Cousins making music

Luisa sent this really cute picture yesterday. From left to right Lachlan, Gabi, Jonty.

Terry.
Sent from my BB

PSA Blood Test - to test or not to test?

Dr. Neil Bell

The Canadian Task Force on Preventive Health Care says measuring prostate specific antigen, or PSA, in blood is not an effective screening tool because it often produces false-positive results.  Task force member Dr. Neil Bell (family physician and Professor, Department of Family Medicine, University of Alberta)  says almost one in five men aged 55 to 69, for instance, have at least one false-positive PSA test and about 17 per cent end up with unnecessary biopsies.

Dr. S. Larry Goldenberg

Dr. S. Larry Goldenberg, who is chair of the Canadian Men’s Health Foundation, a professor of urologic sciences at the University of British Columbia, and the author of An Intelligent Patient Guide to Prostate Cancer, does not agree.

In an article, "Dropping PSA test for prostate cancer puts men’s health at risk" published in the Toronto Star today, Dr. Goldenberg is scathing of the Canadian Task Force whom he refers to as "non-experts in the field": 

Telling urologists not to use a simple blood test to screen for prostate cancer is like telling cardiologists not to use a stethoscope to check for heart defects. You don’t need to be an expert to know that neither makes sense. 

Yet that’s what the Canadian Task Force on Preventive Health Care, comprised entirely of non-experts in the field, did last week. By urging doctors (and patients) to stop using the prostate-specific antigen test, or PSA, to detect cancer in its early stages, the task force’s recommendation will put men’s health at risk.

Dr. Goldenberg goes on to point out, "When I began my practice in the early 1980s, before the PSA era, almost one in four men with prostate cancer had cancer spread to their bones by the time they were diagnosed. Today, it’s one in 25. Prostate cancer deaths have fallen by 40 per cent.

"Why the difference? Our treatments have improved, and so have our lifestyles. Doctors have new tools to manage complications like never before.

"But we also use the PSA test to find cancers at earlier stages. It’s the most powerful cancer marker in medicine."

I encourage you to read Dr. Goldenberg's full article here. He elaborates on the correct use of PSA testing, as done by urologists, pointing out: "Without early detection, even men whose cancer won’t kill them will see their quality of life deteriorate more quickly and more painfully than if they had been diagnosed sooner... The task force didn’t consider this data; they considered death, but not quality of life."

Movember 2nd

Accident Prevention

The picture is a bit fuzzy, but then so is the mo' at this stage.

Quality pushes up cost... Or does it?

From motor cars to muscle injuries, cell phones to seniors' care in nursing homes, quality and costs are always major topics of debate and budgetary decisions. Sixty-four years ago a quality engineer by the name of Deming saw a counter-intuitive relationship between between quality and cost. Read more here.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu on Climate Change

Climate change is a moral, human rights issue as was apartheid! Climate change deniers are not merely on the same, wrong side of history as flat earth proponents, they are also morally culpable and must be held to account for the damage and suffering they are causing.

This culpability and need for accountability is even greater for those who acknowledge climate change but continue to invest for profit in industry that is exacerbating the problem.

 We desperately need research to find more economical ways to store wind and solar energy. If one-fifth of the money spent on oil exploration had gone into this research imagine where we could be today!