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Sociology and Language of Medicine

“It’s Probably too Early to Recommend that People Eat More Chocolate…”

Per this Reuters article, a recently health study found that women older than 70 who ate chocolate at least once per week were 35 percent less likely to be hospitalized or die from heart disease over the course of the study, and nearly 60 percent less likely to be hospitalized or die from heart failure.

But it is probably too early to begin recommending people eat more chocolate, cautioned Dr. Brian Buijsse at the German Institute of Human Nutrition, who did not participate in the study. And even if additional large studies confirmed its benefits, doctors still may not want to prescribe chocolate, he added.

“The danger is that many people will start eating more of it than is necessary, without cutting back in calories from other snacks, which will result in weight gain and will counteract any beneficial effects of chocolate,” Buijsse said.

This is not the first study to tout chocolate’s potential benefits: in 2008, Italian researchers found that eating dark chocolate regularly may help lower levels of inflammation, which is strongly associated with heart and blood vessel disease. Read more…

Low-Cost Dental Care Reflects Wider National Debate

There’s a debate shaping up in Alaska regarding whether dental therapists should be allowed to perform procedures such as administering fillings and completing extractions. Alaska is currently the only state which allows for dental therapists to perform invasive procedures; ten other states are considering legislation to expand (or recognize) the role of dental therapists in a similar manner per this New York Times article.

The debate highlights multiple hot topics in health care discussion today:

  • Access to healthcare (The therapists, who receive two years of training, help fill a vacuum: Alaska has long had trouble attracting and retaining licensed dentists. Given Alaska’s huge size and rural population, for many state residents a trip to the dentists – or any health care practitioner – can be a lengthy event.).
  • The ethnic and socioeconomic divide in health care: 60 percent of Alaska Native children ages 2 to 5 have untreated decay, and 20 percent of Native adults over 55 have no teeth at all.
  • Which professions have the legal right to treat patients in what manner.  
  • Long-term care/preventive care medicine vs. short-term care. (When discussing the ramifications of a dental therapist performing an extraction, Dr. Raymond Gist, the American Dental Association president, notes that: “If you have a person suffering from pain, that person has advanced disease,” said  “I would want that person to see a licensed dentist without delay.” Would an extraction necessarily prevent disease from spreading, or will the patient end up needing yet another extraction as disease spread?)

No one is arguing that patients shouldn’t receive care. But how this particular discussion plays out is an important reflection of a much wider national discussion.

“Wellness” – A Word I dislike

The New York Times Magazine of April 18 carried this article that addresses one of my pet peeves – the abuse of our beautiful language. Actually the article is too kind to the word, focusing on the first use and evolution of the term. What benefit is there to a word that has a perfectly fine equivalent called – health?

Wellness has become a buzzword and a marketing term to promote all sorts of expensive maneuvers and services, often in the workplace, to improve the health of individuals, often involving incentives, paid consultants and the like. I have yet to see a scholarly report that establishes the effectiveness of such programs and their cost benefit. I believe it most likely that those who wish to be healthy need no external incentive or program, and are already taking care of themselves, and those who can’t or won’t engage in healthy choices in their lives are unlikely to be significantly persuaded by a workplace program.

How many people are in the dark about what it takes to be healthy, especially adults in the workforce?

With Cancer, Let’s Face It: Words Are Inadequate

This column from the New York Times, March 21, 2010, challenges us to find new vocabulary around the experience of cancer. The writer dislikes terms like bravery, victim and hero – and a general surplus of clichés around the disease. Some other recent articles written by women have had similar criticism about the commoditization and ‘pinking’ of breast cancer.