Tag: primary prevention

Statins for everyone? Not so fast.

People love the idea of preventive medicine. Preventing a disease, before it occurs, seems intuitively obvious. But when it comes to taking medicine to prevent a disease before it occurs, people tend to be much less comfortable. Not only are there the concerns about the “medicalization” of healthy people, there are good questions about benefits, risks, and costs. Cardiovascular disease will kill...

/ April 7, 2016

An aspirin a day to prevent heart attacks, strokes, and cancer?

Taking an aspirin a day has always been controversial when it comes to preventing disease before it occurs. Now a task force is recommending daily use under some circumstances. Do the benefits really outweigh the risks?

/ September 24, 2015

Separating Fact from Fiction in the Newborn Nursery: Hepatitis B Vaccine for Newborns

For those of you new to Science-Based Medicine, I am a pediatric hospitalist and spend the majority of my time caring for newborns. It’s an extremely rewarding experience on most days. The babies are usually healthy, the parents are usually happy and appreciative, and I get to give a lot of good news. I also get to dispel a lot of myths...

/ July 17, 2015

Do vitamins prevent cancer and heart disease?

The US Preventive Services Task Force has released an update on vitamin and mineral supplements to prevent heart disease and cancer. The evidence was not good and did not support taking vitamins as "nutritional insurance."

/ November 21, 2013

The Meaning of Secondary Prevention

A November letter to the editor in American Family Physician chastises that publication for misusing the term “secondary prevention,” even using it in the title of an article that was actually about tertiary prevention. I am guilty of the same sin. I had been influenced by simplistic explanations that distinguished only two kinds of prevention: primary and secondary. I thought primary prevention...

/ January 11, 2011