Samuel D Benjamin MD

Family and Alternative Medicine

[Samuel D Benjamin MD @DrSamBenjamin]

The benzene part is partly true but outdated/context-dependent: in 2021 Valisure found detectable benzene in 27% of 294 tested sunscreen/after-sun batches, mostly sprays, leading to recalls. Benzene is not a sunscreen ingredient; it was contamination in certain batches/products.

Bottom line: use sun protection—shade, clothing, hat, and broad-spectrum SPF 30+ sunscreen. Prefer lotions/mineral sunscreens if benzene/aerosol concerns bother you.

[Samuel D Benjamin MD @DrSamBenjamin]

This bullshit is why youbcan't believe so much that is on line and why there are so many putz's like @Nic Hulscher-

The 470,000-person UK Biobank paper did find an association: people reporting more sunscreen use had higher skin-cancer rates. But the authors EXPLICITLY interpret this as the “sunscreen paradox”: higher-risk people use more sunscreen because they have fair skin, more UV exposure, prior skin cancer, or they apply it inadequately—not because sunscreen causes cancer. Reuters and Full Fact both reviewed the viral claim and found it misrepresents the study.

The study itself says the paradox may be explained by greater UV exposure, poor reapplication, or increased sunscreen use after skin-cancer diagnosis, and that the findings support adequate sunscreen use plus UV minimization.

[Samuel D Benjamin MD @DrSamBenjamin]

@twistartups @Jason @markhoro My son -a singer songwriter, Alec Benjamin- has written songs regarding psych issues. He considers Adderall an addiction. He wuit "cold turkey".

[Samuel D Benjamin MD @DrSamBenjamin]

@drkeithsiau I have no critique other than my concern that whilst aggressive preventive treatment makes a difference and I treat my patients accordingly, I worry about the neuro effects of aggressive lipid control.

[Samuel D Benjamin MD @DrSamBenjamin]

@JustTheTweets17 Ivermecctin and arthritis

[Samuel D Benjamin MD @DrSamBenjamin]

It is a very tempting concept but there are two dangers that immediately come to mind- one affecting the user and the other society as a https://t.co/Mo4ak76OQE the first instance, the user(patient) may not be aware of adverse interactions between drugs purchased or that there could be a preexisting allergy or sensitivity. For example, being allergic to penicillin and then purchasing Augmentin not being aware that it has a penicillin family component.

The other has far reaching dangers. For example, overuse of many antibiotics can cause regional- even global drug resistance which could be catastrophic.

I neglected to mention dangers of drugs misused causing adverse reactions like fluoroquinolones(cipro, levofloxin, etc.) causing severe tendonitis and torn soft tissue.

Don't get me wrong, moving to OTC could have some benefits but it could not be blanket elimination of all prescriptions.

BTW It would not dramatically cut pharma products cost. We should not kid ourselves. This would be a move to facilitate drug access- nothing more.Just consider what $ and resources insurance cos. and medical management companies gobble up every day with no redeeming value.

[Samuel D Benjamin MD @DrSamBenjamin]

@Ivermectinkart Menendazole dose?

[Samuel D Benjamin MD @DrSamBenjamin]

What a brilliant and practical scientific application. I understand that JAL has cut a deal with Sakai for a model with 200 capacity. If all passengers pedal at the same time, the range will be 45 miles. Naturalists in California are clamoring for a US version which can address the gas crisis and climate change. The plan being that all passengers must be fit and use only paper luggage.All aboard!!!!!

[Samuel D Benjamin MD @DrSamBenjamin]

@elonmusk @teslarati @teslaratiteam
In addition to the numerous issues that I have encountered with fsd once you arrive or leave a location or when you use navigation and it literally send you in circles, today gsd took me to a Tesla supercharger, warned me that slot 2A is not working and then proveeded to oark in slot 2A! Another example of why it is not ready for driving without supervision. How the heck is Robotaxi going to function?

[Samuel D Benjamin MD @DrSamBenjamin]

•@elonmusk
•@Tesla
•@Tesla_AI

Full Self-Driving (FSD)

Route: Huntington Beach, CA → Scottsdale, AZ

- Twice, the car backed into Supercharger stalls instead of pulling in head-first.
- Before reaching its destination, the car made unnecessary right turns, circling several blocks only to return to the same location.
- The car pulled over to the side of the road because it detected flashing red lights from a stop sign reflected in the rear-view mirror, mistaking them for an approaching emergency vehicle. It wouldn’t proceed until FSD was disengaged.
- The navigation destination remained displayed on the screen even after the trip was completed. This behavior started after the recent holiday software update (post-Grok upgrade).
- While turning left behind another vehicle from the outermost right turn lane, the car executed an excessively wide turn. If I hadn’t braked, it would have resulted in a head-on collision with a stationary object. This is unacceptable.
- When arriving at a house on a cul-de-sac, the vehicle should have parked in the driveway. Instead, it followed the curve of the street and stopped nowhere near the house, certainly not in the driveway.
- At the Andaz Scottsdale, the car was parked directly in front of the hotel exit. When departing, instead of backing out and proceeding straight ahead, FSD backed out, turned right, and circumnavigated the entire multi-acre property twice.
- On multiple occasions, the vehicle chose the longest possible route to exit parking lots. At this point, I manually drive out of parking lots and re-engage FSD afterward, unless I feel like touring every nook and cranny of a Costco parking lot.
- Add to this frequent hesitation, excessive creeping, sudden acceleration at stops, and other erratic behaviors.

I do use FSD, but I would never consider taking my eyes off the road in its current state. I won’t sugarcoat its performance the way many seem to be doing. This is not ready for prime time.

And yes, it’s incredibly reassuring to receive repeated warnings in the rain that camera visibility is impaired and the weather is adversely affecting performance.

Come on, Tesla. I own your stock, and it won’t be worth much if FSD isn’t fixed.

•#FSD
•#Tesla
•#AutonomousDriving
•#AI

[Samuel D Benjamin MD @DrSamBenjamin]

OMG I am sooo embarassed! Here's what made ne think megaloblastic anemia:

Hypersegmented neutrophils (≥5–6 nuclear lobes). There are background red cells that appear macrocytic / macro-ovalocytic and relatively pale.
So the pattern looks like impaired DNA synthesis.Please tell me where I messed up. I always considered myself pretty decent at reading a peripheral smear- so much for cheap arrogance!!!!!

[Samuel D Benjamin MD @DrSamBenjamin]

Thank you for engaging and for grounding this discussion in real, hands-on experience. I agree with you on one essential point: providing intimate personal care—changing an adult brief and maintaining hygiene with dignity—is complex, demanding, and deeply human work. I have done this as well, during years caring for patients in skilled nursing facilities.

Where we differ is not in recognizing the complexity, but in our expectations of what technology is capable of becoming—and how quickly.

Robotics combined with advanced AI is moving rapidly toward capabilities that include adaptive decision-making, precise tactile sensing, fine motor dexterity, continuous learning, and safe, gentle lifting. These systems will not follow rigid scripts; they will adapt moment-by-moment to anatomy, mobility, cognition, and hygiene requirements. That is the key difference between past automation attempts and what is now emerging.

I understand skepticism—if I hadn’t spent decades in medicine watching promised breakthroughs arrive late or not at all, I might share it. But the pace of progress today is unlike anything we’ve seen before. Platforms such as Tesla’s Optimus are early examples, not endpoints. The convergence of robotics, vision systems, large language models, and reinforcement learning strongly suggests that what once seemed impossible may arrive within a 3–5 year window, not generations.

I’m not claiming this to be settled fact—only that it is a serious possibility we must account for. If healthcare systems continue to plan massive expansion of facilities and workforce pipelines under the assumption that today’s care model will persist unchanged, we risk misallocating enormous resources and leaving many well-intentioned professionals stranded by disruption.

Even disagreement is valuable if it sparks inquiry. My hope is not to convince, but to encourage healthcare leaders, clinicians, and policymakers to ask whether the future of elder care might look very different—and to plan accordingly.

[Samuel D Benjamin MD @DrSamBenjamin]

Will Transform Long-Term Care Far Faster Than We Are Planning For

I have been following recent discussions about the growing need for coverage of SNFs, assisted living facilities, and long-term care insurance. While these conversations are understandable, they largely miss a critical reality:

AI and robotics fundamentally change the long-term care equation.

Within a relatively short time frame — 3 to 5 years — the demand for traditional SNFs and assisted living facilities could drop dramatically if we fully deploy emerging AI-driven robotics.

We are now on the threshold of scalable, highly capable robots at increasingly reasonable prices. The purchase or leasing of robotic systems will soon be far more cost-effective than staffing large institutional facilities.

The primary goal for most people as they age will be to remain at home, not relocate to centralized care facilities.

Dedicated facilities will still be needed — but likely only for a small subset of the aging population, where highly specialized equipment or extreme medical complexity makes home deployment impractical or prohibitively expensive.

To recap what is already becoming technically feasible:

• Robots can operate nearly 24 hours a day
• They are multilingual
• They continuously improve via software updates
• They can serve as companions, adapting to a patient’s cognitive level
• They can make autonomous decisions, progressing rapidly from intelligent to super-intelligent systems
• They will be able to lift and transfer patients safely
• They will assist with personal hygiene and daily care
• They will be able to accompany patients, monitor them, and respond in real time to changes in condition

This is not speculative science fiction — this is near-term deployment reality.

If we continue planning long-term care models as if robotics and AI do not exist, we risk building an expensive infrastructure for a world that is already disappearing.

The future of aging care is distributed, home-based, AI-augmented, and robot-assisted — and it is arriving far faster than policy makers, insurers, and health systems are prepared for.

[Samuel D Benjamin MD @DrSamBenjamin]

#AgingInPlace #RoboticsInHealthcare #FutureOfCare
#LongTermCare #HealthcareInnovation #AIinMedicine
#SeniorCare #HealthPolicy

@CMS
•@HHS
•@AARP
•@NIH
•@UnitedHealthcare
•@Kaiser Permanente
•@elonmusk
•@AndrewYang
•@CMSGov
•@HHSgov
•@AARP
•@statnews

Transform Long-Term Care Far Faster Than We Are Planning For

I have been following recent discussions about the growing need for coverage of SNFs, assisted living facilities, and long-term care insurance. While these conversations are understandable, they largely miss a critical reality:

AI and robotics fundamentally change the long-term care equation.

Within a relatively short time frame — 3 to 5 years — the demand for traditional SNFs and assisted living facilities could drop dramatically if we fully deploy emerging AI-driven robotics.

We are now on the threshold of scalable, highly capable robots at increasingly reasonable prices. The purchase or leasing of robotic systems will soon be far more cost-effective than staffing large institutional facilities.

The primary goal for most people as they age will be to remain at home, not relocate to centralized care facilities.

Dedicated facilities will still be needed — but likely only for a small subset of the aging population, where highly specialized equipment or extreme medical complexity makes home deployment impractical or prohibitively expensive.

To recap what is already becoming technically feasible:

• Robots can operate nearly 24 hours a day
• They are multilingual
• They continuously improve via software updates
• They can serve as companions, adapting to a patient’s cognitive level
• They can make autonomous decisions, progressing rapidly from intelligent to super-intelligent systems
• They will be able to lift and transfer patients safely
• They will assist with personal hygiene and daily care
• They will be able to accompany patients, monitor them, and respond in real time to changes in condition

This is not speculative science fiction — this is near-term deployment reality.

If we continue planning long-term care models as if robotics and AI do not exist, we risk building an expensive infrastructure for a world that is already disappearing.

The future of aging care is distributed, home-based, AI-augmented, and robot-assisted — and it is arriving far faster than policy makers, insurers, and health systems are prepared for.

[Samuel D Benjamin MD @DrSamBenjamin]

#Healthcare #MedicalPrivacy #Cybersecurity #HealthIT #EMR #HIPAA #DigitalHealth #PatientData #HealthcareReform #AIinHealthcare #HealthTech #Privacy #DataSecurity #Physicians #Medicine #HealthcareLeadership #PatientRights #HospitalAdministratio As a physician who has practiced for decades, I’m done pretending that medical privacy in America is real. It isn’t. And everyone inside the system knows it.

Let’s stop the theater.

When was the last time your hospital or clinic asked:
• Has our EMR ever been hacked?
• Were patient records copied, stolen, or sold?
• Do we actually have the technology to defend against modern attacks?
• Do patients even believe we’re protecting them?

We all know the answers.
Hacks happen. Data gets exposed. EMRs are outdated. Patients don’t feel safe.

Meanwhile, we hand patients privacy forms highlighted in yellow, as if a signature somehow shields them from the brutal reality that our medical data systems are antiquated, fragmented, and embarrassingly vulnerable.

HIPAA was created for a world that no longer exists.
Cyberattacks have evolved. Our defenses have not.
This is regulatory theater — expensive, burdensome, and largely useless.

And yet, we’ve built an entire multi-billion dollar industry around pretending these rules matter:
•Third-rate “healthcare cybersecurity” vendors
•Medical privacy consultants
•IT teams patching old software
•EMR companies charging fortunes for outdated systems

All of it costly. Very little of it effective.

Meanwhile, patients are left waiting:
“Can you just tell me if my CA-125 went up or down?”
“No. You’ll need to fill out forms, bring ID, wait 2–3 days, or see your doctor in 3 months.”

This is not privacy.
This is bureaucracy masquerading as protection.

⸻

It’s time to stop the nonsense and rebuild from scratch.
•Scrap outdated practices
•Stop pretending paper-era regulations can secure digital-era systems
•Adopt modern, AI-driven privacy architecture
•Use real-time AI monitoring to detect and stop breaches
•Give patients immediate access to their own data
•Eliminate the bloated, ineffective privacy bureaucracy we’ve created

The system is broken. I’ve watched it decay for years.
And if we don’t fix it now, AI-era cyberattacks will break it completely.

Healthcare doesn’t need more forms. It needs courage. It needs honesty. And it needs a complete architectural overhaul.

Let’s stop pretending we’re protecting patients — and actually start doing it.

[Samuel D Benjamin MD @DrSamBenjamin]

Patients across America are incredibly frustrated because so much of their physicians’ time is siphoned away by meaningless bureaucracy. What little time is left is rarely enough for true patient care—whether in the office, online, or on the phone. Doctors have less time to think deeply about their patients’ problems, and everyone suffers for it.

Managed care has not reduced this burden—it has increased it dramatically. The managed care insurance industry does not use efficient or modern management methods. Instead, it has become a vehicle for creating chaos in medicine, burying physicians in layers of administrative obstruction while offering nothing that improves patient outcomes.

Even more troubling, companies like UnitedHealthcare outsource their customer service to offshore call centers in India and the Philippines. No matter how well they are trained, these agents do not share American cultural norms, and the result is deeply flawed, often ineffective interactions with American patients and physicians. This is unacceptable in a system that affects people’s health and lives.

Managed care has grown so powerful that one has to wonder whether the industry is now managing those of you in government, not just the patients and physicians trapped within its system.

What happened to real competition in health care?
What happened to the central role of the physician in caring for the patient?

I look to you, @SecBecerra, @RobertKennedyJr, and @DrOz.
It is time for meaningful change

#HealthcareReform #PatientsFirst #PhysiciansMatter #CutTheRedTape #HealthcareChaos #ManagedCareFailure #MedicalFreedom #FixHealthcare

[Samuel D Benjamin MD @DrSamBenjamin]

@tesla_report @Tesla @Teslarati @teslaownersSV @tesla_na @Teslaconomics @elonmusk @TeslaIrvine @teslacost @DisabledWorld What is it that you would lije me to reconsider? If I violated your rules, my apologies and I will gladly remove my comments but my account of my experiece is accurate.

[Samuel D Benjamin MD @DrSamBenjamin]

@wholemars_blog @SawyerMerritt Tesla has treated me- a disabled senior and 2 time Tesla owner with nothing but disrespect. I
traveled ( in great discomfort) to a demo ctr in Irvine, CA where I was promised a 26 MYP that I could demo because I wanted to see if the new adaptive suspension was indeed more comfortable than my 23 MYP which while I love, rides quite stiff like a washboard. If satisfied I planned to buy the 26 model on the spot. When I arrived I was presented with a different model which I explained would not help me assess the new suspension bevause that model does not have it. I was upset and Ms. Lin, the mgr in this showroom offered me no way to drive the new MYP which was right in front of me in the showroom. Instead she insisted I try a different model that I had no interest in which she had rolled up in front.She did not want me to demo the Performance model because she might "lose a buyer" by removing it from the showroom. Indeed Tesla did lose a buyer- me!!! I was there to demo and if I liked the vehicle buy an MYP. I neither demoed nor bought the vehicle. What I did get is demeaning treatment because I walk slowly and with the assistance of a cane. But, more than just an ableist the manager was patronizing and condescending. She made no offer to see how I might get a demo(drive one to me ?) I left the showroom and hobbled to my car admittedly upset and called the sales mgr of the costa mesa showroom who was just as dismissive. Both assumed that I am incapable because of my age -unable to understand why they could not and would not accomodate me. (I am a tri- lingual 78 year old physician actively engaged in the practice of medicine managing a body of complex patients.) Both employees that I interacted with were consistently indifferent to whether I purchased another Tesla or not. I should have been angry, but I was , instead, deeply offended and saddened- not to mention in a considerable amount of pain exacerbated by the awful experience I had just sustained. The fact that neither employee made an attempt to meet my need having owned already 2 Tesla vehicles and coming in to test and then potentially to buy my third Tesla suggests a company wide attitude and may contribute in some part to declining sales. No matter how sophisticated the Tesla is and no matter how much of sales , etc. is or may become digital, emphasis on customer service and respect for everyone who enters a showroom is pivotal. My Tesla encounter is the case in point. I will not forget what happened and how I was dispensed with- all the while, frankly, I was in agony no doubt intensified by the apalling experience.There are Tesla competitors and while behind in autonomous driving they will not be forever.

[Samuel D Benjamin MD @DrSamBenjamin]

@ocregister Tesla has treated me- a disabled senior and 2 time Tesla owner with nothing but disrespect. I
traveled ( in great discomfort) to a demo ctr in Irvine, CA where I was promised a 26 MYP that I could demo because I wanted to see if the new adaptive suspension was indeed more comfortable than my 23 MYP which while I love, rides quite stiff like a washboard. If satisfied I planned to buy the 26 model on the spot. When I arrived I was presented with a different model which I explained would not help me assess the new suspension bevause that model does not have it. I was upset and Ms. Lin, the mgr in this showroom offered me no way to drive the new MYP which was right in front of me in the showroom. Instead she insisted I try a different model that I had no interest in which she had rolled up in front.She did not want me to demo the Performance model because she might "lose a buyer" by removing it from the showroom. Indeed Tesla did lose a buyer- me!!! I was there to demo and if I liked the vehicle buy an MYP. I neither demoed nor bought the vehicle. What I did get is demeaning treatment because I walk slowly and with the assistance of a cane. But, more than just an ableist the manager was patronizing and condescending. She made no offer to see how I might get a demo(drive one to me ?) I left the showroom and hobbled to my car admittedly upset and called the sales mgr of the costa mesa showroom who was just as dismissive. Both assumed that I am incapable because of my age -unable to understand why they could not and would not accomodate me. (I am a tri- lingual 78 year old physician actively engaged in the practice of medicine managing a body of complex patients.) Both employees that I interacted with were consistently indifferent to whether I purchased another Tesla or not. I should have been angry, but I was , instead, deeply offended and saddened- not to mention in a considerable amount of pain exacerbated by the awful experience I had just sustained. The fact that neither employee made an attempt to meet my need having owned already 2 Tesla vehicles and coming in to test and then potentially to buy my third Tesla suggests a company wide attitude and may contribute in some part to declining sales. No matter how sophisticated the Tesla is and no matter how much of sales , etc. is or may become digital, emphasis on customer service and respect for everyone who enters a showroom is pivotal. My Tesla encounter is the case in point. I will not forget what happened and how I was dispensed with- all the while, frankly, I was in agony no doubt intensified by the apalling experience.There are Tesla competitors and while behind in autonomous driving they will not be forever.