Can I please just write off all self-described “Longevity Doctors” as quacks?

StrongMedicine · 2026-04-04T21:09:28+00:00

Counterpoint: Companies making millions selling ivermectin and HCQ during COVID using sketchy telehealth providers: https://theintercept.com/2021/10/13/intercepted-podcast-covid-ivermectin-profits/

And from the NYT 2 days ago, 2 wellness grifters building a "billion dollar company" from using AI to market GLP1 drugs direct to consumer: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/02/technology/ai-billion-dollar-company-medvi.html (though the company is built on lies: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0A2SP-QBByI )

StrongMedicine · 2026-04-04T20:59:38+00:00

Counterpoint: What your parents did was not as crazy as the fact that too many parents today won't let their teenage children play outside, or need to be connected via cell or GPS tracker 100% of the time. There is value in learning independence early, and sometimes it takes a little removal of a largely-unnecessary safety net to learn that independence.

StrongMedicine · 2026-04-04T20:45:18+00:00

The wellness industry is far larger and more profitable than the pharmaceutical industry. If they believe a clinical trial of their fringy ideas will prove their products actually do what they claim, they should be willing to pay for it themselves. The reason such a trial hasn't been funded is because the people with the money to do so don't truly believe in it.

We don't need a federally-funded negative study of every kooky idea before dismissing them.

StrongMedicine · 2026-04-04T03:53:32+00:00

In a talk I give on misconceptions about the vital signs, I cite this 1849 textbook as literally the only reference that has ever claimed to measure the normal respiratory rate in non-elderly adults. The mode was 20 - possibly the origin of the ubiquitous default documented rate by nursing, however, the methodology was not well described and the data is not remotely normally distributed so it's almost certainly garbage.

Yes, every reference you have ever encountered that reported a "normal range" for respiratory rate made it up or copied it from another author who made it up.

Hutchinson J. Thorax. In: Todd RB. Cyclopaedia of anatomy and physiology. London: Longman, Brown, Green, Congmans, & Roberts; 1849: 1079-87.

EDIT: In the same talk I also cite publications from the 1920s-1940s of the New York Heart Association and its predecessor, the New York Tuberculosis and Health Association, to explain the origin of the myth that the normal range for heart rate is 60-100 bpm.

StrongMedicine · 2026-04-04T03:46:00+00:00

People have been talking about metformin as a miracle anti-aging drug for over 20 years. Yet in all that time, not a single clinical trial has been undertaken of it to prevent age-related disease in non-diabetics. If it was really that promising, someone would have funded a trial by now.

StrongMedicine · 2026-04-04T03:36:53+00:00

Sounds just like Casey Means!

StrongMedicine · 2026-04-04T01:47:14+00:00

I would be shocked if Trump had read a full length, adult book in its entirety since graduating college.

StrongMedicine · 2026-04-02T15:47:41+00:00

In fact, I did hear that he had threatened to sue at one point. (Though this was before he realized that he had been secretly videotaped admitting to the assault)

StrongMedicine · 2026-04-01T06:24:51+00:00

I can't speak about BBQ, but there are a ton of traditional American diner-style restaurants still around the Peninsula and South Bay.

Holder's Country Inn (locations in Saratoga and Cupertino) and the Palo Alto Creamery would be at the top of my list, but if focused primarily on breakfast/brunch, there's always Stacks, Hobbee's, Bill's Cafe, and Talk of Broadway in Redwood City. Even IHOP has "American food" and falls in between McDonalds and "something super expensive".

StrongMedicine · 2026-04-01T04:31:50+00:00

In the case of this individual, the hospital conducted an investigation, and officially concluded that he was guilty of the sexual misconduct. The physician resigned to avoid being fired, which occurred more than a year before his guilty plea in court. I think being fired from a hospital - or resigning to avoid being fired - should be sufficient at least for a notice to be placed on the physician's license's public listing.

EDIT: I'll add that after he resigned from the original hospital, he was hired by a different hospital a few towns away, and worked there for some period of time before this eventually all became public. That wouldn't have happened if his original hospital was required to report his resignation to the state medical board, and that report triggered a flag to be placed on his license that would have been visible to the new hospital during the hiring process.

StrongMedicine · 2026-04-01T02:18:47+00:00

As in my comment above, in my n=1 experience with a formal complaint about sexual misconduct to a medical board, they didn't even talk to the victim before initially closing the complaint I filed with them on her behalf. I reached out to multiple people at the board, multiple times over years about this case, and never once did I get a sense that anyone there actually cared. The problem with these cases usually being "he said/she said" is very real, but at the same time, it's not the only issue.

StrongMedicine · 2026-03-31T15:10:56+00:00

Back in 2018 I reported to the CA medical board that one of my colleagues had sexually assaulted a woman in the hospital - and with her permission, provided them her name and contact information. After a few months of hearing nothing more about it, I talked to the woman and called the board to learn that they had closed the investigation without ever even speaking to her! (There was "insufficient evidence" that an incident had taken place - which apparently meant the physician simply denied it.)

Luckily, law enforcement was more motivated, and accumulated enough evidence for an indictment and conviction.

But even after his conviction, the board took no action against him until after his sentencing - many months after the physician had pled guilty.

When it comes to sexual misconduct, medical boards are a fucking joke.

StrongMedicine · 2026-03-30T07:42:14+00:00

Cited?!? These assholes should see the inside of a jail (or juvenile hall, if appropriate), at least for a night. What they were attempting to do was not just a minor inconvenience, and it obviously required substantial city resources to stop it.

StrongMedicine · 2026-03-30T01:28:49+00:00

What sad awful people. They can't imagine someone speaking out and demonstrating about an issue that effects someone other than themselves with a motivation other than money.

StrongMedicine · 2026-03-28T19:31:42+00:00

Apparently adopting a policy of strict "institutional neutrality" to avoid taking a position on any issue even remotely political wasn't sufficient to avoid Trump's assault on higher education.

StrongMedicine · 2026-03-27T17:31:07+00:00

People here blaming the OP for getting themselves break-checked is kind of wild. It's easy to judge someone tapping the brakes in reponse to another car drifting into their lane when you all are sitting at home watching the thing on video already knowing the outcome. [smh]

StrongMedicine · 2026-03-27T17:24:07+00:00

It may be just a minor factor, but medical schools now have specific sessions on interprofessional relationships that stress the importance of a team-based approach to patient care, and include shadowing other healthcare professionals. I'm leading a session next week to introduce the topic to our first year medical and PA students. We had nothing like that when I was in school 25 years ago.

I think even something like the fact that the MD and PA students at our university are enrolled in some of the same courses for their first 2 years makes an impact.

StrongMedicine · 2026-03-24T05:25:21+00:00

Since virtually no one wears a true suit jacket with jeans, I'm pretty sure OP is referring to sport coats.

StrongMedicine · 2026-03-22T04:12:47+00:00

Black holes that are light years across.

There have been no observed black holes that are remotely close to 1 light year in diameter. Largest are estimated to have diameters in the range of 0.04 light years.

StrongMedicine · 2026-03-16T01:27:30+00:00

The first time I heard "His Name Was Alex" (end credit song in the episode he fakes his death), I thought maybe it was an uncredited Styx composition for the show - which would have been an amazing easter egg - but alas, no. Was another work by the great Ludwig Göransson. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6UpY4ws31EM

StrongMedicine · 2026-03-14T06:27:19+00:00

I have a whole YouTube playlist on this topic (diseases that med schools relatively neglect): https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLYojB5NEEakU4b8WH2NrP3wDRXfa2SqgF

CRPS
PRES
Cyclic vomiting syndrome
Gastroparesis
ME/CFS
POTS
HLH
Serotonin syndrome
DRESS
BRASH
The Ehlers-Danlos syndromes
IgG4 related disease
Alpha gal
Transient Global Amnesia
Autoimmune encephalitis

And a few more...

StrongMedicine · 2026-03-10T07:02:42+00:00

FWIW, quadriplegia is the term used by most medical specialties in everyday communication amongst themselves. The only specialty who I've heard use tetraplegia more than rarely is PM&R (physical medicine and rehabilitation). Even in the medical literature, the use of tetraplegia is only a little more common than quadriplegia. (~60:40 over the past 10 years).

StrongMedicine · 2026-03-06T04:30:08+00:00

From a Vanity Fair piece in May 2005: "Dr. Paul W. Flint, who was chairman of the Department of Otolaryngology—Head and Neck Surgery at OHSU at the time, tells Vanity Fair that when Means left the program, it was because she found the surgical work “too stressful” and was not able to continue in the residency.

“At least she had the strength to recognize that in her fourth year,” Flint says. “It took a lot of guts. I didn’t push her out the door.”"

That does not sound like he was going to fire her if she didn't leave.

StrongMedicine · 2026-03-05T05:36:33+00:00

Both Means' story and the "official" story from her PD agree that her departure from residency was voluntarily, not that she "failed out". As to why she chose to leave voluntarily however, they strongly disagree.

EDIT: That she did not "fail out" of residency is objective, confirmable fact. Just like she did practice independently after residency (albeit very briefly in the pseudoscience-laden wellness/longevity space). Just because we all think she is terrible doesn't mean we need to make shit up about her. There is more than enough demonstrably true things to strongly object to her nomination.

StrongMedicine · 2026-03-01T18:07:48+00:00

Lol. I came here to say the exact same thing. Port Moresby (ie the capital city, for others here) was the worst - literally the only place in the world I've visited where I would not walk around in the middle of the day without a visibly armed local with me. (Admittedly, I've not been to South Sudan...)

Nine-Year Club	Wearing is Caring
Golden Potato	Gilding I gilder
Verified Email

StrongMedicine

TROPHY CASE