Direct to kid advertising
2006-12-06 11:31:00
How upset do you get when you see drug ads which say, "Ask your doctor about..." This just burns me up sometimes! I see both sides of this in that patients come in and ask me about their medical conditions. But on the other hand, they sometimes demand to be placed on what they saw on television.
In the marketing world, they call this "direct to consumer" advertising. This has definitely transformed the sales of prescription medications. OTC manufactures have also followed suit. (What's that product you apply directly to the forehead? AHHH!)
The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recently published a report stating that children and adolescents are constantly exposed to advertising on television, and even in schools. If adults can be lulled into these ads, think of the effect on children.
"Advertisers have slowly but steadily infiltrated school systems around the country," the [AAP] committee [on communication] writes. "The '3Rs' have now become the '4Rs,' with the fourth R bein
Read more: Direct
Holidailies
2006-12-06 01:21:00
Now, I failed miserably at NaBloPoMo last month. For all of you who succeeded (and didn't win any real prize), there's this reward for you. HA!
So, anyway, I'm a glutton for punishment. I ran into another blogging challenge over there on the Frectis blog. The challenge is easy - Post every day from December 1st through January 1st (sound familiar).
I guess there are two tiers to Holidailies. The top tier registration is closed and they're enforcing daily posts. If not, then you're demoted to the lower tier which they are affectionately calling the "home game" version of Holidailies 2006.
So, the underachiever blogging self signed up for the Holidailies at Home. If you haven't checked it out over there yet, I encourage you to do so. Lots of great writing and reading over there.
Speaking of which, I'm still considering accepting Cathy's challenge of writing a post ending with the line, "I shall not waste my days in trying to prolong them." Hmmmmm. I don't know if I have the
Grand Rounds
2006-12-05 16:01:00
Grand Rounds
3.11 is now up and running at The Antidote: Counterspin for Health Care and Health News. The host is Emily Devoto. No theme this week. Thirty-seven links are divided into nine categories. Here's my contribution:
Dr. Anonymous briefs on this week's new research findings on chemo-brain - now there's evidence of a neurologic basis for the phenomenon; with luck, the findings could spur further research to understand and address the problem.Thanks Emily for including my submit this week. Next week, Grand Rounds
moves to Anxiety, Addiction, and Depression Treatments. Experience the best the medical blogosphere has to offer this week. It's Grand Rounds!
Read more: Grand
McDonald's Children's Hospital
2006-12-04 14:01:00
How was your weekend? Mine was wonderful and relaxing, thanks for asking! A time to just take a break. Until, this morning when I read the news....
Here's a question, how often have you seen McDonald
s or other fast food restaurants somewhere in the hospital? How about if you have ever been at a children's hospital?
In a study recently released, researchers in Pittsburgh are very upset about this. The article is in today's Washington Post and is entitled, "Fast Food at Kids' Hospitals Causing Worry."
The researchers queried 200 pediatric residency programs in 2002-03. About 30 percent, or 59, had fast-food restaurants in their hospitals. McDonald's alone or in combination with other fast-food restaurants were located in 22.
The article goes on to say that this sends a mixed message to parents, especially with the growing problem of childhood obesity in the United States (no pun intended).
Now, I totally agree that childhood obesity is a problem. But, do hospitals serve McDonalds in
Read more: Children
Condom Olympics
2006-12-01 11:44:00
After my last two posts, here is something a little lighter today. Question: How are you observing World AIDS Day? Here are two examples...A Canadian community is holding the condom olympics which organizers call a "light-hearted face on a very serious issue." Events will include blowing up condoms, condom relay races, shooting condoms, and condom volleyball using flyswatters to keep blown up condoms in the air. Laurel Petty, the city's AIDS Community Action Project coordinator says said this, "It will be a fine evening brainstorming with the kids."If you haven't had your fill of condoms (*cough*), then get on a plane to Thailand. Because there, you will be trying to make history with a Guinness World Records attempt at the "longest condom chain". I'm not making this up. Here's the quote:Participants at the "Condom
Chain of Life" festival will link 25,000 condoms and will be led by UN Aids special representative Mechai Viravaidya, a national Aids activist formerly known as "Mr Cond
Read more: Olympics
Chemo Brain
2006-12-01 04:14:00
All cancer patients treated with chemotherapy swear that the very treatment which helps their cancer ultimately affects brain cells. Friends and family of chemotherapy patients describe neurological side effects like memory loss, dementia, and even seizure.
In an article from Thursday's BBC News, there is now scientific evidence that this is in fact the case. Patients call this syndrome "Chemo
Brain
." Researchers at the University of Rochester found, in lab tissue samples, that at high chemotherapy treatment doses, not only are cancer cells killed, but also a significant percentage of the normal brain tissue is destroyed.
Lead researcher Dr Mark Noble said: "This is the first study that puts chemo brain on a sound scientific footing, in terms of neurobiology and cellular biology."
The Rochester team carried out tests with three drugs used to treat a wide range of cancers: carmustine, cisplatin and cytosine arabinoside.
All three drugs were toxic to several types of brain cell whose jo
Childless
2006-11-30 09:01:00
I had an interesting conversation with a patient this week. As you may or may not know, I'm the soccer doc for our boys high school soccer team. We got to talking about my experiences with the team when she said, "You know, I don't think I want to have children."
"Really," I said. "Now, doc, don't give me that look that everyone else gives me when I say something like that." We got to talking a little bit more. She's in her mid-30's, married, and she states that she's doing well in her career.
"Don't misunderstand, I like kids," she said. "I could be wrong, but I've never really believed that you could have it all - meaning both family and career - at least for women." She continued, "At least with the people that I know, when you try to go for both, then one suffers, and I never wanted that. I always knew I could be a good mom, but I didn't feel that I had the passion or drive to be a good mom."
Now, I know people out there in blog land are trying to figure out if I'm trying
Christmas Song Meme
2006-11-28 13:01:00
Yes, that's right, boys and girls! It's not even December yet and I'm starting this meme. Can you believe it? Well, I figure that I actually still like Christmas
songs right now. Ask me two weeks from now, and I'll be totally sick of them.
This meme is pretty simple: List (at least) five of your favorite Christmas tunes and tag (at least) five of your favorite blog friends to keep the meme going. Simple, huh?
My Fave Christmas Song
s (in no particular order):
Christmas Time Is Here from A Charlie Brown ChristmasChristmas (Baby Please Come Home) by U2Santa Claus is Coming To Town by Bruce SpringsteenRun Rudolph Run by Brian AdamsThe Chanukah Song by Adam Sandler (I know, not a Christmas song)Christmas Eve (Sarajevo 12/24) by Trans-Siberian OrchestraPlease Come Home For Christmas by The EaglesThe Christmas Song by Nat King Cole(I'd better stop here, or I'll be here all day...)
The lucky people I'm tagging:
Mimi from Mimi Writes (The Meme Queen)
Julie from Flip This Body (It i
Grand Rounds
2006-11-28 12:28:00
Grand Rounds
3.10 is up and running at Notes from Dr. RW. It is self-described this week as a "running commentary, stream-of-consciousness style, to provide some structure to this incredibly diverse collection of links and perhaps liven things up a bit. I'll sneak a few opinions in here and there, but you'll know them when you see them." Thanks to Dr. RW for including my submit this week:Ectopia what??? Ectopia cordis---a rare developmental anomaly in which the heart is situated outside the chest. Dr. Anonymous writes about a recent case.For those of you sitemeter watchers out there (I am definitely one of them), it'll be interesting to check out the Dr. RW sitemeter as it goes through the day today.Next week, Grand Rounds
moves to The Antidote: Counterspin for Health Care and Health News. That's funny. Does that mean that Grand Rounds is a poison? Tune in next week to find out. Enjoy Grand Rounds!
Read more: Grand
Pause
2006-12-08 15:27:00
I've been a little under the weather. That's why I haven't been around. More soon...
Read more: Pause
Heart Attack Grill
2006-12-09 21:01:00
Now, we here at Doctor Anonymous are not afraid to cover the hardest hitting news stories out there in the internet....
There's a huge controversy occuring in Tempe, Arizona over a restaurant called the Heart
Attack Grill
. Surprisingly enough, the controversy is not over its menu which includes things like quadruple bypass burger and flatliner fries.
The waitresses call themselves nurses and
Countdown
2006-12-10 23:31:00
I'm not talking about the first nighttime shuttle launch in four years. This was great to see on television. I would love to see this live and in person.
But, I digress. I'm talking about the countdown to my six month blogiversary. I can't believe that it's coming up next week. To be honest, I didn't think I would make it this long.
Thanks so much to all of you for continuing to stop by and occasionally leave comments. Forgive me over the next week as I may look back a little bit, to reminisce, and to reflect. It's that holiday spirit, I guess.
Finally, thanks to those of you who sent notes when I was feeling ill. I really appreciate it. I guess all the handwashing in the world can't totally prevent getting a cold this time of year around here. I'm feeling better - Just in time for me to be on call for the Christmas holiday. Oh well...
Read more: Countdown
Pro-ana and Pro-mia sites
2006-12-11 13:31:00
Someone sent me a link to an article from Newsweek entitled "Mixed Messages." It talks about websites taking us into the world of anorexia (called pro-ana sites) and bulimia (called pro-mia sites). Here's a sample of what they say:
Drink ice-cold water ("your body has to burn calories to keep your temperature up") and hot water with bullion cubes ("only 5 calories a cube, and they taste wonderful"). When a food craving strikes, give yourself a manicure ("applying extra layers of slow-drying polish. It will keep your hands occupied").The article goes on to outline the debate that is occurring on whether these sites are good or bad. Those in favor of the websites state that the internet is a huge support group for these (in general) troubled teens who visit it. Others say that these sites promote and glamorize this type of lifestyle.
It's a pretty balanced article and I encourage you to check it out. The question comes back to this: Can a website CAUSE a change in behavior, especially
Grand Rounds
2006-12-12 06:01:00
Grand Rounds
3.12 is now up and running over at Anxiety, Addiction and Depression Treatments. GR is up early this week. Thanks to the bloggers over there for including my submission this week. I really appreciate it.
A recent AAP report on advertising and children drew our ire. It also drew the ire of Doctor Anonymous, and he discussed his reactions in a great post that led to some healthy comment discussion.On a quick glance, I counted 36 links (unless you count My Three Shrinks as three separate posts instead of one). Well done. However, I couldn't leave a kudos comment over there because the verification characters wouldn't come up on my firefox. Oh well, Kudos to AAaDT for their work this week.
Look out! Next week, GR journeys to Nurse Ratched's Place. But meanwhile, enjoy the best the medical blogosphere has to offer - It's Grand Rounds
!
Read more: Grand
Nominate Me!
2006-12-12 14:59:00
I have no shame. And, when you read this post, you'll see why. HA!
Yesterday, Medgadget announced the opening up of nominations for their 2006 Medical Weblog Awards. This is their third annual event. And, according to their website, "These awards are designed to honor the very best in the medical blogosphere, and to highlight the diverse world of medical blogs."
There are seven categories, but the one I'm most interested in is Best New Medical Weblog (established in 2006). To be honest, I don't think this blog really fits into any of the other categories. Oh BTW, there's a new category this year for Best Patient's Blog. So, for you DA readers who have patient blogs, you can play, too.
Anyway, this is where I'm asking you, the Doctor Anonymous reader, to help. If someone, anyone, would nominate me for Best New Medical Weblog - I'd really appreciate it! I'd nominate myself, but that seems kind of lame to me. Plus, the judges may not take to kindly to self-nominations.
Speaking
Read more: Nominate
Another Christmas Meme
2006-12-12 11:11:00
It looks like Cathy gave me by Christmas
present early in the form of a meme. The interesting part is that I did not recieve the dreaded "You've Been Tagged" e-mail message. That's a new strategy (thanks Ipanema - HA!). Here we go!
1. Hot Chocolate or Egg Nog? Absolutely hot chocolate.2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree? Neither - The elves wrap the presents and Santa's personal assistants put them under the tree.3. Colored lights on tree/house or white? Colored lights on tree. Too lazy to put lights on house.4. Do you hang mistletoe? Nope. Bums me out too much.5. When do you put your decorations up? When I finish my Christmas cards. Usually in mid-December. Just put some decorations up last weekend.6. What is your favorite holiday dish? All Christmas desserts. My patients usually bring in bunches and bunches of stuff for me and my staff this time of year.7. Favorite Holiday memory? Midnight mass with my family. One of the few times all year we're able to ge
James Kim: Blame the victim
2006-12-12 18:01:00
Warning: This is an irk alert...
The people on the west coast of the United States probably have been following this story closer than I have. And, I wasn't going to mention anything about the tragic story of James
Kim and his family. But, I read a story this morning that really put me over the edge.
For those who may not know, James Kim
and his family (wife and two young daughters) were stranded in the mountains of Oregon for approximately a week. I believe on day five or six of their ordeal, which included hearing helicopters but unable to get their attention, Mr. Kim decided to venture out to try to rescue his family. His family was eventually rescued, but he was not.
The first set of media stories portrayed him as a hero - which is what he was. Initial stories called him "Superhuman." As I did more research, I found out he was a senior editor for Cnet.Com. And, I remember seeing this guy doing reviews for computer and electronic stuff. Great guy. He mentioned his daughter a lot w
Read more: Blame
, victim
Blogger problems
2006-12-13 18:01:00
Imagine that? I'm not even in the dreaded blogger beta. Lots of difficulties with my sidebar this morning. So, I'll be fiddling with this thing this afternoon. Hopefully, I won't accidentally delete the entire blog. I'll be right back after these commercial messages. Thanks for stopping by today!
Read more: Blogger
, problems
Quick news stories
2006-12-14 08:31:00
Obese Kids To Be Offered Surgery: The government in the UK is sending the ultimate message of accountability for your actions by offering surgery "as a last resort" to obese children. Richard Watts, campaign co-ordinator of the Sustain's Children's Food Campaign, said: "Instead of expensive and unpleasant surgery, we should look to improve children's diets by protecting them from junk food adverts before 9pm and making cookery lessons in school compulsory." DUH!
Of course, you could do something obvious. No, not encourage exercise. That's too easy. You can ban certain foods, like trans fats. Apparently, that's the fad now in the United States. Cities like Cleveland, Ohio are following the lead of New York City. Oh well. Maybe that will help the obesity problem in kids.
Longer Colonoscopy Time
Ups Detection: According to a new study in the New England Journal of Medicine, you have to ask your doctor if they spend more than six minutes doing their colonoscopy. The study stated tha
Read more: Quick
Let The Games Begin
2006-12-15 06:01:00
Thanks so much to those of you who nominated me for Medgadget Medical Weblog Awards. I really appreciate it! Who knew I would go from no blog at all to being considered one of the best blogs of 2006.
Now, if you don't tell anyone, I'm going to give you some insight here that you won't get on other blogs. I'm very flattered to be nominated for best overall medical blog of the year. But, at this point in my blog life, I think I'm minor league compared to some in that category.
So, even though as of this second, there are twelve other blogs in the Best New Medical Weblog category, I think I will concentrate my efforts there.
How am I going to do that? Well, here's the way I see it. It is three weeks until the polls open over there on Medgadget. I have three short weeks to earn your vote for Best New Medical Weblog of 2006.
Don't think your vote counts? Think again. In reviewing the rules over there, there will be a new voting system. Yes, there are nine judges (*waving at judges*)
Read more: Games
Why Beta Why?
2006-12-16 10:18:00
I'm having trouble sleeping tonight. So, I'm thinking, why not blog?
After days of going back and forth, I finally decided to make the switch to Beta Blogger, UGH! I felt it was really affecting me making comments on blogs. And, maybe it was preventing others from commenting on my blog. So, I took the step to make the switch.
When I was thinking to switching to Blogger Beta, I had this flashback to my blog post number one on June 19, 2006 called: Does this thing work?
I've got to admit off the bat that I'm no techno-expert. This entire sign on process was kind of traumatic. Is this what this blog is going to be about -- whining? Hope not. I'm glad just to be up an running. Don't worry, this sparse blogspace will be filling up soon. Just as soon as a figure out what to talk about...Ah.... Memories.... Anyway, I heard that the side bar may be affected by switching. So, I made sure I saved the links of where all the third party stuff came from. I even printed out my front page, in
Never Question Mr. Nibbles!
2006-12-17 17:14:00
You gotta like that YouTube. I saw this very funny commercial this morning, did a quick search, and BOOM there it is. Here is my favorite holiday commercial of the moment...
And, even though the commercial is not exactly the same, here is another version of the Mr. Nibbles commercial on the YouTube site....
Is Christmas really next week? What is your favorite holiday commercial?
Read more: Question
Six-month blogiversary
2006-12-18 06:01:00
Yup, that's right, boys and girls! Doctor Anonymous been around for six months. I can hardly believe it! Thinking back, I didn't even know if I would get through the first week, or even the first month.
It's fun looking back at old posts - especially on occasions like this. I'd have to say that the entire Blogaholics Anonymous thing really got me started. Granted, this is not an original idea, but I'd have to say that was definitely the spark to get things rolling.
Over the past six months, I'd have to say that there were three points where I got a lot more noticed. First, when Moof highlighted me on her blog in June, I remember getting a lot more traffic that I'd ever seen. She's always been great to me, especially when I first started answering all my naive blogger questions. I even asked another question over this past weekend and she got back to be right away. Thanks for everything, Moof!
The second most significant point in the past six months was when I was named Beste
The Nose Knows
2006-12-18 16:17:00
Ah, to be a college student again. Those were the days. Partying a lot, going to class sometimes, and having that occasional "interesting" experience. Now, before any of you out there jump to any conclusions, the experience I'm talking about is taking part in a science experiment.Today, the Chicago Tribune describes a study involving the sense of smell...If the results are surprising, that may be because no one ever had tried putting a bunch of college undergraduates in a field wearing blindfolds and sound-muffling headphones, then had them crawl in the grass after a scent like pigs hunting for truffles.Researchers at the University of California-Berkeley found that "most of the students could follow a 30-foot trail of chocolate perfume and even changed direction precisely where the invisible path took a turn."Here's how they did the experiment (I'm not joking)...To create a scent trail, the scientists soaked a line of string in the chocolate scent and embedded it in the grass. The
My geek profile
2006-12-19 01:46:00
I was tagged by that Super Steno Girl. Gee thanks! By the way, this is a great new blog just started on December 1st. Check it out if you can. As for my geek profile
, unfortunately, no surprises here, ugh...
Your Geek Profile:
Academic Geekiness: Very geeky!Internet Geekiness: HighMovie Geekiness: HighMusic Geekiness: ModerateSciFi Geekiness: ModerateFashion Geekiness: ModerateGeneral Geekiness: ModerateGamer Geekiness: LowGeekiness in Love: Loser
How Geeky Are You?
Grand Rounds
2006-12-19 11:43:00
Grand Rounds
3.13 is now up and running over at Nurse Ratched's Place. I love the title and theme this week: It's Christmas Grand Rounds
, Charlie Brown! Thanks to Mother Jones RN for including my submit this week:
And speaking of eating Christmas goodies over the holidays, Dr. Anonymous writes about websites that take us into the world of anorexia and bulimia, and gives us his opinion about an aritcle that was written about these websites.Grand Rounds goes home next week to Blogborygmi (say that fast three times). What a Christmas present that is, Charlie Brown! Dr. Nick Genes, the founder of Grand Rounds, will be taking the reigns for the December 26th edition. For now, enjoy the best the medical blogosphere has to offer this week. It's Grand Rounds!
Read more: Grand
Dr. A's person of the year
2006-12-19 16:31:00
In case you haven't heard yet, Time Magazine's Person of the Year is YOU. That's right, YOU. I know, you're asking yourself, Huh? In my opinion, Time has reached a new low here. In an effort to offend no one, they took the easy way out and named everybody, er, YOU. That's pretty pathetic if you ask me.
Time has assured itself that this annual distinction is now irrelevant. It's like me naming a person
of the year. So, why not! If Time Magazine can make itself look important, then I'll do the same.
My person of the year is not actually a person. In addition, there is not even an agreed upon name of this "person." Now, before you think I'm going to do a spirituality post (not that there's anything wrong with that), here are the many names that have been used for my "person": Bug, Bacteria, Virus, Germ, Infection....
Well, you get the idea. In 2006, the population of the world has gotten to know more about microscopic organisms than ever before. For example, ripped from recent he
Gift cards
2006-12-20 13:16:00
Since this is the holiday season, why not talk about gift giving. Back in October, I talked about the whole thing of re-gifting. And, that seemed to generate some discussion.
I have to admit that I'm horrible at picking out gifts for people. I dread going to the mall and trying to figure things out. When I was introduced to the gift card, my life changed dramatically.
I know some people are offended by this gesture, but for me, it says, "Hey, I know what ever I get for you, you're going to return anyway, and get what you really want. So, why not cut to the chase. Here's a gift card."
I was talking with one of my co-workers here at the office. She thinks the gift card thing is totally insulting and saw on television the idea of plastic surgery, er, cosmetic surgery, gift cards. What? Huh?
I did a little research on this and found an article in USA Today talking about giving the gift of plastic surgery. Hmmmmm....
Tina Baldwin, 48, of Newfield, N.J., was thrilled this fall when her
Holiday personality
2006-12-21 12:01:00
Your Holiday
Personality is FunYou're all about the celebrating. Whether you're partying hard or singing along to Christmas music, you're totally enjoying the holidays.Make your own Christmas ornaments. Create a holiday mix for all your friends' stockings. Run around your neighborhood late Christmas Eve ringing bells.How Should You Spend the Holidays?Welcome back to holiday week here at Doctor Anonymous. Here's another personality test for you. Take the test yourself and post on your blog!
A Blogger's Story
2006-12-22 13:34:00
There is an interesting concept that just started out there today in blogland. It is a soap opera story with the main characters being bloggers - Hmmmmm...
Ok folks here goes… ways back in the blog a thon days.. Cathy and I discused doing a soap with all these bloggers… now well I think I am going to do it and it will work like this.
If you want to partisapate let me know. You will be a part of the story as well as writting the story. Anything goes.. know that up front cause like.. Don't want people getting offended ok. Apparently, this has been talked about for a while by Wolfbaby and Cathy. Well, today, the first installment has been posted over on Dreaming and Believing.
Wolfbaby cleaned the bar top to a polished shine then looked around the new place with pride. It was almost opening time and soon all of her blog world friend would come to see the new meeting place. What an idea they had all come up with. A jointly owned and operated restaurant and bar to allow all the blog o
Read more: Blogger
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