An Inside Look at Health Care for the Elderly and Medicare

Last week I went to sleep, and when I woke up an additional 30 million people had a diagnosis of hypertension, or high blood pressure. How did this epidemic occur so quickly? It turns out that the American College of Cardiology changed its definition of hypertension. Whereas previously, one had to have a pressure over 140 to be labeled with the disease, now, in their infinite wisdom, the specialist experts decreed that 130 would be the new cut off. How did these experts ar

In July of this year Dr. Shigeaki Hinohara died. His obituary was given to me recently by one of my patients, which is why I am writing about it now. There was a telling quote in the obituary: “In the 1970s, he reclassified strokes and heart disorders — commonly perceived as inevitable adult diseases that required treatment — to lifestyle ailments that were often preventable. Dr. Hinohara insisted that patients be treated as individuals — that a doctor needed to understand