Snowball In A Blizzard

 For a change of pace I decided to read a medical non-fiction book. Snowball In A Blizzard: A Physician's Notes On Uncertainty In Medicine by Steven C. Hatch. The snowball he is talking about is a breast tumor. Reading mammograms is like finding a snowball in a blizzard. Annual mammograms from age 40 on up do not help women and may expose them to more danger. Yet every year I and other women go to get a mammogram thinking we are doing the right thing. The general public's perception of mammograms is favorable despite the medical evidence. If a woman feels a lump THEN is the time to get a mammogram.  Perception can be very important. Not all radiologists are good at reading mammogram results. Women have had painful surgery, chemo and radiation when they had no cancer at all.  He says PSA tests do not increase the life spans of men with prostate cancer. He says long term use of antibiotics does not help with Lyme disease. He talks about numbers and percentages and frankly some of that I had to skim through. He talks about James Lind who did an experiment in 1747. He was a doctor on a ship that had 12 men with scurvy. Scurvy is an unique disease because it can lead to death if untreated. Also, when scurvy is treated the positive results show within a day or so. He had 12 sailors with scurvy. Two drank water with vinegar. Two drank water with nettles. Two drank water with barley and raisins. Two drank water with oranges. The other pairs of sailors drank water with other foods. The two sailors who drank water with oranges recovered and the rest died. James Lind did not know why oranges worked. He didn't know about vitamin C. He luckily chose food and drink as a method to run his study. The author also talks about the benefits/risks of blood pressure medication and whether it should be prescribed at which blood pressure reading. Physicians and researchers are divided on the blood pressure issue. The practice of medicine is murky rather than clear. This author says we should recognize that and use it to our benefits. This was a very interesting book except for a few sections about math.