Emergency Physician, Educator, Researcher, interested in the microbiome, evolution, and medicine
Proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) are drugs commonly prescribed by your doctor for the treatment of heartburn. You can also skip the doctor visit and buy them over the counter at the supermarket or pharmacy. Since you can buy PPIs without a prescription then they must be safe, right? Wrong. Recent […]
A recent paper, published in the New England Journal of Medicine asked the question: does treating elevated blood sugar in children with critical illness help or hurt? We have asked the same question – regarding adult patients – previously on this blog. To get you up to speed I will […]
There are certain themes that I return to, and the smoke detector principle is one of them. I wrote an Op-Ed piece for the Evolution and Medicine Review last year. An excerpt: “Randolph Nesse coined the term smoke detector principle to explain why some people display an exaggerated response to […]
I cannot recommend this recent Atlantic piece by David Epstein more strongly. It absolutely captures the problem of overtreatment and the pressures that fuel this source of medical waste and patient harm. Plus, it does a great job of explaining the number needed to treat and the number needed to […]
Mark your calendars. This August 18th-21st will be the third annual meeting of the International Society for Evolution Medicine and Public Health. The first two meetings were amazing and fun. This summer’s event promises to be that and more. For more information click here Important: November 15th is the deadline […]
I recently did a brief Q & A with Eirik Garnas who writes at the blog Darwinian-Medicine.com Here is the interview: Who are you? What’s your profession and educational background? I am an emergency physician and professor of emergency medicine at the University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center, and […]
Start on Tuesday! Here’s what to expect: Be sure to click on the link that describes the grading rubric and has a template that you can (or not) use. Do’s and Don’ts Here is what I will be looking for: While I am listening to your presentation, I am waiting […]
Developmental programming is thought to be a source of many adult diseases, including obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease. The notion that early life experiences, including nutrient transfer from the mother in utero, can shape the risk of later adult diseases is known as the Developmental Origins of Disease. This relationship […]
Why do some infections kill us, while others are hardly noticed? Rapper Baba Brinkman may have the answer: “For the pathogens, that’s why some are deadly serious And others are mild: it’s the evolution of virulence…We got the pattern figured out. Some can only spread if they keep you walkin’ […]
Multi-cellular organisms have solved a special problem that single celled organisms don’t have: how to make cells cooperate together and restrain themselves from reproduction. In single cell organisms, there is no (little) cost to replication. Every division and replication = higher fitness. Not so for multi cell organisms. Multi-cell organisms […]
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