The golden rule of surgery is: Primum non nocere – ‘First, do no harm’. There is another, competing rule that comes from practicing defensive medicine: Prius non tempore – ‘first, do no time’. Primum non nocere boils down to avoidance of acts...
Vitamins are vital amines, needed for everyday chemical reactions in our bodies. Deficiencies can be harmful, but that doesn’t mean that taking more than you need is beneficial. In fact, it can be very harmful yet the message that more is better prevails. Does vitamin...
A recent paper in the Medical Journal of Australia (here) provides a nice overview of the biases that lead doctors to overtreat and overinvestigate, but also offers useful solutions that we need to act on. A cognitive bias is where existing beliefs persist in the face...
A common ending to a consultation where I have explained to a patient that there is nothing that surgery/medicine can reliably or safely offer them for their symptoms (back pain, joint pain, limited joint movement etc.) is “So I just have to live with it do I?” A...
I have 4 kids, 3 of whom had their wisdom teeth removed on reaching adulthood on the advice of specialists. I had mine removed in my 30s for some reason and so did my wife. In the US and much of the world this is a billion dollar per year business, with millions of...
