Tag: health care

There are fashions in medicine just as much as there are fashions in clothes

Badly conceived fashions in clothes may embarrass you, but ill-conceived fashions in medicine may kill you. And the fashions in medicine have, by and large, as much scientific validity as the fashions in the rag trade.

The most obvious fashions in medicine relate to treatments. For example, a couple of centuries ago, enemas, purges and bleedings were all the rage. In 17th century France, Louis XIII had 212 enemas, 215 purges and 47 bleedings in a single year. The Canon of Troyes is reputed to have had a total of 2,190 enemas in a two-year period; how he found time to do anything else is difficult to imagine. By the mid-19th century, enemas were a little last year’s style and bleeding was the in-thing. Patients would totter into their doctor’s surgery, sit down, tuck up their sleeves and ask the doctor to “draw me a pint of blood.” Bleeding was the universal cure, recommended for most symptoms and ailments. Feeling a little under the weather? A little light bleeding should soon put you to rights. Constant headaches? We’ll soon have that sorted for you, sir. Just roll up your sleeve. Bit of trouble down below, madam? Not to worry. Slip off your frock and hold your arm out.

A little later, in the 19th century, doctors put their lancets away and started recommending alcohol as the new panacea. Brandy was the favoured remedy in the doctor’s pharmacopoeia. People took it for almost everything. And when patients developed delirium tremens, the recommended treatment was more alcohol. If things got so bad that the brandy didn’t work, doctors added a little opium. Those were the days to be ill. Hypochondriacs must have had a wonderful time.

In the years from the 1930’s onwards, removing tonsils became the fashionable treatment. Tonsils were removed from between a half and three-quarters of all children in the 1930’s. This often useless and unnecessary (and always potentially hazardous) operation is less commonly performed these days, but in the 1970’s over a million such operations were done every year in Britain alone. Doctors used to rip out tonsils on the kitchen table and toss them to the dog. Between 200 and 300 deaths a year were caused by the operation. One suspects that few, if any, of those unfortunate children would have died from tonsillitis.

Diseases go in cycles, too. In the early 19th century, the fashionable diagnosis was “inflammation.” Then, when patients and doctors tired of that, the new keyword was “debility.” Doctors didn’t know terribly much and so their diagnoses, like their treatments, tended to be rather general.

These days, patients expect more specific diagnoses and doctors are invariably happy to oblige.

One year, everyone will be suffering from asthma. It will be the disease of the moment, just as the mini skirt or ripped jeans may drift mysteriously in and out of fashion. Another year, arthritis will be the fashionable disease as a drug company persuades journalists to write articles extolling the virtues (and disguising the vices) of its latest product. The cycle is a relatively simple one. The drug company with a new and profitable product to sell (usually designed for some long-term – and therefore immensely profitable – disorder) will send teams of well-trained representatives around to talk to family physicians, give them presents and take them out for expensive luncheons. The sales representatives will be equipped with information showing that the disorder in question is rapidly reaching epidemic proportions, lists of warning symptoms for the doctor to watch out for and information about the drug company’s new solution to the problem. Because the product will be new to the market, there will probably be very little evidence available about side effects and the sales representative will be able to accurately describe the drug as extremely “safe.” Older drugs, well-tried, possibly effective and probably safer than the new replacement, will be discarded as out-of-date. After all, their side effects will, over the years, have been well-documented.

There are even non-existent diseases which seem to me, and, I suspect, a growing number of other physicians, to have been originally invented in order to find a use for expensive medicinal compounds (and enthusiastically welcomed by parents who find the fictitious disease to be a handy and enormously useful explanation for bad behaviour).

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Woman visiting ER for back pain shocked after doctor suggests EUTHANASIA: ‘Last thing on my mind’

A Canadian woman who went to the emergency room with back pain said she was left shocked when a doctor immediately floated the suggestion of euthanasia. 

Miriam Lancaster, 84, was rushed to Vancouver General Hospital last April with a fractured sacrum, a break at the base of the spine relatively frequent in elderly people.

Lancaster said she was stunned by the doctors’ immediate suggestion upon examination.

‘I was approached by a young lady doctor whose very first words out of her mouth is we would like to offer you [euthanasia],’ Lancaster said in a video posted on X.

The retired piano teacher said she just wanted to find out why she was in pain and had never considered a medically-assisted death.

‘That was the last thing on my mind,’ Lancaster added. ‘I did not want to die.’

She said that she had been most upset by the ‘timing’ of the request.

‘A patient is already upset and disoriented and wishing they weren’t there,’ she told the National Post. ‘To give them a decision, a life-terminating decision, when they are in this condition, that’s what I object to.’

Lancaster added that she was not thinking about ‘cashing my chips,’ which her daughter agreed with.

‘To be offered [euthanasia] right off the bat for a non-life-threatening condition? It was a matter of pain management,’ she said. ‘Just because someone is 84 does not mean they’re ready to go on the scrap heap of life.’

She called the hospital’s treatment of her mother an ‘insult to seniors.’

Euthanasia is legal in Canada for those who are 18 and over, able to make decisions for themselves and have a ‘grievous and irremediable medical condition.’

That does not mean a fatal or terminal condition, but rather ‘an advanced state of decline that cannot be reversed’ or ‘unbearable physical or mental suffering.’

There have been 76,475 medically assisted deaths in the country since euthanasia was legalized in 2016, per the Canadian government.

Weaver said religious motives prevented her from accepting euthanasia, which is also known as medical aid in dying (MAID).

‘My mother and I are practicing Catholics,’ she said. ‘We would never accept MAID under any circumstances.’

Lancaster’s daughter claimed that other treatment options were only suggested after euthanasia was firmly rejected.

‘The doctor said, “Well, you could get rehab, but it will be a long road, and it will be very difficult,”‘ Weaver said.

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DOJ Opens Probes Into Possible Race Discrimination at 3 Medical Schools

The Department of Justice (DOJ) has initiated investigations into possible race discrimination in the admissions processes of three U.S. medical schools.

The DOJ sent letters to the medical schools of Stanford University, Ohio State University, and the University of California—San Diego, notifying them of the federal probes. Harmeet Dhillon, assistant attorney general for the DOJ’s civil rights division, confirmed the probes in a post on X on March 26.

In the letters, the DOJ requested documents on the schools’ admissions policies to determine how race is considered in evaluating applicants, along with applicant-level admissions data, including standardized test scores, extracurricular activities, admission outcomes, and demographics.

Stanford School of Medicine told The Epoch Times by email that it was reviewing the DOJ’s letter and “will respond appropriately.”

“Stanford School of Medicine prohibits unlawful discrimination on the basis of race, color, national or ethnic origin, or any other characteristics protected by applicable law,” the school’s spokesperson said.

A spokesperson for Ohio State University also said the school will respond appropriately to the DOJ’s letter and affirmed its compliance with state and federal regulations and legal rulings governing admissions policies.

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Portugal Bans Irreversible Sex Change Treatments for Minors and Restores Clinical Criteria in Gender Identity

The Portuguese Parliament has approved in first reading several bills introduced by the Social Democratic Party (PSD), the CDS-PP, and the sovereigntist CHEGA party that substantially modify the gender identity regulations in force since 2018.

The central measure establishes a strict prohibition on puberty blockers and hormonal treatments for any minor under 18 years of age, while requiring the reinstatement of mandatory clinical reports—prepared by psychologists and physicians—for any change in registered name and sex, thereby eliminating the pure self-determination allowed by the previous law.

This reform, driven by the center-right coalition and strongly supported by CHEGA, returns the legal framework to scientific and medical criteria similar to those of the 2011 legislation, prioritizing the protection of childhood against irreversible decisions.

According to the promoters, including CHEGA’s parliamentary leader Pedro Pinto, “changing sex before the age of 18 is inconceivable,” and the measure responds to consultations with parents’ associations and medical professionals, reinforcing the role of families in decisions of this magnitude.

The defenders of the law consider it a measure for the protection of childhood and the reinforcement of the role of families in this type of decisions.The 2018 law, which made Portugal one of Europe’s pioneering countries in allowing gender change by mere personal will without medical requirements, is partially repealed in its most controversial aspects.

Now, legal identity is once again based on clinical evidence and not solely on subjective self-determination. For minors, any hormonal intervention or puberty suppression is prohibited, thus avoiding treatments that, according to accumulated scientific evidence in several European countries, can cause permanent consequences in bone, cardiovascular, and psychological development.

This decision is set within a European context of growing prudence. Countries such as the United Kingdom, Sweden, and Finland have already restricted or suspended these protocols for minors following independent reviews that questioned their long-term safety and efficacy.

In Portugal, the parliamentary right—including the governing formation—has acted responsibly in the face of the gender ideology that for years imposed changes without deep debate or safeguards.

The approval, with 151 votes in favor and 79 against, marks a clear turning point in Portuguese politics and demonstrates that, when the best interests of the child are prioritized, reason and science prevail over ideological dogmas.

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A Mysterious Ancient Egyptian Text Reveals Evidence of Advanced Medicine 1000 Years Earlier Than Once Thought

It was 1862, and the American Egyptologist Edwin Smith had just made a fascinating discovery in Luxor, Egypt, the site of ancient Thebes.

This was no archaeological mystery unearthed from the country’s time-worn sands, however. Instead, Smith’s acquisition came from an Egyptian dealer, Mustafa Agha, who sold him an unusual papyrus that seemed to describe medical practices from Egypt’s Second Intermediate Period.

Smith kept the papyrus until his death in 1906, largely unaware of its contents, as his understanding of hieratic was limited and he was unable to translate it. After Smith’s passing, many of the items in his collection, including the mysterious papyrus, were given to the New York Historical Society by his daughter, where they quietly remained for several more years.

It wasn’t until 1920 that the ancient treatise came to the attention of the classical archaeologist and Egyptologist Caroline Ransom Williams, who brought it to the attention of noted archaeologist James Henry Breasted.

“The papyrus is probably the most valuable one owned by the Society,” Williams wrote to Breasted at the time, “and I am ready to waive my interest in it, in the hope that it may be published sooner and better than I could do it.” Recognized as the first chair in Egyptology and Oriental History in the United States at the University of Chicago, Breasted was immediately fascinated by the ancient text and set to work deciphering it.

One decade later, Breasted had finally completed the task of interpreting the obscure ancient document in its entirety, a translation of which was published in 1930. The result was a fundamental shift in our understanding of the ancient history of medical science and its early beginnings, revealing evidence for advanced medical knowledge in ancient Egypt as much as 1000 years before what scholars had commonly accepted at the time.

The Edwin Smith Papyrus: Obscure Origins and a Cliffhanger Ending

The document, known today as the Edwin Smith Papyrus, was cut into one-column pages at some point in the last century. It features Egyptian hieratic written in ink of two different colors: most of the text is black, while some portions with addenda to the primary document appear in red.

Little is known about the author of the papyrus, although scholars agree that the version that exists today is likely the work of a single scholar, and probably also represents a copy of an even older manuscript from Egypt’s Old Kingdom.

Several clues point to this possibility: despite the document’s physical age, scholars note the inclusion of archaic forms of Egyptian words and grammar, suggesting the papyrus is a copy of a much earlier document. Equally tantalizing is that the document ends in mid-sentence, suggesting that, in addition to being a copy, the surviving version is an incomplete work.

From Ancient Magic to Medical Science

Most intriguing of all is the information the document contains. Outlined in an illustrated survey of 48 case histories, the Edwin Smith Papyrus presents a remarkable ancient Egyptian perspective on various injuries and their treatments. Each case details a different region of the body and/or a specific organ and discusses each injury systematically, even including references to the original doctor’s notes on ailments “which I will treat,” suggesting a physician logging their diagnoses of conditions afflicting their patients.

From descriptions of human anatomy to treatments for bleeding, curing infections, and closing wounds, the medical knowledge outlined in the papyrus is remarkably advanced for the period in which it is believed to have originated. Additionally, discussions of medicines featured in the document reveal a level of understanding that exceeds that previously known to have existed at the time by a significant margin, even going beyond medicinal knowledge first recorded by the Greek physician Hippocrates, close to 1000 years later.

Perhaps most significant of all, the document’s precocious discussion of medical knowledge marks a significant shift away from the use of spells and incantations, which are widely believed to have been commonly used for the treatment of a variety of ailments during Egypt’s Old Kingdom. Although the Edwin Smith Papyrus does still contain some references to magic—there are eight magic spells that appear on its “verso” (back left-hand) side—it is believed that these magical references may have represented a sort of “last effort” in cases where all forms of medical treatment had proven ineffective.

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The Feds Are Investing in Wearable Health Trackers. That Could Put Your Private Data at Risk.

By gathering continuous data about sleep, heart rate, and physical activity, biowearable devices can give individuals more control over their well-being. But they also create a detailed digital record of our daily lives—one that the federal government may soon be able to access readily.

Consider this scenario.

You’ve recently received a government-subsidized biowearable. Accordingly, the authorities now know when you’re sleeping, because the device reports your sleep cycle, location, and daily movements in real time to a cloud server accessible through a legal process. It knows when you’re home. It knows when you leave.

Those data are then obtained by an FBI field office (either through direct purchase or, if necessary, a legal process), because a federal prosecutor has decided that your criticism of immigration enforcement operations and your social media posts supporting Immigration and Customs Enforcement protesters constitute “incitement to violence” against federal agents. Under the Trump administration’s elastic (and legally dubious) domestic terrorism definitions and designations, that is enough to open a criminal investigation.

And because the government has known for weeks when you’re at home sleeping, it knows exactly when to break down your door.

That scenario may sound far-fetched, but it is getting closer to reality. In March, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced that the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) would begin investing in new biowearable technologies through a program it called Delphi, after the ancient Greek sanctuary where the maxim “know thyself” was inscribed. It’s a fitting name for a program designed to help people understand their bodies, but it also raises an uncomfortable question: Who else might come to know them just as well?

The program aims to develop biosensors capable of continuously monitoring cytokines (cellular inflammation markers) and hormone levels, going substantially beyond what current wearables can detect. Funding will be determined on a competitive basis as private-sector stakeholders submit proposals; no specific appropriation has been announced.

It remains unclear why this taxpayer funding is necessary in a field that is already thriving. The global wearables market was valued at roughly $43 billion in 2024 and is projected to exceed $168 billion by 2030.

Devices worn on the wrist, finger, or skin can already monitor heart rates, blood oxygen levels, sleep patterns, physical activity, and—in the case of continuous glucose monitors—blood sugar levels in real time. Some smartwatches can even conduct electrocardiograms capable of detecting irregular heart rhythms, such as atrial fibrillation.

Until recently, people could access most of this information only during periodic visits to a clinic or hospital. Biowearables now enable people to monitor many of these signals continuously in everyday life.

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How Will Corporate Lobbyists Fix Healthcare? Don’t Ask—Because You Can’t

Corporate media political reporting has always been a clubby endeavor, but a recent reporting experience suggests that the insider culture in Washington, DC, is more insular than ever.

It’s often a challenge for independent media to get responses from Washington insider sources—especially on stories critical of powerful actors—but it’s become increasingly difficult even to pose the questions to those sources. Corporate news sources now issue press releases without bothering to include any information about who to contact with follow-up questions, as if the source is handing the truth down from on high.

When I first encountered this phenomenon after returning to journalism three years ago, I assumed it was a function of the laziness and/or incompetence of individual PR hacks. In my previous life, I had written a few dozen press releases, and “who’s the contact person?” was always a key question to answer in planning media outreach. But today, a failure to offer contact information increasingly appears to be a deliberate strategy to stymie journalistic inquiry.

‘No Surprises’ unsurprising fiasco

Last November, my healthcare politics online newsletter, Healing and Stealing (11/7/25), published an investigation of a national coalition of health insurers and other big businesses. The Coalition Against Surprise Medical Billing includes major business lobbying trade associations like the National Retail Federation, National Restaurant Association, National Association of Manufacturers and the health insurance industry trade group AHIP. Through those associations and business/labor health policy alliances, most of the largest employers in the US and many major labor unions are part of the Coalition, in alliance with the health insurance companies that sell them health plans for their employees.

The Coalition lobbied for passage of the No Surprises Act. The law, passed in December 2020 and signed by President Donald Trump, limits the amount that patients have to pay out of pocket when they unknowingly see a doctor or use another service that is not covered in their health insurance plan’s network. The law also set up a new arbitration system to resolve disputes—between employers and insurers on one side, and hospitals, labs, doctors’ offices and ambulance companies on the other—over the rest of the bills.

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Why your flu shot may work differently than you think

Two decades of federal surveillance data reveal how immune imprinting and an aging immune system undermine flu vaccine effectiveness. Current universal vaccination policy has not caught up to the biology.

Every autumn, public health authorities deliver a message that is simultaneously accurate and misleading: get your flu shot. All Americans aged six months and older are recommended to receive one. The guidance is consistent, reassuring, and considerably more complicated than it sounds.

A synthesis of two decades of CDC surveillance data, which will be published separately in Malone.News makes an argument that has been quietly building in the immunology literature for years: the current one-size-fits-all approach to seasonal influenza vaccination fails to account for two fundamental features of how the immune system actually works. The first is that your first flu exposure as a child permanently shapes how you respond to every flu vaccine you will ever receive. The second is that the immune system ages in ways that make older adults both the most important target for vaccination and the least reliable responders to it.

This is not a case against flu vaccination. It is a case for being honest about what the vaccine does and does not do, and for whom. In other words, it is a case for open and transparent informed consent.

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COVID Inquiry Finds Lockdowns May Have Cost THOUSANDS OF Lives

The authoritarian COVID lockdowns and stay-at-home orders sold as life-saving measures have been unmasked once again as a deadly failure of big government overreach.

A new UK Covid-19 Inquiry report has concluded that the relentless “Stay Home, Protect the NHS, Save Lives” messaging likely cost thousands of lives by convincing people they could not get access to health services.

The inquiry, led by Baroness Hallett, slammed the slogan created by Cabinet Office officials without input from health leaders. It “led some people to feel they must avoid burdening the NHS” and “may have inadvertently sent the message that healthcare was closed,” contributing to a sharp decline in A&E attendances for life-threatening emergencies such as heart attacks.

The report states plainly: “It is clear that, during the pandemic, worsening delays in diagnosis and treatment led to increased ill-health and suffering and, in some cases, cost lives.” Some patients waited so long their conditions became “untreatable,” with permanent loss of mobility.

Baroness Hallett stressed: “It is important that government communication campaigns do not deter those in need from accessing healthcare.” She urged future governments to consult healthcare professionals on messaging “to avoid unintended consequences.”

Office for National Statistics data backs this up, recording more than 17,000 excess deaths from non-Covid conditions at the height of the pandemic. Cancer screenings were paused, diagnoses plummeted, and non-urgent care cancellations left patients suffering. Hospital visiting bans were branded too tough, with dying people left alone and families devastated.

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‘Radical’ Biden Judge Reverses RFK Jr. On Trans-Child Surgeries, Other Procedures

A federal judge deemed ‘too radical‘ by GOP lawmakers during his confirmation hearings said on Thursday that he will grant a motion by blue states to vacate (reverse) a declaration by HHS Director Robert F. Kennedy Jr. blocking breast removal and other procedures for youths with gender dysphoria. 

Oregon US District Judge Mustafa Kasubhai, who was appointed by Biden in late 2024 and only confirmed after Senate Democrats invoked cloture on his nomination by a 51-43 vote, said during a hearing that he would soon issue a formal written opinion and an order denying the government’s bid to dismiss the states’ case, and granting the states’ motion for summary judgement, according to court records. 

Kennedy issued a declaration in late 2025 that “ex-rejecting procedures for children and adolescents are neither safe nor effective as a treatment modality for gender dysphoria, gender incongruence, or other related disorders in minors, and therefore, fail to meet professional recognized standards of health care.”

This was based on a report by the Department of Health and Human Services which looked at procedures and treatments available for gender dysphoria, and concluded that many of them risk infertility. The Trump administration said that health care providers who perform breast removal and other procedures would be out of compliance with updated standards, while officials also moved to bar hospitals that participate in Medicare or Medicaid from performing the procedures on children. 

New York and 18 other states immediately sued, claiming that the new rules were illegal, and “amounts to an end-run around the free choice of provider statute because it effectively bars Medicaid beneficiaries from choosing providers that are otherwise qualified, simply because they furnish gender-affirming care to children or adolescents,” the states said in their motion for summary judgement. 

New York Attorney General Letitia James, one of the plaintiffs, said the forthcoming ruling siding with the states showed Kennedy “cannot unilaterally change medical standards by posting a document online, and no one should lose access to medically necessary health care because their federal government tried to interfere in decisions that belong in doctors’ offices.” –Epoch Times

At least 17 hospitals or health centers have been referred for possible punitive action for violating the HHS declaration, they said. 

Government lawyers argued in a brief that the declaration reflected Kennedy’s “non-binding policy position on the safety and efficacy of certain pediatric and adolescent treatment modalities,” and that the HHS report was one of many pieces of information officials considered in their decision. 

The admin also asked the court to dismiss the case over a lack of jurisdiction. 

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