Antishock Garment To Save Women During Childbirth

From CNET:

A reusable, lightweight suit could help save the lives of thousands of women in poor countries who die each year during childbirth, researchers said on Monday.

The garment, which resembles the bottom half of a wetsuit, restores blood flow to vital organs in women in shock and suffering from obstetrical hemorrhaging, or bleeding, during the birth.

In a pilot study of 364 women in Egypt, the nonpneumatic, anti-shock garment, or NASG, reduced death and severe illness by 69 percent, according to the researchers.

"These results are dramatic, particularly given that the NASG can be easily applied by anyone. No medical training is necessary," said Suellen Miller, a maternal health expert at the University of California, San Francisco, who conducted the study.

Hemorrhaging is a leading cause of maternal deaths. About 30 percent of the more than 500,000 mostly poor women who die during childbirth each year suffer from hemorrhaging.

Women in poor countries often give birth at home with little or no trained assistance. When a woman hemorrhages, blood accumulates in the legs and abdomen depriving the brain, heart and lungs of oxygen.

The suit, which consists of five segments with Velcro, pushes blood from the lower parts of the body back to the vital organs. It is designed to keep a woman alive until she can be treated at a hospital.

Miller and her team said that within minutes of applying the suit, the women regained consciousness and their vital signs returned to normal.

The results were never that great for trauma patients, but I suppose it's worth a try for this population.
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Eat Your....Chocolate?!

From Forbes:

Chocolate lovers, take heart: Dutch research suggests that eating or drinking cocoa appears to lower blood pressure and even reduce the death risks for older men.

Since the 1700s, cocoa has been associated with healthy hearts, but only recently has scientific evidence backed up these claims, according to a new report in the Feb. 27 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine.

According to the study, cocoa contains flavan-3-ols, which have been linked to lower blood pressure and improved function of the cells lining the blood vessels.

In their study, researchers led by Brian Buijsse, of the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment, in Bilthoven, examined links between cocoa and cardiovascular health in 470 men aged 65 to 84 years. The men had physical examinations and were interviewed about their diet at the start of the study in 1985 and then again in 1990 and 1995.

The researchers found that over a 15-year period, men who ate cocoa -- including chocolate -- regularly had significantly lower blood pressure compared with those who didn't.

Good news for "chocaholics" everywhere!

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Routine HIV Testing

From The Herald

HIV/AIDS experts met with more than 130 doctors and health care workers at Marina Jack Restaurant Friday to encourage them to include routine HIV testing for all patients within their practices.

"We are missing opportunities to find people early," said Dr. Jeffery A. Beal, clinical director of the Florida/Caribbean AIDS Education and Training Center and professor at the University of South Florida.

Prevention, Beal said, depends on the health care community making a sexual history a standard part of routine medical care. That sexual history should include open-ended questions that help doctors identify behaviors and/or symptoms that could be putting people at risk.

Too often doctors miss key signs in the diagnostic procedure because an HIV test is either not ordered or even considered necessary for the patient, Beal said.

The two groups Beal is most concerned about are populations not often considered to be at risk for HIV - adolescents and senior citizens. Yet, adolescents account for more than half of the 40,000 new HIV infections each year while seniors account for 11 percent of the positive tests, Beal said.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta estimate that only one in every four people who have HIV are aware that they are infected.

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Swiss Health Care System: A Model for the US?

From Pittsburgh Tribune Review:

Karl Zbinden's hospital room overlooked the snowy banks of the Aare River on a bleak January afternoon. The gaunt, 53-year-old biologist was in bed with pancreatitis, a serious condition that emerged after a kidney transplant.

Like all Swiss citizens, Zbinden has health insurance. And, like all Swiss, he pays for it himself with no help from his employer.

An American in his situation might face tens of thousands of dollars in expenses. But under the Swiss health-care system, individuals pay about a third less on health care than the average American, in part because of government-enforced price controls.

President Bush is pushing for health care reforms based on individual choice. The Swiss system offers some of those choices, and some health economists say their system works better.

"I think we're going to get there soon, not eventually," said Regina Herzlinger, a Harvard Business School professor who's studied the Swiss system. "The major reason is, most people agree that employer support for health insurance is just not going to continue."

Every resident of Switzerland is required to buy health insurance. If they don't, they pay stiff monetary penalties. Companies have no role. Health-care plans are chosen at the kitchen table, not through employee benefit departments.

And the plans can be costly. A family of four in Switzerland pays an average of $680 a month in premiums. Government assistance helps pay premiums for those less well off.

Health-care prices are set each year after negotiations between insurance companies and medical providers. The fee schedule has to be approved by the Swiss canton (or state) governments -- an approach Uwe Reinhardt of Princeton University compares to the doomed health-reform plan drafted by the Clinton administration.

Drug costs also are subject to price ceilings, but they still seem fairly expensive, at least in the minds of Swiss consumers.

"Within Europe, we are almost the only country left with a strong drug company sector," said Swiss congressman Felix Gutzwiller, a medical doctor who also heads the University of Zurich Institute for Social and Preventive Medicine.

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TGIF

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TGIF

An elderly couple went into a doctor. They told the doctor "We're having some trouble with our sex life. Could you watch and offer some suggestions?"

The doctor replied, "I'm not a sex therapist. You should find someone else."

The couple said, "No, No, we trust you."

After watching them make love, the doctor said, "You don't seem to be having any troubles. I wish my sex life was as good. I can't give you any suggestions."

This was repeated the next week and also the third week. After they had finished on the third week, the doctor said, "You aren't having any trouble. Is this your idea of kinky sex?"

The man replied, "No, actually the problem is if we have sex at my house, my wife will catch us. If we have sex at her house, her husband will catch us. The motel charges us $75, and we can't afford that. You only charge $50, and Medicare pays half of that."

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The Visible Human Project

The Visible Human Project® is an outgrowth of the NLM's 1986 Long-Range Plan. It is the creation of complete, anatomically detailed, three-dimensional representations of the normal male and female human bodies. Acquisition of transverse CT, MR and cryosection images of representative male and female cadavers has been completed. The male was sectioned at one millimeter intervals, the female at one-third of a millimeter intervals.
The long-term goal of the Visible Human Project® is to produce a system of knowledge structures that will transparently link visual knowledge forms to symbolic knowledge formats such as the names of body parts.

I've heard about this on and off over the last several years, but it's still cool, and a neat way to review anatomical relationships. At any rate, it's our tax dollars at work, so take a look.

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Searching For Disease, The Internet Way

From Wired:

In an interview with Wired News on Thursday, Brilliant said his wish will be to ask the group to help establish a global early-detection and early-response system for infectious diseases, modeled after the Global Public Health Intelligence Network. GPHIN is an internet-based early warning system that gathers information on public health threats and delivers the information to the United Nations in seven languages.

"The best thing the TED community can do is to take our servers and search engines and venture capital and build something that can last forever that has international independence," Brilliant said. "The goal is to have the earliest possible warning of all bad things. Specifically that we find the first cases of pandemic bird flu, the first cases of new diseases like SARS or bioterror and we contain it with early response."

The Google foundation will be involved in the early-warning project, Brilliant said, adding that hundreds of Google employees, including engineers, are prepared to help set up the system. But he said his first step will be to recruit support from other companies and foundations, beginning with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

The GPHIN uses an internet crawler to scan 20,000 websites in seven languages for events and chatter recorded online on blogs, news sites and other outlets that point to the early outbreak of diseases. Brilliant envisions a system that, with the help of companies like Google, Sun and Microsoft, will scan 20 million sites and deliver information in dozens of languages. The system would be housed in a neutral country, independent of any government or company. Data would be backed up in a separate place, under a different time zone to avoid outages.

Brilliant says the system could also be used to detect early signs of famine and environmental degradation and toxic spills.

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Ebola Vaccine

From CNN Health:

The first vaccine designed to prevent infection with the lethal Ebola virus has passed initial safety tests in humans and has shown promising signs that it may protect people from contracting the disease, government scientists reported Friday.

Just 21 people received the experimental vaccine in the early stage testing. Much more research is necessary to prove whether the vaccine will prove successful, cautioned lead researcher Dr. Gary Nabel of the National Institutes of Health.

Still, the results are encouraging for U.S. scientists who worry not only that the horrific virus might be used as a terror weapon but note that natural outbreaks in Africa seem to be on the rise.

Ebola hemorrhagic fever kills within days by causing massive internal bleeding. There is no cure. Ebola is highly contagious, and up to 90 percent of people who catch it die.

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Health Care Spending To Increase

From Bloomberg:

U.S. spending for health care may double to $4 trillion by 2015, propelled by an aging population using more drugs, hospital care and technology, according to a government forecast.

If medical spending rises that much, it will consume about 20 cents of every dollar in goods and services produced in the U.S, up from 16 cents last year, said authors of the outlook. The cost of health care will jump to twice its current amount even if more Americans can be encouraged to use health savings accounts, a new type of insurance being promoted by President George W. Bush to help curb spending.

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Older & Cheaper

From TechNudge:

Allergy sufferers may get more relief from Pfizer Inc.'s Sudafed than from Merck & Co.'s Singulair, which requires a prescription and costs three times as much, according to a study that was intended to prove the reverse.

The 58-patient study found people reported better relief of their stuffy noses with non-prescription Sudafed. University of Chicago physician Fuad Baroody said he obtained funding for the research from Merck so he could test his theory that Singulair would work better without the jitters associated with Sudafed.

Sometimes the "tried and true" is the better solution to the problem.

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Big Brother To Join In Battle of Childhood Obesity

From Forbes:

Prepaid cafeteria accounts have been around for five to 10 years, but programs that allow parents to say what their kids can or can't eat are a more recent development, said Erik Peterson, spokesman for the Washington-based School Nutrition Association. His organization did not have exact figures on how many school districts use such programs.

The Pearland school district just outside Houston set up one of the systems at its 17 campuses in August.

"Overall, it's benefited everyone. Students go through the line faster. It's good for parents because they can track what their kids are spending," said Dorothy Simpson, food service director for Pearland schools.

The system, which will cost the Houston district $5.3 million, also serves as an accounting program that lets the school district plan menus and allows for faster enrollment of students in free and reduced lunch programs.

School officials and nutrition experts say this type of monitoring program could help tackle child obesity.

In the past 20 years, the number of overweight children ages 6 to 11 more than doubled and the number of overweight adolescents ages 12 to 19 more than tripled, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

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Lose The Tie

From News Telegraph:

Lurking in the threads of a dirty tie lie a host of unpronounceable bugs including methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus, c. difficile, streptococcal bacteraemia, enterococcus bacteraemia, acinetobacter bacteraemia, e faecimum and fungal candida.

Without regular cleaning, these organisms can survive on a tie for up to 80 days, microbiologists say, which raises the risk of MRSA spreading.

Tests on doctors' ties in an orthopaedic unit in Sussex found that all were carrying bugs frequently found in the infected wounds of patients.

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McProblems

From Economic Times:

Mcdonald’s faces at least three lawsuits claiming the fast-food giant misled the public, after it acknowledged earlier this week that its French fries contain milk and wheat ingredients. Debra Moffatt of Illinois seeks unspecified damages in a suit filed on Friday in Chicago.

Her attorney, said his client has celiac disease, which causes gastrointestinal symptoms set off by eating gluten, a protein found in wheat.

Jack Daly, McDonald’s senior vice-president, said that the company hadn’t reviewed the case yet and is testing its fries for gluten through a food allergy research programme at the University of Nebraska.

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Engineering Nerves

From TechNudge:

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have created -- in a rodent model -- a completely new way to engineer nerve structures, or constructs, in culture. This proof-of-principle research has implications for eventually becoming a new method to repair spinal cord injury in humans. The work appears in the latest issue of Tissue Engineering.

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TGIF

I was sitting in the waiting room of the hospital after my wife had gone into labor and the nurse walked out and said to the man sitting next to me, "Congratulations sir, you're the new father of twins!"

The man replied, "How about that, I work for the Doublemint Chewing Gum Company." The man then followed the woman to his wife's room.

About an hour later, the same nurse entered the waiting room and announced that Mr. Smith's wife has just had triplets.

Mr. Smith stood up and said, "Well, how do ya like that, I work for the 3M Company."

The gentleman that was sitting next to me then got up and started to leave. When I asked him why he was leaving, he remarked, "I think I need a breath of fresh air." The man continued, "I work for 7-UP."

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Even the Governor Can Get Appendicits

From NY1:

Governor George Pataki is recovering in a Westchester hospital Thursday after undergoing an emergency appendectomy earlier in the morning.

Pataki's wife Libby says the governor is in great spirits, and doctors say that he is doing as well as can be expected.

According to the doctors who performed the surgery, if there are no complications, Pataki will be released from the hospital sometime this weekend.

"In his case this was a very early kind of rupture, in the sense that it had just broken through, probably, so there was no gross contamination of the abdomen,” said Dr. Wiji Ratnathicam. “So I don't think it is much difference than a routine appendicitis."

"He will probably remain in the hospital 24 to 48 hours, and he will probably we able to function fairly normally within a week to 10 days," he added. "But he should be able to work out of his home easily."

The 60-year-old governor began having abdominal pain early Wednesday. Later that night, Pataki checked himself into the Hudson Valley Hospital in Peekskill.

By 6 a.m. he was on the operating table for an appendectomy.

Lieutenant Governor Mary Donohue briefly took over as acting governor during parts of the morning while Pataki was in surgery.

We wish Governor Pataki a safe and speedy recovery.

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On Calcium & Vitamin D

From ABC News:

Taking calcium and vitamin D supplements for several years can help older women reduce the risk of hip fractures, according to the results of a long-term, comprehensive, federally funded study by the Women's Health Initiative.

The study, published in the Feb. 16 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, tracked 36,282 women ages 50 to 79 for seven years, half of whom took a daily dose of 1,000 milligrams of calcium combined with 400 international units of vitamin D3, while the other half took placebos.

The results: The calcium-vitamin D group of women who consistently took their supplements as directed showed a 29 percent reduction in the risk of hip fractures, while all women over 60 showed a 21 percent reduction. Or, put another way, there were 39 hip fractures per 10,000 women per year in the group taking the supplements, and 45 in the placebo group.

Although hip fractures were significantly reduced, the supplement did not affect overall bone density scores very much. On average, they improved by about 1 percent for women taking the supplements compared with those taking a placebo.

The rather low change in bone density likely means that taking the two nutrients late in life offers limited benefit, particularly for older women or those at risk of developing osteoporosis, said J. Edward Puzas, an orthopedics professor at the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry in Rochester, N.Y.

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Redefining Whole Grain

From MedPage Today:

The FDA has proposed an official working definition of the term “whole grain,” intended to help separate the wheat from the chaff for health-conscious consumers at the grocery store.


The draft guidance for industry on the definition of whole grain for food labeling was published today in the Federal Register for a 60-day comment period. The draft guidance, said the FDA, is intended to clear up confusion about which food products actually contain whole grains and which do not -- but make that claim.


To qualify as “whole grain” under the proposed definition, the food product would need to contain the three principal parts of the fruit of the grain -- the starchy inner endosperm, the germ at the heart of the kernel, and the fiber-filled outer bran shell -- in the same relative proportions as they exist naturally, the FDA said.


Grains that have been ground, cracked, or flaked could be considered whole grain so long as the end product still contains all three components. However, many food products are made with refined grain from which the bran and germ have been removed, resulting in a loss of fiber, vitamins, and minerals, the agency noted.


Whole grains would include barley, buckwheat, corn (including popcorn), millet, rice, oats, and wheat. Flour or meal derived from these grains can be called whole grain if it contains natural amounts of the bran, germ, and endosperm.

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Welcome To Our Visitors From Around The World

It was a heck of a commute for some of you, but we're glad you made it here safely.


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Shopping Carts Lead Bacteria Count

From Yahoo:

Shopping cart handles are the most bacteria-infested items among some commonly used objects while doorknobs on public bathrooms are not as bad as might be expected, according to a survey conducted in South Korea.

The Korea Consumer Protection Board tested six items that are commonly handled by the public and ran tests for their bacteria content.

Shopping cart handles led the way with 1,100 colony forming units of bacteria per 10 sq cm (1.55 sq inches) followed by a mouse used on computers in Internet cafes, which had an average of 690 colony forming units.

"The reason that shopping cart handles had so much bacteria is because the area is larger than the others and people have more space to place their hands," Kwon Young-il, an official at the consumer body, said by telephone.

Hand straps on buses were next with 380 units, followed by bathroom doorknobs at 340.

Rounding out the list were elevator buttons at 130 colony forming units and hand straps on subways at 86.

The report released this week said washing hands with soap removes almost all of the bacteria.

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Snowshowing Away Obesity

From CNN:

A growing number of schools in the Northeast are retooling their phys-ed programs to add snowshoeing, an enticement to the video game generation to get outside and make the most of the region's long, cold winters.

"I hate to say we're in a crisis, but we are," Aaron Loukes, a gym teacher at Lin-Wood Elementary School in Lincoln, N.H., said recently while leading 13 first-graders on a snowshoe trek through woods near the school. "We need to get people moving."

For much of the year, that's not so easy. The Northeast is home to most of the nation's roughly 500 school snowshoe programs, many of which sprang up over the past five years as childhood obesity has become a concern. Here, winter can mean months of fitness-quashing frigid temperatures and snow -- and endless hours in front of the tube.

But a loose coalition of educators, public health officials and snowshoe manufacturers hopes to change that with curricula and grants to train and equip teachers and students to embrace this seasonal fitness opportunity.

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Counterpoint On Low Fat vs High Fat Diets

From Nutra Ingredients:

The science has spoken. Low-fat diets don’t work: Forget the carrots and broccoli sprouts, I can now have my cake and eat it, and put extra cream on top.

Ask the average person in the street if a low-fat diet is good for them they would instinctively say ‘yes'. Ask them why and they'll almost certainly tell you it's better for your heart, and protects against other diseases they may not even be able to name.
But now, if you believe the headlines, there's no benefit in low-fat. If it didn't reduce the risk of certain cancers and heart disease for 25,000 women in a medical trial, what are the chances of it helping others?

Published in the hugely respected Journal of the American Medical Association, the Women's Health Initiative (WHI) Dietary Modification Trial involved 48,835 post-menopausal women, eight years of follow-up and cost a staggering $415 million dollars of taxpayers' money.

Scientists from such esteemed institutions as Harvard Medical School, UCLA, Ohio State, Brown and Northwestern Universities carried out the research.

The end results created headlines that declared a low-fat, fruit-‘n'-veg-rich diet does not change your risk of colorectal or breast cancer of cardiovascular disease (CVD).

The trial set out to compare women eating a normal diet with women eating a diet low in fat and high in fruit, vegetables and whole grains.

Nice idea, so what went wrong?

The design of the study was flawed from the start, which is undoubtedly why there was opposition when the study was first proposed. Leading nutritional and medical researchers said it wasn't worth doing, while the National Institute of Health initially rejected calls for funding.

Strategic lobbying and then a run through congress eventually got the necessary approval and the WHI was off.

The diet aimed to cut down fat intake for the intervention group to less than 20 per cent, eat five servings of fruit and veg, and six portions of grains per day. The studies claim they succeeded in reducing fat intake by 8.2 g, but by year six the average fat intake was still 29 per cent. The normal diet group was eating 35 per cent fat.

The intake of vegetables and fruit did go up as well, but only by about one serving per day.

The researchers themselves admit that very few of the women in the intervention group actually met the targets.

Excuse me for being so bold, but does this not mean that $415 million were spent on an intervention study that didn't really intervene?

Does this not immediately put a massive question mark on any claims?

Apparently, no – at least if you believe the headlines. Many national and local newspapers have picked up on these reports and run with stories taking the conclusions to the consumer.

Right on! I think the news media jumped on the band wagon without even reading the study. This study is going to push us a few decades in the wrong direction, for sure.

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Cell Phones Harbor Germs

From Real Tech News:

A study conducted at the Craigavon Area Hospital Group Trust in Northern Ireland has found that the majority of mobile phones used by doctors and other health workers are carrying infectious pathogens, including on some phones the deadly hospital “superbug”, MRSA.

The discovery of MRSA on mobile phones that are then carried around the hospital is the issue that will cause the most concern. MRSA has been responsible for 116 deaths in Northern Ireland between 1997-2003. In total, just over 96% of phones demonstrated evidence of bacterial contamination, and 15 (14.3%) of the mobile phones sampled grew bacteria that are known to cause nosocomial infection. There was no significant difference between phone types - clam shells were no better or worse in the study than candy bar form handsets. Source: Cellular News via TechDirt

Who knew that cell phones were such hazard? We'll change their names to "mobile fomites."

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Robot To Make Rounds

From TechNudge:

It might look like a ruthless Dalek from "Doctor Who," (no it doesn't) but the robot prowling the wards at St. Mary's Hospital in London aims to medicate, rather than exterminate. The robot--dubbed Sister Mary--is part of a "remote presence" trial being run by the department of biosurgery and surgical technology at Imperial College. The aim? To allow doctors to examine patients remotely, using the robot as their eyes and ears.

The 5-foot-3-inch, 215-pound robot being tested out at St. Mary's boasts a camera and tilting screen, runs Windows XP Professional and operates over a wireless 802.11b network that provides a data stream of 600 kilobits per second each way.

"In the clinical trials that are going on at the moment we are looking at patient perception--what they feel about a robot coming in and talking to them--and remote examinations," said surgical specialist registrar Parv Sains, who is working on the trial.

Baby steps into the world of telemedicine. One day, this will be routine to make rounds on the weekends.
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Have A Cup of Cocoa

From Bloomberg:

Cocoa may help reduce the risk of heart disease and cancer, a 10-year study by candy producer Mars Inc. and Harvard University showed.

The study, to be released in Washington today, is the first to connect cocoa to the prevention of cancer in humans, Harold Schmitz, chief science officer of Mars and co-author of the study, said in an interview yesterday. Mars six months ago began selling ``heart-healthy'' CocoaVia chocolate bars in Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and other retailers.

Flavanols contained in cocoa, as well as apples, almonds and grapes, may provide the protection, Schmitz said. ``It looks like there is a tremendous benefit to consuming flavanol-rich cocoa, a greater benefit than any of us could have anticipated.''

The study looked at death certificates of about 1,250 Kuna Indians in Panama and in the San Blas islands off the coast of Panama. The Kunas in the San Blas Islands drank four or five cups of a cocoa-water drink a day, while the Kunas in Panama did not.

``The relative risk of death from heart disease on the Panama mainland was 1,280 percent higher than on the islands, and death from cancer was 630 percent higher,'' Norman Hollenberg, a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, said in a statement.

I wonder if I can get financing for a follow up study. I'd even be willing to participate myself...for science, of course.

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Tried & True Soldiers On

From WebMD:

Several tests for breast cancer haven't been shown to be accurate enough to replace a standard biopsy, states a government report.

The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) reviewed studies of four common noninvasive tests that can be used to detect breast cancer after a woman has an abnormal mammogram or abnormal breast exam. The four tests are:

Positive Emission Tomograpy (PET) scans
Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI)
Ultrasonography (ultrasound)
Scintimammography (mammogram enhanced by a radioactive tracer)
"We found that these tests, while reasonably accurate, could still miss a substantial number of cancers if used to try to avoid a biopsy," AHRQ director Carolyn Clancy, MD, told reporters, in a teleconference.

"The risk of missing a cancer is sufficiently high that we conclude that these tests should not routinely replace a biopsy," she says.

A standard breast biopsy is done using a needle or an incision to sample the suspicious area. Because they break the skin, these biopsies are considered invasive.

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Stop the Saw Palmetto

From Newsday:

A widely used herbal supplement marketed to ease problems associated with an enlarged prostate appears to be useless, providing no more relief than a placebo, scientists report in a study published today.

The extract, derived from an indigenous Florida palm, is so popular that the number of men who take it in the United States is estimated at 2 million a year. Most have been sold on the widely held belief that saw palmetto provides a reprieve from round-the-clock trips to the restroom. Indeed, dozens of smaller studies have supported the supplement's efficacy.

But Dr. Stephen Bent of the Osher Center for Integrative Medicine in San Francisco found in the most rigorous study ever conducted on the supplement's impact on benign prostatic hyperplasia, that it has no more therapeutic value than a placebo, which mimicked saw palmetto capsules in every way. The dummy capsules had an oily substance, they contained a brown-coloring agent, and carried the supplement's pungent odor.

The yearlong analysis, involving 225 men, was designed to be identical to studies in the past that had found a benefit when two 160-milligram capsules were taken daily. By study's end, 40 percent of men in the saw palmetto group and 46 percent on placebo thought they had gotten the genuine article.

Curiously, participants in both groups improved during the trial, but there was no dramatic difference among those taking saw palmetto, which suggested the effect could be attributed to mind-over-matter.

"This adds to the doubt in a major way," Bent said yesterday. His findings appear in today's New England Journal of Medicine.

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TGIF

Appendectomy is simple

"Do you mind telling me why you ran away from the operating room?" the hospital administator asked the patient.
"Because the nurse said, "Don't be afraid! An appendectomy is quite simple."
"So...."
"So?" exclaimed the man... "She was talking to the doctor!!!!"


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Detecting Melanoma Earlier

From Live Science:

Researchers have developed a non-invasive technique for early detection of skin cancer.

The procedure uses different colors of light and assorted alignments of the electric field of each light segment to create unique images that can identify suspect skin growths called nevi.

"We are able to generate processed images that reveal the subsurface characteristics of the nevus," said developer Justin Baba of Oak Ridge National Laboratory. "It is our hope that these images will enable an accurate determination of whether the nevus is cancerous or benign."

Melanoma, a form of cancer that develops in the skin—is the most common type of cancer. According to the American Cancer Society estimates, the number of new melanoma cases topped 59,000 in 2005 and accounted for more than 7,000 deaths in the United States.

"The good news is that with early diagnosis, there is nearly a 100 percent cure rate for skin-melanoma," Baba told LiveScience. "Therefore, a non-invasive diagnostic tool that can be used to rapidly diagnose skin cancers, particularly skin-melanoma, would help reduce the mortality associated with this disease.

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Welcome!

I just wanted to take a minute to welcome our visitors from around the world. Thanks for making the trip!

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Waiting To Repair Inguinal Hernias

From Journal Watch:

Many physicians and patients wonder if repair of minimally symptomatic inguinal hernias is always necessary. In this multicenter North American trial, researchers randomized 724 men (mean age, 58) to watchful waiting (WW) with follow-up at 6, 12, and 24 months or to tension-free open hernia repair (with postoperative follow-up as needed) plus follow-up at 6, 12, and 24 months. Sixty-two patients (17%) who were randomized to repair crossed over to WW, most often by patient request; 85 (23%) who were randomized to WW crossed over to surgical repair, most often because of increasing pain.
In analyses based either on the original randomization assignment or on the eventual treatment, no between-group differences were found in substantial pain (interfering with activities) or in the physical component of a standardized functional assessment. Patients assigned to WW who crossed over to surgery improved more than those who were assigned to surgery initially. Two WW patients had hernia incarcerations that required intervention (1.8 events/1000 patient-years).

Whoever is coming up with this research has never seen a patient need a bowel resection from a strangulated hernia. This avenue of research is dangerous, and shouldn't be used to justify holding off elective surgery for inguinal hernias in healthier patients in my opinion.


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Aussies To Help Make Flu Vaccine

From The Philadelphia Inquirer:

An Australian company with U.S. operations in King of Prussia is in talks with the Food and Drug Administration to sell as many as 20 million doses of its seasonal influenza vaccine in the United States.
Australia's CSL Ltd. and its King of Prussia subsidiary ZLB Behring, a blood-products firm, plan to introduce an influenza vaccine in the United States by 2007-08, if the FDA approves.
Having more manufacturers of flu vaccine licensed in the United States, and having more vaccine doses, is seen by many as important to public health. The goal of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is to have 185 million Americans vaccinated annually, but supply limitations have made that impossible.
"We welcome any new companies into the market, and hopefully that will alleviate any future shortages," said CDC spokesman Curtis Allen.
Brian McNamee, CSL chief executive officer and managing director, said in an interview that his company had already had "a fair amount of" discussions with the FDA. "We think we can provide doses for the 2007-08 season in the United States," he said.

Maybe we won't run out next year, like we have for the past few years. With exotic diseases like bird flu and SARS getting all the attention, it's easy to forget that "old fashioned" influenza is still killing millions worldwide annually. Adequate vaccine supplies would go a long way towards prevention.

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Generic Backlog

The Food and Drug Administration has a backlog of 800 generic drugs awaiting approval, the Washington Post reported.

Approvals are now taking about 20 1/2 months, up from just under 20 months in 1999, and 450 drugs were approved last year, 23 fewer than the previous year.

Gary Buehler, director of the Office of Generic Drugs, said he expects the backlog to get even bigger because there are likely to be a record number of applications for approval this year. He said there were 129 applications in December, a monthly record.

I wonder what the drug lobby has to do with this...We all end up paying the price for overpriced pharmaceuticals.

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TGIF: Doctor Vs. Mechanic

Morris was removing some engine valves from a car on the lift when he spotted the famous heart surgeon Dr. Michael DeBakey, who was standing off to the side, waiting for the service manager. Morris, somewhat of a loud mouth, shouted across the garage, "Hey DeBakey...Is dat you? Come over here a minute."

The famous surgeon, a bit surprised, walked over to where Morris was working on a car. Morris in a loud voice, all could hear, said argumentatively, "So Mr. fancy doctor, look at this work. I also take valves out, grind 'em, put in new parts, and when I finish this baby will purr like a kitten. So how come you get the big bucks, when you and me are doing basically the same work?"

DeBakey, very embarrassed, walked away and said softly, to Morris, "Try doing your work with the engine running."

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Domino Transplant

From NBC4:

- On January 14, 2006, surgeons at Columbus Children's Hospital in Columbus Ohio performed a rare procedure called a domino heart transplant.
- The infants involved were both patients being treated in Columbus Children's Hospital's Pediatric ICU at the time of the transplant. Both infants were a match.
- Jason Wolfe was on the transplant list for new lungs. He was diagnosed with primary pulmonary hypertension. This condition effects the blood vessels in the lungs. He is the son of Mike and Maria Wolfe of Fairfield County, Ohio. Jason's date of birth is September 30, 2005.
- Kayla Richardson was on the transplant list for a new heart. Kayla was born with pulmonary atresia and abnormal coronary arteries. Although congenital heart disease can occur in about one percent of newborns, Richardson's type of heart anomaly is very rare and caused the right side of her heart to not fully develop. She is the daughter of Rebecca Lovins and Robert Richardson of Franklin County, Ohio. Kayla's date of birth is November 8, 2005.
(Source: UNOS or United Network of Organ Sharing)
There have been only twelve 12 infant heart/lung transplants performed in the united states.
· This is the youngest reported domino heart transplant in the world
· Jason is youngest living heart donor in the world
· Kayla is the youngest recipient of a living heart in the world
· This is the first domino heart/lung transplant since 1996 in any age group - adult or children
· Doctors say the babies have a good shot at survival because they're so young.. their immune systems haven't fully developed yet.. lower risk of rejection than older children and adults.
· Jason and Kayla are progressing very well. Kayla's heart is working extremely well... now dealing with normal newborn issues. As the kids get older they will need lifelong care and medication.

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HSA's

From the Houston Chronicle:

With public anxiety mounting over the cost and availability of health insurance, President Bush is promoting a free market approach designed to make consumers more responsible for their health care spending.

The centerpiece of Bush's policy is the expansion of health savings accounts, which allow individuals and families to set up tax-free accounts to pay for routine medical needs.

The White House says price increases can be blunted by moving from expensive employer-subsidized health plans to individually controlled accounts that force consumers to be more cost-conscious about health care.

"Keeping America competitive requires affordable health care," Bush told the nation Tuesday night.

Rodney Williamson, a Texas-based benefits consultant, said he has advised employers to shift from managed care plans, and instead make contributions to employees health savings accounts.

Employees are more likely to comparison shop when they are using their own dollars rather than relying on an insurance plan that pays most of the costs, he said.

Having folks care about the value of their health care dollars is the only way to rein in costs.

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