When I was in medical school, I studied out of journals, not textbooks. I felt the latter were dated. I left them at school so I could read Asimov, Henry Miller, Tolstoy, Hugo, Dostoyevsky, etc. I even read The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich along with the PBS TV series. It is the best thing I did to launch my integrative education. I believe many of the ills that bedevil our health care system could be solved if we trained medical students a bit differently. PLEASE, take the time to read the article below. Share it with your doctor, and/or the future doctor in your family.
Hugo Rodier, MD
How humanities background could make you a better medical student
Mar 5, 2020, Medscape Brendan Murphy
“If medicine is both an art and a science, it makes sense that a strong arts background—or an undergraduate course of study in a liberal arts major—can help make a strong doctor. An essay, “How to Fix the Premedical Curriculum—Another Try,” published in JAMA, goes a step further. In the essay, Richard M. Ratzan, MD, touted the ways in which the humanities can offer lessons on the human condition and called for a bold change among medical school admissions officers: “That all students applying for admission to medical school major in the humanities with an optional minor in biology and science topics. … No premed majors need apply; the science training will come after acceptance.
“John D. Schriner, PhD, is associate dean for admissions and student affairs at Ohio University Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine (Ohio), one of 37 member schools of the AMA Accelerating Change in Medical Education Consortium. He wouldn’t go quite as far as Dr. Ratzan, saying he wouldn’t “advocate for a humanities background exclusively.” Nevertheless, he and Ohio do support a well-rounded educational portfolio in looking at applicants. “We welcome anybody who has the grand aspiration, heart, soul and altruistic spirit to want to become a physician,” he said.
“At Ohio, there are several ways in which students are given the opportunities to understand the artistic aspect of practicing medicine. One element that is part of the curriculum is participating in art therapy with patients who have Alzheimer’s disease. That training, Schriner said, is an exercise in empathy. Students who come from a humanities background may enter medical school with that skill set in hand. “There’s value with folks coming from a different academic pathway,” he said. “They come into medical school with different perspective and life experiences. It really gives students an opportunity to assess the human condition through a different lens, and to realize that folks are more than just the symptoms they present. Having that perspective that is a little broader can help students assess the bigger picture of where their patients are coming from.”
“For example, a December 2018 study published in the journal Medical Education, “Pre‐medical majors in the humanities and social sciences: impact on communication skills and specialty choice,” found that medical students with premedical backgrounds in the humanities and social sciences may be more effective at communicating with patients.
“Ambiguity is a reality in medicine that some students might not be comfortable with. Schriner believes that is less often the case with more right-brained medical students. “In medicine, things aren’t just black and white or finite,” he said. “Some things are open for interpretation. A tolerance for ambiguity is a very positive quality in a medical student or a physician. You are not always going to have the answer, and you have to deal with things that are going to cause you to think with both your left and right brain.”
“While Schriner was quick to tout the benefits that liberal arts majors bring to the table—Ohio has had medical students with undergraduate backgrounds in art history and modern dance—he does think it behooves those applicants to get exposure to the sciences that goes beyond the minimum required biological science courses for medical school admissions. “Even though the requirements might be a minimum of two semesters of biology, do yourself a favor and take some upper-level bio-sciences to build a foundation,” he said. “You should at least take biochemistry because you are going to be seeing it on the MCAT. If you take those upper-level classes, it shows a selections committee that you are conscious of wanting to broaden your foundation to help yourself when you transition to medical school.”
“Medicine can be a career that is both challenging and highly rewarding, but figuring out a medical school’s prerequisites and navigating the application process can be a challenge into itself. The AMA premed glossary guide has the answers to frequently asked questions about medical school, the application process, the MCAT and more.”
Comment: Integration, a central theme in this newsletter, is a concept we do well to look for in institutions and in ourselves. Another word for it is BALANCE. Doctors and people do well to integrate the feminine and masculine parts of our nature. Sadly, medical education shortchanges the former. Study this picture…
Notice that Hermes, the God of Medicine, is wielding the Caduceus, a BALANCED rod with two snakes representing our male and female nature. Asclepius in the middle of the group has an unbalanced staff with only one snake, the male. He turns his back on three females. Interestingly, many state medical associations are abandoning the Caduceus in favor of Asclepius’ staff.
A common artificial sweetener might be making you fatter and sicker
“A new study finds that consuming sucralose (with brand names like Splenda) in conjunction with carbohydrates blunts the body’s ability to metabolize sugar appropriately. Laura Reiley, March 10, 2020 A study published in the journal Cell Metabolism by a group of Yale researchers found that the consumption of the common artificial sweetener sucralose (which is found in Splenda, Zerocal, Sukrana, SucraPlus and other brands) in combination with carbohydrates can swiftly turn a healthy person into one with high blood sugar. From whole grain English muffins to reduced-sugar ketchup, sucralose is found in thousands of baked goods, condiments, syrups and other consumer packaged goods — almost all of them containing carbs. The finding, which researchers noted has yet to be replicated in other studies, raises new questions about the use of artificial sweeteners and their effects on weight gain and overall health. In the Yale study, researchers took 60 healthy-weight individuals and separated them into three groups: A group that consumed a regular-size beverage containing the equivalent of two packets of sucralose sweetener, a second group that consumed a beverage sweetened with table sugar at the equivalent sweetness, and a third control group that had a beverage with the artificial sweetener as well as a carbohydrate called maltodextrin. The molecules of maltodextrin don’t bind to taste receptors in the mouth and are impossible to detect. While the sensation of the third group’s beverage was identical to the sucralose-only group, only this group exhibited significant adverse health effects.”
Comment: Worried about your immune system during the pandemic? Stop eating refined sugars AND artificial sweeteners. They are not as innocent as you have been led to believe. Our immune system is tied to our metabolism, or how we process energy. It begins in the gut in general and in the microbiome therein in particular, a concept that won the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1908.
If you must sweeten some foods, use stevia or xylitol. BUT, getting off refined sugars restores proper function to taste receptors in mouth and gut. In time, you will appreciate and be satisfied with the natural sweetness inherent in all foods.
Smartphone Use Connected to More Severe Headaches
Batya Swift Yasgur, MA, LSW March 04, 2020 Medscape
“Smartphone use in patients with primary headache is connected to more medication use and less pain relief, new research shows. Investigators found 96% of patients with headache who used smartphones took pain relievers compared to 81% of their counterparts with headache who did not use smartphones. Furthermore, smartphone users reported they received less pain relief from analgesics vs those who did not use smartphones — with 84% of smartphone users reporting moderate or complete relief of headache pain vs 94% of non-users. “While these results need to be confirmed with larger and more rigorous studies, the findings are concerning, as smartphone use is growing rapidly and has been linked to a number of symptoms, with headache being the most common,” study author Deepti Vibha, MD, DM, MSc, additional professor of neurology, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, said in a press release. The study was published online March 4 in Neurology Clinical Practice.”
Comment: I know, the industry has told us that smart phones are safe. What did you expect them to say? It pays to be safe in the face of uncertainty—don’t answer calls nor call out unless you can use the speaker phone in private.
Milk Could Increase Breast Cancer Risk
Veronica Hackethal, MD, Medscape Feb 28 2020
“Hot on the heels of a review from top nutrition scientists that cautioned against drinking cow’s milk comes another study with another caution: drinking milk increases the risk of developing breast cancer, say the researchers. But this finding comes from an observational study, and there may be confounders that are not accounted for, says an expert not involved with the study. The latest research was based on data from the long-running larger study called Adventist Health Study-2 (AHS-2), which is looking at diet and health among Seventh Day Adventists in North America. Past results from this study have suggested that Seventh Day Adventists have longer life spans and lower rates of some cancers, perhaps because of healthier lifestyles.”
“The latest analysis suggests that milk raises breast cancer risk, and the more you drink the higher your risk may be. “Consuming as little as 1/4 to 1/3 cup of dairy milk per day was associated with an increased risk of breast cancer of 30%,” first author Gary E. Fraser, MBChB, PhD, said in a press statement. Fraser is affiliated with the School of Public Health at Loma Linda University, California. “By drinking up to 1 cup per day, the associated risk went up to 50%, and for those drinking 2 to 3 cups per day, the risk increased further to 70% to 80%,” he added. The findings were published February 25 in the International Journal of Epidemiology.”
Comment: milk does not do a body good. It tastes great, though! Why? Lactose, a sugar. Try almond milk with a bit of organic honey.
