Thoughts of a retired physician

  Here in Altadena we are a little more than 9 hours from the New Year. It would be too easy to lament all the problems we faced in 2023 and they will follow us as 2024 dawns. But I thought that some perspective was in order and in her last column of 2023, Jennifer Rubin gives us that perspective. I gifted the column on my Facebook and Twitter pages and the link is here . Here is her first paragraph: “Nostalgia is a powerful political tool. Wielding nostalgia for a bygone era — one that is invariably mischaracterized — is a favorite weapon for fascist movements (Make America Great Again ), harking back to a time before their nation was “polluted” by malign forces. In the United States, such nostalgia none-too-subtlety appeals to white Christian nationalism. Even in a more benign form (e.g., “ Politics didn’t used to be so mean ,” “ Remember the days of bipartisanship?” ) plays on faulty memories. If you really go back to study U.S. history, you would find two things: The past was worse

  We are now at less than 11 months until the 2024 elections. The polls indicate that Donald Trump will be the Republican nominee. President Biden by the polls consistently lags behind Trump and is blamed for the “poor economy”, the war in Gaza, and for being too old. Trump, indicted 91 times in multiple jurisdictions, meanwhile signals strongly that he will take on the mantle of a dictator if he is inaugurated in January 2025. He has vowed to install nothing but vetted loyalists to senior positions in a second administration; to fire thousands of civil servants so that he can do the same al lower levels in the Executive; to curb the media and anyone who criticizes him; and top take vengeance on those he hates personally (because he feels they have humiliated him). If that does not remind you of Germany in the 1930s, you failed history. Robert Kagan’s essay in the 30 November New York Times was a bleak read. The fact that we already have a government of the minority and a flawed syst

  Obesity is increasing in prevalence worldwide. It isn’t only a problem in rich and developed countries but also in poorer and lesser developed countries. For our Current Events program here at MonteCedro, I prepared a presentation on obesity and the newest approach to it – drugs like Ozempic that reduce appetite and increase satiety. Their original use was as a treatment for Type 2 diabetes but the ancillary finding of weight loss during their use has promoted an awful lot of hype. Below the line is a list of references that I used in preparing the talk. I hope to provoke commentary about not only the health effects that surround obesity and these newer medications but also to look at obesity through a comprehensive biopsychosocial lens. Obesity has been labeled a disease by the World Health Organization and the American Medical Association but I wonder if it truly is a disease. Hope the links spur some reading and thought. =========================  Another Ozempic side effect? Faci