There is a growing canon of work on the opioid epidemic. The best of these books include “Dreamland” by Sam Quinones, “Dopesick” by Beth Macy, and “Chasing the Scream” by Johann Hari. Each tells the story from a different angle. Together, they describe the confluence of heroin, Oxycontin, and fentanyl, the complicity of Big Pharma, and the failed “war on drugs.”
There is a new book to add to the list: “The United States of Opioids,” by Harry Nelson, JD. As a practicing health care attorney, Harry brings a legal eye—as well as a deep heart of compassion—to this very complex subject.Read the rest of this entry »
Drug overdoses killed approximately 72,000 people in in the United States in 2017. This was an increase of 10% from 2016. The two reasons cited are (1) Americans continue to use opioids in increasing numbers, and (2) there are more powerful, deadlier, synthetic opioids available in the underground marketplace—mainly fentanyl, which is 100 times stronger than morphine. While the latter is the primary cause of fatalities, there is a connection between the two explanations.
It is established that of those who die of opioid overdoses, 80% started their use/abuse of these drugs with a prescription for pharmaceutical painkillers: for football injuries, work injuries, post-surgical pain, dental issues. Too many medical doctors prescribe these drugs routinely.Read the rest of this entry »
Ricky is interviewed by Michael Finney, consumer affairs reporter for Channel 7 Bay Area and KGO Radio, about his article “A Rationale For a Single Payer Health Care System.”
We are currently in the midst of the most lethal drug epidemic in our country’s history. One of the shocking things about this crisis is that it has been going on for the past 20 years without showing any signs of letting up. In 2016, overdoses involving opioids killed more than 42,000 people. Of those deaths, 40% were from prescription opioids. (Statistics are still being finalized for 2017.)
Several recent books describe the evolution of this epidemic, each from a slightly different perspective.* I’ll focus on just one of them here.Read the rest of this entry »
Real change is coming to our health insurance system. This is inevitable for the simple reason that the system, as it stands, is not sustainable. Premiums and deductibles keep rising, way beyond the rate of inflation. Drug prices also rise, as do hospital and medical device costs.
In 2010 President Obama pushed through his landmark legislation, the Affordable Care Act (ACA), which enabled millions of previously uninsured people to get health insurance for the first time. But the model was still rooted in the same private insurance system, and dominated by the usual players: Aetna, United Health Care, Cigna and the “Blues”. So there was little reason to expect the inflationary trends to slow down.Read the rest of this entry »
Witches, Nurses, Midwives (WNM) is one of the seminal works of second-wave feminism. It was written in 1973 by two professors at State University of New York at Westbury, a new public college. At SUNY Westbury the curriculum included alternative subjects, such as Women’s Studies, and served a student body of older, ethnically diverse and working class students. Professor Barbara Ehrenreich went on to become one of our most important cultural critics; Professor Deirdre English, a prominent journalist, author, and an editor for Mother Jones.
This book was originally published as a pamphlet. Passed from person to person, it became an underground classic, addressing power, misogyny, and class struggle in the evolution of American medicine and health care.Read the rest of this entry »
With the recent revelations about the Russian trolling of the 2016 presidential election, during which both Facebook and Twitter were manipulated by a foreign power, we are witnessing the beginning of a national reckoning with social media. A global network that was initially seen as a great gift to humankind is now being reconsidered.
Hailed as a great unifier, and a way to connect people—social media was the force behind the Arab Spring and other revolutionary movements—the broader implications of this network have come crashing down on us. There has even been a good deal of hand wringing among some ex-Facebook executives, who have had second thoughts about what they have created.
Irresistible, the new book by Eric Alter, that describes the effects of social media on our children and the science behind those effects, sheds light on some of the reasons for this soul searching.Read the rest of this entry »
I just returned from a relaxing week-long vacation in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. The ocean was beautiful, the sunsets magnificent, and the tequila sweet, strong and flowing.
My wife and I stayed at a large resort, supported by lots of local workers: gardeners, maids, cooks, waiters, maintenance people, and many others.
As a chiropractor, I could not help but notice that many of the workers were wearing lumbar (lower back) support belts. These are the cloth and Velcro braces that can be wrapped tightly around one’s waist. The reason workers use these is to prevent low back injury, which is the most common work injury.
For quite some time, I have been thinking about writing a book. I believe I have a unique perspective on health and healing and that this perspective might be interesting and useful to others. After all, I’ve been in practice for more than 30 years. I’ve taught undergrad and graduate level coursework in the history and philosophy of science, as well as complementary and integrative medicine. I’ve worked as a chiropractor in private practice, public health, and occupational (worker compensation) medical settings. My experience has been broad and deep in the field of integrative health. And I definitely have a point of view!
But the more I thought about my book, the more pause I took. My friends have written books. Some are established authors with reputable publishers, and are paid in advance for their work. But most are people who—like me— want to write to express something they have been carrying within themselves; to articulate their unique perspective. Many in the latter group may spend years on the project, self-publish their work, and, at the end of this long process, have 20 or 30 of their friends and relatives buy the book. The rest may go into storage, or be given away. (Of course, there’s always the possibility that the book might become a great bestseller, and one might join the ranks Dr. Oz or Deepak Chopra. But there’s an even better possibility that those books will stay on the shelf.)Read the rest of this entry »