Public Health
Researchers from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health say it's time to ban smoking in private residences. Never mind those archaic ideas like choice and private property, this must be done, they argue, to protect the children. And if you don't want to protect children, well, what's wrong with you?
Their push for tighter restrictions on smoking is based on a new paper published in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers&Prevention, which suggests that hair nicotine concentrations are higher in children exposed to secondhand smoke at home, and the younger the children, the…
Dietmar Brandes (2005): Calotropis procera on Fuerteventura. http://www.biblio.tu-bs.de/geobot/fuerte.html Calotropis procera is a „spreading shrub or small tree to 4 m, exuding copious milky sap when cut or broken; leaves opposite, grey-green, large up to 15 cm long and 10 cm broad, with a pointed tip, two rounded basal lobes and no leaf stalk; flowers waxy white, petals 5, purple-tipped inside and with a central purplish crown, carried in stalked clusters at the ends of the branches; fruit grey-green, inflated, 8 to 12 cm long, containing numerous seeds with tufts of long silky hairs at one…
The days are getting shorter, and it's dark out when you leave work. If you look out your window at 5 pm and it's dark - I'm not sure how it is on the West Coast, but here on the East Coast this is the case - it can be rather disheartening. Most people sigh and go about their business, but for about 6% of Americans (18 million people), the darkness of the fall and winter months mean depressed mood, increased anxiety, fatigue, increased need for sleep, decreased energy, weight gain, difficulty concentrating, loss of interest and desire to be alone, increased craving for sweets, thoughts of…
A perspective piece by Danielle Ofri of the NYU School of Medicine, in last week's New England Journal of Medicine (subscription required) nails the H1N1 vaccine hysteria:
After repeated delays, H1N1 vaccine finally arrived in our clinic earlier this month to the uniform relief of the medical staff. But my formerly desperate patients were now leery. "It's not tested," they said. "Everyone knows there are problems with the vaccine." "I'm not putting that in my body."
I was unprepared for this response, but maybe I shouldn't have been. For weeks now, in the schoolyard of my children's…
Just because a vaccine is available doesn't mean people will choose to be inoculated, according to new research published amid widespread public confusion about the merit of H1N1 flu shots.
The research, appearing in the December issue of Health Services Research, looked at acceptability of potential future HIV vaccinations among high-risk adults in Los Angeles and demonstrated that many factors come into play when a person decides whether or not to be vaccinated.
"As we can see in the current climate of confusion around H1N1 flu shots, the availability of a vaccination alone is not enough…
A just-released Study by The Lancet and other notable international organizations says "Climate change already affects human health, and if no action is taken, problems such as malnutrition, deaths and injury due to extreme weather conditions, and change in geographical distribution of disease vectors will worsen." A Series of Papers on Household Energy, Food and Agriculture, Urban Land Transport, and Low Carbon Electricity Generation is the result of an international collaboration of scientists. The Papers make a strong case for linking climate and health goals, and through suggested…
ASPARAGUS RACEMOSUS WILLD.
Systematic position
Kingdom Plantae
Division Spermatophyta
Class Monocotyledonae
Subclass Coronarieae
Order Liliales
Family Asparagaceae
Genus Asparagus
Species Asparagus racemosus Willd.
English name : Asparagus
Indian name : Shatavari (Sanskrit / Marathi), Satavari, Shakakul (Hindi)
Habitat : The plant grows best in tropical and subtropical dry and deciduous forests.
Geographical distribution : Asparagus racemosus is distributed throughout tropical Africa, Java, Australia, India,…
Introduction
“Nature has been a source of medicinal agents for thousands of years, and an impressive number of modern drugs have been isolated from natural sources, many based on their use in traditional medicine.” These plant-based traditional medicine systems continue to play an essential role in health care, with about 80% of the world’s inhabitants relying mainly on traditional medicines for their primary health care. Plant products also have an important role in the health care systems of the remaining 20%, who reside in developed countries. About 25% of prescription drugs dispensed…
If you're reading this, your blood pressure is likely already that of a kid's pump rocket (blasts 30 feet in the air!!!). Never fear. You will survive Turkey Day. Gobble-fricking-gobble. Now to the list.
1. Turkey: Buy a cook-in-the-bag turkey breast roast. Turn on the oven. Throw it in. If your guests or house pets don’t see you carve it, they will never know your dinner never gobbled (or, more precisely, that it is the unholy conglomeration of many separate gobblers).
2. Mashed Potatoes: Buy instant. Just add boiling water and enough butter and cream cheese to mask the slightly musty…
The Wall Street Journal published a list of 20 medical advances for which we should be thankful. WSJ says that amid all the bad news about medicine in the media - H1N1, failed miracle drugs, etc, contentious health-care reform issues - it's easy to overlook how much progress has been made in recent years.
Without further ado:
We're in good/excellent health. "Nearly 62% of U.S. adults said they were in excellent or very good health, along with 82% of their children, according to families sampled by the federal government for the National Health Interview Survey, which was conducted in 2007 and…