Decline in LA homicides despite faltering economy. Think placebos don’t work? Turns out they do, even when we’re in the know. End-of-life care to be provided by Medicare by law. 50 ways to improve your life in 2011. Plus, the latest news.
Decline in LA homicides despite faltering economy
The Los Angeles Police Department has made cuts in its budget equivalent to the loss of roughly 500 officers, yet homicide rates are at their lowest in the city since 1967. For the first time in 40 years, L.A. is on track to report fewer than 300 killings for the year. In 1992, the year of the Los Angeles riots, when tensions between police and low income parts of the city were at their height, there were 1,092 killings. In 2010 there have been 291 so far. Experts on crime usually associate crime with poverty, yet in the very depths of this recession, with law enforcement numbers dwindling, Los Angeles is posting record low murder numbers; including in areas like Watts and South Central, which are usually problematic. What’s behind the impressive drop? Will it continue?
Guests:
Kirk Albanese, Deputy Chief of operations in the San Fernando Valley, Los Angeles Police Department
Mark Kleiman, Professor of Public Policy at UCLA, editor of the Journal of Drug Policy Analysis, and writer of "When Brute Force Fails: How to Have Less Crime and Less Punishment."
Think placebos don’t work? Turns out they do, even when we’re in the know
A new study seems to indicate that placebos can be effective, even if patients know they’re taking sugar pills. Researchers gave fake meds to patients suffering from irritable bowel syndrome, then in a twist, told them that the medicine they were being given was in fact a placebo. Shocking everyone, including the researchers, 60% of the patients tested reported feeling better. Traditional wisdom suggests that people need to believe they are receiving actual medicine in order for the placebo effect to take place. This groundbreaking study has opened up the possibility that honesty, even in the case of placebos, might be the best policy. Can placebos work - without deception - to treat other ailments? What impact will this have on future drug trials and treatments? Is it unethical to mislead patients about placebos with the hope of curing them?
Guest:
Ted Kaptchuk, MD, Associate Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School. Dr. Kaptchuk co-authored the study about placebos.
Ted Kaptchuk, MD, Associate Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School. Dr. Kaptchuk co-authored the study about placebos.
End-of-life care to be provided by Medicare by law
When end-of-life counseling was introduced into the health care reform bill in 2009, Republicans and pro-life advocates were in an uproar, fearful that allowing doctors to counsel critically ill patients would lead to “death panels.” That option was left out of the legislative overhaul, but the Obama administration has achieved the same result by regulating that Medicare will pay for annual wellness exams and counseling. This counseling may include advising patients on advance directives to opt out of aggressive life-prolonging procedures should they wish it. While the medical community is largely in favor of advance care planning, detractors are up in arms over what they see as an end run around the final health care bill. Is the new law a death sentence for the critically ill and elderly? Or will counseling on advance care offer greater comfort for those who want to control their medical care?
Guests:
Daniel Callahan, co-founder of the Hastings Center, a nonpartisan research institution dedicated to bioethics and public policy
Charlotte Allen, author of The Human Christ: The Search for the Historical Jesus
50 ways to improve your life in 2011
‘Tis the season for lists! Every year, articles come out with detailed “best of” and “worst of” and “most important” lists of everything from songs, movies, television shows, recipes and books, to people and endangered species. The U.S. News & World Report is famous for its ability to rank things and this year rather than looking back they decided to look forward. Today we explore their list, “50 Ways to Improve Your Life in 2011,” which covers a wide range of topics including health, money, career, mind and doing-good for others. Have you made any New Year’s resolutions? What improvements will you tackle? Will you finally open that savings account or hit the gym?
Guest:
Anne McGrath, assistant managing editor at U.S. News and World Report