Posts by Laura D. Baum, M.D.
Magnesium for the New Year: Multivitamin / Multi-minerals – A simple & Inexpensive Insurance Policy
by Seth J. Baum, MD Why is it that so many scientists and physicians ardently dissuade patients from adding a simple multivitamin / multi-mineral supplement to their daily regimen? We know the importance of vitamins and minerals: they are involved in literally every vital bodily function. Absent adequate concentrations of these substances (which we are…
Read More5 Steps To Save Our Patients: A Doctor’s Call to Action
by Seth J. Baum, MD All physicians and other health care practitioners (HCPs) recognize the insidious process that has undermined our ability to properly care for our patients. Patients don’t yet fully grasp this, but they are beginning to do so. Over the last two decades HCPs have been commoditized – all doctors are considered…
Read MoreWho is Prescribing Your Medicine? I Pray the Horse Hasn’t Died
by Seth J. Baum, MD I’ve written extensively about the mounting burden borne by doctors and patients. Looking beyond the escalating regulatory time-drains beleaguering doctors throughout the nation we see that simply prescribing medications for our patients has become a tribulation. Why this is so and what ramifications ensue, deserves exploration. Thus I have written…
Read MoreWho Do You Want Supervising Your Health?
by Seth J. Baum, MD It was not long ago when doctors were the stopping point for the proverbial “buck.” Doctors held a high position in society and their devotion to the medical profession was never questioned. Studying for ten-plus years following college was proof enough that doctors had their hearts and minds in the…
Read More#Know FH – The 2015 FH Summit
by Seth J. Baum, MD Flying back from the FH Foundation’s third annual FH Summit I was suffused by assorted feelings and thoughts. I attend many meetings; yet, this one is unique. A conglomerate of stakeholders congregate to discuss past, present, and future issues about a disease that has only recently captured the hearts, minds,…
Read MoreCaution: Economists, Not Doctors Might be Prescribing Your Medicine
by Seth J. Baum, MD It’s National Cholesterol Education Month and we have fittingly entered a new era in lipid management. We now know that elevated LDL cholesterol causes heart attacks and strokes. Studies of all types have proved this. The most persuasive proof comes from genetics, specifically Mendelian Randomization studies. Recently our increased genetic…
Read MoreThe 30th Anniversary of the ASPC – A Brief report on our Annual ASCVD Prevention Meeting in Boca Raton, FL
by Seth J. Baum, MD I’ve been speaking and writing about; and basically “living” the ASPC annual meeting for many months. Now it has come and gone. And it was spectacular! A few hundred attendees representing diverse medical, nursing, pharmaceutical, and basic science disciplines enjoyed clinically relevant lectures delivered by many of America’s most influential…
Read MorePCSK9 Inhibitors, A Historic Change in Cardiovascular Care
by Seth J. Baum, MD, FACC, FACPM, FAHA, FNLA Every generation or so, each medical discipline hopes to experience a revolution of monumental proportions. Statins, released in the 1980s, were the last cholesterol modifying medications that dramatically altered our ability to decrease heart attacks and strokes. Now we have the PCSK9 inhibitors. With them we…
Read MoreFDA Gives Premarket Approval for Modification of LDL Indications for Use of Lipoprotein Apheresis System
by Seth J. Baum, MD, FACC, FACPM, FAHA, FNLA The FDA has granted premarket approval to Kaneka Pharma America’s application requesting approval for modification of the indications for use of their Liposorber LA-15 System. The major gain for patients is that LDL can now be 160 or greater whereas previously it had to be 200…
Read MoreA Pragmatic Cure for The Guidelines
by Seth J. Baum, MD Our Guidelines have been hijacked by the “Evidenced Based Medicine” (EBM) initiative. Somehow, the “evidence” in EBM has been distorted to be tantamount to that which is derived solely from randomized controlled trial (RCT) data. Such a proposition is patently preposterous. Evidence comes in many forms – from basic scientific…
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