Palliative Care and the Lost Art of Communication

The following is Part 2 in a series about end-of-life care. For Part 1, see here. This article addresses my own experience on a Palliative Medicine elective in my fourth year of medical school.

Despite the growing number of U.S. hospitals with Palliative Care teams, there remains a real lack of understanding about the benefit that specialized Palliative Care providers can bring for patients with advanced illness. This form of care is especially valuable in patients with end-stage illness (and has even been shown to extend life by several months), but it can also help any patient at any stage of illness (regardless of prognosis). Indeed, even prescribing an NSAID for headache can be considered a form of palliation. The focus is about improving quality of life now instead of later.

False Rape Accounts are Exceedingly Rare

The recent resurgence of sexual abuse allegations against Bill Cosby led to some interesting family discussions at the Thanksgiving table recently. In case you have not been following the news, Bill Cosby has allegedly throughout the course of his career sexually assaulted female coworkers; many have now come forward to make their stories public, and the resulting commotion has led to cancellation of new projects that Cosby had been about to launch, as well as a general tarnishing of his iconic reputation.

One of my cousins (let’s call her Allison) works in a support shelter for survivors of domestic violence, and she and another relative (let’s call him Roger) were arguing over how the public and the media should respond to the many allegations. The crux of the debate came from the fact that so many women have been coming forward all seemingly at once. They certainly couldn’t all be telling the truth, Roger asserted. Certainly some of them were doing it for the fame and/or potential money, he guessed.

Holistic Prevention for Alzheimer’s: The Time is Now

Source: Care Point Acive

A newly released study demonstrates that approximately one third of Alzheimer’s cases worldwide are attributable to seven modifiable risk factors: depression, physical inactivity, diabetes, midlife hypertension, midlife obesity, smoking, and low educational attainment. The largest proportion of cases was attributed to physical inactivity, which affects more than half of all Americans. Depression, which affects approximately 14.8 million Americans, accounted for approximately one in ten cases of Alzheimer’s disease globally.

These findings highlight the urgent need for more investment in prevention – and specifically in a holistic approach to health promotion, which includes mental health.