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2 weeks ago | 
kevinmd.com | Jonathan Staloff |Claire Simon |Richard A. Lawhern |Akshat Jain
Subscribe to The Podcast by KevinMD. Watch on YouTube. Catch up on old episodes!Gastroenterologist Mark Pimentel discusses his article, “SIBO and IBS: the hidden link keeping millions in pain.” Mark explains how small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO) is frequently misdiagnosed or overlooked due to its symptom overlap with other GI conditions, particularly irritable bowel syndrome (IBS).
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Jan 19, 2025 | 
kevinmd.com | Richard A. Lawhern |Gary Call |Julie Craig |Janet Tamaren
As a health care writer and patient advocate for over 27 years, I have interacted with thousands of patients who experience chronic severe pain, caregivers who support struggling family members, and clinicians who treat painful conditions. Depression and anxiety are very common in these patients and may significantly complicate treatment. Untreated depression – or under-treated pain – can cause increases in healing times, suicidal ideation, and even suicide itself.
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Dec 11, 2024 | 
kevinmd.com | Richard A. Lawhern |Audrey Shafer |Donna Grande |Jay Wong
At age 80, I’m an “old guy.” I’ve been an avid reader and writer on multiple subjects all of my life. Though I write primarily about U.S. health care, I maintain a lively interest in politics generally. Since election day, I’ve been hearing stories that express a profound sense of trauma in millions of us. Many feel themselves to be in mourning for their beloved country. Others feel vindicated and not at all hesitant to say so.
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Dec 6, 2024 | 
kevinmd.com | Richard A. Lawhern |Gary Call |Julie Craig |Damane Zehra
On May 9-10, 2017, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) held a workshop titled “Training health care providers on pain management and safe use of opioid analgesics — exploring the path forward.” I attended the workshop in person to offer comments on behalf of chronic pain patients. A summary of my observations at the time was published by the now-defunct Pain News Network. The following extended extract is from workshop proceedings published on May 9, 2017, by the FDA.
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Nov 27, 2024 | 
kevinmd.com | Richard A. Lawhern |Michael McCarthy |Michael Mccarthy |Christopher Doan |Jen Baker-Porazinski
At age 80, I am an old man. I am also an experienced writer and voracious reader. I’ve been active in internet bulletin boards and social media interest groups since the 1980s—in what we used to call “users net” (USENET)—before the emergence of the World Wide Web. In the 1980s, I briefly moderated a community on the internet called “Internet Village Elders.” The forum was intended to share information between librarians and others concerning the world’s largest information marketplace.
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Nov 13, 2024 | 
kevinmd.com | Richard A. Lawhern |Amy Mae Baxter |Janet Tamaren |Gary Call
For years, the U.S. public has been hearing that prescription opioid pain relievers are always and forever a bad thing—and that doctors and big pharma companies are supposedly responsible for an epidemic of addiction and drug overdose-related deaths. However, these assertions are outright lies. Both the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Veterans Administration know it.
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Nov 3, 2024 | 
kevinmd.com | L. Joseph Parker |Neil Anand |Julie Craig |Richard A. Lawhern
The United States federal government is a single entity, despite its three equal branches having more heads than a hydra and more arms than Mahakali. One part of that federal government is not supposed to create and propagate standards that another part arrests you for following, as confirmed by the U.S. Supreme Court in Gonzales v. Oregon. When it comes to the criminalization of medicine by the DEA and other federal law enforcement agencies, that rule has clearly been broken.
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Oct 26, 2024 | 
kevinmd.com | Richard A. Lawhern |Aaron Morgenstein |Amy Bissada |Pat Irving
Dedicated to my friend and colleague Pat Irving to whom I first told the story. I’m 80 years old and I’ve been writing for over 60 years—first in systems engineering, later in advanced technology, and more recently in public health policy for the regulation of pain medicine. At this stage of my life, some of my writing is introspective, in an attempt to extract and share “lessons learned” with others. Thus, these five questions.
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Oct 21, 2024 | 
kevinmd.com | L. Joseph Parker |Christopher Doan |Richard A. Lawhern |Oscar Chen
A million vulnerable patients have died in the last decade, and while I have no doubt the rate of overdose and poisoning will drop nationwide—killing a million vulnerable patients has that effect eventually—I choose not to contribute to that death rate. This decision is in accordance with my deeply held beliefs.
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Oct 9, 2024 | 
kevinmd.com | Courtney Markham-Abedi |Emily Watters |Nicholas S. Tito |Richard A. Lawhern
They died by suicide—that is the politically correct way to say it. I want to be politically correct, but I am not sure words can dampen the impact. Someone just lost a friend, a son, a partner, a child. Somehow, we believe if we say the words prettily, it takes the sting away—it doesn’t. No matter how you say it, they left the world today, or yesterday, or whatever day they exited, and the loss isn’t smaller because we make our words more respectful.
