Commentary by Sam Rougas MD, PGY-3
Faculty Peer Reviewed
With the holiday season upon us, it seems we are always scrambling to find that perfect last minute gift for our loved ones. So, in the spirit of the season, here is a gift to those poor souls in the CCU. The New York Times commented on a recent study published in JAMA about the correlation between a lack of sleep and heart disease. It seems that patients who slept seven hours a night…
Commentary by Ishmeal Bradley MD, PGY-2
During the last few months, the media has been overflowing with stories about the staggering American economy and soaring consumer (and national) debt. One story that has been marginalized in the wake of the current fiscal crisis is the soaring cost of medical education and the dangers that this poses to the future of the healthcare industry.
I’m sure all of us remember that warm spring morning years ago when we got our acceptance letters to medical school.…
Commentary by Christopher Tully MD, PGY-1
Faculty Peer Reviewed
With the holiday shopping season rapidly rising to its peak and winter weather finally beginning to take hold, take a break from the cold, chaotic world outside and catch up on the news from around the medical world.
One fall and wintertime tradition that many people would often rather avoid is their yearly flu shot. While the vaccine itself is here to stay, for those who have complained in the past that…
Commentary by Denise Pate MD, PGY-1
Faculty Peer Reviewed
These days, when patients are concerned about being able to afford keeping a roof over their head and food on their table, the cost of prescription drugs is an additional financial burden. High costs can adversely impact patients’ compliance with healthcare. One way of mounting this hurdle is the utilization of less-expensive generic drugs versus their more-expensive brand-name counterparts. This week in JAMA, a review and meta-analysis examined whether there are differences in…
Commentary by Sherley Abraham MD, PGY-3
Faculty Peer Reviewed
Feeling fatigued? Don’t Google your symptoms. Instead, have the heart to go out for a walk. After all, it takes guts to build bone. Things must be looking up if cancer rates are going down, and some cancers may even spontaneously disappear! These are among the topics providing Thanksgiving food for thought in this week’s ShortCuts.
A little knowledge can be dangerous, or at least provoke unnecessary anxiety. The NY Times reports…
Commentary by Frederick Gandolfo, MD PGY-3 and Michael Tanner, MD Section Editor, Clinical Correlations
Need an escape? With the weather turning frigid, the economy collapsing, and unemployment rates rising just in time for the holiday season, most people would probably feel better staying home, shutting the blinds, and vegetating in front of the TV-watching anything but a news channel. But not so fast, says the New York Times, citing a study by Dr. John Robinson and colleagues showing an inverse relationship between the…
Commentary by Paul Fenyves MD, PGY-3
Faculty Peer Reviewed
General and Abdominal Adiposity and Risk of Death in Europe
More fat, Mortality: Published in the New England Journal of Medicine, a prospective, observational study of more than 300,000 Europeans, has found that, after adjusting for BMI, increasing waist circumference is associated with increasing risk of death. Men in the highest quintile of waist circumference (≥102.7 cm) had a 2.05 relative risk of death. Similarly, women in the highest quintile of waist circumference (≥89.0 cm)…
Commentary by Erin E. Ducharme MD, PGY-1
Faculty Peer Reviewed
Daylight Saving time Saving Nobody: In addition to long known effects including confusion and annoyance, new research suggests turning the clock back an hour may actually be bad for your health. Swedish researchers sifting through 20 years of data found a significantly higher incidence of acute myocardial infarction occurring during the first three weekdays following the spring time change. The authors, appearing in the New England Journal of Medicine, blame sleep…
Commentary by Elizabeth Sedlis, MD PGY-2
Reviewed by Judith Brenner, MD, Associate Editor, Clinical Correlations
This past week was filled with heart racing mid-fall traditions which brought New Yorkers out to the streets in droves. Last Friday was the 35th annual village Halloween parade attended by 2 million nighttime revelers, and Sunday was the 38th annual New York City Marathon with 39,000 runners pounding the pavements of our five boroughs. Congratulations to all those inspirational athletes. This coming week is guaranteed to make…
Commentary by Josh Remick MD, NYU Senior Chief Resident
As this endless political campaign is entering its final days, I’d like to start this week’s ShortCuts with a plug to vote. It doesn’t matter who you vote for, just so long as you make your voice heard. While we’re on the topic of the campaign, an issue that’s important to many of us in the medical field is the two presidential candidates’ health care plans. If you’re still unsure where they stand on…
Commentary by Sabina Berezovskaya MD, PGY-3. Reviewed by Danise Schiliro- Chuang MD.
Hello and welcome to another addition of shortcuts. Hoping the autumn foliage and beautiful weekend weather have refreshed you and your week is starting off well. Here are a few of the latest studies making headlines that you should know about. Read on!
Should We Bypass Banding?
As rates of obesity (BMI >40 kg/m2) have skyrocketed over the past few decades, patients and physicians alike are searching for the cure…
Commentary by Andrew McKinstry MD PGY-1
Reviewed by Michael Poles MD, Associate Editor, Clinical Correlations
It may have been Columbus Day, but that doesn’t mean any of the journals took any time off, so here we go…
The protective effect of circumcision in HIV Infection was called into questioned by a meta-analysis published in the Journal of the American Medical Association this week. This article suggests that men who have sex with men (MSM) do not benefit from reduced HIV infection rates if…
