Click here for our 2009 list, with 283 Denver doctors in 83 medical specialties. It's our biggest, most comprehensive Top Docs feature yet.
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Last year, U.S. spending to treat obesity hit $86 billion—a figure that could quadruple as America’s waistlines keep bulging in years to come, points out Medill News Service, which cites a study finding that almost half of U.S. adults are expected to be obese by 2018. But you can’t blame Boulder for the trend.
A federal analysis of obesity rates across the nation concludes that Boulder County is the nation’s thinnest, writes the Daily Camera. That’s according to 2007 data—the most recent available—showing that less than 13 percent of people in the county are obese and just four percent reported diabetes, a health problem closely linked to obesity. Meanwhile, some counties in Alabama and Mississippi are more than 40 percent obese. Denver’s rate is about 16.3 percent.
What’s President Barack Obama doing about the problem? Taking to the airwaves on Thanksgiving Day. In a public service announcement with the NFL, viewers will see New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees toss a pass to an unseen player. Wait! It’s Barack Obama—and he’s taking on Pittsburgh Steelers safety Troy Polamalu. And they’re playing on the White House lawn (via USA Today).
As the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq rage on, suicides among U.S. Army soldiers have set a record for a fifth straight year. The Army says it suspects 140 active duty soldiers had ended their lives in 2009 as of the count they had taken on Monday. That’s the same number confirmed last year and up from 102 in 2006, according to The Associated Press.
The Army has struggled to slow the trend, even with new suicide-prevention efforts. The Comprehensive Soldier Fitness program, which emphasizes mental and emotional health as much as physical strength, was added in October.
Army Vice Chief of Staff General Peter W. Chiarelli said during a press conference at the Pentagon yesterday, “This is horrible. Every single loss is devastating” (via The Washington Post). Yet, Chiarelli also says the Army remains befuddled by the problem and has yet to identify any causal links among the cases: “Each suicide case is as unique as the individuals themselves.”
However, a special investigation that I worked on with Salon earlier this year identified some common threads, including the habitual mistreatment of soldiers suffering from combat stress by commanders—even medical workers. The Salon series also identified suicides that could have been prevented if Army officials had paid better attention to the plight of soldiers with hidden wounds, such as post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injuries.
Suicide isn’t the only risk for returning soldiers. Rolling Stone recently detailed the violence and homicides committed by a group of soldiers at Fort Carson in Colorado Springs.
There are few people in the world who would seriously argue that junk food and soda pop are good for you. But the question, as far as Bill Ritter’s critics are concerned, is whether people ought to pay higher taxes for them. The governor isn’t alone. Several states are considering the idea, which would put sweets in the same category as sin items like liquor and cigarettes.
For Ritter, the proposed higher cost for candy and soda is a matter of eliminating a sales-tax exemption, not creating a new tax. Doing so would generate $17.9 million and help ease budget cuts to schools, writes The Denver Post.
But critics, such as Jon Caldara, president of the libertarian-minded Independence Institute, are none too pleased: “I think the governor needs to sit down and watch Willy Wonka a couple of times and stop being such a buzz kill.”
Yet, such criticisms seem to be the least of the governor’s problems. Ritter is attempting more than $1 billion in budget-balancing maneuvers, and the “candy and soda” tax is just one of more than $130 million in proposed temporary eliminations of tax exemptions, notes the Denver Business Journal. Among others, Ritter has also proposed suspending an exemption for industrial and manufacturing energy use, which could reap $48 million. Critics say the cuts will hurt Colorado’s economy.
In terms of well-being, the top five U.S. states are (in order): Utah, Hawaii, Wyoming, Colorado, and Minnesota. That’s according to new research that suggests states with more tolerant residents who tend to be wealthier and better educated are happier on average. Having mountains tends to help, as well, states research by England’s University of Cambridge (via LiveScience).
But take it with a grain of salt, says researcher Jason Renfrow: “These results don’t say wealthy people are happier than unwealthy people, [or that] people who live in areas where people are wealthy are happier.”
The survey also adds confusion to the findings of a recent study by the American Psychological Association, which concluded that more than one third of Denver residents consider their stress extreme. In several categories of that study, Denverites logged more stress than the national average. Perhaps the rest of Colorado balances Denver out.
Laura Kriho, the Cannabis Therapy Institute’s outreach director, says it appears the Boulder City Council’s effort to rush an emergency ordinance to crack down on medical marijuana has spawned confusion about what the rules actually do.
“They didn’t put a lot of thought into the definitions or into the rest of the ordinance,” she tells the Daily Camera, saying it appears the ordinance could be interpreted to mean that anyone who sells pot is in business legally.
Read the language for yourself. The approved ordinance states a medical marijuana business in Boulder is “any establishment that makes available marijuana in any form to any other person in exchange for money, goods or services,” or anyone with “possession of more than six marijuana plants and two ounces of a usable form of marijuana, unless the possession is by a patient or primary caregiver” as defined by the Colorado Constitution.
So does this mean anyone in Boulder can sell pot now without fear of being busted? Not so fast, says city attorney Jerry Gordon: The “ordinance doesn’t legalize the sale of marijuana,” although he concedes a layperson might interpret it otherwise. (more…)
More than 2,100 people in Colorado Springs were finally vaccinated for the H1N1 swine flu yesterday. Nobody at El Paso County’s first health clinic was turned away, and about 900 doses were leftover, according to the Gazette.
Although the proliferation of the vaccine across the nation comes later than expected for many organizations, it seems to be finally making its way to the masses. But swine flu also appears to be on the wane in the Rocky Mountain region, writes 9News, which reports that the number of new cases has dropped for three weeks in a row.
Still, four more deaths were announced, bringing the statewide toll so far this season to 38. Across the nation, 4,000 or more Americans have probably died from swine flu, which is about four times the estimate officials had been using.
The new figure includes complications that began with swine flu, such as pneumonia and bacterial infections, notes The Associated Press. To put that in perspective, each year more than 36,000 people die from the regular flu and flu-related causes, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
But don’t try any creative math based on the numbers cited here. A flu year can be unpredictable and doesn’t follow a calendar year. Moreover the CDC, citing scientists, still fears swine flu “may cause a lot more people to get sick than during a regular flu season.”
If you are dazed and confused by all the legal fighting over Colorado’s apparently nebulous law legalizing medical marijuana, you’re not alone. The headlines have been a blur in recent weeks. While local politicians are promising crackdowns, fearing a stoners’ free-for-all, the courts and state officials are trying to sort out myriad issues and controversies surrounding the tremendous growth of medical marijuana dispensaries of late.
Last August, the state Board of Health decided anyone who supplies marijuana to a registered user is qualified to be a “caregiver.” The rules seemed simple enough until last month, when the state Court of Appeals seemed to eclipse that rule in a criminal case, concluding that a woman was not qualified to be a caregiver because she provided the drug only and no other health services. That led the Board of Health to reconsider and temporarily accept the court’s requirements.
There’s more: Lawyers got involved, and yesterday Denver District Judge Larry Naves overturned the Board of Health’s interim decision, concluding that officials ignored the needs of patients and violated state open-meetings laws in the process (via The Associated Press).
So now, medical marijuana providers can go back to slinging pot without offering other services to patients who have a certificate and prescription.
Westword talks with Brian Vicente, one of the attorneys who represented medical marijuana patients, after the ruling: “The judge made it very clear the Board of Health needs to cease disenfranchising the public. We hope that at subsequent hearings, they will abide by Colorado law and listen to patients and providers.” Eyes are now set on a December 16 Board of Health meeting.
Former Republican Congressman Tom Tancredo walked off the set of an MSNBC talk show Friday night after liberal blogger Markos Moulitsas, founder of the Daily Kos, offended him (via Politico).
U.S. Senator Joe Lieberman to America on health care reform: If a government plan is part of the deal, “as a matter of conscience, I will not allow this bill to come to a final vote.”
Add Lieberman, the former Connecticut Democrat who became an independent, to the ranks of those who are ready to kill the health care bill the House passed over the weekend (via The Associated Press).
Lindsey Graham, a Republican from South Carolina, dismissively says, “the House bill is dead on arrival in the Senate.” President Barack Obama, meanwhile, has urged the U.S. Senate to “bring this effort to the finish line on behalf of the American people.”
Congresswoman Betsy Markey of Fort Collins was the only Democrat from Colorado—and one of 39 total Democratic representatives—to vote against the U.S. House legislation. (more…)
Vehicle exhaust and farm fertilizer are helping to warm the alpine lakes of Rocky Mountain National Park, creating unwanted algae that’s no more than “junk food for fish,” according to a study that will be released in the journal Science (via The Associated Press). Moreover, the problem—nitrogen—is worse than previously believed, says Arizona State University professor James Elser, the study’s lead author.
The lakes can lose biodiversity, a threat to fish like the rare greenback cutthroat trout, because the algae is less nutritious for the microscopic organisms that are at the basis of the food chain.
“It’s like eating marshmallows all day and expecting to grow. You can’t do it,” Elser says.
Colorado State University researchers are listed as co-authors on the reports, including U.S. Geological Survey research ecologist and Colorado State senior research scientist Jill Baron and Koren Nydick, a graduate of the CSU Graduate Degree Program in Ecology (via CSU).
Meanwhile, The Colorado Independent notes that the upper Colorado River and Front Range water resources are threatened by population growth and the energy industry.
A recent study out of the University of Colorado-Denver has some depressing news: Exercise doesn’t necessarily lead to weight loss. The New York Times notes that the study does show, however, something that most fitness and nutrition experts have espoused for quite some time: Consistent exercise combined with a lower calorie intake can lead to weight loss.
Perhaps the most interesting nugget to come out of the study is that working out at a lower intensity could be more effective in burning fat, as long as you don’t replace all of those calories afterward.
Edward Melanson, Ph.D, the lead author of the study, tells the Times that people “are only burning 200 or 300 calories” in a typical 30-minute exercise session and that “you replace that with one bottle of Gatorade.” So be careful loading up on sports drinks and other calories after a workout.
The news isn’t all bad, though. Consistent exercise has many other tangible benefits, including increasing aerobic capacity, decreasing blood pressure and resting heart rates, and a better state of mind. It also helps people lose weight by increasing the likelihood that you’ll stick to a strict reduction in calorie intake. So you should still work out, of course, but consuming fewer calories overall is better than pushing for hours on the machines.
Nine more people have died in Colorado because of the flu, bringing the total number of deaths at a very early point in the season to 34. Moreover, about 1,550 people have been hospitalized with the flu, as swine flu, or H1N1, spreads across the state (via 9News).
It isn’t clear if all the cases are swine flu, but officials say it’s the only strain they have tracked in Colorado so far this year. It’s also not understood why the virus hits some individuals and groups, such as young people, harder than others. But many people suffer badly, and one woman in southern Colorado is fighting for her life, according to 11 News in Colorado Springs.
Unfortunately, flu vaccines remain in short supply—both for the swine flu and for the seasonal flu. The situation was unavoidable, say experts interviewed by The New York Times; the global H1N1 pandemic created a larger demand than the industry can handle.
Despite the shortage, workers on Wall Street have somehow gotten their hands on doses, according to the Today Show, in a breaking scandal that appears to once again highlight the disconnect between the well-to-do and struggling families.
Meanwhile, a cat in Iowa has tested positive for the virus and survived after displaying symptoms, showing that people can pass the virus on to their pets, writes The Washington Post.
More than one-third of Denver residents consider their stress “extreme.” Eighty percent say their work is stressing them out, and 53 percent are worried about their job stability, according to a report by the American Psychological Association. It turns out Denver has more stress than the national average in all of the aforementioned categories (via The Denver Post).
The findings surprise Doctor Stephanie Smith, public education coordinator for the Colorado Psychological Association: “I always thought we were a laid-back city.”
They probably don’t surprise Princess Cruises, which commissioned a survey that turned up similar results recently, albeit without the scientific standards.
Westword takes the bad news with a dose of humor, offering up some ideas about why 10 other cities might be more stressed out than Cow Town, such as Chicago, which has a “creeping feeling that Jay Cutler isn’t all he’s cracked up to be.”
Meanwhile, CBS4 medical editor Dr. Dave Hnida points to some advice for the stressed masses, including listening to music 20 minutes a day and, you guessed it, eating healthy and exercising.
Politicians around Colorado—from Pueblo to Grand Junction—are cracking down on the proliferation of the dispensaries that distribute legal medical marijuana. Their weapon: red tape.
A state legislator is exploring ways to slow the spread of such operations, but Pueblo’s city council is leading the charge.
Last night, the council there voted unanimously for a 90-day moratorium on licensing dispensaries following a lengthy hearing, according to the Chieftain, as the city looks at a variety of ordinances to regulate how marijuana may be distributed to patients. In Denver, Councilman Charlie Brown is pushing for much the same: a new licensing system similar to that of bars and nightclubs, and outright bans on dispensaries near schools.
“I think it’s out of control here,” Brown tells The Denver Post. “We need to play catch-up here. It’s become Wild West, baby.” (more…)
A study by University of Colorado researchers finds that people who are at high risk for diabetes, such as those who are obese, can significantly reduce the chance they’ll develop the disease if they are aggressive about weight loss, including exercising five days a week and consuming less fat. The results, published in The Lancet medical journal, are considered highly important in helping doctors and patients develop the right strategies to fight the disease.
CU researchers find the impact of weight loss and exercise, which can cut risk of diabetes by 34 percent (50 percent for people older than 60), is more profound than the most common prescription drug (18 percent), notes The Denver Post. Moreover, the study reveals that the effects of a healthy diet and exercise can have an impact that lasts not just months or years, but a decade.
“If people would just do it, it would work,” says Dr. Richard Hamman, the study’s vice chair. “The problem is, it’s not that easy to do.”
The impacts of repeated concussions suffered by NFL players is on the national stage, with the U.S. House Judiciary Committee holding a hearing on football brain injuries today.
The mental decline isn’t anything new, but it sure has been getting a lot of press lately.
5280’s Robert Sanchez profiled former University of Colorado football player Ted Johnson in August, telling the tale of a college star with a solid pro career whose multiple concussions ripped his life apart. The problem for players like Johnson is the NFL has by and large dismissed the issue, insisting there isn’t much proof football leads to increased mental illness.
The New York Times reports the NFL’s committee on concussions will issue a long-term study analyzing the issue in the coming years, but many epidemiology and neurology experts doubt the veracity and independence of the league’s study. (more…)
Though voters defeated a measure in 2008 that sought to define a fertilized human egg as a person, thus affording it rights, advocates of the idea will not give up. The text of 2010’s proposed “Personhood Amendment,” according to backers at Personhood Colorado, would clarify Colorado’s constitution by stating that the definition of a “person” shall “apply to every human being from the beginning of the biological development of that human being.”
Moreover, abortion, as well as tinkering with fertilized eggs for scientific reasons, would be an offense tantamount to murder or torture: “No person shall be deprived of life, liberty or property, without due process of law.”
The Colorado Independent reports that Colorado Right to Life and Personhood USA, the groups behind proposed Initiative 25, are “lining up friends and foes” in their latest campaign, including scientists at the University of Colorado-Boulder.
Personhood Colorado Director Gualberto Garcia Jones says the measure is “intended to account for human beings who may be created through asexual reproduction in laboratories and used as raw material for research, organs, or stem cells.”
Such groups are mobilizing in several states, including Nevada, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, which reports that if one state approves such legislation, it could be used to challenge the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision allowing abortion.
Following the Justice Department’s announcement last week that it will not seek to prosecute the users and providers of medical marijuana so long as they follow state law, local officials are increasingly looking for ways to intervene themselves.
The executive director of the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, James B. Martin, says the explosion of new patients represents “an abuse of the system,” writes The New York Times.
Specifically, Martin claims many young men in their early 20s are going to a small handful of doctors and complaining of severe or chronic pain, the first step in applying for state cards that allow them to receive medical pot.
“It is exceedingly unlikely that there’s an epidemic of chronic pain among young male adults,” Martin says. (more…)
Consider Duane Thayer—a 51-year-old Colorado man who fell off a ladder putting up Christmas lights last year, nearly severing his left foot—as the latest heath-insurance horror story.
To get treatment for his injuries, Thayer racked up nearly $500,000 in medical bills, which he thought his insurance company would cover. Wrong.
He was denied because one of the payments he made to the company was late and also because, as a child, he had surgery for a club foot, an ailment that was deemed a “pre-existing condition” (via MSNBC).
Now, it seems, people like Thayer could have somewhere other than the private sector to turn for health insurance, as lawmakers begin to craft the details of a “public option” as part of health-care-reform legislation. But let’s not call it a public option anymore, says U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. How about “consumer option” or “competitive option,” Pelosi and a Democratic colleague propose (via The Associated Press). (more…)
Perhaps you want to take this next bit of information with a grain of salt because it comes from a survey commissioned by Princess Cruises. Or perhaps you’ll be inspired to book a trip to some paradise far away from your hectic life in Denver just as Princess would like you to do. The survey ranks Denver as America’s sixth “most stressed-out” city, just behind Chicago, Houston, Boston, Los Angeles, and San Diego (via the Denver Business Journal).
The survey, conducted by Harris Interactive, focuses on “life balance” issues, such as finances, workload, fitness, technology, family life, and vacation plans, finding that financial stress and the glum economic picture are causing imbalance at a time when people crave better pay, want to be more organized, seek better health and fitness, and should take more breaks and vacations.
Yet, just one in four Americans will use all of their vacation days this year, many citing work-related reasons as to why they’re cutting back.
Meanwhile, Metropolitan State College of Denver professor Harvey Milkman writes in Psychology Today that some people actually seek stress—including doing dangerous stuff like breaking all the rules to join the Mile High Club—for the rush of hormones and exciting neurotransmission in their bodies and brains. For some, stress can be better than dope, he writes.
Sign up for 5280's weekly e-newsletters. Want the latest restaurant scoop? The latest happenings around town? Access to exclusive events and deals just for 5280 readers? 
There are few people in the world who would seriously argue that junk food and soda pop are good for you. But the question, as far as Bill Ritter’s critics are concerned, is whether people ought to pay higher taxes for them. The governor isn’t alone. Several states are considering the idea, which would put sweets in the same category as sin items like liquor and cigarettes.
U.S. Senator Joe Lieberman to America on health care reform: If a government plan is part of the deal, “as a matter of conscience, I will not allow this bill to come to a final vote.”
Politicians around Colorado—from Pueblo to Grand Junction—are cracking down on the proliferation of the dispensaries that distribute legal medical marijuana. Their weapon: red tape.
The impacts of repeated concussions suffered by NFL players is on the national stage, with the U.S. House Judiciary Committee holding a hearing on football brain injuries today.
Following the Justice Department’s announcement last week that it will not seek to prosecute the users and providers of medical marijuana so long as they follow state law, local officials are increasingly looking for ways to intervene themselves.
Consider Duane Thayer—a 51-year-old Colorado man who fell off a ladder putting up Christmas lights last year, nearly severing his left foot—as the latest heath-insurance horror story.