Public Health

One of the key characteristics coming out of the anti-vaccine movement appears to be an inability to get the facts straight about much of anything relating to vaccines and vaccine-preventable illnesses. Another key characteristic is the downplaying of the seriousness of these illnesses, along with a fondness for bashing Dr. Paul Offit, one of the most eloquent voices speaking for the safety and importance of vaccines in maintaining public health. Over at the obviously anti-vaccine blog masquerading as a "daily newspaper of the autism epidemic, Mark Blaxill engages in a lengthy, inaccurate…

      The following is a story written by my fiancee, who has Tourrette's syndrome, regarding a personal experience at a Mental Institution.  In my eyes, this is the real reason why healthcare is so expensive.  Many primary care givers are resentful to have to give their care.  No matter how much their parent institution pays them.  The treatment of patients, and the arrogance of staff is common among the healthcare sector.  Just ask your first year intern.---------------------------------- A Loss of Here       …

“Legal highs: the dark side of medicinal chemistry”, by David Nichols of Purdue University’s pharmacology department, has hardly been published in the prestigious science journal Nature [469, 7 (2011)] and it is already fully exploited for the usual drug war scare tactics bringing anything to do with psychoactive compounds into relation with pure evil - ‘reefer madness’ over and over again [I found some on Yahoo ‘science news’ but I am not going to link to such crap]. What is so funny about it this time that I bother? His whole article is about that he feels his publications have been “used…

New findings indicate that weight gain of infants is influenced by not just formula versus breast feeding but also the type of formula the infant is consuming, which the researchers say could have implications related to the infant's risk for the development of obesity, diabetes and other diseases later in life. Formula-fed babies gain more weight than breast-fed babies but the study set out to determine differences between formula types.   Most infant formulas are cow's milk-based and alternatives include soy-based and protein hydrolysate-based formulas. Protein hydrolysate formulas…

One more of the many crazy results of the idiotic “war on drugs” is that we have to pay lots of money for chemicals that actually cost next to nothing. For example, adding up time and money spent on health insurance, physicians, and pharmacies, taking care of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is plainly not a viable option for many poorer people or those with a tight schedule, say single mothers taking care of their kids while having a job. Nobody gets a year’s worth of medication; you have to go at least every month again or more frequently, especially in case of ADHD medicines…

Ethnopharmacological importance of Asparagus racemosus : A review Manorma Sharma, Archana Sharma1 and Ashwani Kumar2 Abstract Tuberous plants are the vital source of medicinal drugs. Among these Asparagus racemosus is an important herb which is well known for its pharmacological applications. A lot of medicinally importance attributes have been assigned to this herb. It has been used by tribes located in distinct area of India from primeval time. Key component of this herb is saponins. Recent developments in transgenic research have opened up the possibility of the metabolic engineering of…

Researchers say they have identified a natural substance in dairy fat that may substantially reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes. The compound, trans-palmitoleic acid, is a fatty acid found in milk, cheese, yogurt, butter and meat but is not produced by the body and so only comes from the diet. The report explains that trans-palmitoleic acid may underlie epidemiological evidence in recent years that diets rich in dairy foods are linked to lower risk of type 2 diabetes and related metabolic abnormalities.   Health experts generally advise reducing full-fat dairy products but the trans-…

Today we find a study published which indicates that children that consume caffeine may sleep less.  Besides the fact that this is an obvious and expected finding, it is interesting to note that this is the result of parents being surveyed during routine visits to the doctor. So, besides the fact that the sleep requirements may vary significantly over the age group studied (5-12 year olds), we are now accepting, as scientific, data on the correlation between caffeine consumption and hours of sleep based on the anecdotal evidence of parents during a doctor's visit.   Since the study…

It sounds like a tough choice but a new strategy to prevent asthma may be going back to the way our parents did things - less super-hygiene and more viruses.   A new study reports that influenza virus infection in young mice protected the mice as adults against the development of allergic asthma. The same protective effect was achieved by treating young mice with compound isolated from the bacterium Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori), a bacterium that colonizes the stomach and is best known for causing ulcers and increasing the risk of gastric cancers.  The findings in the Journal of…

I went to a conference this morning at the Hope Street Group, a DC-based think tank. They had a panel of doctors, PhDs, a lawyer, consultants, John Podesta (Clinton's healthcare czar) and an economist discussing Using Open Innovation to Reinvent Primary Care. Panel moderator was former Washington Post healthcare policy reporter Ceci Conelley who jumped ship to McKinsey probably for gobs more money. While no one mentioned the P-word (price) a great deal of the discussion centered around reducing costs. Some points were really interesting. Among them: One of the panel's recommendations is 'Use…