Kansas City Academy of Family Physicians

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that excessive alcohol use causes one in ten deaths in adults ages 20- to 64-years-old. At 88,000 deaths per year between the years of 2006 and 2010, it is one of the leading causes of preventable deaths in that age group.  Additionally, the CDC notes that, although drinking below the age of 21 is illegal, people between the ages of 12 and 20 years of age consume 11% of all alcohol ingested in the United States.  Excessive drinking in the underage population accounts for 4,300 deaths annually.   While the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) cites some benefits from moderate alcohol consumption--decreased risk for heart disease, decreased risk of ischemic stroke and decreased risk of diabetes--it indicates that 47% of the 78,529 liver disease deaths in 2015 were alcohol related.  Moreover, drinking alcohol increases the risks of cancer in the mouth, esophagus, pharynx, lar...

March 24 th was World TB Day, this commemorated the day in 1882 when Dr. Robert Koch announced the cause of tuberculosis (TB).  He was awarded the Nobel Prize for his discovery of mycobacterium tuberculosis, proving TB disease is caused by a microbe and not by heredity as was previously believed.  TB is an ancient disease; evidence of the disease is seen in skeletal remains more than 8,000 years old. Tuberculosis is spread in the air; it is not easy to catch and usually requires repeat exposures to cause disease in others.  Most cases of active TB infect the lungs, but it can infect other parts of the body like the lymph nodes, spine, or brain.  The good news is that TB is both preventable and curable.   When a person breaths the TB bacteria into their body the immune system often stops the infection from spreading.    This person will have a positive TB test result, but will not feel sick.  They do not have any symptoms of disease, a...

The Kansas City Academy of Family Physicians has, for years, published an annual spread in our local newspaper to highlight Family Medicine and family physicians in our local community. You can view our October 2014 supplement  here . As medicine and technology evolve, we decided to feature our member physicians' articles in this new venue. This blog will cover topics as varied as the scope of Family Medicine itself. At a recent meeting, the KCAFP board voted to support HealthyKC's "Tobacco 21" policy recommendation, supporting local ordinances that raise the legal age for purchase and sale of tobacco products to 21 for Greater Kansas City. Unfortunately, nearly one in five high school seniors in the Kansas City area use tobacco, and most lifelong smokers begin before the age of 21. Such policies have been shown to decrease high school tobacco use by 50%. HealthyKC's Tobacco Cessation and Prevention Action Team includes KCAFP board member Dr. Don Potts. 11/...