{Ultra}Processed Food: Too Sexy for Our Own Good?

Posted on April 4, 2016 by Bernadette Keefe

Bernadette Keefe MD

“If we are what we do and what we eat, we’re potatoes: couched and fried.” – Ellen Goodman, Wall Street Journal

Introduction

Fast Food has a rich and storied history. In Roman times, through the middle ages, fast food, sold by venders, was a necessity, as many dwellings had no kitchen.

The British “Fish ‘N Chips” was popularized in the mid-1800s by coastal towns that needed to service the large trawling industry. The undisputed King of the Fast Food Industry, however, is the United States. With the introduction of the automobile in the early 1900s, there was ever greater access to fast-cook restaurant fare. America fell in love with “White Castle” hamburgers; the rest is history. America has the largest fast food industry, and, has peppered the world’s landscape with Subway, McDonalds, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Burger King, Starbucks, Dunkin Donuts, Wendy’s among others, whose outlets can be found in over 100 countries.

Due to its worldwide dominance of the Fast Food Industry, U.S. citizens are particularly immersed in the fast food culture, and sadly have “drunk the cool-aid”. While this essay addresses the effects of fast food and other ultra-processed food in America, similar consequences are occurring around the globe.

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Time to Decouple Fear and Health

Posted on January 21, 2016 by Bernadette Keefe

Bernadette Keefe M.D.

“Pseudo-dangers represent further opportunities to avoid problems we do not wish to confront….” – Barry Glassner, The Culture of Fear

Introduction

For a while now, I’ve been concerned about the increasing role that fear has played as a tactic in persuading patients to choose certain treatments in healthcare, and to adopt certain habits. Fear is also, often a dominant driver for patients in their health decision-making process.

Fear, however, is an unwanted distraction when making decisions. In contrast to a calm state of mind, it creates added anxiety and stress, in a citizenry already burdened with increasing stressors. How can adding to this be constructive, or further, even moral? How can healthcare decisions, made from fear, be in any way conducive to optimal health outcomes, or conducive to sustainable well-being throughout our lifespans?
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Popping Pills: A Drugged Nation

Posted on December 2, 2015 by Bernadette Keefe

Bernadette Keefe MD

Excerpts from ‘Limitless’ The Movie (Trailer)

You (can) access 100 % your brain

A tablet a day and I was limitless

What’s your secret? Medication

A perfect version of ourselves…..power…..

What would you do???

The ‘Limitless” Trailer

Introduction: A pill for every ill.

From teenagers to granny, to the pro-athlete, and everyone in between, the United States is the most drugged nation in the world. A staggering:

70 Million Americans are taking legal mind-altering drugs

Nearly 70% of all Americans are on at least one prescription drug and 20% are on at least five prescription drugs Continue reading →

Sugar High Halloween

Posted on October 26, 2015 by Bernadette Keefe

Candy Corn

Bernadette Keefe MD

It’s Halloween… but:

‘We need to start talking about how our food supply is making many of us sick.”

“Sugar high” is the term used to describe the cascade of responses after eating a sugar load. A high sugar load, especially a pure sugar load, triggers is a rapid release of insulin to counteract the high blood sugar. With that response, glucose is absorbed into cells and the blood sugar plummets. We feel hunger with the low blood sugar and if we consume a sugary snack or meal, the cycle restarts. The taste of sugar is also ‘addictive’ over time. At this time we have a cultural sugar high, a palate tuned to the taste of sugar, across our nation and indeed the world. It has led to unprecedented levels of Type 2 diabetes and obesity. Continue reading →

Tribes and Silos, and, Tribes VS Tribes in Healthcare

Posted on October 23, 2015 by Bernadette Keefe

Bernadette Keefe MD

“the point is to be together, to mix our differences”

@Bionicohand at @iMaginationCtr

Introduction

If there is one movement that describes the current wave of disruption in industries from media to healthcare and in-between, it is the breakdown of barriers and democratization of processes. However, to accomplish a smooth transition to more workable, inclusive systems that will serve all, there must be a change in culture, a meeting of the minds.

In the healthcare field, there are many stakeholders/ “tribes”, each holding disparate positions. In order to evolve together, we must tear down our walls and silos and form bridges between our tribes. Such radical action is necessary as many errors and misunderstandings in healthcare are, at their core, communication issues arising from stakeholders speaking and acting from isolated positions.

Amidst ongoing conversation about healthcare silos and the problems that they might be creating, comes the timely release of Gillian Tett’s, “The Silo Effect: The Peril of Expertise and the Promise of Breaking Down Barriers”. While Gillian Tett comes from a financial background (as U.S. Managing Editor and columnist at the Financial Times) she has been more widely recognized as a superb thinker and writer. (See NY Times book review and APM interview)

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The Radiologist – Clinician Relationship

Posted on August 21, 2015 by Bernadette Keefe

Quadruple Aim: Care of the Physician

Posted on July 26, 2015 by Bernadette Keefe

By Bernadette Keefe MD and Matthew Katz MD

The classic ‘triple aim’ for healthcare is a framework developed by the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) that describes an approach to optimizing health system performance. IHI asserts that new designs must be developed to simultaneously pursue three dimensions which we call the ‘Triple Aim’:

Improving the patient experience of care (including quality and satisfaction)
Improving the health of populations, and
Reducing the per capita cost of health care

Numerous publications suggest that the list be expanded to a ‘Quadruple Aim’ to include: Improving the Care of and Experience of The Provider (ie MDs/other HCPs).

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Introduction: A pill for every ill.

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Bernadette Keefe MD

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