Dr David Lindstrom, a physician in Stockholm, Sweden, has published a study about the results of smoking cessation before surgery. The results were impressive. According to the study, stopping smoking before surgery reduces the rate of complications significantly. What was surprising was the difference that was noted between stopping 3 weeks before the surgery and those who stopped 1-2 weeks before surgery.

The results were:<p>Stopped smoking 3 weeks before surgery: 15% had complications

Stopped Smoking 1-2 weeks before surgery: 22% had complications

Did NOT quit smoking: 37% had complications

What does this mean for you? Stopping smoking before surgery, even if it is only a week before, can improve your surgical outcomes. It can even help reduce scarring after surgery.

If you talk to obese people in America one of the things they often say they fear is the humiliation of not fitting. Not fitting into an airplane seat and needing a seatbelt extender. Not fitting into a movie seat. Not fitting into a booth at a restaurant. "Not fitting" is a recurring theme when you talk to overweight people. Not fitting and the embarassment that comes along with it. So what happens when "not fitting" collides with an inability to get the healthcare that you need?

Unfortunately, for one woman in Kansas City embarassment was the least of her problems. She had been diagnosed with a tumor on her spine. Focused on seeking treatment, Carolyn Ragan, a five foot tall 275 pound woman from Kansas City, found to her horror that she did not fit into the MRI machine at the University of Kansas Hospital. Not only was she too heavy for the table that slides into the machine, but she couldn't fit in the machine.

This is not an uncommon situation as there are many obese people being seen in hospitals on a daily basis, but most obese patients are able to fit into an "open" MRI, where the aparatus is less tubelike and can accomodate much larger patients. The problem was the solution suggested by staff members, which was NOT an open MRI. Carolyn Ragan was told by staff to seek out an MRI at The Kansas City Zoo.

The good news is that Carolyn was able to find an open MRI that accomodated her frame and has since had two surgeries to treat the tumor. The bad news is that she considers the MRI debacle the worst part of her healthcare experience. A pretty telling statement when she has had multiple surgeries for the tumor and is now experiencing partial paralysis.

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The Center For Disease Control and Prevention, the government agency that studies diseases, their origins and how to prevent the spread of disease, will be getting a new director. The change in presidents has a trickle-down effect as President-elect Barack Obama will be selecting the people who will run the variety of government agencies. On Friday the announcement was made that Dr. Julie Gerberding, the currect director of the CDC, had been asked to resign and had in fact tendered her resignation.

So what does this mean for the average American? Well, honestly, not a lot. The CDC does a substantial amount of research, which in the long term absolutely does have an impact on Americans, but that will continue no matter who the director of the CDC may be. The CDC will still investigate outbreaks of illness as they always have. The change in directorship is really about the administration of the organization and how it runs on a day to day basis.

3T MRI, a new and vastly more powerful type of MRI scan, is able to produce much more detailed images that previous scans. This improvement means that scans that would have been inconclusive in the past are able to give definitive answers. In the case of the tiny ligaments and tendons that help form the wrist, the new MRI technology can detect damage that required surgery to see in the past. That doesn't mean surgery won't be necessary to repair the problem, but in many cases surgery won't be required to diagnose the problem.

So why is this new type of MRI so special? The stronger the magnet the better the image that doctors use to make a diagnosis. The magnet in the 3T is 3 Teslas in strength. According to the article, the magnet used to move junk cars is 1.5 Teslas in strength. So, for patients, a really strong magnet makes a huge difference. Throw in some updated imagine software and you have a dramatic improvement in the ability to diagnose problems without doing surgery.