Kate Scannell, MD

By Dr. Kate Scannell, Syndicated columnist
First Published in Print: 06/23/2013

By the time she was finally given a hometown burial near Sinaloa, Mexico last February, Julia Pastrana -- one of the most famous "human curiosities" of her time -- had been dead for 153 years.

Major news agencies covered the story about her corpse's transport home from a locked storage facility in a Norwegian research institute where it had been kept since 1996. But before that, her body had been embalmed, encased in glass, exhibited around the world, stolen from a warehouse, and subsequently recovered from a trash bin. Read More 

By Dr. Kate Scannell, Syndicated Columnist
First Published in Print: 01/19/2013

Last week, while sitting in a doctor's crowded waiting room, I watched the new season of the Winter Flu Olympics.

A sneezing competition was in progress when I arrived. And within mere minutes of taking my seat, I thought I had witnessed the worst sneeze I might ever see in my entire life. It erupted without warning from a young man, slouched in his chair, tethered to an iPod, staring glassy-eyed at the ceiling. His Vesuvian sneeze rocked the room, spewed a misty cloud of viral detritus throughout our cramped quarters. It was an appallingly effortless performance -- entailing not even the slightest gesture toward covering his mouth.

I was ready to score him a perfect 10 in the category of "most obnoxious sneeze, greatest risk of public contagion." But then an older gentleman came out of nowhere and trumped him. He suddenly stood up, placed his hands on his hips, bent abruptly backward and inhaled deeply. Several of us tried to protect ourselves -- turning away or wrapping scarves across our faces. Alas, like a whipsaw, his body bent violently forward, flinging a wet and turbulent "ahhHHH-CHOooooo!" into the collective airspace.

In other events: Competitive coughing generated comparable infectious excitement within the room. And rivalry remained fierce, running nose-to-nose, for "greatest number of missed tissue-tosses into the wastebasket."

Still, as engrossing as these events may have been, I soon realized that every passing moment spent in the waiting room only increased my risk of getting sick. My hopes for leaving infection-free depleted faster than all the Purell dispensers stationed by the doors.

I derived meager consolation in considering how the experience might help inform the next revision of my best-selling book, "The Sick Person's Etiquette Guide -- How to Contain Your Own Secretions with Style and Make the World a Healthier Place." Published by the Common Sense Medical Association, it makes for a good read in front of the fireplace during a cold winter's night ... or, actually, just during a cold.
 Read More 

By Dr. Kate Scannell, Syndicated columnist
First Published in Print: 01/06/2013

Last month, the country was shocked to learn that a gunman shot and killed 20 schoolchildren in Newtown, Conn. The tragedy sparked yet another so-called "national conversation" about gun control, igniting predictable passions on both sides of the heated debate. While National Rifle Association leadership recommended armed security guards in schools to enhance children's safety, gun-control advocates demanded stricter legislation to limit assault weapons and high-capacity magazines.

Locked in stark disagreement, still, both sides claimed to be aiming at the same objective: to keep children safe. How could that be?

"Keeping children safe" is always a great idea. But as an idea or abstraction, it can be easily shaped into a platitude, a moral imperative, or a political sound bite used to lure people toward wildly differing points of view. Want to keep children safe and healthy? Well, then -- do/do not have them vaccinated. Do/do not provide them with sex education. Do/do not allow contact sports. Do/do not pass legislation allowing confidential abortion counseling for teens. Do/do not tinker with school lunch menus.

A major problem with "keeping children safe" is, well ... that it is such a great "idea." It brilliantly shines as a shared concept, but is dimly seen as a collective reality. Why should that be? Read More 

By Dr. Kate Scannell, Syndicated columnist; First Published in Print: 06/23/2012

It's important to know about Elaine Riddick and what happened to her in North Carolina one godless day in 1967. Her disturbing personal story tells a troubling American tale that most of us would like to forget or deny.

But Riddick's story provides a living history of the American eugenics movement, experienced by tens of thousands of people who were forcibly sterilized by order of their state's governments. In fact, California was one of 32 states that supported and practiced eugenics, and about one-third of the 64,000 sterilizations that occurred nationwide between the dawn of the 20th century and the late 1970s were performed in California. Read More 

Dr. Kate Scannell, Syndicated columnist; First published in print: 05/12/2012

It was a dark and stormy day. I sat in an overlit hallway of a sprawling urban hospital, anxiously waiting to be ushered into a conference room filled with doctors and administrators. Under considerable stress, I looked down at the notes in my hands, reviewing them one final time in preparation for my presentation. That's when three clowns approached me -- and, no, they were not members of the hospital staff.

I looked up and stared into their painted faces. One clown withdrew a squeaky rubber pen from her enormous pocket and, with dramatic flourish, made two giant check marks on a pink card. After her clown colleagues nodded approval, she handed the "ticket" to me and said: "We're citing you on two counts."

To be frank, I hesitated about engaging with these clowns. After all, I was a serious doctor on a serious mission, preparing for a tense interaction, and I didn't have time for, well, clowning around. Still, I was surrounded by three clowns, and the last thing I needed before my meeting was a lapel-flower squirt of water in my face.

So I smiled politely and read aloud the charges on my citation: "Feet are not big enough" and "Gathering too much dust."  Read More 

By Dr. Kate Scannell, Syndicated columnist
First Published in Print: 04/28/2012

One of my patients used to demand each year that he be screened for "any kind of cancer imaginable." He wanted blood tests and radiographic scans that scoured every reach of his body. He devoured handfuls of so-called "anti-cancer" supplements and wore copper bracelets to ward off malignancies. As healthy as he was, he suffered terribly with cancerphobia.

Ironically, his anxiety was his greatest risk for developing cancer. Every X-ray or CT scan he underwent to help "manage" his anxiety just increased his cumulative radiation exposure and, consequently, his chance of developing a malignancy.  Read More 

By Dr. Kate Scannell, Syndicated columnist; First Published in Print 04/14/2012

A few days ago, my friend with severe dementia asked me at least a dozen times whether I'd heard about her granddaughter's scholarship award. We had been speaking by telephone during our weekly phone date, a tradition we've kept for many years.

Each time my friend asked the same question, she expressed continuously renewed joy -- no less infused with delight than any time she had asked before. She seemed to be living "in the moment" -- one that repeated independent of her memory. I was grateful that this moment of her reliving was a happy occasion. It is not always so. Read More 

By Dr. Kate Scannell, Syndicated columnist; First published in print 02/18/2012

Last week, the journal Health Affairs published a study exploring physicians' attitudes about truth-telling that generated abundant media attention. Many public commentators deemed the results "shocking" -- although few seem to have read the fine print. You almost needed a tranquilizer to withstand headlines that "asked" whether YOUR DOCTOR IS LYING TO YOU!

In comparison, the study's actual title reads less sensationally: "Survey shows that at least some physicians are not always open or honest with patients." Although not much of an attention grabber, it concisely summarizes the researchers' main conclusion based upon a survey of 1,891 practicing physicians in the United States.

The actual media reports about the content of the new survey also tended to be off-key and misleading.  Read More 

By Dr. Kate Scannell, Syndicated Columnist
First published in print: February 5, 2012

It's often said that "a picture is worth a thousand words." Now, according to new research, we also know that a picture might be worth "the price of a meal ticket" to healthier eating habits for young children.

This week in the Journal of the American Medical Association, University of Minnesota researchers reported that elementary-school children ate more vegetables when the compartments in their lunch trays were lined with photographs of vegetables. Pictures of carrots served as . . . well, carrots, and led three times as many children to that veggie in the cafeteria line. Images of green beans inspired twice as many children to give beans a chance.

That's the good news.  Read More 

By Dr. Kate Scannell, Syndicated Columnist
First Published in Print: 01/22/12

In the early 1970s, my friend's father died on stage while receiving a golden watch from his boss to mark his retirement. Grasping the watch in one hand, he reportedly clutched his chest with the other and collapsed. He could not be revived. His sudden death had been completely unexpected, and his family was devastated. His death was officially attributed to a heart attack.

Afterward, my grieving friend speculated that her father's death had been triggered by the stress and heightened emotions he'd been experiencing over the unwelcome prospect of retirement. He'd been a dedicated "company man" his entire adult life, someone who had found meaning and personal fulfillment through his job at the auto plant. He couldn't imagine living without the satisfying daily routine of his work and the companionship of co-workers.

I knew nothing at the time about cardiology, the heart's autonomic neural regulation or the body's powerful, smoldering brew of stress hormones. However, I was convinced by what had happened to my friend's father that a heart could be broken by grief and loss. That it could shatter under the unbearable weight of despair.

Years later, after becoming a physician, I often was reminded of my friend's father.  Read More