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A study published in September of 2013 in the journal, Radiology, looked at the number of knee MRIs that were ordered by MDs with ownership in the MRI facility and those that did not, and found that about 33% more were ordered by those with ownership.  Medical practice has become a business, and income is the bottom line for for a business. We believe...

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) reports that 5 million Americans took advantage of one or more of the recommended preventive benefits available through the Affordable Care Act. Among the  benefits is the new Annual Wellness Visit benefit. The idea is to either detect early or prevent chronic diseases with tests such as mammograms, bone...

Washington University School of Medicine published an article in the journal, Gut, showing that taking a probiotic before radiation can protect the intestine from damage in mice. There is no reason that this would be different in humans. This suggests that taking a probiotic with Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG and other strains protects the gut when taken prior to...

No one wants to get colon cancer and colonoscopy has been touted to be the best way to find asymptomatic precanceous and cancerous lesions of the colon that could be lifesaving. This makes logical sense, however, the United States Preventive Services Task Force in now questioning this test for healthy people who have no GI symptoms.   

  Medical professional groups and cancer advocacy groups need to refocus on educating rather than persuading about cancer testing. The harms of screening have been largely dismissed. It is easy to sell screening, just magnify the benefit, minimize the cost, and hide the data about their value. These tests are big business and there are conflicts...

A study out of the University of North Carolina Medical Center in August of 2014 studied more than 27,000 patients over the age of 65 and questioned the widsom of doing routine cancer screening tests, especially if they had a limited life expectancy. They looked at screening tests for prostate, breast, colon, and cervix in a study from 2000 through 2010 and compared...

The May of 2012 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine reports that sigmoidoscopy rather than colonoscopy could be used to screen for colon cancer. A clinical trial of 150,000 people was done where half had sigmoidoscopy and the other have nothing. They were followed over 12 years and over that interval there were 89 fewer cancer deaths and 275 more colon...

  We need sunlight to make vitamin D. The types, sources of vitamin D, and physiology of vitamin D are reviewed. The relationship between vitamin D levels and cancer are reviewed.