The Medical Advisor

Travis Christofferson — who has a premedical undergraduate degree and a master's degree in materials engineering and science — has written two excellent books about health. The first one, "Tripping Over the Truth: How the Metabolic Theory of Cancer Is Overturning One of Medicine's Most Entrenched Paradigms," helped me understand the profound influence of diet in cancer. Here, we discuss his latest book, " Curable: How an Unlikely Group of Radical Innovators Is Trying to Transform Our Health Care System ," which addresses questions such as: "What has happened to American health care?" and "What are the foundational disruptions or corruptions in the system?" His book, in some ways, is based on the theory promoted in the book and subsequent film, "Moneyball." It describes how you can use statistics to massively improve a flawed system. Christofferson explains: "I'd been invited to spe...

Chris Centeno MD -  These past few years I’ve seen that while regenerative medicine is gaining wider acceptance, there’s been an explosion in treatments being offered that aren’t nearly as elegant. What fits into that category and why does it make me uncomfortable? Let’s dig in. More Options are Better than Fewer The great thing about helping patients in pain these days is that there are many options. In addition, while some of the things discussed below aren’t as good as regenerative options, sometimes patients do need these procedures to feel better. Hence, my focus here is on helping physicians realize an aspirational goal. The Main Types of Interventional Pain Management IPM or Interventional Pain Management is a field where the doctor uses precise image-guided procedures that don’t involve open surgery that can help patients in chronic pain. These are percutaneous procedures, meaning they can generally be performed without a scalpel and “through the skin”. While all percutaneo...

Another name for overprescribing medications is polypharmacy. The issue is snowballing as Big Pharma continues to develop prescription medications in the hope of lengthening life expectancy without addressing the underlying issues of the chronic diseases that affect the population. Polypharmacy may be thought of as the use of multiple medications at the same time by one person. While the term is commonly used, there is not a single definition for polypharmacy.1 The term appears to have been in use for over 100 years according to one article that states it “was used over one and a half centuries ago to refer to issues related to multiple-drug consumption and excessive use of drugs.”2 According to a systematic review and BMC Geriatrics:3  “The most commonly reported definition of polypharmacy was the numerical definition of five or more medications daily, with definitions ranging from two or more to 11 or more medicines.” While there has been no consensus ...

Your shoulder begins to hurt, and your doctor orders an MRI that shows tears in the rotator cuff. This is definitely causing your shoulder pain, right? Not necessarily. Let’s dig in. Credit: Shutterstock The Rotator Cuff Your shoulder has muscles and tendons that surround the shoulder joint called the rotator cuff. These are the supraspinatus, infraspinatus, subscapularis, and teres minor. These muscles help to move and stabilize your shoulder. These tendons can be torn, and that injury is called a rotator cuff tear. These tears happen more often in older patients, usually in their 50s-70s. Tears can occur with trauma or just happen because of wear and tear. The pain is generally felt in the shoulder, and using that joint causes pain. A Common Scenario A very common clinical scenario is a 55-year-old patient who starts noticing shoulder pain while sleeping or being active. There isn’t any specific trauma, but the patient is given a steroid shot in the shoulder to help the p...