Dear Pharmacist,

I read you in my local newspaper and find your columns very interesting and refreshing in a sea of misinformation about drugs and supplements.  I know you are a pharmacist, but sometimes I think you’re anti-medicine. Suzy is that true?

--J.E. Gainesville, Florida

The story thus far:

From January to June 2009, at least 69 people from 29 states have gotten sick with E. coli O157:H7.  Many of them confessed to eating Nestlé’s raw cookie dough.

On June 19, the FDA warned the public not to eat Nestlé’s raw cookie dough.  Nestlé issued a “voluntary’ recall.

Think your health insurance will protect you from going broke when the unthinkable happens? A new Harvard study reveals otherwise…

"To Nuke or Not to Nuke"

The verb itself suggests the unleashing of atomic destruction, but we wondered, “Is there a grain of truth behind the slang?” What’s the real story behind these boxes of convenience sitting in so many of our kitchens? Are microwaves a benign bastion of modern handiness or, as some claim, a sinister contributor to our physiological (at least nutritional) undoing?

The most popular babysitter in America is dumbing down our children. I'm talking, of course, about television. That's hardly news, I realize. But here's what is: TV can be even more detrimental for babies than for any other age group because it can inhibit their social, cognitive, and language development.

I was interested to read yesterday a report regarding a recommendation coming out of the Skin Cancer Foundation in the USA. The Foundation has recommended that adults increase their intake of vitamin D from 400 IU (the recommended daily amount) to 1000 IU.

This is good news, I think, because there’s abundant and continuing to amass evidence that vitamin D insufficiency and deficiency is common. And a deficiency here may well increase the risk of all manner of conditions including cardiovascular disease, bone disease, multiple sclerosis and many different forms of cancer. So, upping our intake of vitamin D could well help to protect against these conditions, and will almost certainly improve general health and wellbeing.

I should know by now not to read the news while enjoying my morning cup of tea. Because this morning, I nearly ended up owing my publisher a new keyboard.

The culprit was this absolutely ridiculous headline: "Give Blood Pressure Drugs to All."

I am in Hong Kong at the moment.  Last week I was in Tibet and other parts of China.  The papers here are full of warnings about swine flu and a significant number of people are walking around the streets with face masks. 

Officials greet airline passengers in biohazard suits and temperature probes. 

In some countries even if someone on the same plane with you is suspected of having swine flu you may be forced into a 7 days quarantine ‘prison’ and treated as if you were carrying some kind of plague even if you are perfectly healthy.

If any industry should know the statistics verifying the deadly impact of smoking, that industry would be the life insurance industry. Insurers know that smokers have double to triple the mortality rate compared to non-smokers -- which is why companies like Prudential won't even grant life insurance to those who smoke, or else they charge smokers exorbitant premiums. And yet, demonstrating an extraordinary degree of cynicism, some of the world's largest life insurance companies invest heavily in tobacco. In fact, insurance company investments in tobacco industry stocks amount to $4.5 billion.

The Chinese word for crisis is comprised of two separate words, “danger” and “opportunity”—and this describes the exact situation we face with the healthcare crisis in our country.

As a nation we are at the precipice of change for our healthcare system.

But if we make the wrong choices and simply provide universal coverage to an outdated 19th and 20th century model of medicine, this crisis will lead us into danger.

However, there are different choices we can make now that will lead to profound opportunity—one that may provide real solutions to our healthcare crisis.