Oct 21, 2008 12:23 PM PDT, Associated Press
AP - Nearly a fourth of widely used new-generation biological drugs for several common diseases produce serious side effects that lead to safety warnings soon after they go on the market, the first major study of its kind found.
More Everyday Wellness News »
Thursday, October 23, 2008
Va. pharmacy follows faith, no birth control sales
Oct 21, 2008 09:28 PM PDT, Associated Press
AP - A new drug store at a Virginia strip mall is putting its faith in an unconventional business plan: No candy. No sodas. And no birth control. Divine Mercy Care Pharmacy is among at least seven pharmacies across the nation that are refusing as a matter of faith to sell contraceptives of any kind, even if a person has a prescription.
More Everyday Wellness News »
AP - A new drug store at a Virginia strip mall is putting its faith in an unconventional business plan: No candy. No sodas. And no birth control. Divine Mercy Care Pharmacy is among at least seven pharmacies across the nation that are refusing as a matter of faith to sell contraceptives of any kind, even if a person has a prescription.
More Everyday Wellness News »
FDA: Incontinence surgery linked to complications
Oct 22, 2008 07:50 AM PDT, Associated Press
AP - A type of mesh used in surgeries to treat severe incontinence, cases of prolapsed uterus and other women's health problems has been linked to serious but infrequent complications, federal health officials say.
More Conditions & Diseases News »
AP - A type of mesh used in surgeries to treat severe incontinence, cases of prolapsed uterus and other women's health problems has been linked to serious but infrequent complications, federal health officials say.
More Conditions & Diseases News »
Swedish health agency blasted for HIV stance
Oct 22, 2008 09:32 AM PDT, Associated Press
AP - A Swedish health agency revealed in an article published Wednesday that it had refused to help police track down people who knowingly infect others with HIV.
More Conditions & Diseases News »
AP - A Swedish health agency revealed in an article published Wednesday that it had refused to help police track down people who knowingly infect others with HIV.
More Conditions & Diseases News »
Scientists find 26 genes promoting lung cancer
Oct 22, 2008 10:03 AM PDT, Associated Press
AP - In the largest effort of its kind, scientists have identified 26 genes that, when damaged, appear to promote lung cancer.
More Conditions & Diseases News »
AP - In the largest effort of its kind, scientists have identified 26 genes that, when damaged, appear to promote lung cancer.
More Conditions & Diseases News »
Reports of serious drug reactions hit record
Oct 22, 2008 10:21 AM PDT, Associated Press
AP - The number of serious problems and deaths linked to medications reported to the government set a record in the first three months of this year, a health industry watchdog group said Wednesday.
More Everyday Wellness News »
AP - The number of serious problems and deaths linked to medications reported to the government set a record in the first three months of this year, a health industry watchdog group said Wednesday.
More Everyday Wellness News »
HIV testing planned amid scare at Mo. high school
Oct 22, 2008 02:34 PM PDT, Associated Press
AP - Officials plan to start HIV testing at a suburban St. Louis high school where as many as 50 students may have been exposed to the virus that causes AIDS.
More Conditions & Diseases News »
AP - Officials plan to start HIV testing at a suburban St. Louis high school where as many as 50 students may have been exposed to the virus that causes AIDS.
More Conditions & Diseases News »
Tape measure: X-rays detected from Scotch tape
Oct 22, 2008 05:59 PM PDT, Associated Press
AP - Just two weeks after a Nobel Prize highlighted theoretical work on subatomic particles, physicists are announcing a startling discovery about a much more familiar form of matter: Scotch tape. It turns out that if you peel the popular adhesive tape off its roll in a vacuum chamber, it emits X-rays. The researchers even made an X-ray image of one of their fingers.
More Everyday Wellness News »
AP - Just two weeks after a Nobel Prize highlighted theoretical work on subatomic particles, physicists are announcing a startling discovery about a much more familiar form of matter: Scotch tape. It turns out that if you peel the popular adhesive tape off its roll in a vacuum chamber, it emits X-rays. The researchers even made an X-ray image of one of their fingers.
More Everyday Wellness News »
Reports of serious drug reactions hit record
Oct 22, 2008 06:01 PM PDT, Associated Press
AP - The number of serious drug reactions and deaths reported to the government shot up in the first three months of this year to set a new record, a health industry watchdog group said Wednesday.
More Everyday Wellness News »
AP - The number of serious drug reactions and deaths reported to the government shot up in the first three months of this year to set a new record, a health industry watchdog group said Wednesday.
More Everyday Wellness News »
Sick economy has patients skimping on medicine
Oct 22, 2008 06:01 PM PDT, Associated Press
AP - The ailing economy is leading many Americans to skip doctor visits, skimp on their medicine, and put off mammograms, Pap smears and other tests. And physicians worry the result will be sicker patients who need more expensive treatment later.
More Everyday Wellness News »
AP - The ailing economy is leading many Americans to skip doctor visits, skimp on their medicine, and put off mammograms, Pap smears and other tests. And physicians worry the result will be sicker patients who need more expensive treatment later.
More Everyday Wellness News »
Food allergies increasing in US kids, study says
Oct 22, 2008 10:10 PM PDT, Associated Press
AP - Food allergies in American children seem to be on the rise, now affecting about 3 million kids, according to the first federal study of the problem.
More Diet & Fitness News »
AP - Food allergies in American children seem to be on the rise, now affecting about 3 million kids, according to the first federal study of the problem.
More Diet & Fitness News »
Scientists try to stop hunger with retooled foods
Oct 23, 2008 04:58 AM PDT, Associated Press
AP - Want to lose weight? Try eating. That's one of the strategies being developed by scientists experimenting with foods that trick the body into feeling full.
More Diet & Fitness News »
AP - Want to lose weight? Try eating. That's one of the strategies being developed by scientists experimenting with foods that trick the body into feeling full.
More Diet & Fitness News »
Thyroid Disorders Linked To Glaucoma
Written by Peter M CrostaResearch published ahead of print in the British Journal of Ophthalmology finds that people with thyroid disorders may have a higher likelihood of developing the eye disease glaucoma...[read article]
Genome Study Finds 26 Lung Cancer Genes
Written by Catharine Paddock, PhDUS scientists working on the largest study ever to map the genetic changes involved in lung adenocarcinoma have identified 26 genes that are frequently mutated in this most common form of lung cancer, further increasing...[read article]
MS Damage May Be Reversed By Leukemia Drug
Written by Catharine Paddock, PhDResearchers in the UK found that alemtuzumab, a drug initially developed to treat leukemia, stopped the advance of multiple sclerosis (MS) in patients with early stage active relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS)...[read article]
Multiple Sclerosis Health Center
Guarded Optimism for Experimental MS Drug
Alemtuzumab Appears to Repair Damage to Brain in Patients With MS
By Salynn BoylesWebMD Health News
Reviewed by Louise Chang, MD
Oct. 22, 2008 -- An experimental multiple sclerosis drug proved to be much more effective for the treatment of early MS than a widely used treatment in a study, but the efficacy came at a price.
Patients with early relapsing-remitting MS treated with the drug alemtuzumab had far fewer relapses and evidence of MS progression than patients treated with the approved treatment, interferon beta-1a.
Remarkably, some patients who got the experimental drug had less disability associated with their disease three years after starting the study than at entry, raising hopes that the treatment might stop the disease in its tracks before it progresses to its crippling stage.
1 Alemtuzumab Death
But nearly one in four alemtuzumab-treated patients also developed treatment-related thyroid complications.
Even more troubling, 3% of the patients developed a potentially life-threatening autoimmune condition, which resulted in the death of one patient.
Study co-author Alasdair Coles, PhD, tells WebMD that phase III trials will soon be under way to determine if the benefits of alemtuzumab outweigh the risks in patients with early relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis.
According to the National MS Society, relapsing-remitting MS accounts for 85% of people who are first diagnosed with MS.
The study appears in the Oct. 23 issue of TheNew England Journal of Medicine.
"The phase II results are very exciting, but this is not ready for routine use," he says. "We need to know more about the long-term effectiveness and adverse effects. That is our challenge over the next few years."
Once-a-Year Treatment
Developed by Cambridge University researchers several decades ago, alemtuzumab was the first monoclonal antibody made for use in humans, and it is approved for the treatment of chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL).
It works by targeting and destroying certain immune cells, which normally protect against infection but are believed to be damaged in MS and other autoimmune diseases, resulting in the destruction of healthy tissue.
Cambridge researchers first tried the drug in patients with advanced multiple sclerosis, with little success.
The newly reported phase II trial included only patients with early, relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis who had not been treated with other MS drugs.
Between December 2002 and July 2004, 334 patients in Europe and the United States were enrolled in the study.
About a third of the patients were treated with the first-line therapy interferon beta-1a, given by injection three times a week. The remaining patients were treated with alemtuzumab, given by infusion in once-a-year cycles.
The initial cycle involved four-hour infusions given daily for five days. Twelve months later, most patients got a second, three-day course of the drug.
Response 'Unprecedented'
Three years after the trial was initiated, treatment with the experimental drug was associated with dramatic reductions in clinical relapses and a reduction in inflammatory activity (as seen on brain MRI scans) compared to the interferon treatment.
Alemtuzumab Appears to Repair Damage to Brain in Patients With MS
By Salynn BoylesWebMD Health News
Reviewed by Louise Chang, MD
Oct. 22, 2008 -- An experimental multiple sclerosis drug proved to be much more effective for the treatment of early MS than a widely used treatment in a study, but the efficacy came at a price.
Patients with early relapsing-remitting MS treated with the drug alemtuzumab had far fewer relapses and evidence of MS progression than patients treated with the approved treatment, interferon beta-1a.
Remarkably, some patients who got the experimental drug had less disability associated with their disease three years after starting the study than at entry, raising hopes that the treatment might stop the disease in its tracks before it progresses to its crippling stage.
1 Alemtuzumab Death
But nearly one in four alemtuzumab-treated patients also developed treatment-related thyroid complications.
Even more troubling, 3% of the patients developed a potentially life-threatening autoimmune condition, which resulted in the death of one patient.
Study co-author Alasdair Coles, PhD, tells WebMD that phase III trials will soon be under way to determine if the benefits of alemtuzumab outweigh the risks in patients with early relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis.
According to the National MS Society, relapsing-remitting MS accounts for 85% of people who are first diagnosed with MS.
The study appears in the Oct. 23 issue of TheNew England Journal of Medicine.
"The phase II results are very exciting, but this is not ready for routine use," he says. "We need to know more about the long-term effectiveness and adverse effects. That is our challenge over the next few years."
Once-a-Year Treatment
Developed by Cambridge University researchers several decades ago, alemtuzumab was the first monoclonal antibody made for use in humans, and it is approved for the treatment of chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL).
It works by targeting and destroying certain immune cells, which normally protect against infection but are believed to be damaged in MS and other autoimmune diseases, resulting in the destruction of healthy tissue.
Cambridge researchers first tried the drug in patients with advanced multiple sclerosis, with little success.
The newly reported phase II trial included only patients with early, relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis who had not been treated with other MS drugs.
Between December 2002 and July 2004, 334 patients in Europe and the United States were enrolled in the study.
About a third of the patients were treated with the first-line therapy interferon beta-1a, given by injection three times a week. The remaining patients were treated with alemtuzumab, given by infusion in once-a-year cycles.
The initial cycle involved four-hour infusions given daily for five days. Twelve months later, most patients got a second, three-day course of the drug.
Response 'Unprecedented'
Three years after the trial was initiated, treatment with the experimental drug was associated with dramatic reductions in clinical relapses and a reduction in inflammatory activity (as seen on brain MRI scans) compared to the interferon treatment.
Allergies Health Center
Food Allergy in Kids Up 18%
CDC: 4% of U.S. Children Now Suffer Food Allergies
By Daniel J. DeNoonWebMD Health News
Reviewed by Louise Chang, MD
Oct. 22, 2008 - Child food allergies are up 18% over the last decade, the CDC reports.
Four out of every 100 U.S. kids under age 18 now suffer food allergies, which doubles their risk of asthma and triples their risk of skin or respiratory allergies.
"It is a significant trend -- food allergies do appear to be continuously increasing over the decade," CDC health statistician Amy Barnum, MSPH , tells WebMD. "And if you look at hospital discharges with any diagnosis related to food allergy, there has been a significant increase."
The new CDC data confirms what pediatricians and allergists have been suspecting, says Hugh Sampson, MD, director of the Jaffe Food Allergy Institute at Mount Sinai Hospital, New York.
"There was the impression food allergy is increasing in children, but we only had data on peanut allergy," Sampson tells WebMD. "This report shows it is food allergy in general. That goes along with what a lot of pediatric allergists and pediatricians have been thinking."
Eight types of food account for 90% of food allergies, the CDC finds:
Milk
Eggs
Peanuts
Tree nuts
Fish
Shellfish
Soy
Wheat
Why are our more and more American kids allergic to foods? Nobody knows for sure, Sampson says. But one clue comes from the fact that peanut allergies are up not just in the U.S., but in other nations that eat the same way we do.
"This seems to be primarily a phenomenon of Westernized countries, among people who have our kind of lifestyle and our kind of diet. You don't see similar things in countries in Asia or in Africa," he notes.
For example, Sampson says, children in China eat just as much peanut-based food as U.S. children do. But peanut allergy is almost unheard of in China.
"We eat peanuts dry roasted, and they eat them boiled or fried," Sampson notes. "The high temperature of dry roasting does make peanuts accrue changes that make them more allergenic."
Most food allergies develop in the first years of life. Milk and egg allergies tend to occur before a child's first birthday. Sampson suggests that the CDC numbers -- based on food allergies in the last year in kids up to 18 years old -- may actually underestimate the prevalence of food allergies in very young children.
"There was a study suggesting that 6% to 8% of kids up to age 3 years had some form of food allergy. Then by age 10 it drops down to about 4%, which corresponds with the number the CDC has come up with," Sampson notes.
Food allergy is different from food intolerance. An allergic reaction is a haywire immune response to what should be a harmless substance. Food intolerance is the inability to digest or to metabolize food.
CDC: 4% of U.S. Children Now Suffer Food Allergies
By Daniel J. DeNoonWebMD Health News
Reviewed by Louise Chang, MD
Oct. 22, 2008 - Child food allergies are up 18% over the last decade, the CDC reports.
Four out of every 100 U.S. kids under age 18 now suffer food allergies, which doubles their risk of asthma and triples their risk of skin or respiratory allergies.
"It is a significant trend -- food allergies do appear to be continuously increasing over the decade," CDC health statistician Amy Barnum, MSPH , tells WebMD. "And if you look at hospital discharges with any diagnosis related to food allergy, there has been a significant increase."
The new CDC data confirms what pediatricians and allergists have been suspecting, says Hugh Sampson, MD, director of the Jaffe Food Allergy Institute at Mount Sinai Hospital, New York.
"There was the impression food allergy is increasing in children, but we only had data on peanut allergy," Sampson tells WebMD. "This report shows it is food allergy in general. That goes along with what a lot of pediatric allergists and pediatricians have been thinking."
Eight types of food account for 90% of food allergies, the CDC finds:
Milk
Eggs
Peanuts
Tree nuts
Fish
Shellfish
Soy
Wheat
Why are our more and more American kids allergic to foods? Nobody knows for sure, Sampson says. But one clue comes from the fact that peanut allergies are up not just in the U.S., but in other nations that eat the same way we do.
"This seems to be primarily a phenomenon of Westernized countries, among people who have our kind of lifestyle and our kind of diet. You don't see similar things in countries in Asia or in Africa," he notes.
For example, Sampson says, children in China eat just as much peanut-based food as U.S. children do. But peanut allergy is almost unheard of in China.
"We eat peanuts dry roasted, and they eat them boiled or fried," Sampson notes. "The high temperature of dry roasting does make peanuts accrue changes that make them more allergenic."
Most food allergies develop in the first years of life. Milk and egg allergies tend to occur before a child's first birthday. Sampson suggests that the CDC numbers -- based on food allergies in the last year in kids up to 18 years old -- may actually underestimate the prevalence of food allergies in very young children.
"There was a study suggesting that 6% to 8% of kids up to age 3 years had some form of food allergy. Then by age 10 it drops down to about 4%, which corresponds with the number the CDC has come up with," Sampson notes.
Food allergy is different from food intolerance. An allergic reaction is a haywire immune response to what should be a harmless substance. Food intolerance is the inability to digest or to metabolize food.
Lung Cancer Health Center
Lung Cancer Genes Raise Treatment Hopes
Huge Lung-Cancer Gene Study Points to New Treatment Targets
By Daniel J. DeNoonWebMD Health News
Reviewed by Louise Chang, MD
Oct. 22, 2008 -- A huge study funded by the National Institutes of Health triples the number of genes linked to lung cancer and points toward new treatments.
The study analyzed DNA sequences from 623 genes in tumor samples from 188 patients with lung adenocarcinoma, the most common form of lung cancer.
The study turned up 26 genes mutated at high frequency in lung cancer tumors. Previously, 10 gene mutations had been linked to lung cancer -- and only five of them were known to be mutated at high frequency.
Tumors from smokers carried as many as 49 mutations. No tumor from nonsmokers had more than five mutations.
More than two-thirds of the tumors carried a mutation in a gene affecting a chemical pathway called mitogen-activated protein kinase or MAPK. This suggests that a group of compounds that affect the MAPK pathway -- the MEK inhibitors -- may be particularly effective. These compounds show promise in a mouse model of colon cancer.
The findings also raise hopes for an existing drug. Rapamycin, approved for use in organ transplants and kidney cancer, affects the mTOR chemical pathway. Nearly a third of the lung tumors analyzed in the gene study affected the mTOR pathway.
"Our work uncovered many new targets for therapy of this deadly disease," MIT and Harvard researcher Matthew Meyerson, MD, PhD, says in a news release.
The findings appear in the Oct. 23 issue of the journal Nature.
Huge Lung-Cancer Gene Study Points to New Treatment Targets
By Daniel J. DeNoonWebMD Health News
Reviewed by Louise Chang, MD
Oct. 22, 2008 -- A huge study funded by the National Institutes of Health triples the number of genes linked to lung cancer and points toward new treatments.
The study analyzed DNA sequences from 623 genes in tumor samples from 188 patients with lung adenocarcinoma, the most common form of lung cancer.
The study turned up 26 genes mutated at high frequency in lung cancer tumors. Previously, 10 gene mutations had been linked to lung cancer -- and only five of them were known to be mutated at high frequency.
Tumors from smokers carried as many as 49 mutations. No tumor from nonsmokers had more than five mutations.
More than two-thirds of the tumors carried a mutation in a gene affecting a chemical pathway called mitogen-activated protein kinase or MAPK. This suggests that a group of compounds that affect the MAPK pathway -- the MEK inhibitors -- may be particularly effective. These compounds show promise in a mouse model of colon cancer.
The findings also raise hopes for an existing drug. Rapamycin, approved for use in organ transplants and kidney cancer, affects the mTOR chemical pathway. Nearly a third of the lung tumors analyzed in the gene study affected the mTOR pathway.
"Our work uncovered many new targets for therapy of this deadly disease," MIT and Harvard researcher Matthew Meyerson, MD, PhD, says in a news release.
The findings appear in the Oct. 23 issue of the journal Nature.
Hydrogen Sulfide May Treat High Blood Pressure
By Caroline WilbertWebMD Health News
Reviewed by Louise Chang, MD
Oct. 23, 2008 -- Hydrogen sulfide sometimes gets a bad rap because of its smell -- think rotten eggs -- but it actually is important for regulating our blood pressure, according to a new study.
Hydrogen sulfide is produced in the thin lining of the blood vessels and regulates blood pressure by relaxing the blood vessels, according to the study published in Science.
Guangdong Yang, PhD, of the University of Saskatchewan and Lakehead University in Canada, and colleagues are basing their findings on studies performed in mice. Researchers examined two groups of mice -- one group of mice had been engineered to not have CSE, an enzyme long suspected of making hydrogen sulfide, and the other group of mice was normal. The hydrogen sulfide levels were measured in both. The ones without CSE had much lower levels of hydrogen sulfide. This provided evidence that mammals make hydrogen sulfide in tissues using CSE.
Next, the scientists put tiny cuffs on the tails of the mice and measured their blood pressure. The mice with lower levels of hydrogen sulfide experienced spikes of nearly 20 points in their blood pressure.
When mice deficient in CSE were given doses of hydrogen sulfide, they experienced lower blood pressure readings.
The study's authors argue that new drugs focused on hydrogen sulfide could be developed to treat hypertension in humans.
"Now that we know hydrogen sulfide's role in regulating blood pressure, it may be possible to design drug therapies that enhance its formation as an alternative to the current methods of treatment for hypertension," says co-author and Johns Hopkins neuroscientist Solomon H. Snyder, MD, in a news release.
Reviewed by Louise Chang, MD
Oct. 23, 2008 -- Hydrogen sulfide sometimes gets a bad rap because of its smell -- think rotten eggs -- but it actually is important for regulating our blood pressure, according to a new study.
Hydrogen sulfide is produced in the thin lining of the blood vessels and regulates blood pressure by relaxing the blood vessels, according to the study published in Science.
Guangdong Yang, PhD, of the University of Saskatchewan and Lakehead University in Canada, and colleagues are basing their findings on studies performed in mice. Researchers examined two groups of mice -- one group of mice had been engineered to not have CSE, an enzyme long suspected of making hydrogen sulfide, and the other group of mice was normal. The hydrogen sulfide levels were measured in both. The ones without CSE had much lower levels of hydrogen sulfide. This provided evidence that mammals make hydrogen sulfide in tissues using CSE.
Next, the scientists put tiny cuffs on the tails of the mice and measured their blood pressure. The mice with lower levels of hydrogen sulfide experienced spikes of nearly 20 points in their blood pressure.
When mice deficient in CSE were given doses of hydrogen sulfide, they experienced lower blood pressure readings.
The study's authors argue that new drugs focused on hydrogen sulfide could be developed to treat hypertension in humans.
"Now that we know hydrogen sulfide's role in regulating blood pressure, it may be possible to design drug therapies that enhance its formation as an alternative to the current methods of treatment for hypertension," says co-author and Johns Hopkins neuroscientist Solomon H. Snyder, MD, in a news release.
Warm Hands, Warm Heart?
Oct. 23, 2008 -- You're probably familiar with the expression, "cold hands, warm heart." Now there's science to show the opposite is true.
Lawrence Williams, PhD, assistant professor at the University of Colorado at Boulder, and John A. Bargh, PhD, professor of psychology at Yale University, conducted two studies on undergraduate students to assess how temperatures affect emotions. They found that holding warm things may actually make people view others more favorably and may also make people more generous.
The first study included 41 college students with an average age of 18.5. A tester met each participant in the lobby of the building where the tests were being conducted. In the elevator on the way up, the tester casually asked the participant to hold his cup of coffee while he recorded some information on his clipboard. The participant did not know the coffee was part of the experiment. Half the participants were asked to hold a cup of warm coffee and half were asked to hold a cup of iced coffee.
Once in the testing room, participants were given a packet of information on an unknown person described with words like intelligent, skillful, industrious, practical, and cautious. Participants were then asked to evaluate the person's personality using a questionnaire. Participants who had held the warm coffee were much more likely to score the pretend person as warmer than those who had held the iced coffee.
"When we ask whether someone is a warm person or cold person, they both have a temperature of 98.6," Bargh, co-author of the paper, says in a news release. "These terms implicitly tap into the primitive experience of what it means to be warm and cold."
In the second experiment, 53 participants were asked to hold either a hot or cold therapeutic pad. Participants thought their role was to evaluate the product. After the "test," they were offered a reward for themselves or a treat for a friend. The people who had held the warm pad were more likely to choose the reward for the friend.
"It appears that the effect of physical temperature is not just on how we see others, it affects our own behavior as well," Bargh says. "Physical warmth can make us see others as warmer people, but also cause us to be warmer -- more generous and trusting -- as well."
Williams, the study's lead author, says in a news release, "At a board meeting, for instance, being willing to reach out and touch another human being, to share their hand, those experiences do matter although we may not always be aware of them."
Lawrence Williams, PhD, assistant professor at the University of Colorado at Boulder, and John A. Bargh, PhD, professor of psychology at Yale University, conducted two studies on undergraduate students to assess how temperatures affect emotions. They found that holding warm things may actually make people view others more favorably and may also make people more generous.
The first study included 41 college students with an average age of 18.5. A tester met each participant in the lobby of the building where the tests were being conducted. In the elevator on the way up, the tester casually asked the participant to hold his cup of coffee while he recorded some information on his clipboard. The participant did not know the coffee was part of the experiment. Half the participants were asked to hold a cup of warm coffee and half were asked to hold a cup of iced coffee.
Once in the testing room, participants were given a packet of information on an unknown person described with words like intelligent, skillful, industrious, practical, and cautious. Participants were then asked to evaluate the person's personality using a questionnaire. Participants who had held the warm coffee were much more likely to score the pretend person as warmer than those who had held the iced coffee.
"When we ask whether someone is a warm person or cold person, they both have a temperature of 98.6," Bargh, co-author of the paper, says in a news release. "These terms implicitly tap into the primitive experience of what it means to be warm and cold."
In the second experiment, 53 participants were asked to hold either a hot or cold therapeutic pad. Participants thought their role was to evaluate the product. After the "test," they were offered a reward for themselves or a treat for a friend. The people who had held the warm pad were more likely to choose the reward for the friend.
"It appears that the effect of physical temperature is not just on how we see others, it affects our own behavior as well," Bargh says. "Physical warmth can make us see others as warmer people, but also cause us to be warmer -- more generous and trusting -- as well."
Williams, the study's lead author, says in a news release, "At a board meeting, for instance, being willing to reach out and touch another human being, to share their hand, those experiences do matter although we may not always be aware of them."
Health Care: Where the Presidential Candidates Stand
The United States presidential election is finally in sight. After campaigns that have been underway for months—years, really—and media coverage that is almost suffocating, it is time to make the decision and cast that coveted vote. But what are the candidates’ real positions on health care? Television media coverage often gives sound bytes and grand statements, but each candidate has laid out specific health care plans to implement upon taking office.Let’s take a look at some of the details of each candidate’s health care platform. So as not to be preferential to Senator Obama or Senator McCain, by mere alphabetical ordering of the two, McCain is first.Senator John McCainThe first sentence on his campaign website’s health care page reads: “John McCain believes we can and must provide access to health care for every American.” The key word is access, as was clarified during the October 7th presidential debate. McCain was asked by the moderator if health care for Americans is a right or responsibility, and he firmly responded with the latter. Thus, he believes that Americans must be given access to health care, but the government is not responsible to provide it.With that considered, McCain does have a plan. His basic idea is to give control of health care decisions to the patients rather than the government, as he believes a universal health care project would wrongly do. His plan begins with an annual and direct refundable tax credit for each family or household of $2,500 per individual and $5,000 per family.They will then be able to choose employer-based health insurance if available or insurance from any provider. The tax refund would be sent directly to the insurance company to be applied to any cost incurred. Any money leftover would be deposited in the person or family’s “health savings account” for other costs that may come from health care choices that are not covered under that plan.McCain’s proposal allows for greater competition between health insurance companies, which he claims will result in lower prices and more choices for insurance seekers. They can even choose care from a provider in another state, as there will be no boundaries on that front.In addition, McCain would like to allow citizens to keep the same insurance when moving from job to job, or when retiring or taking an extended leave from work. And for those who have difficulty obtaining insurance due to pre-existing conditions, he would like to establish a “guaranteed access plan” for each state to adopt if they so choose. Said plan would suggest the establishment of a non-profit corporation that would contract with insurers to give coverage to those denied it by insurance companies, and limits would be place on premiums and assistance given to those below a set income level.Other aspects of the McCain health care plan include:
In an effort to lower drug prices, greater competition is key, and safe re-importation of drugs and faster introduction of generic drugs would help.
To lower costs of care for those with chronic diseases, more federal research would be dedicated to care and cures, but the overall emphasis would be on prevention, early intervention, education, better treatment, and the use of information technology.
More walk-in clinics, specifically in retail outlets, would provide greater access to the public.
Using technology to allow doctors to practice across state lines might reduce costs of health care overall.
Medicaid and Medicare should be reformed to compensate providers for diagnosis, prevention and care, and those programs should not be responsible for preventable medical errors or mismanagement.
Making available more smoking cessation programs would reduce the number of smokers and thus reduce chronic diseases resulting from the habit.
More flexibility should be given to individual states to experiment with forms of access to health care, Medicaid payments, use of private insurance with Medicaid, and different insurance and licensing policies.
Lawsuits directed at doctors who adhere to guidelines and safety measures should be eliminated. McCain believes there are too many frivolous medical lawsuits.
Making public more information about treatment options and physician records would bring transparency to health care costs and seek to reduce them.
Seniors that require long-term or home-based care would receive a monthly stipend to be used for home health care workers, and other necessary services and products. A program would be established to help those citizens with decisions and counseling.
McCain has also chosen to outline specific plans to deal with two health care issues: autism and cancer. With a concern about rising numbers of autism diagnoses, he believes that more research must be dedicated to causes of and treatments for the condition. He also feels that tremendous advances have been made in cancer research, but more needs to be done, as well as focusing on early detection and living with the disease.More detailed information about Senator McCain’s health care platform can be found on his campaign website at www.johnmccain.com. Senator Barack ObamaIn the same October 7th presidential debate referenced in the McCain section, when Obama was asked if health care is a right or responsibility, he stated that it should be a right for American citizens. Thus, his plan is to provide health care for all, and though it will not be a government-run system, the government must play its part.Obama’s concern comes from the fact that over 45 million Americans are currently uninsured, a number that includes more than 8 million children. Combine that with ever-increasing health care costs that put more people in danger of losing coverage, and the Obama-Biden plan was developed. The purpose of the plan is to ensure that those with health care coverage will see their costs reduced by as much as $2,500 annually, and those without will have health insurance options made available to them.Many people do not have coverage because of pre-existing conditions or other reasons that companies can deny coverage. By making sure that insurers cannot discriminate based on pre-existing conditions, every American will be eligible for health insurance plans.Most, however, do not have coverage because of the cost. To solve that problem, a National Health Insurance Exchange would be established to allow that there are plans available for everyone through private companies with an easy enrollment process and comprehensive benefits likened to those available to members of Congress. In addition, some families unable to afford the costs will receive a Small Business Health Tax Credit or be eligible in an expanded Medicaid or SCHIP program.Some of the requirements included in the plan will be that all children have health care coverage, so numerous options will be available to parents to ensure that can happen. And all large employers will be required to contribute to the cost of their employees’ plans or toward the cost of a public plan. Lastly, the proposal of the Obama campaign includes many reforms for the health care system, including newer technology be implemented, more prevention and chronic disease management services be made available, and ensuring that health insurance is affordable for businesses and their employees by increasing competition among insurers.Further details of the Obama plan include:
Allowing the importation of safe drugs from developed countries and using generic drugs in public programs would reduce prescription costs.
Hospitals would be required to report and monitor data.
Anticompetitive activity that drives up prices without improving quality would be targeted, thus improving competition in the insurance market.
Businesses would cover a portion of catastrophic health costs for employees in return for paying lower premiums.
Doctors would not be overcharged by insurers for malpractice insurance, and more money would be invested in reducing preventable medical errors.
More employers should offer clinical preventative services, such as flu vaccinations and exercise facilities.
Schools would play a bigger role in reducing childhood obesity by providing healthier environments and greater health education.
Programs for nutrition, exercise, and smoking cessation incorporated into health plans like Medicare, Medicaid, and SCHIP. Community-based programs will also be encouraged with more funding and better marketing programs.
Prevention services will be required for all members of the general public, including cancer screenings and preparedness for natural disasters and terrorist attacks.
Funding for the programs included in the health care plan will be found by rolling back the Bush tax cuts for those earning more than $250,000 per year and by keeping the estate tax at the 2009 level.
Obama has also included in his health care platform two specific issues that he deemed worthy of special attention: cancer and global HIV/AIDS. Through clinical trials, enhanced research and treatment, promoted awareness, more access to prevention programs, and a sincere commitment to the causes, the numbers of people suffering from cancer and HIV/AIDS can be reduced.Further details of Senator Obama’s health care plan for America can be found on his campaign website at www.barackobama.com. The presidential election will be held across the United States on November 4, 2008. Every vote matters.
In an effort to lower drug prices, greater competition is key, and safe re-importation of drugs and faster introduction of generic drugs would help.
To lower costs of care for those with chronic diseases, more federal research would be dedicated to care and cures, but the overall emphasis would be on prevention, early intervention, education, better treatment, and the use of information technology.
More walk-in clinics, specifically in retail outlets, would provide greater access to the public.
Using technology to allow doctors to practice across state lines might reduce costs of health care overall.
Medicaid and Medicare should be reformed to compensate providers for diagnosis, prevention and care, and those programs should not be responsible for preventable medical errors or mismanagement.
Making available more smoking cessation programs would reduce the number of smokers and thus reduce chronic diseases resulting from the habit.
More flexibility should be given to individual states to experiment with forms of access to health care, Medicaid payments, use of private insurance with Medicaid, and different insurance and licensing policies.
Lawsuits directed at doctors who adhere to guidelines and safety measures should be eliminated. McCain believes there are too many frivolous medical lawsuits.
Making public more information about treatment options and physician records would bring transparency to health care costs and seek to reduce them.
Seniors that require long-term or home-based care would receive a monthly stipend to be used for home health care workers, and other necessary services and products. A program would be established to help those citizens with decisions and counseling.
McCain has also chosen to outline specific plans to deal with two health care issues: autism and cancer. With a concern about rising numbers of autism diagnoses, he believes that more research must be dedicated to causes of and treatments for the condition. He also feels that tremendous advances have been made in cancer research, but more needs to be done, as well as focusing on early detection and living with the disease.More detailed information about Senator McCain’s health care platform can be found on his campaign website at www.johnmccain.com. Senator Barack ObamaIn the same October 7th presidential debate referenced in the McCain section, when Obama was asked if health care is a right or responsibility, he stated that it should be a right for American citizens. Thus, his plan is to provide health care for all, and though it will not be a government-run system, the government must play its part.Obama’s concern comes from the fact that over 45 million Americans are currently uninsured, a number that includes more than 8 million children. Combine that with ever-increasing health care costs that put more people in danger of losing coverage, and the Obama-Biden plan was developed. The purpose of the plan is to ensure that those with health care coverage will see their costs reduced by as much as $2,500 annually, and those without will have health insurance options made available to them.Many people do not have coverage because of pre-existing conditions or other reasons that companies can deny coverage. By making sure that insurers cannot discriminate based on pre-existing conditions, every American will be eligible for health insurance plans.Most, however, do not have coverage because of the cost. To solve that problem, a National Health Insurance Exchange would be established to allow that there are plans available for everyone through private companies with an easy enrollment process and comprehensive benefits likened to those available to members of Congress. In addition, some families unable to afford the costs will receive a Small Business Health Tax Credit or be eligible in an expanded Medicaid or SCHIP program.Some of the requirements included in the plan will be that all children have health care coverage, so numerous options will be available to parents to ensure that can happen. And all large employers will be required to contribute to the cost of their employees’ plans or toward the cost of a public plan. Lastly, the proposal of the Obama campaign includes many reforms for the health care system, including newer technology be implemented, more prevention and chronic disease management services be made available, and ensuring that health insurance is affordable for businesses and their employees by increasing competition among insurers.Further details of the Obama plan include:
Allowing the importation of safe drugs from developed countries and using generic drugs in public programs would reduce prescription costs.
Hospitals would be required to report and monitor data.
Anticompetitive activity that drives up prices without improving quality would be targeted, thus improving competition in the insurance market.
Businesses would cover a portion of catastrophic health costs for employees in return for paying lower premiums.
Doctors would not be overcharged by insurers for malpractice insurance, and more money would be invested in reducing preventable medical errors.
More employers should offer clinical preventative services, such as flu vaccinations and exercise facilities.
Schools would play a bigger role in reducing childhood obesity by providing healthier environments and greater health education.
Programs for nutrition, exercise, and smoking cessation incorporated into health plans like Medicare, Medicaid, and SCHIP. Community-based programs will also be encouraged with more funding and better marketing programs.
Prevention services will be required for all members of the general public, including cancer screenings and preparedness for natural disasters and terrorist attacks.
Funding for the programs included in the health care plan will be found by rolling back the Bush tax cuts for those earning more than $250,000 per year and by keeping the estate tax at the 2009 level.
Obama has also included in his health care platform two specific issues that he deemed worthy of special attention: cancer and global HIV/AIDS. Through clinical trials, enhanced research and treatment, promoted awareness, more access to prevention programs, and a sincere commitment to the causes, the numbers of people suffering from cancer and HIV/AIDS can be reduced.Further details of Senator Obama’s health care plan for America can be found on his campaign website at www.barackobama.com. The presidential election will be held across the United States on November 4, 2008. Every vote matters.
Smoking Cessation Drug Linked to Serious Injury and Death
By: Drucilla Dyess Published: Thursday, 23 October 2008
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There has been a substantial increase in the number of serious injuries linked to Chantix, Pfizer’s smoking cessation drug, due to the incidents of seizure and loss of motor control. Over 1,000 incidents involving Chantix users, as well as 50 deaths, were reported in the first quarter of this year alone, exceeding the number of adverse events for any other prescription drug.The new report was released by the nonprofit drug-safety group known as The Institute for Safe Medication Practices (ISMP). The information was based on reports filed with the FDA from around the country that included accounts of 15 adverse events linked to road traffic accidents as well as 52 cases involving various types of blackouts.The ISMP’s analysis of quarterly data that dates back to 2004 and yearly totals dating to the 1990s revealed that the FDA has received almost 21,000 reports of serious drug reactions, including more than 4,800 deaths.In a statement, Pfizer expressed doubts about the report’s conclusions by saying, “We understand that the Institute for Safe Medication Practices report was based solely on a tally of post-marketing adverse events” and that these reports “are often unverifiable and lack sufficient medical information to draw any conclusions.” In further rebuttal, the company said that the safety-group’s report itself acknowledges that adverse event reports alone do not prove a drug caused a side effect.Pfizer added a tougher warning on the Chantix label last year after the drug was linked to psychiatric side effects including depression and suicidal behavior. After conducting their own review, the FDA issued a public health alert about these side effects in May of this year. In addition, the initial ISMP report about potential links to accidents, which was also in released May, prompted the Department of Transportation, the Federal Aviation Administration and the Department of Defense to restrict the use of Chantix. Pilots and air-traffic controllers were ordered to stop using Chantix immediately.In response to the ISMP’s initial report, Pfizer’s kicked off a public relations campaign and took out full-page ads in major newspapers to disprove the ISMP’s findings.Both Pfizer and the ISMP remarked that the negative publicity regarding Chantix and its psychiatric side effects could have contributed to the increase of adverse reports to the FDA this year. Pfizer also noted that another factor for consideration is that “Chantix patients may experience nicotine withdrawal, which can cause changes in behavior, such as irritability and depressed mood.”Although 2007 sales of Chantix totaled $883 million, when 2008 third quarter totals are compared to last year’s third quarter sales, the drug has experienced a decline of 49 percent in the U.S. going from $186 million down to only $96 million.The company still maintains that the benefits of Chantix outweigh the unverified risks. In Pfizer’s statement, the company upholds, “Based on that totality of data, we stand by the efficacy and safety profile of Chantix when used as directed, an important treatment option to help patients stop smoking.”The FDA received a copy of the ISMP report one week before it’s release to the public. However, the FDA has yet to comment on this latest report.
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Have You Had Your Flu Shot?
Alert: Melamine Contamination Hits the U.S.
Children of Parents Who Smoke May Exhibit Symptoms Of Nicotine Dependence
Health Risks in Women (and Men) Who Smoke
FDA Begins Listing All Drugs Under Investigation
There has been a substantial increase in the number of serious injuries linked to Chantix, Pfizer’s smoking cessation drug, due to the incidents of seizure and loss of motor control. Over 1,000 incidents involving Chantix users, as well as 50 deaths, were reported in the first quarter of this year alone, exceeding the number of adverse events for any other prescription drug.The new report was released by the nonprofit drug-safety group known as The Institute for Safe Medication Practices (ISMP). The information was based on reports filed with the FDA from around the country that included accounts of 15 adverse events linked to road traffic accidents as well as 52 cases involving various types of blackouts.The ISMP’s analysis of quarterly data that dates back to 2004 and yearly totals dating to the 1990s revealed that the FDA has received almost 21,000 reports of serious drug reactions, including more than 4,800 deaths.In a statement, Pfizer expressed doubts about the report’s conclusions by saying, “We understand that the Institute for Safe Medication Practices report was based solely on a tally of post-marketing adverse events” and that these reports “are often unverifiable and lack sufficient medical information to draw any conclusions.” In further rebuttal, the company said that the safety-group’s report itself acknowledges that adverse event reports alone do not prove a drug caused a side effect.Pfizer added a tougher warning on the Chantix label last year after the drug was linked to psychiatric side effects including depression and suicidal behavior. After conducting their own review, the FDA issued a public health alert about these side effects in May of this year. In addition, the initial ISMP report about potential links to accidents, which was also in released May, prompted the Department of Transportation, the Federal Aviation Administration and the Department of Defense to restrict the use of Chantix. Pilots and air-traffic controllers were ordered to stop using Chantix immediately.In response to the ISMP’s initial report, Pfizer’s kicked off a public relations campaign and took out full-page ads in major newspapers to disprove the ISMP’s findings.Both Pfizer and the ISMP remarked that the negative publicity regarding Chantix and its psychiatric side effects could have contributed to the increase of adverse reports to the FDA this year. Pfizer also noted that another factor for consideration is that “Chantix patients may experience nicotine withdrawal, which can cause changes in behavior, such as irritability and depressed mood.”Although 2007 sales of Chantix totaled $883 million, when 2008 third quarter totals are compared to last year’s third quarter sales, the drug has experienced a decline of 49 percent in the U.S. going from $186 million down to only $96 million.The company still maintains that the benefits of Chantix outweigh the unverified risks. In Pfizer’s statement, the company upholds, “Based on that totality of data, we stand by the efficacy and safety profile of Chantix when used as directed, an important treatment option to help patients stop smoking.”The FDA received a copy of the ISMP report one week before it’s release to the public. However, the FDA has yet to comment on this latest report.
How Stress Affects Academic Performance
By: Madeline Ellis Published: Wednesday, 22 October 2008
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In the hustle and bustle of the modern world, stress is unavoidable. Everyone—adults, teens and even kids—experience it at times and in different ways. Just enough stress can keep you on your toes, ready to rise to a challenge. But too much stress can have debilitating effects on our health, contributing to and agitating many problems including heart disease, high blood pressure, stroke, depression and sleep disorders. Now researchers have found a clear connection between student stress and academic success. In the first study of its kind, researchers at the University of Minnesota’s Boynton Health Service surveyed 9,931 students at 14 different two- and four-year schools. Then they matched grade point averages with health problems such as stress, smoking and drinking as well as typical lifestyle choices such as gambling and excessive screen time. They found that students with unhealthy behaviors had significantly lower GPAs. Stress was one of the biggest factors. Of the 69.9 percent of students who reported they were stressed, 32.9 percent said that stress was hurting their academic performance. In fact, those who reported eight or more emotional stresses—ranging from credit card debt to failing a class or conflicts with parents—had an average GPA of 2.72 while those who reported no significant stress had an average GPA of 3.3. “While this may seem like a small difference in GPA, when you are looking at over 9,000 students the impact of this difference is huge,” said Dr. Ed Ehlinger, director of Boynton Health Services and a lead author of the study.However, the study found that the ability to manage stress was equally important. Students who said they were able to handle their stress effectively performed much better than those who said they couldn’t. This is an important finding, because it can persuade colleges to provide students with the resources they need to learn how to manage stress, Dr. Ehlinger said. “If students can manage their stress, then their stress level will not matter.” Twenty percent of the students reported having sleep difficulties that impacted their academics. Students reporting sleep deficiencies had an average GPA of 3.08 compared with 3.27 for those who got enough sleep. “The more days a student gets adequate sleep, the better GPA’s they attain,” Dr. Ehlinger said. “There is a direct link between the two.”
The study showed that excessive television and computer use (not including academic use) also cut significantly into grades. Students who didn’t watch any television during the day had an average GPA of 3.37, while the GPA of those with two hours of TV per day dropped to 3.21. And students with four or more hours of screen time per day had an average GPA of 3.04 or less. Students who played less than one hour of computer or video games per day had a GPA of 3.31, while those who played games for more than five hours had a GPA of 2.98. Dr. Ehlinger pointed out that previous studies showed that students who spend excessive time on the computer, watching television or playing video games were more likely to engage in other unhealthful habits such as eating fast food. “Screen time had a huge impact on grade-point average,” he said. “We knew it had an impact, but not that big.”The same pattern was seen with binge drinking, drugs and smoking. Students who reported issues with alcohol had an average GPA of 2.92, compared with 3.28 for students who did not. The drug use gap was 2.94 versus 3.25. And students who reported smoking within the past 30 days had an average GPA of 3.12 compared with 3.28 for those who reported not smoking. “Even students who smoked once or twice in a month had lower GPA’s than those who didn’t smoke,” said Dr. Ehlinger. “Using tobacco to calm down or ‘to be social’ is lowing students’ grades.” Dr. Ehlinger said that while most of the results were expected, there were some surprises, especially how resilient young adults can be. Students who reported having been sexually or physically abused at some point in their lives had no significant differences in their GPA compared with other students. However, those who reported being sexually assaulted or abused within the previous 12 months did report lower grades. This shows that with time, young adults can overcome such trauma, at least as far as their grades are concerned, he said. Another surprise was that working to earn money had no effect on grades. That was true regardless of whether students spent one or 40 hours a week at work. “The conventional wisdom is that the more you worked, the more stress is placed on your academics,” Dr. Ehlinger said. “There must be something else going on that is protective of folks that are working. It might be a matter of time management.”Dr. Ehlinger said he hopes this survey will encourage college students to change behavior and for colleges to pay more attention to the health of their students. “We hope this information helps students make wise decisions,” he said. “If you’re investing a lot of time and money in your education, do you really want to waste your investment on behaviors that interfere with your academic success?” He is also hopeful it will help convince the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system to require students to have health insurance. The University of Minnesota already requires insurance. “If we can get students insured that might help them do better in school,” Dr. Ehlinger said. “(Having) no insurance will stop you from getting preventative treatment and using health services. All of those things lead you to not deal with the issues that could affect your academic career.”“College students are so important for our economic development—the development of our society,” Dr. Ehlinger said. “One way to protect that investment in our future is to help them stay healthy.”
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Parents Not Recognizing Children's Weight Issues
Infant Mortality: How Does The U.S. Compare With Other Countries?
Doubling Vitamin D for Children Could Prevent Serious Diseases
Parents’ Income and Education Influence Children’s Health
Simple Air Circulation Could Help to Prevent SIDS
In the hustle and bustle of the modern world, stress is unavoidable. Everyone—adults, teens and even kids—experience it at times and in different ways. Just enough stress can keep you on your toes, ready to rise to a challenge. But too much stress can have debilitating effects on our health, contributing to and agitating many problems including heart disease, high blood pressure, stroke, depression and sleep disorders. Now researchers have found a clear connection between student stress and academic success. In the first study of its kind, researchers at the University of Minnesota’s Boynton Health Service surveyed 9,931 students at 14 different two- and four-year schools. Then they matched grade point averages with health problems such as stress, smoking and drinking as well as typical lifestyle choices such as gambling and excessive screen time. They found that students with unhealthy behaviors had significantly lower GPAs. Stress was one of the biggest factors. Of the 69.9 percent of students who reported they were stressed, 32.9 percent said that stress was hurting their academic performance. In fact, those who reported eight or more emotional stresses—ranging from credit card debt to failing a class or conflicts with parents—had an average GPA of 2.72 while those who reported no significant stress had an average GPA of 3.3. “While this may seem like a small difference in GPA, when you are looking at over 9,000 students the impact of this difference is huge,” said Dr. Ed Ehlinger, director of Boynton Health Services and a lead author of the study.However, the study found that the ability to manage stress was equally important. Students who said they were able to handle their stress effectively performed much better than those who said they couldn’t. This is an important finding, because it can persuade colleges to provide students with the resources they need to learn how to manage stress, Dr. Ehlinger said. “If students can manage their stress, then their stress level will not matter.” Twenty percent of the students reported having sleep difficulties that impacted their academics. Students reporting sleep deficiencies had an average GPA of 3.08 compared with 3.27 for those who got enough sleep. “The more days a student gets adequate sleep, the better GPA’s they attain,” Dr. Ehlinger said. “There is a direct link between the two.”
The study showed that excessive television and computer use (not including academic use) also cut significantly into grades. Students who didn’t watch any television during the day had an average GPA of 3.37, while the GPA of those with two hours of TV per day dropped to 3.21. And students with four or more hours of screen time per day had an average GPA of 3.04 or less. Students who played less than one hour of computer or video games per day had a GPA of 3.31, while those who played games for more than five hours had a GPA of 2.98. Dr. Ehlinger pointed out that previous studies showed that students who spend excessive time on the computer, watching television or playing video games were more likely to engage in other unhealthful habits such as eating fast food. “Screen time had a huge impact on grade-point average,” he said. “We knew it had an impact, but not that big.”The same pattern was seen with binge drinking, drugs and smoking. Students who reported issues with alcohol had an average GPA of 2.92, compared with 3.28 for students who did not. The drug use gap was 2.94 versus 3.25. And students who reported smoking within the past 30 days had an average GPA of 3.12 compared with 3.28 for those who reported not smoking. “Even students who smoked once or twice in a month had lower GPA’s than those who didn’t smoke,” said Dr. Ehlinger. “Using tobacco to calm down or ‘to be social’ is lowing students’ grades.” Dr. Ehlinger said that while most of the results were expected, there were some surprises, especially how resilient young adults can be. Students who reported having been sexually or physically abused at some point in their lives had no significant differences in their GPA compared with other students. However, those who reported being sexually assaulted or abused within the previous 12 months did report lower grades. This shows that with time, young adults can overcome such trauma, at least as far as their grades are concerned, he said. Another surprise was that working to earn money had no effect on grades. That was true regardless of whether students spent one or 40 hours a week at work. “The conventional wisdom is that the more you worked, the more stress is placed on your academics,” Dr. Ehlinger said. “There must be something else going on that is protective of folks that are working. It might be a matter of time management.”Dr. Ehlinger said he hopes this survey will encourage college students to change behavior and for colleges to pay more attention to the health of their students. “We hope this information helps students make wise decisions,” he said. “If you’re investing a lot of time and money in your education, do you really want to waste your investment on behaviors that interfere with your academic success?” He is also hopeful it will help convince the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system to require students to have health insurance. The University of Minnesota already requires insurance. “If we can get students insured that might help them do better in school,” Dr. Ehlinger said. “(Having) no insurance will stop you from getting preventative treatment and using health services. All of those things lead you to not deal with the issues that could affect your academic career.”“College students are so important for our economic development—the development of our society,” Dr. Ehlinger said. “One way to protect that investment in our future is to help them stay healthy.”
Health News Dozen: Top Health-Related Web Searches
The internet provides information at the tap of the fingertips. With a search engine open and one word, anything ever written on the internet about it comes up in the results. And the web has become the go-to reference bible for all things health-related.Want to know how you should be feeling in your fourth month of pregnancy? The internet will give you enough websites, blogs, and medical journals that would take you until your fifth month of pregnancy to read. Just diagnosed with a disease and want to do your own research about how others have dealt with it? Search and you will find. Do you have a strange symptom with your otherwise-basic cold? Is there an odd-looking mole on your left shoulder that keeps getting bigger? The answers are only a computer keyboard away.And everything that is being searched is also being tracked. An online measurement service that analyzes digital data, comScore,Inc., studies such information. This particular study examined various medical conditions that were frequently searched on the internet and provided some interesting results from February of 2008. The far-and-away most searched health condition was pregnancy with 8,841,000 searches in the one-month period. Close behind was cancer with 7,718,000 inquiries. Other terms on the list paled in comparison, as the next most-frequently searched term was flu with 1,824,000 queries.What the comScore analysts noticed was that four of the top twelve terms - pregnancy, herpes, HIV, and HPV - are related to sexual or reproductive health, thus making them more private issues and ones that people would likely be more comfortable exploring on the internet rather than face-to-face with a medical professional. Carolina Petrini, Senior Vice President of comScore, said, “It’s not too surprising that some of the most common health conditions, such as diabetes, depression and flu, have made the list, but it’s interesting that these terms generate fewer searches than significantly less prevalent conditions like cancer and pregnancy. A reason for this many be due to life-changing nature of a cancer diagnosis or a pregnancy. When facing a serious illness like cancer or after becoming pregnant or considering pregnancy, consumers often turn to the internet to search for information and educate themselves in a private setting.”Another notation made by researchers who took part in the comScore study was that a condition’s prevalence is not necessarily linked accordingly to its search frequency. The analysis notes that medical data shows that there are several million more people in the United States with diabetes than cancer, but cancer garnered more than 7.7 million searches, whereas diabetes only received less than 1.8 million inquiries.But what the study did confirm is that the internet is the new encyclopedia, the new house call, the new doctor appointment. While it is not necessarily positive that many people are choosing to study diseases and medical conditions on the internet instead of consulting with a physician, the medical community is hopeful that the information found on the internet is primarily supplemental and simply provides more details to bring to one’s doctor for discussion.
College, Cancer and a Double Mastectomy: A 22-Year-Old's Story
Colleen Cappon was 21 years old and had just started her senior year at State University of New York Cortland in Cortland, N.Y., when she was diagnosed with breast cancer. One year after FOXNews.com originally told her story, Cappon, now 22, is in remission and working at the FOX News Channel. Here, she tells her story.
This time last year I was in the middle of four months of chemotherapy treatments. I was bald as an egg and was planning a double mastectomy.
My how things have changed.
Now I have a college diploma, a clean report from my doctors, and my very own desk at FOX News Channel in New York. My breast cancer ordeal couldn’t be further behind me.
Friday, October 17, 2008
China's Medical Boom
Suzanne Barlyn(Time, October 20, 2008)
"Tourist Jack Golden remembers a recent trip to China for all the wrong reasons. Golden, of Lenox, Mass., had a prostate condition that required medical treatment during a Yangtze River cruise. He had to endure an invasive procedure without anesthesia at a small, gritty hospital in Fengdu, an ancient city on the river's north bank. And that was the easy part. 'The Chinese accept it because this is what they have,' he says. Acquiescence to substandard health care is changing in China, especially where rapid economic progress has improved the financial well-being of the country's growing zhong chan jie ji, or middle class. More and more Chinese are willing to pay for superior health-care services. Their presence, combined with an increased number of expatriates and business travelers, has created a niche opportunity for foreign businesses. Several U.S.-based companies are setting up and managing hospitals and Western-style outpatient clinics through joint ventures with Chinese companies. About half the physicians of such companies are expats -- typically from the U.S., Canada and Australia... Premium health care is an outgrowth of the increased consumption of luxury goods and services that were once largely unaffordable in China -- from cars to Louis Vuitton pocketbooks. According to Euromonitor International, from 2005 to January of last year, China's middle class grew 24%, from 64.4 million to 80 million."
"Tourist Jack Golden remembers a recent trip to China for all the wrong reasons. Golden, of Lenox, Mass., had a prostate condition that required medical treatment during a Yangtze River cruise. He had to endure an invasive procedure without anesthesia at a small, gritty hospital in Fengdu, an ancient city on the river's north bank. And that was the easy part. 'The Chinese accept it because this is what they have,' he says. Acquiescence to substandard health care is changing in China, especially where rapid economic progress has improved the financial well-being of the country's growing zhong chan jie ji, or middle class. More and more Chinese are willing to pay for superior health-care services. Their presence, combined with an increased number of expatriates and business travelers, has created a niche opportunity for foreign businesses. Several U.S.-based companies are setting up and managing hospitals and Western-style outpatient clinics through joint ventures with Chinese companies. About half the physicians of such companies are expats -- typically from the U.S., Canada and Australia... Premium health care is an outgrowth of the increased consumption of luxury goods and services that were once largely unaffordable in China -- from cars to Louis Vuitton pocketbooks. According to Euromonitor International, from 2005 to January of last year, China's middle class grew 24%, from 64.4 million to 80 million."
Overeating can effect your brain
Overeating makes the brain go haywire, prompting a cascade of damage that may cause diabetes, heart disease and other ills, U.S. researchers recently reported. Eating too much appears to activate a usually dormant immune system pathway in the brain, sending out immune cells to attack and destroy invaders that are not there, research found.The finding, reported in the journal cell, could help explain why obesity causes so many different diseases.
It might also offer a way to prevent obesity itself. Obesity is a growing global problem, with 1.8 billion people estimated to be overweight or obese in 2007. Drugs marketed so far to fight obesity have only limited success and, often, severe side-effects. Obesity causes chronic inflammation throughout the body. This inflammation is found in a range of diseases related to obesity, including heart disease and diabetes.Immune cells such as macrophages and leukocytes use it but research team found it in the hypothalamus, a part of the brain linked with metabolism in mice and humans alike."The hypothalamus is the 'headquarters' for regulating energy," they wrote. They found high levels of the compound there but it was normally inactive.When they fed mice a high-fat diet, it became extremely active. And when it was active, the body ignored signals from leptin, a hormone that normally helps regulate appetite, and insulin, which helps convert food into energy.The team has discovered a master switch for the diseases caused by overeating.Team does not know why this compound would be in the brain and in the immune system but suspects it evolved long ago in primitive animals that do not have the same sophisticated immune system as modern animals, including mice and humans.
"Presumably it played some role to guide the immune defense," they said. "In today's society, this pathway is mobilised by different environmental challenge over-nutrition."'Knocking out' the gene using genetic engineering kept mice eating normally and prevented obesity. This cannot be done in people but team believes a drug, or even gene therapy might work.With gene therapy, a virus or other so-called vector is used to carry corrective DNA into the body, but the approach is still highly experimental.
It might also offer a way to prevent obesity itself. Obesity is a growing global problem, with 1.8 billion people estimated to be overweight or obese in 2007. Drugs marketed so far to fight obesity have only limited success and, often, severe side-effects. Obesity causes chronic inflammation throughout the body. This inflammation is found in a range of diseases related to obesity, including heart disease and diabetes.Immune cells such as macrophages and leukocytes use it but research team found it in the hypothalamus, a part of the brain linked with metabolism in mice and humans alike."The hypothalamus is the 'headquarters' for regulating energy," they wrote. They found high levels of the compound there but it was normally inactive.When they fed mice a high-fat diet, it became extremely active. And when it was active, the body ignored signals from leptin, a hormone that normally helps regulate appetite, and insulin, which helps convert food into energy.The team has discovered a master switch for the diseases caused by overeating.Team does not know why this compound would be in the brain and in the immune system but suspects it evolved long ago in primitive animals that do not have the same sophisticated immune system as modern animals, including mice and humans.
"Presumably it played some role to guide the immune defense," they said. "In today's society, this pathway is mobilised by different environmental challenge over-nutrition."'Knocking out' the gene using genetic engineering kept mice eating normally and prevented obesity. This cannot be done in people but team believes a drug, or even gene therapy might work.With gene therapy, a virus or other so-called vector is used to carry corrective DNA into the body, but the approach is still highly experimental.
BizJournals Health Care Portal: Cincinnati projects score Ohio historic tax credits
Report
he state of Ohio will award millions in Ohio Historic Preservation Tax Credits to 15 different projects in Cincinnati, Lt...The projects are among 48 around the state receiving tax credits funded through the state’s $1.57 billion economic stimulus package first passed by the Ohio Senate in May....
he state of Ohio will award millions in Ohio Historic Preservation Tax Credits to 15 different projects in Cincinnati, Lt...The projects are among 48 around the state receiving tax credits funded through the state’s $1.57 billion economic stimulus package first passed by the Ohio Senate in May....
Alberta delivers good news for midwives, expectant mothers
Report
fter public pressure, the Alberta government announced it will cover the costs for expectant mothers who choose to deliver their babies using a midwife. Starting April 1, 2009, midwifery will be added to the maternity services covered by the public health system in Alberta, the province said on Thursday....
fter public pressure, the Alberta government announced it will cover the costs for expectant mothers who choose to deliver their babies using a midwife. Starting April 1, 2009, midwifery will be added to the maternity services covered by the public health system in Alberta, the province said on Thursday....
Family Health Insurance
Protecting your family is a top priority – begin with a comprehensive family health insurance plan. Without family health insurance, you risk depleting your finances should a member of your family need medical care, suffer an injury, or need surgery. The costs of healthcare can be astronomical, so take the necessary precautions to protect your financial stability.
With children in your home who depend on you, you don’t want to be strapped with the bills associated with healthcare when you are uninsured. Anything can happen – from emergency illness to injury – and even routine doctor’s visits can take their toll financially if you are uninsured.
With children in your home who depend on you, you don’t want to be strapped with the bills associated with healthcare when you are uninsured. Anything can happen – from emergency illness to injury – and even routine doctor’s visits can take their toll financially if you are uninsured.
Don’t Miss the AACAP Karl Menninger Plenary!
Conflict of Interest in Medical Research: Facts and Friction
Catherine D. DeAngelis, M.D., M.P.H., Editor, Journal of the American Medical Association is the recipient of the AACAP ’s 2008 Humanitarian of the Year
Wednesday, October 29 4:30 p.m.–6:15 p.m.
Catherine D. DeAngelis, M.D., M.P.H., Editor, Journal of the American Medical Association is the recipient of the AACAP ’s 2008 Humanitarian of the Year
Wednesday, October 29 4:30 p.m.–6:15 p.m.
Why moms get jealous of dads
Moms say they want their spouses to be do-it-all dads. After all they ARE forward-thinking women of the 21st century. Besides, if they did less, we couldn't possibly juggle our busy lives without going nuts. "But we don't want them to take over," says Pyper Davis, a mother of two in Washington, D.C. "We don't ever want to be pushed off that throne of being Mommy." Read on for more on the struggle.
Why moms get jealous of dads
Moms say they want their spouses to be do-it-all dads. After all they ARE forward-thinking women of the 21st century. Besides, if they did less, we couldn't possibly juggle our busy lives without going nuts. "But we don't want them to take over," says Pyper Davis, a mother of two in Washington, D.C. "We don't ever want to be pushed off that throne of being Mommy." Read on for more on the struggle
Obese Women Get Less Pleasure From Eating
By Theresa Tamkins
THURSDAY, Oct. 16 (Health.com) — Chocolate milk shakes taste good, and that’s why someone might drink more of them, right? Not necessarily: A new study shows that obese women enjoy the taste of food less than women who are not overweight—possibly leading them to compensate by overindulging.
The finding suggests that some people may be born with a blunted pleasure response to food. Alternatively, it could be that overeating causes the brain to turn down the pleasure response.
If either of those is true, then the cause of overeating is more complicated than a simple lack of willpower, and it could result in a vicious cycle of increased eating in response to diminished pleasure.
The study’s author says he used to resist thinking about food as a type of addiction, but now believes that approach may make sense.
“This is the first direct evidence that obese individuals, when they eat food, experience less activation of the reward circuitry,” says Eric Stice, PhD, a research scientist at the Oregon Research Institute in Eugene.
For example, if you take cocaine or some other illicit drug, “you’re maximizing how good your brain can make you feel right then and there.” The pleasure of a milk shake is “minor league” compared to the jolt of cocaine, Stice says, but the underlying mechanism may be similar. Over time, “consumption of unhealthy food can be habit-forming.”
THURSDAY, Oct. 16 (Health.com) — Chocolate milk shakes taste good, and that’s why someone might drink more of them, right? Not necessarily: A new study shows that obese women enjoy the taste of food less than women who are not overweight—possibly leading them to compensate by overindulging.
The finding suggests that some people may be born with a blunted pleasure response to food. Alternatively, it could be that overeating causes the brain to turn down the pleasure response.
If either of those is true, then the cause of overeating is more complicated than a simple lack of willpower, and it could result in a vicious cycle of increased eating in response to diminished pleasure.
The study’s author says he used to resist thinking about food as a type of addiction, but now believes that approach may make sense.
“This is the first direct evidence that obese individuals, when they eat food, experience less activation of the reward circuitry,” says Eric Stice, PhD, a research scientist at the Oregon Research Institute in Eugene.
For example, if you take cocaine or some other illicit drug, “you’re maximizing how good your brain can make you feel right then and there.” The pleasure of a milk shake is “minor league” compared to the jolt of cocaine, Stice says, but the underlying mechanism may be similar. Over time, “consumption of unhealthy food can be habit-forming.”
women's wellness center
The Women's Wellness Center is open. This one-of-a-kind facility is where all women can achieve their highest level of individual health within a community setting of support. For more information go to Women's Wellness Center.
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