Preface

 

        It is surprising that I ever got around to writing because I hated writing themes as a child. Having something on one’s mind to say makes all the difference.  And I was surprised about how much detail I remembered from long past lessons and events, until I realized that I have been talking to patients about almost all of the following through the years, hopefully at appropriate times.  A result of teaching is learning the material exceptionally well, a lost benefit of the one room school where the older children helped to teach the younger ones.  Ordinarily I didn’t drop several of these ideas on a patient in one sitting.  Perhaps my readers will read these articles one at a time with time to think about it.  Thinking might be enhanced with a group of at least two with some discussion.  After all these ideas originated by give and take in this fashion.  Interested relatives or near relatives, some of them near Mrs. (misses) have participated in many of my consultations through the years almost always enhancing the discussion.

        After you have browsed through the table of contents for articles that interest you, please let me help introduce you to some of the topics whose titles are too clever for clarity:

 

The Biology of Cannibalism = mad cow disease                                                                               

Lessons from the Arctic = 1) shingles and 2) catching a cold                                                  

Limits to Nature’s Wisdom = SCUBA diving, appetite control and treatment of anemia          

Consensus Conferences = xenotransplantation (transplantation of animal organs)                      

Lessons from Tuberculosis = 1) methadone treatment of addiction and 2) group therapy           

Public Health and Intellectual Property = affordable treatment especially for AIDS                   

An Innovative Treatment for Emphysema = medical science fiction                                

 

In the absence of cross referencing the following may be helpful:

 

Overweight: Diet & Exercise, Sound Bytes (4th paragraph), “Borderline” Diabetes (6th (paragraph), Genetic Paradoxes, So You Want to Lose Weight,

                       Prescription Medications  (Consequences of), Peaceful Interactions between Plants an Animals                                               

Tobacco: So You Want to Quit Smoking, An Innovative Rx for Emphysema, Why All of Us don’t get Tuberculosis            

Other recreational drugs: Caffeine, A Family Conversation, Performance Enhancing Drugs, Alcohol, Public Health & Recreational Drugs,

                      Please don’t Wake me up for a Sleeping Pill, Public Health, Public Costs &Public Benefits  

Astronomy: filler after Smallpox, Longitude & the Speed of Light,  Others with Astronomy in the title                                                              

The environment: Diseases  of Civilization, Safe Use of Cistern Water, Better Gas Mileage..                    

End of life decisions: The Ultimate Gift, Notes for a Health Care Agent, I Don’t have to Eat Broccoli                         

AIDS: AIDS, Scientific Literacy & Political Leadership, Public Health & Intellectual Property                                                                          

Religion: Christian Science, Anecdotes from my Public, Why the Chinese didn’t Discover the Rest of the World, Approaching the Koran, …                               .                     Anti-.Semitism, An Unintended Consequence of Literacy, Quakers, A Lesson from Marco Polo (monotheism)   

 Book reviews: Approaching the Koran, Collapse, Wealth and Our Commonwealth, The Mystery of Capitalism, The Divine Right of Capitalism,          .                     The Great Turning from Empire to Earth Community, Ever since Adam & Eve

The pharmaceutical industry: Public Health & Intellectual Property, The Young Physician Encounters Big Pharma, Corporate Personhood, Prescription Medications (consequences of advertising), Vioxx & its Ilk, Let Us Give Drug Companies a Choice                                                                                    

                                                                                     

         If this book has a theme it is expert patients.  By expert patients I mean people with chronic diseases whose knowledge of their diseases permits them to participate actively in their care. You might look at their situation as if they are their own doctors and their physician is a consultant physician.  A more complete explanation of the concept, Expert Patients, follows this Preface.

 

          I want to acknowledge extensive help in preparing manuscripts from Heidi Kramar, Chris Kuester, Melissa Arensdorff,  and  editing  from  Elaine  Bethke,  Ellen  Swan,  Marilyn  Holm,  Steve  Busalacci,  Tom Flynn,  numerous colleagues who read rough drafts and made suggestions. My wife Mary and daughters qualify for warm acknowledgements  in both categories and for writing  several of the articles.  Finally, please accept my apologies for minor duplications. 

John A. Frantz, M.D.

December 14,2002