Theo Hensley, MD

11/27/2025

BS must be called out. That EMT spreads massive misinformation on a regular basis.

11/26/2025

The lifetime risk of colon cancer is around 1 in 25 for the average person. Rates for younger adults have been increasing though so we now recommend screening at 45. Around 150k Americans are diagnosed every year and 50k or so die every year.

The overall risk of colon perforations during a colonoscopy is 1 in 3000 with very old people being the highest risk. They rarely miss small tumors or polyps too especially if poor bowel prep.

Low risk people can elect f***l DNA testing (Cologuard) which is noninvasive and detects early cancers 92-94% of the time with advsnced cancers newr 100% detected. It only detects precancerous polyps around 42% of the time though so it’s done every 3 years. The test simply comes back as “positive” or “negative” though so there is a risk of false positives and false negatives for all tests.

Risks for colon cancer include family history, inflammatory bowel disease, age, to***co use, moderate or heavy alcohol use, obesity, smoked/processed and red meats, and even char grilled meats (creates polycyclic hydrocarbons). Having Native American or African American ancestry is also an increased risk.

Eating diets high in fiber, whole grains, fruits and veggies lowers risks.

I’m not sure about you, but I have at least one of the risk factors above. I’ve been screened before and I’ll do it again later on when it’s recommended. I’ve lost patients and family members to colon cancer and it’s heartbreaking to go through.

11/26/2025

The wildest part of the anti-vax community is how they pretend like over a Million Americans didn’t die from Covid a few years ago.

They want you to forget all the people that had blood clots, heart attacks, and strokes from the virus. They pretend like Chronic Covid didnt affect millions more

They falsely believed that Bill Gates somehow snuck in microchips into the shot.

They demonize and spread false claims about mRNA technology.

They falsely claim that vaccines affect fertility.

They claim that vaccines can change your DNA (they don’t) but also ignore the viruses like HPV and Hepatitis can literally cause cancer and kill people!

They claim that horse dewormers not only prevent severe Covid (not supported by large high quality trials) but also they cure various types of cancers.

They falsely claimed that hydroxychloroquine helped Covid even to this day when we have high quality data that clearly shows it was not effective compared to placebo.

They ignore actual gold standard science while trying to overthrow decades of scientific and medical advancement based on anecdotes or low quality or even manipulated data.

They profit off likes, follows, and content creation and they are making massive amounts of money off of spreading misinformation. Most of them sell snake oil supplements or books/guides of alternative pseudoscience.

They falsely claim that myocarditis is more common from Covid vaccines than the virus.

They completely ignore that 1-3 in 1k Measles kids die even if healthy.

They don’t want you to know that whooping cough can be deadly to infants.

They downplay the risk of botulism in infants from honey.

They scare you about trace amounts of formaldehyde in vaccines and pretend like it’s not a natural byproduct of your body and found in tons of foods.

They scare you about tiny amounts of aluminum that improve vaccine efficacy and response even though massive trials of millions of people show no increased risks.

They falsely claim that vaccines don’t reduce spread of respiratory diseases.

They don’t want you to know that influenza is the most common cause of pneumonia that hospitalizes people in this America.

They ignore the fact that RSV is one of the top causes of childhood hospitalization every winter. They don’t want you know that there is vaccine that is safe to take late in pregnancy that protects baby and mom for 6+ months.

They probably aren’t even aware that pneumococcal disease due to strep is the top cause of bacterial pneumonia that puts seniors into the hospital every year.

They definitely don’t want you to know that being vaccinated against shingles not only lowers risk of painful shingles 80-90+% over 10 years but it also lowers the risk of heart attacks, strokes, and even dementia by 20+% in very large studies.

11/26/2025

Bird flu luckily isn’t prevalent with community spread. I’ve seen several reports past few years of poultry farmers having antibodies against bird flu so clearly there is somewhat common animal to human spread.

Eventually that will change because statistically viruses mutate until they evolve to get around our immune systems defense somehow.

Condolences to this family. The story notes they had a backyard flock of birds which is almost certainly how they were exposed. This is slightly different than the main strains of avian influenza which have been circulating in the US, which are H5N1 and H5N2. All still have minimal human to human transmission (so far). Link in comments.

11/26/2025

A very small amount of MD or DO physicians are doing a significant amount of damage in public health that will have ramifications for decades.

RFK has surrounded himself with incompetence for decades, and Wakefield is one of the worst. He’s literally a fraudulent scientist that lost his medical license.

So many awful things Kennedy has done, but one in that folder is to "vindicate" not-a-doctor Andrew Wakefield's ideas. You may recall Wakefield is behind the (fraudulent, retracted) paper that first linked MMR to autism, and he tried to peddle his own singular measles vaccine. Now that Trump and Kennedy are inexplicably campaigning to split the MMR into 3 shots, Wakefield is taking a victory lap, despite that fact that he knows this has zero evidence base. More at the link (in comments).

11/26/2025

Wellness grifters are pro colon cancer now. Colon Cancer rates rising especially in younger Americans.

There are absolutely rare risks with any surgical procedure. People that are low or average risk can choose Cologuard as an alternative. I don’t do routine blood screening in stool since it’s far less effective of a test.

Talk with your doc about screening options starting at 45.

I make zero money off any of these screens or recommendations. I would rather not watch my patients die from colon cancer.

11/25/2025

11/25/2025

Some of my patients and their parents believe false claims about the HPV vaccine due to the internet.

My kids are and will be protected before age 14 because I believe that the benefits of reducing cancer and warts outweighs the rare risks of vaccination.

The findings show strong and consistent evidence that HPV vaccines are effective in preventing cervical cancer and pre-cancerous changes

11/25/2025

Vaccine preventable disease but also infants depend on herd immunity to keep them safe.

Vaccinate your kids

Pertussis, or whooping cough, is a highly contagious respiratory infection that is being seen more across the U.S. due in part of declining vaccination rates.

11/24/2025

The CDC webpage about vaccines and autism now misrepresents the science regarding vaccines and autism. The CDC is now lying to you.

11/22/2025

Misinformation is rampant on the internet. Especially the Joe Rogan show.

11/22/2025