The newly familiar thwack, pop, and crack of the pastime of pickleball, alas, is increasingly accompanied by some other sounds — the moans and groans of picklers who find themselves with injuries that can be more than annoying for older aficionados of this trendy sport. Noe Sariban, a pickleball instructor, former pro player, and a….
Continue ReadingEmergency Medicine
Gen Z becomes stoner generation with record-high pot and hallucinogen use
Generation Z and young millennials have become the nation’s leading group of stoners, setting record highs for their use of marijuana, hallucinogenic drugs, nicotine, and booze. This has occurred even as federal regulators have gotten called out for failing to crack down, after chest-thumping promises to do so, on the noxious but popular practice among….
Continue ReadingAs U.S. gears up for fall pandemic battles, a disease-fighting leader retires
This fall our nation will go once more into the breach, with federal officials hoping that another big push for vaccinations against the coronavirus and flu will stave off the deadly surges of contagions that have caused the fundamental health measure of life expectancy to plummet in a historic way. Still, the announced retirement of….
Continue Reading3 giant drug store chains hit with $650-million judgment for opioid harms
CVS, Walgreens, and Walmart are getting expensive lessons about corporate responsibility in filling prescriptions, as federal courts in San Francisco and Cleveland separately have faulted the companies for inundating communities with staggering quantities of addictive painkillers. Those drugs caused such great harm that the three major drug chains must pay two Ohio Counties $650.5 million,….
Continue ReadingChief launches CDC shakeup, citing ponderous agency’s pandemic flubs
The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, one of the world’s premier public health agencies, will try to revamp itself after taking months of a political, scientific, and reputational battering for too often performing in shambolic fashion in response to the coronavirus pandemic. Rochelle Walensky (shown, right) appointed the agency’s chief in December 2020,….
Continue ReadingBeware of heat and head trauma as young athletes prepare for fall sports
Even before the school bells ring to bring kids back to classes, young athletes have taken to steamy fields and other facilities for fall training — making this an ideal time to remind coaches, trainers, players, and parents to ensure important steps are taken for safety’s sake. While injury prevention of all kinds must be….
Continue ReadingD.C. drivers need to learn a key safety lesson: Slow down near schools
With students returning to classes in a few weeks, motorists need to make an important safety pledge to youngsters and their communities in Washington, D.C.: Please, for goodness’ sake, slow down. This is not happening as it should, putting kids at heightened risk, a new study has found. As the Washington Post reported: “D.C. drivers….
Continue ReadingSenate panel assails transplant system for causing deaths and disease
UNOS, the independent medical network responsible for procuring and distributing human organs for transplants in this country, needs big changes because it is failing desperate patients, making screening errors, among other missteps, that have killed dozens of them and caused hundreds to develop procedure-related diseases. The U.S. Senate Finance Committee reviewed hundreds of thousands of….
Continue ReadingWhen admitting a loved one to a nursing home, be sure to read what you sign (because you could be sued later)
When seniors need full-time institutional care, or when the injured or debilitated require similar 24/7 attention, loved ones — and even friends — must take care to read and re-read any documents that nursing homes and other long-term care facilities shove before them to sign during the stressful admissions process. That’s because the owners and….
Continue ReadingOpioid drug overdose crisis is ripping up communities of color
The opioid drug abuse and overdose crisis is not only smashing fatality records, it also is slamming poorer people and communities of color and taking a savage toll on younger black Americans. The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has analyzed data from Washington, D.C., and 25 states, finding in its study published online,….
Continue Reading