The Medic's Blog

Higher education linked to longer life, CDC report shows

Oliver Palmerston — Tue, 15 May 2012 22:41:14 +0000

Doctors warn austerity is damaging patients’ health

Joel Schaaf — Tue, 15 May 2012 14:11:55 +0000

GPs working in the most deprived communities in Scotland have warned of increasing levels of mental and physical health problems among patients affected by austerity.

The Deep End group of GPs, representing 360 doctors in 100 practices, said job losses, welfare reform and cuts to social services were all affecting the health of their patients.

The 100 Deep End group of general practices that serves the most socio-economically deprived areas of the country was set up in 2009. It is backed financially by the Scottish Government.

CDC Cuts Lead-Poisoning Limit For Kids

Liam Bamford — Sun, 13 May 2012 23:51:07 +0000

Preventing the exposure of kids to lead is a great idea, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said today.

The public health honchos agreed with an expert panel that recommended in January that anything greater than 5 micrograms per deciliter of blood for kids 5 and younger should be considered dangerous. That’s half the current standard and represents the first reduction since 1991.

With that change, the number of kids in the U.S.

20-year forecast: No end to obesity epidemic

Joel Schaaf — Tue, 08 May 2012 05:23:58 +0000

The obesity epidemic may be slowing, but don’t take in those pants yet.

Today, just over a third of U.S. adults are obese. By 2030, 42 percent will be, says a forecast released Monday.

That’s not nearly as many as experts had predicted before the once-rapid rises in obesity rates began leveling off. But the new forecast suggests even small continuing increases will add up.

“We still have a very serious problem,” said obesity specialist Dr. William Dietz of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Worse, the already obese are getting fatter. Severe obesity will double by 2030, when 11 percent of adults will be nearly 100 pounds overweight, or more, concluded the research led by Duke University.

That could be an ominous consequence of childhood obesity.

Swine flu vaccine may fight lethal strains, B.C. researchers find

Liam Bamford — Sat, 05 May 2012 22:55:02 +0000

The results support the idea that there is a way to develop universal flu vaccines which would eliminate the need for seasonal vaccinations, said the researchers.

The details of the research were published Tuesday in the peer-reviewed journal Frontiers in Immunology, the journal of the International Union of Immunological Societies.

Vaccines contain bits of weak or dead germs that prompt the human immune system to produce antibodies that circulate in the blood to kill those specific germs, noted the researchers, led by professor John Schrader, Canada Research Chair in Immunology and director of UBC’s Biomedical Research Centre.

However, the research team found that the 2009 pandemic H1N1 vaccine induced broadly protective antibodies capable of fighting different variants of the flu virus.

That’s because the antibodies attacked the stem of a protein in the flu virus rather than the head of the virus, which is like the flower on the stem, said Schrader.

“The stem plays such an integral role in penetrating the cell that it cannot change between different variants of the flu virus,” Schrader said in a press release.

The research team included scientists from UBC, the Universities of Ottawa and Toronto, the Ontario Agency for Health Protection and Promotion, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency and the B.C.

Soon, see-through cellphone you can wrap around your wrist

Oliver Palmerston — Sat, 14 Apr 2012 13:49:30 +0000

A see-through cellphone that can be draped around a wrist may soon be possible as scientists have developed transparent, flexible memories using silicon oxide as the active component.

Rice University chemist James Tour revealed that the new type of memory could combine with the likes of transparent electrodes developed at Rice for flexible touchscreens and transparent integrated circuits and batteries developed at other labs in recent years.

“Generally, you cant see a bit of memory, because its too small,” said Tour, Rices T.T. and W.F. Chao Chair in Chemistry as well as a professor of mechanical engineering and materials science and of computer science.

“But silicon itself is not transparent. If th

Autism Hits 1 in 88 U.S. Kids, 1 in 54 Boys

Joel Schaaf — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 18:19:30 +0000

March 29, 2012 — One in every 88 U.S. children — and one in 54 boys — has autism, the CDC now estimates.

The latest analysis, from a 2008 survey, shows autism is up 23% since 2006 and 78% since 2002.

“This is a large number of children and families affected by autism,” study leader Marshalyn Yeargin-Allsopp, MD, chief of the CDC’s developmental disabilities branch, tells WebMD.

“With nearly a doubling of prevalence since CDC started tracking in 1992, autism is officially becoming an epidemic in the U.S. We are dealing with a national emergency that is in need of a national plan,” Mark Roithmayr, president of the advocacy group Autism Speaks, said at a CDC teleconference held to announce the findings.

More autism research and better services for people living with autism will be expensive.

Babies Take Longer To Come Out Than They Did In Grandma’s Day

Liam Bamford — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 21:07:28 +0000

The typical first-time mother takes 6 1/2 hours to give birth these days. Her counterpart 50 years ago labored for barely four hours.

That’s the striking conclusion of a new federal study that compared nearly 140,000 births from two time periods.

One big implication: Today’s obstetricians may be rushing to do cesarean sections too soon because they’re using an out-of-date yardstick for how long a “normal” labor should take.

“That’s absolutely correct,” says Dr. Ware Branch of Intermountain Healthcare in Salt Lake City, a study author. Lead author Dr. Katherine Laughon of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development agrees.

The definition of a “normal” labor — the range of times when a woman in labor reaches certain milestones — was laid down in the 1950s. Cont

‘Crispy’ cookies recalled over undeclared milk, almonds

Liam Bamford — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 22:40:02 +0000

OTTAWA — The Canadian Food Inspection Agency is warning people with allergies to milk or almonds about certain cookies that could include either or both ingredients, without them being declared on the package.

The federal agency said late Thursday evening that 400-gram packages of Crispy by TWI Foods cookies in the following flavours — Almond Cookies, Coconut Cookies and Almond Cake Rusk — could have undeclared milk.

As well, Pistachio Cookies, in the same-sized packages and under that same brand, could have almonds and milk.

The CFIA said TWI Foods Inc. is vol

Benefits Of Medicare Part D

admin — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 12:14:44 +0000

Something that a lot of people who are already enrolled in Medicare wonder is what the benefits of Medicare Part D are. The truth is that there are not a lot of benefits, just one main one. The main benefit of getting Medicare Part D is that you won’t have to pay for much of your medications. This is why most people get it because they are spending too much money on their medications and barely having any left over to live.

Being that the people who get Medicare and apply for Medicare Part D are older and usually on social security, they need all the money that they can get and if that means paying an additional fee for Medicare Part D just so that they can get cheaper medication, then that is something they are going to do. T Read more…

Finally! Alyssa Milano Steps Out With Her Baby Boy, Milo Bugliari

Liam Bamford — Sat, 31 Mar 2012 16:13:06 +0000

Talk about a little man! We cant get over how adorable Alyssa Milanos baby boy, Milo Bugliari, is.

New mom Alyssa debuted Milo on the set of her new show, Mistresses, and from his chubby cheeks to those cute sneaks, were obsessed. Plus, look at his little plaid shirt. #swooning

Study unravels health impact, interplay of diet soft drinks and overall diet

Oliver Palmerston — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 17:51:03 +0000

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Are diet sodas good or bad for you?

Law would warn women about dense breast tissue

Joel Schaaf — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 06:35:42 +0000

Breast cancer was the focus of debate in Sacramento Wednesday. A Bay Area woman is joining a lawmaker in an effort to make sure that what happened to her doesn’t happen to anyone else.

After years of normal annual mammograms, Amy Colton was surprised to hear she had advanced stage breast cancer. The Santa Cruz nurse says she found out later her test results always noted she had dense breast tissue, which can sometimes obscure abnormalities. Dense tissue and cancer both show up white.

“I was really outraged that this information about my own physiology, this important critical information, was never shared with me,” Colton said.

Colton is teaming up with State Sen.

Deloitte: Mobile views healthcare as biggest opportunity

Joel Schaaf — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 11:53:16 +0000

According to a recent Deloitte survey, 78 percent of senior mobile industry executives view healthcare as the most promising new growth channel for 4G services. Deloitte conducted about 250 interviews with senior executives from mobile network operators, mobile device manufacturers, software applications developers and infrastructure component manufacturers and finished analyzing the results last August. After healthcare and the life sciences, those interviewed picked the retail industry and the financial industry as the second and third most promising industry verticals for mobile growth potential.

Deloittes report, which is freely available here, includes a discussion of the trends driving mHealth as well as a summary of the barriers holding it back:

Before the real breakthroughs occur on a scale required to address escalating healthcare costs, mHealth adoption needs to build momentum by overcoming some important hurdles.