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Michael Shaw

DC metro: Fairfax County, VA

Interests: Music, movies, human behavior, fitness (mental, physical, spiritual), true health care--not "disease care" which sadly is the current model

Recent Activity

Medicare for all

This HND piece examines the misguided proposal now in Congress of Medicare For All. First of all, it bears little resemblance to our current Medicare, in that there is NO cost-sharing. Zero out of pocket is unknown anywhere in the... Continue reading

Posted yesterday at Shaw's Eco-Logic

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A look at drug testing

This HND piece delves into the matter of drug testing, from its beginnings to the present. Millions of such tests are run each year in private industry, sports teams, and for compliance with government regulations. There are some who think... Continue reading

Posted Dec 8, 2018 at Shaw's Eco-Logic

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No smell like an old smell

This HND piece focuses on the phenomenon of old-person smell. Yes, this is really a thing. Research indicates that it is caused by the compound 2-nonenal, which is a product of bacterial action on certain omega-7 fatty acids, that are... Continue reading

Posted Dec 1, 2018 at Shaw's Eco-Logic

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Controlled substances: Who's watching the controllers?

This HND piece focuses on serious vagaries in how a particular controlled substance, CBD, is regulated. The case discussed involves Epidiolex, a CBD isolate recently FDA-approved for certain seizure disorders. CBD is considered a Schedule I substance, which means that... Continue reading

Posted Nov 23, 2018 at Shaw's Eco-Logic

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This HND piece is a follow-up to previous postings on this exciting Cannabis extract. Cannabidiol is rapidly growing in popularity because it provides virtually all the medical benefits of Cannabis, without the psychotropic effects. As such, it should be of... Continue reading

Posted Nov 17, 2018 at Shaw's Eco-Logic

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Smoking and quitting–a follow-up

This HND piece takes up where the earlier one left off. In this entry, we offer more interesting statistics and include a few offbeat methods for quitting. One of the "offbeat" categories involves herbal preparations, which leads us into introducing... Continue reading

Posted Nov 3, 2018 at Shaw's Eco-Logic

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A look at the Joint Commission

This HND piece examines the leading organization for accreditation of healthcare facilities in the US—the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations. We trace its history all the way back to surgeon and pioneer in patient outcomes measurement Ernest Amory... Continue reading

Posted Oct 27, 2018 at Shaw's Eco-Logic

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Surrogate calibration in environmental air monitoring? No thanks

This HND piece digs into the matter of calibrating environmental air monitoring instruments. We detail why it's needed, along with the common calibration modalities. After that, we segue into the faulty notion of surrogate calibration. Unfortunately, surrogate calibration has gained... Continue reading

Posted Oct 20, 2018 at Shaw's Eco-Logic

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Bloodstream Infections and a promising new weapon against them

This HND piece examines the problem of bloodstream infections—especially those affecting pediatric leukemia patients. Generally regarded as the most dangerous type of healthcare-associated infection, bloodstream infections are far too common, and have a disturbingly high fatality rate. Pediatric leukemia patients,... Continue reading

Posted Oct 13, 2018 at Shaw's Eco-Logic

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Sanitation in the food industry with peracetic acid

This HND article takes up where we left off, around five years ago. In this offering, we get into the chemistry and mechanism of how PAA kills those microbes, along with the many advantages of this germicide. After that, we... Continue reading

Posted Oct 6, 2018 at Shaw's Eco-Logic

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Some good news about hypertension

This HND piece revisits a topic last covered by us in February, 2016. In this piece, we go beyond the basics, and highlight an interesting new finding (hence the title). We feature comments made by popular physician Julie Vu, and... Continue reading

Posted Oct 5, 2018 at Shaw's Eco-Logic

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An interesting proposal from the healthcare trenches

This HND piece is a guest column from Steve Schuster, CEO of Innovative Anesthesia, with decades of experience in healthcare. My friend Schuster gets right to the point: What do the people want? Most surveys indicate overwhelmingly that people want... Continue reading

Posted Oct 5, 2018 at Shaw's Eco-Logic

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Hydrogen sulfide: Yes, it's nasty

This HND piece delves into that familiar "rotten egg smell" compound—hydrogen sulfide (H2S). We cover its toxic properties and regulatory status. It turns out that it's second only to carbon monoxide as the leading cause of fatal gas inhalation exposures... Continue reading

Posted Sep 15, 2018 at Shaw's Eco-Logic

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The future of private medical practice

This HND piece examines the big decline in medical private practice. In 1972, it was 72 percent. 2016's figure was 33 percent. But, for all the talk of "economies of scale," you may have noticed that your costs have only... Continue reading

Posted Sep 8, 2018 at Shaw's Eco-Logic

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This HND piece examines electromagnetic fields. They're all around us, but are they also a health hazard? The conventional wisdom holds that unless heating is involved (as in microwaves), non-ionizing radiation is harmless. But maybe, that is not the case.... Continue reading

Posted Aug 25, 2018 at Shaw's Eco-Logic

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A look at arrhythmia

This HND piece gives an introduction to the very common, and sometimes dangerous problem of heart arrhythmias. It starts off with some essential anatomy, and then gets into the basics. From there, we describe a few widespread conditions, with caveats... Continue reading

Posted Aug 18, 2018 at Shaw's Eco-Logic

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The benzo predicament

This HND piece examines the country's most UN-heralded drug problem. I'm talking about benzodiazepines--aka "benzos." This class of drugs is not only very addictive, but it is extremely difficult to wean yourself off them. Some patients go on tapers of... Continue reading

Posted Aug 11, 2018 at Shaw's Eco-Logic

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Healthcare branding

This HND piece begins by defining "branding," and then goes into some of the ways that physicians and hospitals can create a unique name and image for their enterprise. Fortunately, this is a bit easier to accomplish now, compared to... Continue reading

Posted Aug 4, 2018 at Shaw's Eco-Logic

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This HND piece examines a few practical ways that lives really can be saved. Accidental deaths are a good place to start, and this topic has been in the use quite a bit lately. After all, drug overdoses have now... Continue reading

Posted Jul 21, 2018 at Shaw's Eco-Logic

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Bringing science back

This HND piece discusses how science became distrusted by Americans, and what we can do to restore its lost luster. We look back to the short-lived "Golden Age" of science, peaking in the postwar years, with the structure of DNA... Continue reading

Posted Jul 14, 2018 at Shaw's Eco-Logic

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Healthcare reform: bringing the right parties to the table

This HND piece examines some of the good reasons behind healthcare reform. We site several rather disturbing statistics, and then get into the practice of defensive medicine. Given the current legal situation, most doctors must practice defensive medicine—even if it... Continue reading

Posted Jul 7, 2018 at Shaw's Eco-Logic

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Chinese drywall...it's baaack

This HND piece serves as a reminder that the matter of toxic and contaminated Chinese drywall never really went away. Rather, it fell out of the news cycle. The fact is, thousands of homeowners are still suffering the effects of... Continue reading

Posted Jun 30, 2018 at Shaw's Eco-Logic

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Measuring toxic gases in the environment

This HND piece looks at toxic gas detection, from a point of view somewhat different from this earlier posting. We cover basic definitions, and get into the regulatory landscape, with many key links. We follow that with the methods used,... Continue reading

Posted Jun 23, 2018 at Shaw's Eco-Logic

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Making a decision, or not, on health-related issues

This HND piece examines two contemporary issues: the legalization of hemp cultivation and physician-assisted suicide, as handled by officialdom. With hemp, we are looking at the US Senate and current Farm Bill, and with PAS, we are looking at the... Continue reading

Posted Jun 16, 2018 at Shaw's Eco-Logic

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Should endoscopes be sterilized or not?

This HND piece explores the long-running argument over how endoscopes should be processed before their next use. High-level disinfection is favored by the endoscopes users, since it is cheaper and faster, but more and more evidence is suggesting that they'd... Continue reading

Posted Jun 9, 2018 at Shaw's Eco-Logic

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