My patient was a Native American.  "I have been fasting and praying for 2 days" he told me that first day of June, when I walked in to introduce myself. I told him I was an Infectious Disease (ID) doctor and would be part of the team to care for him over the next month. I was covering for my colleague on a trip to his home country.  He had repeatedly refused amputation of his leg and pleaded with me for help to save it.  His story began years ago. He had diabetes a long time. Admitted about 4 weeks earlier for a diabetic foot ulcer #DFU that spread #infection through the left foot he had surgery to remove the worst of the infection. He lost 4th and 5th toes and the outer part of  left foot.  Sorry for graphic images . ID was consulted and antibiotics guided by subsequent bone cultures were started. Wound care saw him daily. The wound did not heal.  Arteriography showed blocked arteries and angioplasty to open up the leg arteries was performed. Twice .  The wound still did not

Fever I believe could be a savior in COVID-19.  Not all get fever when they get COVID-19. But for those who do what I have written below maybe life-saving. Please read it and if I can help in anyway let me know.  130 years ago doctors got the first pill that gave them power to reduce fever when Bayer of Germany synthesized aspirin in 1890.  Since then all have been treating fever first with aspirin then with Tylenol , ibuprofen etc.  Since the time of Hippocrates it had been widely believed that fever was beneficial. Aspirin was new and it magically relieved fever AND pain. A firm conviction(without any specific research basis) soon took hold in doctors nurses and all humans that fever always needs to be reduced. Tylenol/Crocin also a fever and pain reducer was heavily marketed on TV and added to it.  I have always believed reducing fever in infection routinely at the outset is almost always wrong. See my blog post from 2013 on this topic. Only for those with quite serious heart or lun

Med students are made to study facts. .........to regurgitate facts on demand. .........are tested on facts. So that becomes their goal in school. On rounds the one who can regurgitate the most facts is commended. In case discussion conferences fellows and faculty often are expected to do the same. What thay need is to learn, judgement, discrimination, empathy and ethics. That is difficult to teach .......to learn.......to model................to test. So facts is where the focus remains. Unfortunately facts in medicine change regularly, frequently. Current system of medical education and training produces doctors who regurgitate facts on demand, score high on tests of old facts , believe those old facts and act decisively on that knowledge. A focus on judgement is finally possible and very desirable in this era of vast amount of facts avaialable on finger tips. Facts easy with iPads iPhone in hand and all the resources of the largest medical libraries just a tap awa

I am writing here about the recent New York Times article about the lack of efficacy for Turmeric in medical studies done in Canada in some surgical patients. What they had actually studied was Curcurmin in their patients with the presumption that curcurmin is THE active ingredient in turmeric responsible for all it’s beneficial effects. The same mistake has been made in medical studies before wherein a natural product in this case turmeric is pooh-poohed when an ingredient that makes up less than 5% of the whole natural product -curcurmin is studied and the results are presumed to be applicable to the natural ingredient well accepted and known to be widely beneficial in Ayurveda in the first place. It is likely the reason curcumin was studied was that it has an enormous cost premium as compared to the natural turmeric powder widely available. Two prior similar mistakes come to mind - walnuts and carrots Walnuts consumption had been found to be helpful in some way for vascular di

In August 2005 in a letter to the editor of the Washington Post I had brought up that life expectancy in America would be expected to drop. I was concerned about heavy consumption of trans fats in fast foods as well as most baked goods. To add to the toxic mix of transfat laden foods was consumption of liquid sugars in high calorie soda pop, energy drinks and juices. In my medical practice I had noticed more younger patients were being admitted to the hospital with serious infections then in prior years. Increasing data over the last few years has corroborated my concern from 2005. A recent study of 50 years of mortality data confirms that US life expectancy has not kept pace with other wealthy countries and is now decreasing. A significant increase in death rates in the prime years of life ages 25 and 44 is noted in ALL races. This study is by Stephen Woolf MD MPH and Heidi Schoomaker MAEd. JAMA2019(20):1996-2016. Eli:10.1001/jama.2019.16932

Dollars for Docs How Industry Dollars Reach Your Doctors This is Pro Publica's search engine with data from over 2 million transactions in the public domain of $$ paid to your health care provider/ institution. Use it to understand the consulting fees, meals, travel paid out. The data is part of the settlement from years ago that the drug companies agreed to furnish this data. Pro Publica has put it in a much better searchable format.

Ask Doctor Vinod: McDonald’s Transfat Settlement Aug 24 2005----  SUCCESS IN USA  -- FINALLY 2013 FDA MOVES FOR TOTAL BAN http://askdoctorvinod.blogspot.com/2006/07/mcdonalds-transfat-settlement-aug-24.html