Dentist breast massages

You're probably going to think that I'm making this up, but you be the judge. Now, I'm no dentist, but I don't recall any kind of gynecology classes in that curriculum. This article from the Associated Press should speak for itself. (image credit)

Woodland, Calif. — A dentist accused of fondling the breasts of 27 female patients is trying to keep his dental license by arguing that chest massages are an appropriate procedure in certain cases. Mark Anderson's lawyer says dental journals discuss the need to massage the pectoral muscles to treat a common jaw problem.

Police say Anderson said during recorded phone calls that he routinely massaged patients' chests to treat temporo-mandibular joint disorder, or TMJ, which causes neck and head pain.

In a related story, SmileWright's Office and Massage Parlor is announcing the grand opening of a new branch in Woodland, California. For all new patients, with your teeth cleaning, you get a coupon for [insert joke here].... HA!

By the way, who knew there was a movie called "Dentist Visit" with the picture above? How weird is that? Is this art imitating life, or life imitating art? You be the judge.....

Update: A judge has ruled that he cannot practice while his case is pending. Duh!

Filipino Mob found me

For those who tuned into The Dr. A Show on Friday night and on Sunday night - you heard that I was having technical problems. On Friday, my internet connection totally dropped. And, my connection did not come back until Sunday. So, Sunday, I tried to have another show, and more technical problems happened.

During my show, I criticized the "Filipino Mob" for totally overreacting (image credit). So, during both my radio shows, I was feeling totally paranoid that "someone" or "someones" were either gaining access to my computer or cutting off my internet connection. Could they really do that? Can't the Mob do anything?

After the paranoia passed, I checked out my system to see if there were any problems on my end. After a cursory check, I didn't find anything obvious. My next step was looking at the site of my internet service provider. Interestingly enough, I found the following message on their site.

Red 10/12/2007 4:38:03 PM
TW-NEO Road Runner is currently experiencing issues with the cable network. Subscribers in the affected area(s) may experience a loss of connectivity, usually indicated by flashing modem lights and/or a loss of video service. Our engineers are working quickly to resolve this issue. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.

Now looking back, this was about four hours prior to my Friday night show time. So, this was probably the culprit. I feel a little better (kind of). On Sunday night, I was having problems with calling in via Skype, so I had to use my landline.

Hopefully, these tech problems can be worked out. I really didn't believe that the mob found me - well, kind of. They really can't find me, can they? What's that? Oh yeah, it's the paranoia that's coming back. hehe

Cancer rates falling

It's not very often that the press reports good news. So, I'm giving credit where credit is due. Reuters is reporting today that death rates from cancer (in the United States) are continuing to fall compared to previous studies.

They found important declines in deaths from lung, prostate and colorectal cancers in men, as well as in breast and colon cancer among women. Lung cancer deaths were still on the rise among women but this increase slowed, according to the report.

The annual decline in cancer death rates from 2002 to 2004 was nearly twice the decrease of 1.1 percent per year from 1993 through 2002.

This is definitely great news. A lot of work from a lot of different people and a variety of different organizations helped make this possible.

What will be interesting to watch now is these different organizations - whether they be government agencies, private sector research firms, patient advocate organizations, or others - take credit for this work (which they should) and fight for government budget dollars, private foundation dollars, and your public donation dollars (you can already see this at the end of this Reuters article). Let the games begin!

Chocoholic metabotype

Some people may think this sounds like the latest album from that youtube guy who sang chocolate rain, but this is real science I'm talking about here -- hehe -- Anyway, the Boston Globe describes a study was recently published in the American Chemical Society's Journal of Proteome Research (is that really the name of the journal?). Of all places, the study was conducted by Sunil Kochhar at the Nestle Research Center in Switzerland.

Kochhar and colleagues enlisted 22 men of approximately the same age and weight - 11 claimed to be "chocolate lovers," and 11 said they were indifferent to chocolate. The subjects were all put on the same diet for five days, and all ate chocolate or bread for the duration of the study. Researchers found that the "chocolate lovers" had lower LDL-cholesterol and higher albumin levels in their urine and blood, even on days when they didn't consume chocolate.

Let me get this straight. So, when asked to take part in a study at the chocolate research center and asked if you enjoy eating chocolate, they then give you either chocolate or bread? I'm no researcher, but if I'm not receiving chocolate and getting bread - I pretty much know that I'm in the placebo group. Research bias?

What this study concluded was that if you have the favorable metabolic type (metabotype) for chocolate, then basically you can eat as much chocolate as you want and it will not affect your LDL (bad) cholesterol. Finally! A study which justifies the amount of chocolate I consume.

Close to the bottom of the article, it says that the research was limited by the fact that only males were used. The next step was doing the same study using female subjects. Any takers?

Dr. A: Guest Blogger

I was contacted last week by Dominic Carone, Ph.D. from MedFriendly to write a guest post for them. Naturally, I was flattered. I don't think I've been asked before to write a guest post. In checking out the MedFriendly blog, I was that Kim Emergiblog herself wrote a guest post about ED visits. So, hey, this site is probably ok.

If you get a chance, I encourage you to check out the site and their blog. It looks like the site has been around for a number of years and has won some awards. Thanks again for the opportunity to write a guest post. I talk about Family Medicine physicians on my post over there.

Allergy season

My allergies are making me a little grumpy today. Are doctors allowed to get sick? (image credit)

Dr. A show Friday night

Yes, I'm the worst host -- ever! I cancel my show for Thursday night, and what do I do? I just come back the next night with a show. And, yes, I have nothing better to do on a Friday night except blog and talk on internet radio. Your point would be...

Well, I will tell you this. I will be watching the Indians/Red Sox game Friday night during the show - and will probably give you real time reaction - At least that should be interesting, right?

There are no scheduled guests - except you if you would like to call into the show. I'm calling this "The Dr. A Chronicles." I've been meaning to talk about the DH thing (which I know people either never heard of, don't care about, or have moved on from), some medical news, and, of course, the American League Championship Series.

It'll probably be more like the Dr. A monologue, but, hey, who cares? I'm going to have a good time. And, if you're by a computer Friday night at 9pm eastern time, feel free to join me. Go Tribe!

Cough & cold meds withdrawn

Following up this post on avoiding cough medicines in kids, it was announced today (I have the fax from J&J in front of me) that there will be a voluntary withdrawal of ALL cough and cold remedies for children under the age of 2. (image credit)

There is an FDA advisory panel next week, and there probably would have been a recommendation on this already. (Chicago Tribune)

"It's important to point out that these medicines are safe and effective when used as directed, and most parents are using them appropriately," said Linda A. Suydam, president of Consumer Healthcare Products Association. "The reason the makers of over-the-counter, oral cough and cold medicines for infants are voluntarily withdrawing these medicines is that there have been rare patterns of misuse leading to overdose recently identified, particularly in infants, and safety is our top priority."

Many of the medicines contain pseudoephedrine and phenlypephrine. The branded cough and cold medicines that are being voluntarily withdrawn are: Dimetapp Decongestant Plus Cough Infant Drops; Dimetapp Decongestant Infant Drops; Little Colds Decongestant Plus Cough; Little Colds Multi-Symptom Cold Formula; PEDIACARE Infant Drops Decongestant & Cough and certain brands of Robitussin, Triaminic and Tylenol brands of infant and toddler cough and cold remedies.

I really feel bad for all those family practice offices (like ours) and pediatrician offices today. We're already been getting phone calls on what parents are supposed to do now since these medicines are going to be voluntarily withdrawn. Ah yes, just another day at the office....

Cleveland school shooting

When is stuff like this going to end? Here is the latest from CNN:

A 14-year-old gunman shot students and teachers at a Cleveland high school, wounding four, and was then killed, the mayor told CNN affiliates WOIO and WKYC. It was not known if police shot the gunman or if he took his own life.

The shooting victims include two adult men, 57 and 42 years old; and two teenage males, 17 and 14 years old, according to Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson. A 14-year-old female hurt her knee in the chaos, he added.

Not that I'm comparing situations, but I remember back about what I was thinking during the Virginia Tech tragedy back in April (Can the cycle be broken, depression = murder?, privacy laws need scrutinized, mental health care delivery in the US).

School shootings are tragic and my thoughts and prayers go to the families affected by this. I'm just not looking forward to the 24/7 news coverage and people jumping on the bandwagon to advance their political agendas. Can we just figure out why this happened (if we can) and prevent it from happening in the future?

Show cancelled

Don't you hate when real life gets in the way of blogging life? Last night, something came up at work such that I'm probably not going to be at my computer at 10PM tomorrow night for the Doctor Anonymous show. It wasn't a definite, so my dilemma was this - Should I just cancel the show now, or wait possibly until the last minute to cancel, depending on what happens tomorrow night.

It really wouldn't have been fair to the guest or to all of you to wait until the last minute. The whole balance thing between real life and blog life is difficult sometimes - and this is an example of that. So, my apologies. There is an outside chance that I'll be back by my computer by 11pm. If I'm feeling nutty, I might just have a show anyway where I talk to myself for 30 minutes. hehe