Kate Scannell, MD

By Dr. Kate Scannell, Syndicated Columnist
First Published in Print: 07/06/2012

Cora Sledge soberly recalled all the useless prayers she had offered up throughout her 80 years of hardscrabble living. Without a hint of self-pity, she recounted: "I used to pray to keep my ma and daddy safe, but that was no use. I prayed for gifts at Christmas and to win the school prize. I prayed to be slim, so no one would make fun of me. That didn't happen, either. I asked Jesus to protect my kids. Look what happened."

Yet somehow, despite all the tragedy that had seeped into her long life through small holes in her big prayers, Cora remained hopeful about her uncertain future. But her hopes now focused more internally, and her prayers reshaped around her longing to escape the assisted-living facility in which her children had abandoned her. She asked for her heart to be healed, all the while it stayed open and "ready to love." She explained, "I pray now like I did when I was a little girl -- not needing to understand. I ask for simple things. Let me not hurt. Let me not be hungry, or cold. Please keep my loneliness at bay."

I finished reading about Cora Sledge in Berkeley novelist Leslie Larson's moving (and comical) novel "Breaking Out of Bedlam" the same day that UC San Francisco researchers reported finding statistical associations between loneliness and an increased risk of dying among elderly people.  Read More 

By Kate Scannell, MD, Contributing columnist Bay Area News Group
PUBLISHED IN PRINT 10/31/2010

THE ONGOING saga about hormone replacement therapy is as scary and unsettling a Halloween tale as they come. A sobering new study published Oct. 20 in the Journal of the American Medical Association should end that tale -- though on a chilling note.

The new study comes from researchers with the Women's Health Initiative (WHI). It adds to our trove of disturbing data about the potential hazards of combination hormone replacement therapy -- or "HRT" -- for postmenopausal women. It shows for the first time that, compared to postmenopausal women given placebos, women receiving combined estrogen plus progestin not only experienced a greater incidence of breast cancer, they were also more likely to die from their cancer.

The finding is noteworthy because it sufficiently dispels the prevailing myth that breast cancers occurring in women on HRT are relatively benign and easier to treat.  Read More