“Bonding of the bone occurs in two ways — welding, which leaves a lip, and fusion, which makes the place of the break stronger than before. If you don’t polarize the bone after the break, it will heal with a lip.”

“The bones that heal slowly after breaks at high altitudes are those that manufacture red blood cells in their marrow. Bones that do not manufacture red blood cells, slowest to heal at low altitudes, heal faster at high altitudes.”

“The ‘easiest profits’ come from me-too drugs, says John Santa, medical director at Oregon Health & Science University. Genuine discovery is a risky business ‘more like drilling for oil.’ Instead of prospecting for real cures, some companies repackage old drugs with the minimal tweaks needed to get a new patent. Then they stage exhaustive trials aimed at unearthing some slender advantage that can be cited in advertising.”

“One study, published this month, noted that about half of all cases of liver failure are caused by an overdose of acetaminophen — 44 percent intentional but 48 percent unintentional.”

“To date, little research has been conducted to determine the safety and efficacy of combining multiple medications in a single patient. Some researchers have suggested that research in pharmacology is not sophisticated enough at the present time to examine the effects of multiple medications taken at one time. Others have referred to polypharmacy as an uncontrolled experiment. They suggest that a scientist in a laboratory would never combine eight to 10 different chemicals at random in a test tube without first preparing for the consequences. Thus, when an elderly patient is prescribed eight to 10 medications concurrently, it is impossible to predict the outcome.”