Public Health

Both literally and figuratively, our rationality is what makes us human. It is what separates us from our pets, right? Yes, but in many ways we are a lot less rational than other animals, and we even strive to make our irrational aspects rational—which is not rational at all. Science is inherently rational; it seeks to explain the world according to natural laws. We seek to understand things in our universe and whether they might help us or harm us. Sometimes we are wary because we understand risk, which is why we buckle our seat belts and keep poisons out of the reach of children. At times…

Are you healthier if you eat cupcake from a mix you buy in a grocery store, which would be required to have a GMO label if California's Proposition 37 passes, or an 'organic' cupcake from Whole Foods? On a science site, you know I would not ask that question if the answer were not obvious.  Humans are inherently irrational, even in our quest to rationalize our odd behavior, like claiming random mutations due to high-energy cosmic rays are better than precisely controlled human ones, because the former are 'natural' - or eating an incredibly healthy cupcake because it is more expensive…

ExAblate(R)MRI-guided Focused Ultrasound is effective in reducing pain from bone metastases in patients who could not undergo radiation therapy. Patients reported significant improvement in well-being, function, and reduction in medication use.  Bone metastases occur when cancer cells break away from their primary site and spread to other parts of the body. According to the American Cancer Society, more than two-thirds of breast and prostate cancers that metastasize spread to the bones and this also occurs in up to 30% of metastatic lung, bladder and thyroid cancers. Up to thirty…

57 percent of dietitians say nutritional success  only happens if people can indulge once in a while; in foods where taste is the priority. A survey of 200 dietitians and attendees at the Food&Nutrition Conference&Expo on Oct. 6th-8th by online retailer FreshDirect determined that a majority of respondents said they would acquire a taste for anything that's good for them and like it, 65 percent admit to cooking or seasoning their vegetables to tolerate the taste.Survey results were that 75 percent of dietitians have weight loss counseling experience, but 84 percent think their…

Data presented at the international ID Week 2012 conference in San Diego showed that over three quarters (78%) of healthcare professionals surveyed in Europe believed that they may not be following guidelines for the testing of Clostridium difficile infection (CDI), despite survey respondents believing that CDI is increasing with a large number of cases going undiagnosed.[1]  CDI is one of the most common healthcare-acquired infections in Europe and the leading cause of antibiotic-associated diarrhoea in adults.[2] CDI has become an increasing problem in hospitals, nursing homes and…

Citizens who were told routine health checks were too expensive and so people did not get them, to the detriment of their health and higher costs later, just got good and bad news; the good news is that a new review says people don't need them. The bad news is that will be a reason not to have them available when the Affordable Care Act goes into force. Check-ups don't reduce overall deaths or prevent serious diseases like cancer and heart disease, according to Cochrane researchers who carried out a systematic review on the subject. They warn against offering general health checks as part of…

Next month will be the ten year anniversary of the Prestige sinking, which caused one of Spain's largest ecological disasters. The oil spill reached the coasts of Galicia and the rest of the Cantabrian coast, right up to the Landes area of France and Portugal. Thousands of people aided in the cleaning of the contaminated beaches and were exposed to the fuel for prolonged periods. An experiment carried out on rodents exposed to fuel similar to that of the Prestige tanker oil spill concluded that inhalation of the fuel causes damage to genetic material. They say the results could be used to…

The Human body is a fine-tuned system of interactions between billions of cells and understanding molecular processes in biological systems of humans and animals has been a challenging task. At cellular level each cell has tiny receptors that enable it to sense its environment, so it can adapt to new situations. “Robert Lefkowitz and Brian Kobilka are awarded the 2012 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for groundbreaking discoveries that reveal the inner workings of an important family of such receptors: G-protein–coupled receptors”. (Quoted from The Royal Swedish Academy of SciencesPRESS…

Everyone buys toothpaste and so they come in shapes and flavors, as pastes and gels, some guard against tooth decay or protect teeth from acid attack, while others that are designed for sensitive teeth. But which toothpastes clean well? Which preserve the tooth enamel? A new evaluation method sheds light on the subject. Most people care about beautiful teeth. A perfect set of teeth symbolizes health and youthfulness, and can even influence career prospects. If having pristine teeth calls for thorough oral hygiene, then how well or badly does a given toothpaste clean? How effective is it? What…

There may be good news for the blood donation business; the shelf life of blood has perhaps gotten longer. In a finding that runs counter to commonly held beliefs about fresh blood being better, a randomized clinical trial shows that acutely ill premature babies who received fresher blood did not fare better than those who received the current standard of care. There was no difference between the two approaches with respect to major organ injury, mortality and infection. Previous observational studies of patient outcomes used already existing clinical data, which is problematic for a number…