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September is Prostate Cancer Awareness month. About 1 out of every 6 men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer in his lifetime, and it’s the second leading cause of cancer deaths in men (behind lung cancer). Get checked! [Image from Mike Rodriguez Designs]

allisondroberts asked: This isn't a question, but the only way I could figure out how to contact you. I just published and article from my queue that is a good follow on about your statins/ diabetes post as it discussed the problems with people's perceptions and the way statistics are presented:

http://allisondroberts.tumblr.com/post/4224487258/poorly-presented-risk-statistics-could-misinform-health

I thought you might be interested.

Very nice!

Mark Twain used to speak of the three types of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics. Mr. Twain, I’ve got another example for you. 

In an article in yesterday’s Journal of the American College of Cardiology, there was a reported association between the cholesterol medication Lipitor and diabetes. But if you look at the data, it would take 255 patients on Lipitor for four years to produce one extra case of diabetes. It shows what we commonly see: a statistically significant but clinically irrelevant link. 

There is an epidemic of diabetes in this country, and one extra case per 1000 patient years use of Lipitor may not be that important. Considering that heart disease is the number one killer of all Americans, the benefits of the statin (Lipitor) most likely outweighs the risk.

Damned statistics.

ziyadmd:

Physicians, and medical students for that matter tend to fall into 10 different categories — which type are you?

He sounds like a real jerk; sorry you had that experience. 

so-brokeh:

I woke up feeling like mad shit this morning.

It appears that my condition had worsened since last night. So, I end up going to walk-in clinic to see what the hell was up. I wait about 10 minutes before the doctor calls me into his office. I tell him what’s wrong:

I was coughing up phlegm, had a…

(via so-brokeh-deactivated20110802)

smarterplanet:

“If all eligible patients filled their prescriptions through a $4 generic drug program, the societal savings could amount to nearly $6 billion, according to a University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health (GSPH) study. Published in the March 14 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine,…

(Source: physorg.com)

(Geyman. NEJM 298:593-601, 1978) 

(Source: aafpfoundation.org)