Public Health

Liposomes are small fat capsules, often added to beauty products, because of the claim that liposomes are capable of transporting active ingredients deep into the skin - when the active ingredients are released, it is said, they can alter the skin's structure by rejuvenating and smoothing the skin.  Research from University of Southern Denmark now shows that liposomes are not capable of transporting themselves deep into the skin, and thus they are not capable of transporting active ingredients deep into the skin, and thus they are pointless.  The researchers used the technique RICS…

You can find ratings for anything on the Internet; reviews and ratings for hotels and restaurants are surprisingly well-regarded.  Doctors, not so much.  But it's generational as well. And one thing trumps all else: 'Do they accept my insurance?'  92% of parents listed that as very important while only 65% rated a convenient office location as very important.   The University of Michigan ott Children's Hospital National Poll on Children's Health found that only 25 percent of parents say doctor rating websites matter in their search for a child's physician. However, younger…

The Swedish Obese Subjects study carried out at the Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg found that, though weight-loss surgery is currently only offered to patients who exceed a certain BMI, surgical intervention would improve the health of many more people. In order to meet the current selection criteria for weight-loss surgery, Swedish patients must have a body mass index (BMI) above 40 for healthy patients, or above 35 in combination with other risk factors such as type 2 diabetes.  They examined the cases of 104 patients who were operated on despite their BMI being "too low…

Bisphenol A, widely known as BPA, has recently become a controversial science issue, along with climate change and every food, energy and medicine study. In the modern world, the only legitimate science is the science that agrees with well-funded activist organizations. BPA is a component of plastic bottles and canned food linings that have helped make the world's food supply safer but has recently come under attack because some studies have found it has the potential to mimic the sex hormone estrogen if blood and tissue levels are high enough. An analysis of almost 150 BPA exposure studies…

There are culturally appropriate ways to prevent obesity among Latino children, according to a new collection of studies from Salud America! Those might involve guided grocery store trips, menu labeling at restaurants, community gardens, and video-game-based exercise programs, they write in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine. In the United States, Latinos are currently the most populous and fastest-growing ethnic minority. About 44 percent of Latino boys and 38 percent of Latino girls are either overweight or obese, compared with an average rate of 31 percent. Children who are…

"GMO Inside" is demanding that America's largest candy sellers, Hershey's and Mars, put GMO warning labels on their Valentine's Day candy or remove these 'risky' ingredients completely. Wait, they make GMO chocolate now? No, of course not, though there is nothing natural about chocolate anyway.  A lot of corn and soy is genetically modified and those are in chocolate products. Science has made wonderful progress in bringing safe food at reasonable cost to billions more people than was once thought possible and cheap Valentine's Day candy when chocolate was once reserved for nobility is…

Requiring individuals to pay a premium for public health insurance coverage will counteract the coverage effects of expanding eligibility for public health insurance programs to higher income families, according to a paper in the journal Health Services Research. Estimating using their numerical model, researchers from Georgetown University School of Nursing&Health Studies (NHS), University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA), and Columbia University examined how income eligibility thresholds and premium contribution requirements associated with public health insurance programs…

A new estimate is that each intravenous drug user contracting Hepatitis C could infect around 20 other people with the virus, half of these transmissions occurring in the first two years after the user is first infected.  The research draws on data from four Hepatitis C epidemics in Greece, using information on 943 patients in treatment studies between 1995 and 2000, and around 100 genetic sequences representative of the epidemic taken from frozen plasma samples collected between 1996 and 2006. The team then used a mathematical model to estimate the variance of secondary infection and…

The influenza virus, ever-wiley, has decided to hit America early and hard this year.   The flu season is always full of uncertainty.  How bad will it be?  How well will the annual vaccine work?  What folk remedy will the internets come up with this time?  For many people, all this uncertainty can make a flu shot not seem worth the effort.  That wouldn't be so bad if flu shots were just about our own personal cost-benefit analysis.   But the truth, which gets far too little attention outside epidemiology circles, is that getting your flu shot is about more…

The British Department of Health's marketing campaign to school girls and their parents for the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination program has so far proven to be one of the most successful in the world - except in London.   A Healthcare Protection Agency report shows an average uptake rate for three HPV doses in Year 8 schoolgirls aged 12-13 years across London of 76%, compared with the national (England) average of 84%. While many London boroughs achieve high uptake rates, those in Barnet, Kingston, City&Hackney, Camden, and Kensington&Chelsea fall 20-30% below the…