Liver and Kidneys apparent. Weight gain is inevitable. Degeneration of joints and muscle tissue. High Blood Pressure / High cholesterol.” He recommended a 3 month detox program for $300. Most people, “needed” a 6 month program, which consisted of two 3 month cycles, and some needed a year’s worth. They would then do a 3 month cycle every few years or so depending, less often if following a healthy diet. My credit card would be charged that day, and the product shipped the next, so we could get started on it as soon as we returned home. The products are supposed to cleans the digestive tract, kidneys and liver. They contain various herbal products, algae, plantain seeds for fiber, and a low dose thyroid product of some sort, and one is also supposed to eat alkaline forming foods. I was naturally skeptical. He claimed that his analysis showed that I needed detoxification because I had problems with my cholesterol. He said that with his device he didn’t need to do blood tests. How did he know about my cholesterol problem? Because I told him! Actually it’s not that much of a problem, but I try to be proactive.

He said that evening there would be a nutrition class, but only for those who signed up. He encouraged me to sign up for the detox, but said he wasn’t worried because they get 60 people per week to sign up. While we were talking he was interrupted by someone asking if a person could be signed up for a consultation, even though his schedule was full.  He said he would let us think about it while he took care of something. The class was later held in the gym in a glass walled off section. I counted 19 attendees. To show the legitimacy of the program, he said his company contracts with Carnival and other cruise lines to offer the program, and has been in business for years. I asked for clinical study references to support detoxification. He said he could give it to me, but not until after I signed up. I declined.

If you take a cruise, try to get in some exercise, if nothing more than some extra walking. I advise you to save your money and not spend it on a detox program, and don’t forget your sunscreen.

American College of Physicians Internal Medicine 2012

I recently attended the American College of Physicians (ACP) Internal Medicine 2012 annual meeting, held this year in New Orleans. It’s a very large meeting with thousands of physicians attending. At any one time there are dozens of courses one can attend. I try to balance learning about subjects I have a particular interest in, with those that I’m less interested, and consequently have more to learn.

Among the talks I attended was a talk on genetics issues in internal medicine by Matthew Taylor, MD, PhD.  He discussed an interesting case of a 19-year-old woman who had been in good health who had lifted weights, used a hot tub then went swimming in a lap pool and was found unresponsive in 4 feet of water in 1998. She was resuscitated but died in the hospital 12 days later. An EKG done during the hospitalization was mildly abnormal with a prolonged QT interval. This was dismissed by most cardiologists as probably or not significant when asked to review the EKG. A subsequent genetic analysis of autopsy material revealed a genetic condition associated with a prolonged QT interval, which itself increases the risk of sudden death due to an arrhythmia. Further testing showed her sister, mother and maternal grandfather were found to have the same genetic condition. Most physicians would not even consider a genetic condition as the cause of a drowning, yet making the diagnosis may prevent family members from dying due to an arrhythmia with appropriate treatment.

I attended a talk by Holly Holmes, MD on discontinuing medications. It’s much easier to start a medicine than to stop one, yet medications carry financial costs and may cause side effects. She went over some cases and discussed strategies to decrease medication use. Amusingly she pointed out that not only did she not have any financial disclosures that might cause a conflict of interest, but that no pharmaceutical company would want to pay her to recommend stopping medications!

Besides the vast number of courses, there were also hundreds of vendors from pharmaceutical companies discussing new medications, companies selling books, equipment, massage chairs and gluten free products, and many just providing free information. There were recruiters looking for doctors, and more.

There was also the opportunity to interact with colleagues from around the world. I spoke with some physicians in Canada, and one from Saudi Arabia. I usually attend the ACP national meetings every few years and always come away having learning things that will help my patients, and feeling more invigorated about my profession.

Testing Tribulations

When I was an internal medicine resident, one of my staff attending’s, Dr. Charles Reasner, used to ask, “What is the indication for ordering a TSH?” This is a test of thyroid function (thyroid stimulating hormone), and he was asking what reasons should one order the test. His answer was to order it if you think about it. An overactive (hyperthyroidism) or under-active  (hypothyroidism) thyroid can cause many different kinds of symptoms, treatment is relatively easy, and the test is inexpensive. Thus he said if it occurred to you to order the test, then you should do so.

Unfortunately the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS)does not allow us to order tests based on intuition, even though numerous studies have shown that people often make their best decisions based on reasons they can’t explain. When a quarterback such as Peyton Manning throws a football to a receiver, he first has to make the decision what to do very quickly, while a 300 pound lineman is bearing down on him. Based on prior experience he can quickly survey the field and make a decision where to throw the ball before he could make a decision based on a logical analysis. He might not be able to explain exactly why he did something, but his skill and training contributed to making the right decision seemingly without thinking.

When physicians order a test, we have to associate a diagnosis. Presumably the main purpose is to prevent wasting money for ordering tests. Although there is no benefit in ordering a PSA test for a diagnosis of glaucoma, for example, this only catches errors in the test ordered or diagnoses associated, which probably doesn’t happen often. It’s a real problem though for ordering a vitamin D level.

Medicare no longer covers a screening test for vitamin D, even though perhaps 85% of patients in the United States are deficient, treatment is cheap, and it probably saves money in the long run. Once a patient is diagnosed with osteoporosis then a level is covered, but that’s too late. Plus in men a screening bone density test is not covered, so it’s a Catch-22 situation.

At least if not that expensive, physicians should be able to order labs because they think of them. Insurance companies and the government should trust our intuition.

Drug Shortages and the Joint Commission Stance

Periodically there have been drug shortages in the United States, which comes as a surprise to many. There are a number of reasons for this.

Recently one of my company’s pharmacists informed the physicians in my group of a nationwide shortage of bupivicaine and lidocaine, medications used for anesthesia, similar to what your dentist may give you before drilling your tooth.

I suggested that maybe we should be allowed to use such products past the expiration date until the shortage was resolved. They replied that they can’t do that because of Joint Commission standards.

So I wrote to the Joint Commission and eventually spoke with a nurse there. Their position was that it’s not safe to use a drug past its expiration date and they were just following guidelines by the Food and Drug Administration and others. I said that although I would generally agree that it is preferable not to use expired medications, in the case of shortages that may not be the case.

Imagine you have a life threatening infection with a bacterial organism resistant to all antibiotics but one, and there is a shortage of that antibiotic. In fact the hospital you are in has a box of antibiotics that expires at midnight tonight. They can give you only one dose then will have to throw away the rest, even though antibiotics would normally be given for 10 days and they don’t know when they will be able to get more.

Are you really safer as a result of throwing away the rest of the vials of the only antibiotic to treat your infection? In the interest of fair and balanced discussion I admit that I’ve eaten tuna fish after the date stamped on the can. But seriously, the risk of a complication from a slightly outdated medication is almost non-existent, and certainly less than the risk of going without.

Physicians going on medical missions to third world countries used to bring with them expired medications to administer to patients, the thought being that they were safe and better than nothing. Due to liability concerns, that pretty much doesn’t happen anymore, a fact said Joint Commission nurse brought up. In fact a 1997 article in the New England Journal of Medicine pointed out that at least half of the drugs donated to the Bosnian conflict were unusable because they had expired, and said pharmaceutical companies may have dumped the medications to get tax write offs and avoid disposal costs. That may have been the case, and could be addressed by not granting write offs for expired drugs, but that doesn’t mean they couldn’t have safely used the medications.

A 1979 law required pharmaceutical companies to give a date they guarantee the full potency and safety of a drug. They stand to gain financially when customers throw away good medicine because it has, “expired”. In fact the military conducted a study to see if they could extend how long they keep medications in order to cut back on the cost of destroying and replacing a billion dollars of inventory every 2-3 years. They found that 90% of the more than 100 drugs they tested were safe and effective up to 15 years after the expiration date. This program is now used by the Department of Defense, the Department of Veteran Affairs, the US Postal Service and the Bureau of Federal Prisons.

The nurse at the Joint Commission pointed out that I could decide whether the risk was warranted to use an expired drug. But in reality, I don’t get the chance to even discuss it with a patient to give them a choice. Hospitals risk a large financial penalty, and potentially even being shut down, for violating Joint Commission standards. Those drugs are going to go in the trash the day before they expire, shortage or no shortage.

I think the Joint Commission should modify their standards. At the least it should say that drugs should not be used after the expiration date unless their are shortages, or delivery problems due to disaster, in which case the medications should only be used if there are not suitable alternatives, and it’s felt that the benefits exceed the risks.

Mega Millions – What Would I Do?

Copyright (c) 123RF Stock PhotosWhen I walked into work this morning, our referral clerk called my name and asked if I wanted to buy a lottery ticket. The Mega Millions lottery had an estimated $640 million dollar jackpot and everyone else in the clinic had chipped in $3 to an office pool. I hesitated on principal as such lotteries are a losing bet. With the jackpot size and potential gain, it was not as big of a losing bet, at least, as usual.

She pointed out that if I didn’t participate, I might be the only one to show up for work on Monday. “You’d quit your job if you won?” I asked. “Well, I’d give my two week notice,” she replied. For the first time in my life, I handed over my hard earned money for a lottery ticket.

My definition of the ultimate in job satisfaction is whether one would keep one’s job after winning a large lottery. Steve Job, Bill Gates, Warren Buffet and many others could have quit their jobs a long time ago, but did not do so because they enjoyed working.

I wouldn’t retire if I won the lottery because I enjoy practicing medicine. But I would change how I work. I would see less patients per day and spend more time with each one. I’d take more vacation, and pay someone to do the paperwork.

So if I win then I won’t have to write this blog anymore. Wait a minute, I’m not getting paid for this in any case.  So win or lose, I’ll keep writing.

Ask the Doc: Statins and Exercise

On this site I’m unable to answer patient specific questions, but as time permits, may answer questions of a general interest.

Question:

Let me know what you think of this article. Strenuous exercise has not seemed to bother me taking Lipitor 20 mg for several years. However, I am wondering about the effects on my muscles as I am currently ramping up exercise both running and weight lifting. Will enough exercise improve my cholesterol level enough to quit taking Lipitor? Long term effects of Lipitor? I don’t know.
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/03/14/do-statins-make-it-tough-to-exercise/

Answer:

As the article points out, about 10% of people may experience muscle aches from taking statin medications such as Lipitor. It referenced an article that showed that rats were not able to exercise as long if taking atorvastatin (Lipitor), and they showed increased oxidative stress and problems with mitochondria, cell’s powerhouses.

You should always be careful when evaluating animal studies, as they may not apply to humans. Given other data, however, it would not be surprising if there was a similar problem in people who exercise and take statins.

The questions is what to do. As with most medications, one needs to balance the risks versus the benefits. Statins clearly save lives, but the degree of benefit depends on one’s risk. The more cardiovascular risk factors one has (hypertension, diabetes, hyperlipidemia (high cholesterol), smoking, family history, etc.), the more one has to gain from medication, and the more likely I would recommend patients tolerate side effects if we couldn’t come up with a better option. For someone at relatively low risk, a statin may not be worth taking if causing side effects.

I certainly always advocate diet and exercise to manage problems with cholesterol and triglycerides (fats). The problem is that for most people, it’s easier said than done, and people either just don’t make sufficient changes, or they don’t maintain them. Also for some people, their genetics are just too strong. With the wrong genes you may have a high cholesterol despite being thin, eating vegetarian, and exercising regularly.

Another option is to take coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10) or ubiquinone if you are taking a statin. It’s known that statins decrease this enzyme in the mitochondria and it may be the reason statins cause muscle pain and weakness. It is not proven to work, though the supplements appear to be safe. A study in Japan showed that pitavastatin (Livalo) did not decrease coenzyme Q10 nearly as much as atorvastatin (Lipitor). Whether it causes less muscle problems is unknown at this time.

For patients that I feel need medications to lower their cholesterol, yet are unable to tolerate a statin, or refuse to take one, I offer other alternatives, such as niacin (Niaspan, Endur-Acin, Slo-Niacin), colesevelam (WelChol) or ezetimibe (Zetia). There are pros and cons for each option. Sometimes people tolerate one statin, and not another, or may do better with a combination of a low dose statin and another agent.

So there’s no easy answer to your question. Different patients have different solutions.

Waiting Times and the Misery Index

Last month the Wall Street Journal ran an article, called the Wait-Time-Misery Index, about how frustrated people get waiting for deliveries or service repairs at home. Like when you need the cable company to come out and they say they will be there between 9:00 am and 1:00 pm. You have errands to run but your stuck. Companies such as General Electric and Verizon have been working to get the time windows from 4 hours down to 2 hours.

I understand the frustration, but when it comes to timely delivery (no puns about obstetrics here), doctors are held to a much higher standard. Patients often get upset or walkout if I’m an hour late, and sometime even if it’s only 15 minutes. The companies have difficulty delivering in a short time window because there are so many variables that they can’t always predict. They may get tied up in traffic, be delayed by weather, or a 30 minute service call turns in to a 2 hour one. But just like the companies, doctors have similar issues. A patient scheduled for a 15 minute appointment may have an hour’s worth of problems, and rescheduling isn’t an option. Or we may get unscheduled calls when a patient of ours shows up in the emergency room, or maybe a lab test comes back that demands our immediate attention. Just maybe the doctor themselves are slower than usual because they have a cold or were awakened 3 times the night before while on call.

I sympathize with patients frustration when I run late, and get frustrated myself because it means longer hours for me too, but I assure you that if I’m running late, it’s not because I’ve been playing golf.