EKG During Sleep Study

Merry Christmas

I probably won't be posting much more on this blog. I hope to continue posting periodically to sleepdoctor.

I will continue on Facebook, at my own site as well as visiting and occasionally posting at the Reggie White sleep sites (including Tupelo Sleep Diagnostics, the old name of Reggie White Sleep Disorder Centers- Tupelo)

(A note to any of my patients who are reading this: although I am unable to be Facebook friends on my personal site with any of my patients, I do encourage you to visit the various Reggie White sites on Facebook)

For you poker players out there, I am often on the WSOP Facebook app.

thanks to all who have read this blog over the years

Merry Christmas

Obama Lied

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/Obamacare-is-even-worse-than-critics-thought-960772-103571664.html

Obamacare won't allow employees or most small businesses to keep the coverage they have and like. By Obama's estimates, as many as 69 percent of employees, 80 percent of small businesses, and 64 percent of large businesses will be forced to change coverage, probably to more expensive plans.

Read more at the Washington Examiner: http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/Obamacare-is-even-worse-than-critics-thought-960772-103571664.html#ixzz10NgiMLEa

Sarah Palin reveals more of the President's lies:

http://www.facebook.com/notes/sarah-palin/lies-damned-lies-obamacare-6-months-later-its-time-to-take-back-the-20/433315368434

Obama's proposed immigration reform

http://d.yimg.com/kq/groups/17260182/1610997888/name/ftc-vi26.wmv

Republican 2012 Presidential Nominee

Fox News reports that Mitt Romney won the 2012 GOP presidential straw poll at the Southern Republican Leadership Conference. He barely edged out Rep. Ron Paul.

I wish Ron Paul would have won the nomination in 2008. In my opinion, he will be too old to run for President in 2012.

I think Romney would make a good presidential nominee, although I would prefer a Christian. Besides his Mormon religion, Romney's other big problem in winning the nomniation is the socialization of health care in Massachusettes under his leadership as governor. Obama-care and health care reform in Massachusettes are very similar. The big difference is that regulation of medical care is traditionally and constitutionally the function of the states, and not the federal government. Although health care reform in Massachusettes has been a disaster with cost overruns and physician shortages, if he takes the appropriate steps Romney should be able to minimize the resulting damage to his candidacy. My humble recommendation to Romney would be to give a series of speeches in which he 1) defends states rights and 2) promises to roll back Obama-care if elected President.

I will be supporting my governor, Haley Barbour, if he decides to run for President. He served Mississippi well in the aftermath of Hurrican Katrina. At the Southern Republican Leadership Conference, he stated that the policies of President Obama and other Democrats are a "man-made disaster."

Coal in your Stocking

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_health_care_overhaul

Senate Democrats passed a landmark health care bill in a climactic Christmas Eve vote

Guest Article on Tort Reform

Below is a guest article on Tort Reform by Barbara O’ Brien; the opinions below are not my own:


Tort Reform Doesn’t Lower Health Care Costs

A few weeks ago the Congressional Budget Office released an analysis that said tort reform would save the federal government $54 billion over ten years. That sounds like a great argument for tort reform. But if you read the analysis more carefully, you see the picture is not so simple. For example, on page 4 of the analysis you can find this little bombshell:

“CBO’s estimate takes into account the fact that because many states have already implemented some of the changes in the package, a significant fraction of the potential cost savings has already been realized.“

The fact is, more than half of the states already have “reformed” tort. The CBO is saying that federal tort reform would not give us an additional $54 billion in savings. Rather, we’re already enjoying a significant fraction of the $54 billion in savings because tort is already “reformed” in most states.

Wait, you didn’t notice that health care costs are dropping because of state tort reforms? That’s because they aren’t.

What we see in states like Texas, which has enacted sweeping “tort reform” laws, is that while the number of lawsuits go down the overall costs of health care and health insurance keep going up — as much as in states that haven’t changed their tort laws.

It is true that states with “reformed” tort law have seen a big reduction in the number of personal injury lawsuits and jury awards, which does save some money. But the costs of caring for people injured by malpractice, mesothelioma cancer, or other injuries from dangerous products or workplaces, don’t go away. And if the responsible party doesn’t pay, usually the rest of us do — in higher insurance premiums and taxes.

And according to a 2006 Harvard study published by the New England Journal of Medicine, only 3 percent of malpractice claims are completely frivolous.

Every state has its own tort laws, and there may be many reasons to reform many of those laws. But reducing health care cost is not one of those reasons.

Barbara O’ Brien

Merry Christmas

Picture of one of the family's cats

This is one of the family's 2 cats, Poe.

Climategate

Don't have too much to say about this. While many elements of the mainstream media have been minimizing and downplaying this scandal, the Drudge Report (and also Fox News) have been keeping the story alive in the US.

Here is one of the latest links on the Drudge Report on Climategate.

The Wall Street Journal had a good article about the scandal yesterday:

The real issue is what the messages say about the way the much-ballyhooed scientific consensus on global warming was arrived at, and how a single view of warming and its causes is being enforced.

Much of this resembles the late Michael Crichton's novel, State of Fear

Our Disgraceful President

First he bowed to the Saudi king. Now he has bowed to the Japanese emperor. The Los Angeles Times has pictures and video of Obama bowing to the emperor:

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2009/11/obama-emperor-akihito-japan.html

As the representative of the U.S.A., Obama degrades all American citizens when he bows to foreign leaders. No American citizen should ever bow to a foreign leader (even though Obama is not a natural born citizen, he is an American citizen).

Peak Gold

If you haven't gotten into the gold rally yet, now is the time to get in:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/industry/mining/6546579/Barrick-shuts-hedge-book-as-world-gold-supply-runs-out.html

Blogging Nursing Student Expelled

Kevin MD posted about a nursing student who was expelled for blogging about a child birth she witnessed. I encourage you to read his post, as I am too lazy to summarize it:
http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2009/10/nursing-student-expelled-blogging.html

After going through several links, I finally found the original blog post:
http://www.pageonekentucky.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/yoder1.pdf

There are certainly some things in Yoder's (the nursing student's) post that can be considered mildly objectionable. However, I don't see why everyone is getting so excited about her description of the newborn child. All the blogs discussing Yoder quote these lines:

“a wrinkly, bluish creature, all Picasso-like and weird, ugly as hell, covered in god knows what, screeching and waving its tentacles in the air,”

However, no one quotes the line immediately following:

"15 minutes later it turned into a cute pink itty bitty little baby girl"

I'm glad Nina Yoder won her lawsuit against the University of Louisville.

I am not a Borderline

Even though I detest Obama and feel that he is destroying this great nation, that does not mean that I have a psychiatric illness (see my comment on this Kevin MD post:
http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2009/10/political-discourse-borderline-personality-disorder.html)

Chocolate and Salt

Lindt has come out with a new chocolate bar... the "A Touch of Sea Salt Bar". It combines two of the things I love- dark chocolate and salt. It tastes great!
Much more appetizing than chocolate salty balls (which apparently is a real recipe)...

Health Insurance Mandate Unconstitutional

Constitutional experts think that Obama's planned individual health insurance mandate is unconstitutional:

The requirement that everyone buy health insurance -- a central element to President Obama's health care plan -- is flatly unconstitutional, legal experts argue.
"The government has never required people to buy any good or service, as condition of lawful residence in the United States"

via Fox News, article by Jim Angie

Health Care Reform and Retardation

Some are getting upset because the House of Representatives health care reform bill uses the term "retarded".
The New York Post (via Drudge) reports:

The bill refers to: "A hospital or a nursing facility or intermediate-care facility for the mentally retarded . . ."

I don't see what the problem is. "Mental Retardation" is a valid medical/psychiatric term. Other more PC terms such as "developmentally disabled" have a slightly different meaning. The term "developmental disability" includes not only mental retardation but also autism and several other coniditions. There are various legal and medical definitions of developmental disability.

As someone who treats adults with mental retardation as well as autism I use the terms "mental retardation/mentally retarded" and "developmental disability/developmentally disabled", as well as "pervasive developmental disability" when appropriate. These terms all have different meanings and it is important that physicians as well as lawmakers use the correct term in order to promote clarity and precision.

There is no place for politically correct terminology when writing one of the most significant (in a bad way) pieces of legislation in the last 50 years.

Stocks are at a crossroads

The S and P 500 index is at a key technical level. If it closes below 900, get out of the market. If it manages to stay above 900 over the next several days, that's a sign to add to your stock exposure, with either an S and P 500 index or Large Cap ETF/mutual fund.

Michelle Obama Wants Everyone to have AIDS

Like Subway's Jared, Michelle Obama wants everyone to have aids:

First lady Michelle Obama called her "current life" in the White House "a very blessed situation, because I have what most families don't have -- tons of support all around, not just my mother, but staff and administration. I have a chief of staff and a personal assistant, and everyone needs that."

"Everyone should have a chief of staff and a set of personal assistants" 

Some antidepressants increase the risk of diabetes

Long term use of antidepressants is associated with an increased risk of Diabetes Mellitus.

This is especially true of 2 antidepressants likely to cause weight gain, Paxil (paroxetine) and Elavil (amitryptiline).

No need to take immediate action:
Dr. Andersohn stressed that because the risk for diabetes develops slowly, doctors should not take immediate action in treating individual patients. "Abrupt withdrawal of antidepressants might cause unintended effects."