I was hoping to keep COVID-19 out of this piece, but new things keep flooding in, and I can’t totally ignore them. However, I’ll save them to the end of the story. They are both “good news,” more or less, and I like to leave you with a bit of cheer, when possible. Sleep and […]
Author Bio
I have been a medical writer for about 25 years; before that I was a documentary film maker, and some of my films were about medical subjects. I am not a physician, but I have a pretty good scientific background. I wouldn’t dream of recommending any kind of treatment to anyone, and I cannot give medical advice. However, I understand the medical literature and the data and evidence behind it, and I have an inquiring and skeptical turn of mind.
I scrutinize and question and, sometimes, challenge the positions of some of the established health-care organizations as well as the marketers of health information. Eternal vigilance is a small price to pay for health. — Michael Jorrin (aka DocGumshoe)
Michael Jorrin is a paid contributor to Stock Gumshoe, he has agreed to our trading restrictions but he chooses his own topics and his words and opinions are his own.
Author Archives
August 2, 2021
COVID-19: Keeping Up With the Current State of the Pandemic
This will be the thirteenth Doc Gumshoe pronouncement on the COVID-19 pandemic. Lucky or unlucky, I have no idea, but let’s get on with it. To the question “Where are we now?” the answer depends enormously on exactly where, geographically, we are. The differences in the new case and fatality rates in among the different […]
Which means, the more things change, the more they stay the same. The big change in the Alzheimer’s disease world – which you’ve all heard about, no doubt – is that the FDA granted emergency use authorization to aducanumab, now to be named Aduhelm. That happened on the 6th of June. The FDA’s decision elicited […]
June 30, 2021
Understanding Pain
What started me down this path was a promotional piece for a new drug that was purported to suppress pain through a novel mechanism that prevented the nerve signal that conveyed to the brain a sensation that would usually be experienced as painful from actually being painful. In other words, while mincing an onion, you […]
June 7, 2021
Responses to Questions and Selected News Items
Before I launch into the topics of the day, I am going to share with you an opinion piece about the recent CDC guidelines. I find myself in complete concurrence with this piece, which was posted a few weeks ago on MedPage Today, a medical website that is a very helpful source of information for […]
May 6, 2021
May Miscellany – Some Covid-19, Some Otherwise
I’m happy to report that despite the huge quantity of COVID-related news items that flood my in-box (as well as all news media), the tsunami has not drowned other health and medicine-related releases. Now, with the pandemic retreating – and, yes, it really is retreating – let’s use this as an opportunity to bring a […]
April 5, 2021
What’s New on the CRISPR Front?
Aside from the tiny minority of people who can actually say what each of those initials stand for, we can divide the populace into two groups – those who specifically know that CRISPR is a tool used in gene editing and those who know (or figure) that it’s a highly promising but exceedingly complex technique […]
I am not predicting total doom when I say that the current treatment of infectious diseases is under serious threat due to the increasing prevalence of multi-drug-resistant (MDR) pathogens. But germs that have developed ways to escape antibiotic treatment are unquestionably a growing threat. Both the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and the World Health […]
March 1, 2021
Where Are We in the COVID-19 Pandemic? – March 2021
This piece was going to be titled “COVID Continued.” Then I thought, “what a depressing title. Nobody wants to read about the continuation of the pandemic. A much more attractive title would be “COVID Terminated.” That’s the headline we want to see. Or, better, that’s the headline we want to believe. How close are we […]
February 11, 2021
Doc Gumshoe’s Responses to Comments and Questions
Many of the comments to these Doc Gumshoe pieces go like this: “What do you know about such-and-such a drug, or about what this or that person (usually a physician) has to say about cancer, or heart disease, or (especially these days) about COVID-19?” My right-off-the-bat response to most of these would usually be “not […]
January 28, 2021
COVID-19 Prospects in the New Year
Believe me, I’ve been looking forward to putting Doc Gumshoe to work on topics other than COVID-19, which is far from being the only disease that affects our health and requires careful attention. But as the global case numbers have topped 85 million, and global deaths are approaching 2 million, COVID-19 demands to be […]
December 22, 2020
Winter Miscellany – December 2020
That title is just to remind you that there’s a whole lot more going on in the health/medical area than COVID-19. But the pandemic has a very large untidy footprint which is making a mark on a great many aspects of health-care in general. One recent example which could not possibly have escaped my […]
Yes, in the midst of a severe global surge in new cases and deaths, there are several genuinely good news items that we can pin our hopes on. Surely, you are aware of some of these, but I will attempt to put them in context. As of yesterday, from the start of pandemic to […]
If the answer to those two questions should turn out to be an unequivocal “Yes!” that would definitely be cause for champagne and fireworks. Sorry to say that for now, at least, we have to put the champagne and fireworks on hold. But, who knows, might there be something – a few snippets […]
November 10, 2020
More About COVID-19: Where Are We Now and Where Are We Headed?
As I write this, both the US and the world are seeing an upsurge in COVID-19. There has been a 46% spike in hospitalized patients, and in the past seven days more than a half-million more Americans have contracted the coronavirus. According to the Johns Hopkins dashboard that tracks COVID-19 cases all over the world, […]
October 22, 2020
COVID 19: What Are Prospects for the Duration?
The term “the duration” immediately recalls the Second World War. Nobody had any idea when it would be over, and so discussions of a lot of World War II-related events and conditions prominently featured the phrase “for the duration” – as in great numbers of combat fatalities would continue to be reported for the duration, […]
October 8, 2020
Another Look at the Current Migraine Scene
Thinking about COVID-19 almost gives me a migraine, or at least a heavy and achy sensation in my noggin – perhaps not an actual migraine, thankfully, but threatening and unpleasant all the same. Happily, thinking about migraines will not give me COVID-19. But migraines are by no means a topic of no consequence, […]
So now, more than six months after this pandemic was officially declared, some experts are telling us that the COVID-19 testing that we have been doing is all wrong, and that a totally different form of testing could be an effective way to end the pandemic. What they are saying is that the scientific […]
If there is a single lesson to be learned from the (I hope) valuable information in this piece, it is that health-care recommendations are somewhat fluid and also somewhat temporary. Attached to every guideline and recommendation and even to every firmly-stated conclusion in every written or spoken utterance about health care and related medical […]
August 3, 2020
Another Look at COVID 19
This will surely not be the last time Doc Gumshoe turns his attention to the pandemic that is now imposing misery on many parts of the world. I need to acknowledge that when what was then generally called the Wuhan virus first came to my attention, I expressed the view that, despite the dire […]
Recent Author Comments
Posted on September 15, 2021
Posted on September 15, 2021
The picture with the booster shots is fairly complex. I'm planning to devote a fair chunk of copy to that subject in my next installment, which I'm working on now (just having returned from my vacation on that small island off the coast of Maine). The[...]
Posted on August 26, 2021
When you say Rife "cured" 18 cancer patients, you may be engaging in the "post hoc propter hoc" fallacy. He treated the patients, and then they got better? Not sure exactly why. How many patients didn't get better?[...]
Posted on August 26, 2021
Ivermectin was discussed in detail in my preceding piece, posted on August 2nd. Short answer - no evidence supports its benefit. One caveat - people are taking an ivermectin formulation that is used for deworming cattle under the mistaken impression th[...]
Posted on August 25, 2021
I received blue light therapy to prevent all the little sunburn spots on my face (that had emerged about 65 years after I had given up being a lifeguard) from turning into cancers. It got rid of all those little precancerous spots - did it also improve m[...]
Posted on August 25, 2021
I'm keeping an eye on the ARMOR study. They are substituting meglumine for the free form of aramchol. We'll see.[...]
Posted on August 4, 2021
I'm sure you're aware of the recent CDC recommendations -masks to be worn including by the vaccinated in any indoor spaces in parts of the US where transmission is above a certain level. That turns out to be just about everywhere. As far as data, there[...]
Posted on August 3, 2021
America's Frontline Doctors was discussed in some detail in a previous post. I have serious doubts about their position, especially with regard to HCQ.[...]
Posted on August 3, 2021
I don't think there are comprehensive data that differentiate between those four cohorts. Developing immunity via vaccines versus infection with the pathogen follows the same course - antibodies first, followed by longer-lasting cellular immunity via B a[...]
Posted on August 3, 2021
It's on my list of subjects to check into. Thanks.[...]
Posted on July 21, 2021
Thanks very much - I 'll check on Leukine & AD. Appreciate the hint. Good luck with your mother![...]
Posted on July 17, 2021
I'm very, very glad to hear that your husband did so well on Fasudil. It bodes well for the great numbers of AD patients who will be eligible after the Phase 3 trial - if, of course, the results continue to be outstanding. But is there no provision in [...]
Posted on July 16, 2021
Lots of stuff for me to check up . Which I will do! Small addendum - several prestigious medical centers including the Cleveland Clinic have stated that they would not use aducanumab/Aduhelm because they doubt whether it delivers any benefit to AD pati[...]
Posted on July 6, 2021
Sorry you got bored, Darrell. But prior to my little joke about cyanide ending your pain, I did say that "I definitely did not believe the hype ..."[...]
Posted on June 18, 2021
Travis, your little burst of steam is superb! Thanks a whole lot![...]
Posted on June 15, 2021
Denali does have a drug, DNL 151, that penetrates the blood-brain barrier. It targets a gene that can lead to Parkinson's. - not Alzheimer's. Looks to me that if DNL 151 amounts to anything, Biogen will reap a big part of the profits. But if Dena[...]
Posted on June 8, 2021
I’ve hugely enjoyed the wide-ranging comments that have come in during the past 24 hours. Gumshoe Nation, it seems to me, is representative of Planet Earth in microcosm. We, in the more developed parts of the world, seem to be emerging from the pande[...]
Posted on May 7, 2021
Your problems are indeed challenging to the utmost. May your situation improve! However, all the evidence I have seen indicates that aerobic exercise in particular delivers the same benefits to the brain and mind as it does to the body.[...]
Posted on May 7, 2021
Those vaccines do not make people immortal, but they do very effectively protect us from the most dire effects of the coronavirus - as well as depriving the virus of opportunities to multiply and infect others,[...]
Posted on May 7, 2021
I don't know anything about Fasudil, but I'll put it on my lookout listl[...]
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The picture with the booster shots is fairly complex. I’m planning to devote a fair chunk of copy to that subject in my next installment, which I’m working on now (just having returned from my vacation on that small island off the coast of Maine). The [...]