"For every complex problem, there is a solution that is simple, neat, and wrong." - HL Mencken
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"I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand." - Confucius
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"The good physician treats the disease; the great physician treats the patient who has the disease" - Sir William Osler
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" The best test of a person's character is how he or she treats those with less power." - Bob Sutton
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"Those are my principles, and if you don't like them - well, I have others." - Groucho Marx
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"The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein
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"It is hard enough to remember my opinions, without also remembering my reasons for them" - Friedrich Nietzsche
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"Anyone can make the simple complicated. Creativity is making the complicated simple." - Charles Mingus
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"Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted." - Albert Einstein
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"A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesman and philosophers and divines. With consistency a great soul has simply nothing to do." - Ralph Waldo Emerson
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"This ain't no party, this ain't no disco, this ain't no fooling around." - Talking Heads, Life During Wartime
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"What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbour. This is the whole Torah; all the rest is commentary. Go and learn it." - Hillel, Talmud, Shabbath 31a
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"You will never understand bureaucracies until you understand that for bureaucrats procedure is everything and outcomes are nothing." - Thomas Sowell
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"An idealist is one who, on noticing that a rose smells better than a cabbage, concludes that it will also make better soup." - HL Mencken
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"If you only have a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail." - Abraham Maslow
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"A great teacher is one who realizes that he himself is also a student and whose goal is not to dictate the answers, but to stimulate his students creativity enough so that they go out and find the answers themselves." - Herbie Hancock
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"There are no facts, only interpretations." - Nietzsche
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"An education isn't how much you have committed to memory, or even how much you know. It's being able to differentiate between what you do know and what you don't." - Anatole France
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"In character, in manner, in style, in all things, the supreme excellence is simplicity." - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
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Workouts by month - Goal 200 from 11/1/09 through 10/31/10
http://ow.ly/1mYi7 - ABIM MOC program - two differing viewpoints - you can guess my voteMarch 16, 2010 5:06
RT @yejnes: My thoughts on the annual exam, etc., final letter ACP Internist, March 2010 http://bit.ly/9FNcXn wel-stated & importantMarch 15, 2010 12:47
A note to the professors, from the "real" world, on the use of ICDs in a fee for service community... http://ow.ly/1jaPy - great postMarch 13, 2010 2:19
RT @paulinechen: New "Doctor and Patient"; Learning to Keep Patients Safe in a Culture of Fear http://nyti.ms/bYA14V - blog post comingMarch 12, 2010 1:35
RT @tom_peters: @kevinmd Spoken like an MD. - true primary care is very complex - it is not simple care -March 11, 2010 12:43
RT @efalchuk: Seriously, what is Nancy Pelosi Talking About? http://bit.ly/9sHSc2 #healthreform #hcr #healthcare think Dazed and ConfusedMarch 10, 2010 7:53
Obama Says Health Overhaul Should Trump Politics - http://nyti.ms/bwKRyo - and he is correctMarch 8, 2010 7:28
@BertDecker multiples of 37 - trivial - any factor of 111 would factor into the others. The key here is that 37 * 3 = 111March 7, 2010 9:00
A drink a day keeps the doctor away from some of us, concludes a review by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) in the United States. But you need to ask your doctor if your level of drinking is healthy, it adds.
Many people assume that a tipple or two a day is a tonic, but researchers believe this assumption is based chiefly on misleading media reports and wishful thinking. The institute reviewed scientific literature showing the relative risks and benefits of drinking in moderation1.
Rather than producing an easy rule of thumb, the review concludes that the healthiest level of consumption depends on an individual’s age, sex, overall health and lifestyle – a calculation best totted up in the doctor’s office. “We cannot give a blanket statement that alcohol is good for you so go out and enjoy,” says the institute’s Samir Zakhari, one of the authors of the report.
While I appreciate that the report is saying to be careful, once again its statement is “We don’t trust you to have common sense, let us do the reasoning for you.” The people who consult their doctor about this would anyway, those who uase any excuse to down more than a six-pack (or equivalent) every day won’t ask or pay atttention if they do.
Put the info out there, those who are interested will find it. And even without formal info, I am optimist enough to beleve that most people realize that a one-hundred-pound twelve-year-old should not be drinking like his thirty-eight-year-old father the longshoreman.
To those who don’t drink and feel happy, no matter what age, don’t even bring up the matter. To those who drink asking for advice on how much they can drink, my guess is probably as good as the bar tender’s, considering we both read the same muddled language in these studies.
In the end, whatever advice I give would depend not only on the medical benefits, which are still murky, as opposed to the risks which we all know. But no matter how much we try to give this advice concerning alcohol, we may never know whether patients comply with what we tell them.
If alcohol were like a drug to control high BP or one of those statins for high cholesterol, my job would be much easier, with no element of guesswork and with the certainty that I really know what I’m doing.
3 Responses to Should we drink moderately?
John Anderson
June 26th, 2004 at 1:13 pm
While I appreciate that the report is saying to be careful, once again its statement is “We don’t trust you to have common sense, let us do the reasoning for you.” The people who consult their doctor about this would anyway, those who uase any excuse to down more than a six-pack (or equivalent) every day won’t ask or pay atttention if they do.
Put the info out there, those who are interested will find it. And even without formal info, I am optimist enough to beleve that most people realize that a one-hundred-pound twelve-year-old should not be drinking like his thirty-eight-year-old father the longshoreman.
Sheesh.
RGL
June 27th, 2004 at 4:14 pm
The usual mixed bag of advice, as you say.
To those who don’t drink and feel happy, no matter what age, don’t even bring up the matter. To those who drink asking for advice on how much they can drink, my guess is probably as good as the bar tender’s, considering we both read the same muddled language in these studies.
In the end, whatever advice I give would depend not only on the medical benefits, which are still murky, as opposed to the risks which we all know. But no matter how much we try to give this advice concerning alcohol, we may never know whether patients comply with what we tell them.
If alcohol were like a drug to control high BP or one of those statins for high cholesterol, my job would be much easier, with no element of guesswork and with the certainty that I really know what I’m doing.
Eat Grapes
June 28th, 2004 at 6:14 am
Exercise is good for the heart.
Keeping a good body weight.
Keeping Stress Levels Low.
If you want the benefits of Wine, and not the alcohol, eat some grapes.