Category Archives: physician

The Doctors Are Angry

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My friends. 

People should NOT be tested for testosterone levels unless they have overt symptoms and are evaluated by a qualified clinician first. 

“Peptides”, by which I mean some currently popular, non-FDA approved dietary supplements, have no reliable laboratory or clinical evidence for benefit in human conditions.

And now military service members will be screened for testosterone levels starting at age 30 and an FDA committee has recommended that compounding pharmacies should be allowed to create peptide preparations for clinical use.

The CDC website now includes verbiage suggesting that vaccines may cause autism, that the data is ‘unclear’, when myriad high quality studies prove soundly that they do not.  The single paper published in The Lancet decades ago claiming the relationship was retracted when found to be falsified, and the physician author sanctioned by his professional governing body.

These decisions and many others fly flagrantly in the face of decades of rigorous academic study and painstaking medical and public health stewardship on the part of researchers, educators, and clinicians who have dedicated their lives to understanding the science of medicine and collaborating to apply it for societal good through thoughtful, responsible, and accountable public health policy.  The United States has led the world in that time with breakthroughs in basic bench science, revolutionary pharmaceutical discovery and development, and technical surgical advancements.  Diagnostic and therapeutic innovations were vigorously tested and monitored for safety, efficacy, and harm.  We have rightly enjoyed international regard and status as a nation where science is respected and done with integrity. 

No more.

Including the one physician whose ethics and clinical credibility were also roundly denounced by his former academic colleagues, the men in charge of the governmental health and medicine decisions above are about as far from responsible and accountable public policy stewards as we have ever seen in the posts they occupy.  I cannot state strongly enough what a national disgrace this is.  The least qualified and competent people have been elevated to the highest positions of power and authority in our federal government.  Their actions exemplify hubris, ignorance, arrogance, and an utter lack of integrity or intellectual humility.  They are exactly the opposite of leaders we need at the front of public health policy and practices that affect the health and well-being of our military service members and population.

It absolutely exacerbates the situation that our healthcare system is so profoundly broken that most people don’t have enough of a relationship with their primary care physician (if they even have one designated at all) to get qualified, thoughtful, caring, and informed advice about all of the confusing and conflicting information they encounter on every media platform.

This post is a week late for various reasons (jury duty [fascinating—more on that soon!] and travel).  I had intended to introduce two clinicians whom I strongly recommend to follow for reliable, evidence-based medical information, as well as education on how to think for ourselves when we encounter such information, how to vet it effectively.  But apparently I had to rant first.  Introductions forthcoming. Thank you for your indulgence.

OH YES, the doctors are angry. 
But we have not lost hope. 
Far from it.
We persist and resist. 

We lead.

Onward, friends. We’ got this.

Social Media Accounts I Recommend for Health and Fitness

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Friends, how do you use social media? Is it a major source of information? Confusion? Connection? Thought provocation? Stress?

This year I find myself recommending specific accounts on Instagram regularly, so I thought I’d share them here on the blog. This post covers health and fitness entities I follow and recommend. I will share other topics in future posts. Which accounts do you follow and how do they serve you? At seven accounts, the list below is far from exhaustive. But whenever anything from each of these accounts emerges on my feed, I engage, and I am never disappointed. I have no financial or other interests in any of them.

The complexity of our world accelerates exponentially now, and we all have to learn how to filter and integrate all kinds of media assailing us all the time. Sensory overload is real and detrimental, and our management skills lag far behind their requirement. These accounts, in my opinion, help us cut through misinformation, inviting and guiding us to think for ourselves. They facilitate self-efficacy, which protects us from falling victim to those who would prey on our fears and uncertainties. I hope this list proves helpful and empowering:

Built With Science
Founded by Jeremy Ethier, whom I found on YouTube for his excellent videos on how to lift heavy in the gym safely, BWS is my first online recommendation for evidence-based and accessible information on fitness and high level performance nutrition. It is truly founded in science, applied honestly and practically. Posts include primary literature citations, which I have not seen anywhere else. I did the two week free trial fo the BWS app, and I would use it if I were not already in love with my gym.

Nikki Georgeson
Nikki is a former coach at my gym. She programs both exercise and nutrition, and I find her to be knowledgeable, honest, practical, and inspiring. Her advice is both relatable and evidence-based. Like BWS, Nikki’s posts educate, inform, encourage, and do not sugar coat or make false promises.

Sean Casey
This young man impresses me to no end. He shares his own health transformation, and now leads an international community of folks from all walks of life. Like Jeremy and Nikki, his approach is one of self-efficacy, practicality, and community support. His posts are focused but nuanced, acknowledging the complexities and challenges of living healthy in an unhealthy world. The Glean app also has a free trial period which I highly recommend.

Kasey McKenney
Kasey is the Director of Treatment at Ethos Training Systems in Chicago, my own gym. I share patients with Kasey and the Ethos team regularly. I most appreciate that Kasey brings together Traditional Chinese Medicine (which she has both mastered and can actually explain to the rest of us) and sports physiology. She practices a truly integrative and holistic form of physical medicine, and her posts and stories reflect this philosophy.

Will Flanary, Dr. Glaucomflecken
Follow Doc Glauc for humorous and spot-on parodies of medical subspecialty personalities, lay explanations of the latest scientific research published in the New England Journal of Medicine as well as random medical topics we all had to study for our board exams, and strong advocacy for a more just and transparent healthcare system.

Dr. Jen Gunter
I need to update my menopause post from 2024, but for now let me just recommend that we all follow Dr. Gunter. Subscribe to The Vajenda on Substack to receive her weekly newsletter on all things women’s health. Her most recent piece, “The Attention Economy of Menopause Medicine“, describes how the pendulum of menopause awareness and advocacy has now swung past useful education and application and well toward predatory hypercapitalist moneymaking. Her opinions are her own, they are strong, and they are evidence-based. She cites primary research literature and provides excellent context for her arguments and recommendations.

The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, ACOG
It is not an overstatement that women’s health is under threat in the United States. ACOG is the medical professional society at the forefront of protecting and advocating for autonomy and access for women and their healthcare teams. ACOG posts about policy and educates about what is at stake for women when legislation and judicial position changes.

For Holly

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https://pritzker.uchicago.edu/news/honoring-legacy-dr-holly-j-humphrey

Our friend, leader, and role model has passed.

What a surreal moment of sadness, reflection, slowing, and conviction.

I always knew you as simply Holly, not “Dr. Humphrey.”  The latter was a given and absolutely respected; it just felt too distant a title for how you showed up as program director to us residents.  Our respect for and deference to you was not commanded, demanded, or condescended by you.  It was a natural consequence of your presence: attuned, caring, earnest, authentic, and integrous.  Your essence emanated teacher, leader, mentor, steward, and patron.

I never knew you closely, but I felt known by you.  And that was enough.  Those three years were grueling and also bonding.  The culture you set of caring and encouragement, of looking after one another and always being on the same team, filtered through the chief residents, senior residents, and interns, so that we (when we had the bandwidth) could show caring and encouragement to the medical students.  Back before work hour restrictions existed, this was significant.  The University of Chicago Internal Medicine Residency Program was known as one of the most collegial and compassionate in the country, as well as one of the most rigorous and accomplished.  The longer I practice, the more I observe corporate and academic cultures from various perspectives, the more I appreciate and marvel at that incredible integration, at the uniquely holistic community of my training.  I knew it at the time; did not take it for granted.  And yet even now, more than twenty years out, the lasting impact on my own ethos and those of my classmates continues to move me.  I am so proud and grateful to have the privilege of calling myself a UofC IM graduate.

Reading the long list of initiatives, accomplishments, and accolades attributed to you after my time at UChicago ended, my psyche swells with pride for you, vicarious gratitude for all whom your programs touched, and inspiration to make my own contribution in kind.  Your mission and impact, as I understand from afar, was always to not only lift others directly, but show us all how to lift one another.  You were a leader of leaders—you helped us all identify and call forth that within each of us that would help make one another better.

What an honor and privilege to have shared even such a brief moment of this lifetime with you, Holly.  Those three years of residency, though short, were transformative.  Looking back, I was definitely not my best self at that time.  I cringe, and then I imagine how you might have counseled me, with honesty, compassion, and conviction to be my better self.  You empowered us through your confidence in us.  You held us accountable to a standard of conduct that made us worthy of our integrity.  Your leadership helped shape our character as clinicians and citizens of the profession.

Your life and memory are blessings on all who knew you. 
May we honor you and the impact you had on us all by carrying on the work you so bravely and generously began in innovative and connecting ways–the work of deepening compassion, inclusion, excellence, and humaneness in medicine.