Medical Malpractice Suits: Death By MedicineWritten by Anna Henningsgaard
A recent report has found that Americans are more frightened of dying at hands of their doctor than they are of a plane crash. The overwhelming majority of those who participated in survey said that information about malpractice suits and medical errors would be single most deciding factor in trusting a healthcare provider. These people must have heard that medical errors cause more deaths in United States every year than car accidents, AIDS, or breast cancer.In fact, for airline industry to parallel medical errors in mortality rates a 280-person jet would have to crash every day of year. This would account for over 100,000 people who die annually due to complications in medical care, not to mention nearly 2 million who are maimed and disabled. This malady is called iatrogenic disease, a disease that is a direct result of medical care. What is causing this epidemic? Many agree that cause is over-treatment. More medicine is administered than necessary, people are hospitalized unnecessarily, and doctors prescribe drugs instead of healthy lifestyle choices. This is a major problem and it shows no signs of stopping. In ten year period between 1983 and 1993 incidence of death by medical error, or iatrogenic disease, jumped 260% overall and 850% among patience receiving outpatient care. These statistics could only be an indication of true numbers, because medical error is not often recorded on death certificates. Some people blame increased number of deaths on a greater number of prescriptions, but number of prescriptions issued has increased less than 40% in 10 years, compared with 260% increased death rate. Instead, some doctors blame increased usage of anesthesia, especially among those receiving outpatient care.
| | Low Carb Diets: 3 Reasons They're So PopularWritten by Kathryn O'Neill
The revolution is here. Weight Loss as we know it has changed forever because of one diet: One diet that has reached beyond weight loss program boundaries and invaded areas heretofore unknown: areas like beer commercials and even all sacred fast food menus. There was even a recent report on how this diet has taken a huge revenue chunk out of bread and flour industries. Now that's power. You know which diet I'm talking about of course. The big LC - LOW CARB (also known as lo carb, Atkins, protein diet, Adkins,no carb, etc) The low carb diet isn't new. In fact it's been around for years (long before Atkins wrote about it). And yet it just keeps pressing on, affecting our food choices and popular culture. So what is it about low carb diet that makes it so popular? Here are 3 reasons: #1 You can eat as much as you want (of certain low carb foods) While type of food is restricted to low carb or no carb, you don't have to restrict how much food you eat (in theory). This fact makes low carb diet popular with those of us who have been starved and deprived by low fat diets for years. It's a kind of 'have your cake and eat it too mentality' (as long as cake is low carb!) Essentially low carb diets says 'Eat all you want and STILL lose weight' Hey, sign me up. #2 You can eat 'bad' food. Human nature being what it is, we love to break rules, step over line, tempt fate, and do something 'bad'. We've been told for years that low carb foods - foods like eggs bacon, cheese, cream cheese, butter etc, are bad for us. With low carb diets we can lose weight while breaking all low fat rules we've come to resent.
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