Faculty Bibliography

Mad Men [Television Program] -- The reality: 'Many hypertension experts in the early 1960s were still saying that elevated blood pressure wasn't bad for you and that reducing it could cause damage to important organs such as strokes and heart attacks,' says Dr. Suzanne Oparil, director of the vascular biology and hypertension program at the University of Alabama School of Medicine

The consumer group Public Citizen asked the FDA in 2006 to put a black-box warning on Cipro and other fluoroquinolones. According to the FDA, fluoroquinolones can increase the risk of tendon inflammation and rupture from 1 in 100,000 patients to 3 or 4 in 100,000 patients. But this increased risk is miniscule when you consider the number of lives Levaquin or Cipro save in patients with pneumonia, infectious colitis or serious urinary tract infections. Medications should be prescribed on a case-by-case basis and should be based on reason rather than emotion

Cleaner [Television Program] -- The reality: 'For some who have battled addiction, it can be rewarding and even helpful to care for others, though the heroics are usually limited to offering support, counseling and guidance,' says Dr. Marc Gourevitch, addiction specialist and professor of medicine and psychiatry at New York University School of Medicine. In the case of a multiple drug overdose, as is likely in Heather's case, pupil size does not point to a particular drug

Though our food is by far the safest it's ever been, food-borne bacteria is still an issue. There are 76 million cases of food poisoning in the United States every year, and 5,000 deaths. But produce is only a small part of the problem. Unfortunately, organic marketers have put up roadblocks against safeguarding produce from the occasional contaminant, despite the fact that no amount of washing is completely effective, and even among non-organic growers, culprit bacteria can be introduced at many points in the field-to-market process. Current technology that might be helpful-including methods for irradiating food and using gene-splicing techniques to neutralize toxins and introduce therapeutic proteins into plant cells-are decried by vocal consumers, despite the fact that there's no evidence to suggest that these techniques aren't safe. As far as McDonald's goes, they probably won't be missed. Tomatoes have never had a major presence there. Remember the old jingle for the Big Mac? 'Two all-beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions on a sesame seed bun.' No tomatoes, but plenty of calories-540 in fact, 260 of which are from fat. Overall, a Big Mac has 29 grams of fat-45 percent of the suggested daily ; value, and that's before adding a side of fries. A tomato could hardly make that meal good for you

Secret Life of the American Teenager [Television Program] -- The show is misleading about pregnancy tests -- home urine tests are just as effective as the urine tests available in the doctor's office, with a greater than 95% accuracy rate when used properly after a missed menstrual period. False positives on home pregnancy tests are generally not caused by strange diseases, as Amy's friends suggest, but rather by hormone-containing medications such as fertility treatments, which very few high school students are taking

Weeds [Television Program] -- Having burned down her house, Nancy Botwin (Mary-Louise Parker) and her family travel to the Mexican border town of Ren Mar, Calif., where they visit Bubbie, the 95-year-old grandmother of Nancy's dead husband

Grey's Anatomy [Television Program] -- The doctors believe that the cement is leaching water from his body while exposing him to alkali, which burns the skin; that toxic chemicals released from the cement are being absorbed; and that the concrete formation is causing a compartment syndrome (compression of nerve, blood vessels and muscle within a closed space, leading to impaired blood flow, and muscle and nerve damage)

Yet organic growers refuse to use the herbicides and disinfectants that could routinely kill this bacteria, and the FDA doesn't regulate food that's brought in from Mexico, which may be where this tomato problem originated. Unfortunately, organic marketers have put up roadblocks against safeguarding produce from the occasional contaminant, despite the fact that no amount of washing is completely effective, and even among non-organic growers, culprit bacteria can be introduced at many points in the field-to-market process.

Tomatoes, which contain fiber, vitamin C, A, B6, K, folate, niacin, potassium, and plenty of other good-for-you minerals, have been removed from Big Macs and other sandwiches and the shelves at McDonalds - leaving shreds of lettuce as practically the only healthy ingredient

Despite a recall by the FDA, contaminated heparin has apparently remained on the shelves and crash carts. The FDA claims that this chemical has been linked to severe allergic reaction and at least 81 deaths in 11 countries since last year. But the real story here is about the verbal thrashing that heparin, a life-saving treatment for blood clots, strokes and heart attacks, has unfairly taken in the news. Yes, 81 deaths is a lot, until you consider the thousands who are saved by heparin treatment every day