Philosophy of Health-bytes

Welcome to Health-bytes. The purpose of this web site is to introduce you to basic medical information, in small easy-to-digest bytes. You choose whatever topic interests you at any particular time.

Health-bytes is written by Dr Rick Voakes, an experienced board-certified pediatrician, who lives in Bowling Green, Kentucky. Dr Voakes evaluates the pediatric medical journals to stay current on recent medical literature to find important information that will affect your health. His goal is to pass along some of this life-saving info to you, the average web-surfing non-medical person.

Health-bytes is written to avoid using technical language, so let us know if you think it does get too technical. We try to find a happy medium where the information is understandable, but not too boring. Dr Voakes "filters" information so that you are not bombarded with an excess of data of varying qualities (data smog) which is a common hazard of getting information from the internet.

Dr Voakes uses information that is "evidence-based", that is, where there is reasonable scientific proof that it is accurate. There is far too much so-called "factual information" that is based on a few anecdotes, not on reliable scientific methods.

For example, "my neighbor tried zinc for his cold and got better right away" is an example of anecdotal information. Here is a more evidence-based approach: "22,000 healthy subjects were given zinc or placebo at the beginning of cold symptoms, and the zinc group reported an improvement of symptoms in an average of 4.2 days, compared to 4.4 days in the placebo group." Which one would you be hearing about in the advertisement for zinc lozenges? In general, any claim made by an advertisement can be assumed to be completely unsupported, if not downright false! The concept of "truth in advertising" has to be suspicious when a huge percentage of American advertising claims wonderful benefits from products that are likely to kill you (tobacco, for example).

Another concept that we would like to deflate, is the myth of pursuing "zero risk". There is no such thing. There is always a slight risk that out of millions of people, someone will have a bad reaction to something. Does this affect you? Practically speaking, NO. There are too many high-risk health issues for you to worry about, so don’t sweat the one-in-a-million stuff!

The real danger in zero-risk thinking, is that people get complacent about risks, and adopt an attitude that "everything will kill you" so why worry about ANY risks. In Health-bytes, we plan to identify the high-risk stuff that you can reasonably avoid. Much of the health news that you see on TV or read about in the papers is nonsense. Occasionally, there are new risks that come up, which are actually important, so if you think there is something new worth looking at, e-mail it to us, and Dr Voakes will address it in a new Health-byte.

Why Haven't Science and Technology Greatly Prolonged Our Lifespans?

Actually the technology has already been known for a few decades! But the general public is looking in the wrong places for it. Most people expect it to be in the form of a pill or medical treatment, when it is actually in the form of preventive practices.

There are many recent advances in the medical field, but the ones most likely to greatly prolong your life and health have been known for several decades but ignored. We should not say they are ignored by everybody, because there is a growing minority of Americans already cashing in on this knowledge, and they will be able to live active healthy lives into their 90’s and beyond. Please join this health-conscious group by reading Health-bytes and USING this information to make your life a long and healthy one!

Adults in Kentucky have a very high incidence of sedentary lifestyle. Let's not be like the guy in this Dilbert cartoon!