Source: Caribbean Net News I try to resist writing about health advice, since most health news is designed to increase anxiety unnecessarily. But here’s something I found that’s quite sensible and helpful. It’s a post by Dr. Edward Pullen on over-the-counter (OTC) medications at KevinMD. Scarring, stuffy noses, headaches, and sleep aids You might think… Read more
Category Archives: Health & Medicine
Sesame Street’s When Families Grieve
This was hard to watch, but well worth it. The program talks to four families who lost a parent. Two military families – one husband who died in action, the other a returning vet who committed suicide. A firefighter who had a heart attack while on the job. And a mother who died of breast cancer. I can imagine that watching this program as a family would help children and parents talk about their feelings and help children realize they’re not alone. Read more
Civil disobedience and the individual mandate
Source: SFGate “Individual mandate” refers to a provision in the new health care reform act that requires all citizens to purchase health insurance. There are exceptions for those who cannot afford to pay and for those who have religious objections, such as Christian Scientists. Without this provision, health care reform falls apart. If we’re going… Read more
Obama and health care: Deal making with lobbyists
Frontline has put together a documentary on the passage of health care reform. It argues that Obama caved in to special interests at every step of the way and that this is bad news for Democrats. Barack Obama promised change. Then he took on one of Washington’s toughest issues: health care. During his first year… Read more
Why are there no new antibiotics?
Without new antibiotics, we’re at the mercy of antibiotic resistant bacteria – MRSA, Clostridium difficile, Acinetobacter baumannii, etc. Unfortunately, pharmaceutical companies lack a financial incentive to develop new antibiotics. One reason is that most patients get better when they use antibiotics. Many are prescribed for only a few weeks. It’s much more profitable for drug… Read more
Gender and racial discrimination at a Pharma giant
Source: TopNews We’ll need government financed incentives to push pharmaceutical companies into developing new antibiotics. Just when we need Pharma to clean up its act and improve its image with the public, we have more unflattering news about the industry. 5,600 women have filed a class action suit against the multinational drug firm Novartis, claiming… Read more
The "lie down and die" model of sleep
Source: Biacustica Do we need less sleep as we age? Experts differ on this question. Some studies find that older people need 1.5 hours less sleep each night than teenagers. Other studies indicate that our need for sleep does not diminish with age. One thing experts do agree on is that many older people have… Read more
Our only language is English
Source: Teabonics When President Obama filled out his census form last week, he had to decide how to answer the race question. Even though his selection was only half true, he settled on the “Black, African American, or Negro” option. I noticed Facebook friends struggling with the same issue: If my father’s parents were born… Read more
Reaction to health care: A step backwards
Source: University of Virginia There have been nasty and violent responses to the passage of health care: Spitting on members of congress; chanting the “N” word at black congressmen on their way to vote; images of Nancy Pelosi surrounded by flames; death threats to members of Congress; Republican congressmen on the House floor cheering protesters… Read more
A raffle for free (human) eggs
Source: Babble At a London seminar promoting American donor eggs for infertile British women, a Virginia infertility clinic offered attendees the chance to win an American woman’s eggs. Also included was a free in vitro fertilization (IVF) cycle (a $23,000 value). The reaction, on both sides of the Atlantic, was mixed. According to The Washington… Read more
Glucosamine/chondroitin no better than placebo, but …
An analysis of 10 studies involving more than 3,800 people has found that glucosamine and chondroitin supplements for joint pain are ineffective either alone or in combination. … The supplements don’t appear harmful, the authors note. But if people begin to feel better while taking them it could be due to the placebo effect or just the natural healing of joints over time. Read more
A brief history of antibiotics
* 2000 B.C. – Here, eat this root * 1000 A.D. – That root is heathen. Here, say this prayer. * 1850 A.D. – That prayer is superstition. Here, drink this potion. * 1920 A.D. – That potion is snake oil. Here, swallow this pill. * 1945 A.D. – That pill is ineffective. Here, take… Read more
Baby Isaiah’s parents expect second child
Doris Wilson, a well-known nursing professor at the University of Alberta, has called for a public inquiry into the circumstances of Baby Isaiah’s birth. It’s unclear why a C-section was not performed over the course of the 40-hour labor or why the mother was not airlifted to another hospital. Evidently an investigation of the hospital has already occurred, but the details are confidential and are not being released to the public at this time. Read more
Gonorrhea bacteria: The next superbug?
After chlamydia, gonorrhea – also known as the “clap” — is the second most common bacterial STD (sexually transmitted disease). It’s easily transmitted. Women have a 60-80 % chance of becoming infected after a single sexual encounter with an infected male partner. Left untreated, the disease not only causes unpleasant symptoms – painful urination, urethral… Read more
Joe Biden on health care reform
Someone sent this to me, and I can’t find it on the web to give credit to the artist. Read more
"Dad, the 'unfinished business' is done."
Source: The Washington Post Ted Kennedy’s youngest son, Rep. Patrick J. Kennedy, visited his father’s grave on the day after health care reform was passed. He left a hand-written note, written on one of his congressional note cards: “Dad, the ‘unfinished business’ is done.” Senator Kennedy, in a letter delivered to President Obama by Vicki… Read more
The Supreme Court and health care repeal politics
Source: The Economist Attorneys general from 14 states (so far) are filing lawsuits to challenge the constitutionality of health care reform. Some have the support of their Republican governors. Others have incensed their Democratic governors. Orin Kerr, on the conservative/libertarian law professors’ blog The Volokh Conspiracy, gives the odds of repealing the individual mandate as… Read more
Global challenge: 10 new antibiotics by 2020
The Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) has issued a statement challenging global leaders to develop 10 new antimicrobial drugs by 2020. The time has come for a global commitment to develop new antibacterial drugs. Current data document the impending disaster due to the confluence of decreasing investment in antibacterial drug research and development concomitant… Read more
Health care: A history of last minute arm twisting
Source: The Truth or the Fight The media love to play the upcoming health care vote as a sporting event, with daily play-by-play analyses of whether Nancy Pelosi will get the 216 votes she needs to pass the reform legislation. Speculations on the vote count are meaningless, however, until the very last minute. Those members… Read more
Actions surrounding the moment of death are highly symbolic
In a recent article in The New England Journal of Medicine entitled “Is It Always Wrong to Perform Futile CPR?”, a doctor describes the case of a baby boy who had been born with a large encephalocele on his forehead – a neural tube defect that allows the brain and its surrounding membrane to protrude… Read more
Baby Isaiah May, October 24, 2009 – March 11, 2010
Source: The Vancouver Sun Baby Isaiah May was allowed to die today, in the arms of his parents. The child was surrounded by 10 family members, including a grandmother who had traveled from Washington State. Today was the date set for the next court appearance in the May’s attempt to keep their child alive. In… Read more
Olbermann on the damage done by "death panels"
Last October, in a one-hour special commentary on health care reform, Keith Olbermann discussed his father’s illness in personal and graphic detail. Last night he provided an update that began: “Last Friday night my father asked me to kill him.” Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy Olbermann and his… Read more
Baby Isaiah: February update
Source: The Windsor Star Four-month-old Baby Isaiah suffered irreversible brain damage at birth when his umbilical cord wrapped around his neck. Medical authorities recommended that the child be disconnected from the ventilator that keeps him alive. Isaiah’s parents have sought to keep their child on life support through the legal system. See here and here… Read more
Health inequities, politics, and the public option
Source: Torontoist Constance A. Nathanson is an American historian of public health. She recently wrote an essay for The Lancet that explains why the public option is such a hot button – one that threatens to confront us with the underlying issue of health inequality. Early in the twentieth century, industrialized nations – with the… Read more
Health care inequality: The US vs. Europe
During last year’s immersion in matters of health care, the US system was frequently compared to those of Canada, the UK, Japan, Australia, and Western European countries. Whether the comparison involved infant mortality, lifespan, or comprehensive coverage, the US fell far behind these other developed countries. The lack of universal coverage is perhaps the most… Read more
Why did health care reform fail? Lack of empathy
Source: The New York Times Continuing with Abigail Trafford’s analysis of health care reform, the next comparison between the Obama and Clinton failures is the ongoing empathy gap. Trafford describes an experience she had with supporters of Clinton’s health reform. In 1994 she traveled with the Health Security Express, a busload of individuals who suffered… Read more
Why did health care reform fail? Cognitive dissonance
Source: Ohio Daily President Obama was determined to avoid the mistakes of Bill Clinton’s attempt at health care reform. He made sure Congress was heavily involved. He courted the major interest groups – the insurance industry, the pharmaceutical industry, hospitals. And yet it appears reform has failed once again. Abigail Trafford, author and former Washington… Read more
Where were the melamine whistle blowers?
Source: The Wall Street Journal When Texas nurse Anne Mitchell accused a doctor of unethical conduct, she had no idea how much trouble was in store. First of all, her complaint was anonymous, and second, she believed she was doing the right thing. When she was accused of harassment and faced a ten-year prison term,… Read more
Whistle blowing: Nurse Anne Mitchell vs. Dr. Arafiles
Source: TriCity Herald It takes courage to blow the whistle on a fellow employee. The workplace is a social community. When we stand up and accuse someone of wrongdoing, we alienate ourselves from that community. The whistle blower, of course, also faces very concrete fears: job and income loss, the threat of retaliatory prosecution, and… Read more
The persistence of melamine
Following the 2008 discovery in China of melamine-laced milk – an event that left six babies dead, 300,000 sickened, and over 50,000 hospitalized — the Chinese government ordered all contaminated products to be burned or buried. The government was not directly involved in the destruction, however. That was left to those who had produced and… Read more