Monthly Archive for February, 2009

Study finds cholesterol drugs not needed for most teens

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on February 23, 2009
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A new study provides some encouraging news concerning childhood obesity. It found that less than 1 percent of American teens are anticipated to need cholesterol drugs.

Alarming new guidelines were announced last year by the American Academy of Pediatrics: Doctors were called on to consider cholesterol medicine for more kids, sometimes as young as 8, if they had elevated levels of “bad cholesterol,” or LDL, accompanied by other health issues such as obesity and high blood pressure.

the academy did not talk about the amount of children that be included in that group. A study that was announced on February 16 in the American Heart Association’s journal Circulation helps diminish anxiety about many children that might need to be on cholesterol medicine, according to Dr. Stephen Daniels, who is the main author of the pediatric guidelines.

He said that there was a worry that a rising amount of obesity cases would lead to an increase in cholesterol levels. He said that they don’t seem to be increasing.

The new pediatrics guideline was established from indicators that damage leading to heart disease starts in early life. Simultaneously, current research has revealed that drugs used to lower cholesterol are basically safe for children.

Dr. William Scott, a cardiologist and pediatrics professor at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, said that as long as a child does not have an inclination to high cholesterol, regular exercise and a healthy diet should keep the cholesterol under control. Scott said, “You really are empowered by your diet and activity.

More sufferers of back pain in N.C.

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on February 23, 2009
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Do you live in North Carolina and have back pain? Well, the amount of people in North Carolina has more than doubled in the last 14 years. These findings definitely have a huge effect on health care expenditures.

Statistics from the Archives of Internal Medicine claim that 80% of people will have lower back pain at some point in their life, 95% will get better in a few months, and 85% will have a repeat occurrence.

Sufferers of back pain go to the doctor frequently, spend money on massages, pain medicine, physical therapy, chiropractic appointments and surgeries.

According to a study conducted last year in the Journal of the American Medical Association, treating back pain costs about $86 billion in the U.S.

In the study, researchers from UNC Chapel performed a statewide phone survey of about 5,300 people in 2006 and discovered that 10.2 percent suffered from back pain that continued for more than 3 months. That’s more than two times the amount in 1992, when a survey of more than 4,400 revealed that 3.9 percent said that they were sufferers of back pain.

There is one treatment that is not used much or respected enough by doctors and patients, even though it is totally  free. Although it is not a cure, people who exercise regularly under a doctor or physical therapist’s care tend to feel better and are able to do more.

So it is not a surprise that there has been an increase in back pain and obesity at the same time. Doctors who have treated back pain have noticed the parallel between the two. Dr. Kenneth Carnes, who works at Raleigh Neurosurgery Associates, claims that being overweight puts extra stress on the spine. Carnes says “all the extra weight and pressure is being centered in the low back and spine.” “That puts a lot of wear and tear on tissues – bone and ligaments and soft tissues. The end result is pain.” Because of this, he usually suggests exercises to help make a patient’s abdomen and back stronger. He says people just need to use their common sense by eating a balanced diet, watching their weight and exercising.

Salmonella outbreak reveals FDA’s inadequacy

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on February 23, 2009
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The protection of our food supply by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has recently shown to be extremely inadequate, with deadly consequences. Recently, more than 500 people in the U.S. have become sick and at least 8 have passed away from a salmonella outburst that was traced to peanut products.

A extensive analysis of the FDA was ordered on Monday, February 2, President Obama. He said that Americans should be able to trust the government to keep children safe as they eat peanut butter. His own daughter, Sasha, eats it for lunch. It is a shame that it takes a president with a young child at risk for the FDA to begin stringent standards for protecting our food supply.

Jean Halloran, director of Food Policy Initiatives for Consumers Union, says that consumers should be extremely angry. She says “The FDA is supposed to be a watchdog for consumers, and for too long, this agency has been coming up short.”

A Georgia processing plant is to blame for the recent outbreak. A criminal probe has begun because the FDA claims that the company knowingly shipped salmonella contaminated peanut butter out for almost a year. The company often retested the harmful products at a different lab just to get a negative reading.

What’s even more upsetting is that federal inspectors had not been to the Georgia plant since 2001. Also, when Canada held and refused a shipment that had metal fragments in it, the FDA  asked Georgia state inspectors to look at the plant, instead of its own inspectors. No samples were taken for inspection during the two visits. The FDA had to resort to bio-terrorism laws in order to acquire testing records from the company.

Unfortunately, these food safety issues are not unfamiliar to the public. Just last year, there was a jalapeno salmonella outbreak and in 2007, there was a lettuce problem. All this should put the spotlight on a problem that the Obama administration must conquer, which is an inadequate amount of FDA inspectors. There are less than 2000 in the agency. According to one expert, the scarcity of inspectors can often cause food producers to  go an astounding 15 to 20 years between inspections.

Jean Halloran claims that Congress should give power to the agency to order food recalls, to require annual inspections of food processing plants and demand that processors report tests that find infected products. A bill was introduced during the first week of February by a lawmaker that will reorganize federal food safety enforcement and require it to be more responsible. There are four main bills to revise the food safety system currently being constructed.

N.C. starts insurance pool to offer health coverage to riskiest

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Jana
on February 18, 2009
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Although a state-sponsored insurance pool providing coverage to the riskiest patients is already in the works, administrators are searching for more people living in North Carolina that have been nudged out of the private market.

Since October, there have been only 500 residents who have applied for the North Carolina Health Insurance Risk Pool. According to Michael Keough, the program’s executive director, enrollments in the program have been increasing. He projects that around 180,000 people will be qualified in N.C.

The plan is aimed at people who have high-risk health conditions, like hemophilia or multiple sclerosis. The downside is that the insurance is quite expensive, but usually less than private insurance. Premiums are set at 150 to 200 percent of a health person’s private insurance. The state uses a few sources to support the program, mainly from a tax on health insurance premiums and a yearly cash withdrawal from the State Health Plan for public service workers. Health and Wellness Trust Fund gave provided it’s starting operations with a $5 million grant. Without this plan, some people would have to pay about twice as much with private insurance.

The health insurance pool was approved by N.C. lawmakers in 2007. Unfortunately, a small percentage of the approximately 1.4 million people in North Carolina that are uninsured will be covered by the pool. There are about 36 other states that currently provide similar plans.

Combination of green tea and exercise may decrease belly fat

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on February 16, 2009
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If the size of your abdomen is more than ideal, you might want to try some green tea. There have been some studies that have indicated that green tea can help to increase exercise-induced weight loss. There is another study, which was published in the Journal of Nutrition, that reinforces this connection and reveals that fat around the middle is usually the first to disappear.

This study looked at 132 obese adults. They all ate a diet that had the same daily calories and did 180 minutes a week of modestly intense exercise. Each day they also drank a drink that had 39 milligrams of caffeine, although one group drank green tea with 625 milligrams of catechins, which is an antioxidant and the main ingredient of green tea.

After just 12 weeks, the group that drank green tea had more success at losing weight-4.4 pounds. The control group dropped only a little over 2 pounds. Also, the green-tea group had more decreases in total abdominal fat, subcutaneous abdominal fat and triglycerides.

Just how green tea does this is not yet fully known, but scientists think that it revs up the speed at which fat is broken down in the body. Also, those affected by diabetes may also be interested to know that it might assist in the body’s sensitivity to insulin, which could lower the risk of diabetes.

Common cold cure may be within reach

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Jana
on February 16, 2009
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Curing the common cold may soon become a reality for researchers. On February 12, some researchers claimed that they have decoded the genomes of the 99 strains of the common cold virus. They have also established a catalog of the cold virus’ weaknesses.

The common cold has resisted treatment in the past because of the rhinovirus. This virus causes most colds, and it has so many strains that it is extremely difficult for any drug or vaccine to conquer it.

Another obstruction to drug advancement is that colds in general are usually only a minor inconvenience, which causes people to be hesitant to pay for expensive medicines to combat them. In the past, it has been unlikely for the Food and Drug Administration to give the green light for a drug that has any negative consequences for such a minor disease, and pharmaceutical companies haven’t shown a lot of enthusiasm for investing in discovering new treatments.

New understanding of the rhinovirus’ evolutionary action from a research team conducted by Dr. Claire Fraser-Liggett, a top genome researcher at the University of Maryland, and Dr. Ann Palmenberg, a cold virologist from the University of Wisconsin, may have finally put an end to this inefficient pattern. The results were published online in the February 12 issue of journal Science.

Physicians who are experts on asthma are especially interested in these new findings. About half of all asthma attacks are believed to be set off by rhinoviruses. An asthma expert from the University of Arizona, claims that it should now be possible to indicate what specific part contains viruses that are most related to asthma patients.

Dr. Kathryn Miller, another asthma expert at the Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital in Nashville, said that the new discovery “is a groundbreaking study of major significance to the scientific world.” He said that people who are at substantial risk from rhinoviruses, like children with asthma or adults with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, would profit immensely from new medicine, therefore the pharmaceutical industry should be intensely interested. But according to Dr. Glenn Tillotson, an expert in antiviral drugs at Viropharma in Exton, Pa., it may be more difficult to spark the industry’s interest for new common cold treatments than it is for the researchers and physicians.

Kids’ TV watching can influence eating habits in later years

Published
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Jana
on February 9, 2009
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Can watching TV make you fat? There are some increasing amount of indicators that link too much TV viewing to becoming overweight or obese.

The most recent study on eating habits has revealed that kids who watch more TV than other kids in middle and high school have diets that are not as healthy 5 years later. During this time, these kids tend to eat more fast food, fried foods and sugary drinks and eat less fruits, vegetables and whole grains.

The lead researcher of this study, Daheia Barr-Anderson said that they don’t know what exactly links TV and diets, but she knows there is a definite connection. She said that there are a lot of commercials for snacks and soda on TV that target children, and this tends to affect their food choices. Also, many lifelong habits are shaped in the adolescent years, such as a tendency to snack and watch TV.

American adolescents definitely play a role in the obesity upswing. Fewer than 5% of 12-19 year olds were overweight in the mid-1960s, but today there are about 17% who are overweight and another 17% who are obese.

In earlier studies, Harvard researchers found that for each hour of TV watching, kids ate an extra 167 calories a day, mainly because they usually eat more junk food. The University of Missouri-Columbia advocates that the combination of family meals and less TV can help kids to avoid getting overweight.

This most recent study was conducted on a survey of 2000 middle and high school children in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota. This study was different, because it compared the subjects’ behavior in two separate time periods instead of at the same time. It can be found in the International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity.

When getting a shot, make sure the syringe is unused

Published
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Jana
on February 9, 2009
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With all the complicated and technical problems that can occur in health care, it is extremely unsettling to think about the danger that might occur with getting a simple shot.

Outbreaks of hepatitis in the U.S. in the past few years have been blamed on unsafe injection procedures and are the principal cause of diseases in doctor’s offices, clinics and long-term care facilities.

Alarmingly, health care workers using new needles each time is not enough to be safe if a syringe is reused. Reusing syringes can actually infect someone with hepatitis or even HIV. Diseases can also be spread if a used needle or syringe is used to draw more medication from a multiple- dose vial. This contaminates the vial and makes additional patients vulnerable to being at risk  for infection.

Reusing a needle on another patient after injecting a clean needle into a patient’s IV tubing for a saline flush is another harmful action. In this case, the health care worker assumes that because it only had contact with the sterile solution, it is safe. Contamination with microscopic amounts of disease can happen.

To avoid these kinds of dangerous errors, the CDC and some other private medical groups are going to begin an educational campaign with the slogan, “One Needle, One Syringe, Only One Time.”

For more information, you can look into this nonprofit educational group called Hepatitis Outbreaks National Organization or Reform or HONOReform. This group began with funds from a malpractice settlement over an infected syringe that was reused.

Two way for steering clear of this danger are to request single-dose vials of medicine and to use clinics that are affiliated with major hospitals, because hospitals tend to train their workers better than smaller health care facilities.

Obama signs bill so 4 million uninsured kids get coverage

Published
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Jana
on February 9, 2009
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On Wednesday , President Obama signed a bill that will expand health coverage to 4 million uninsured children. He called this action the first step toward reaching his campaign promise to offer all Americans insurance. This bill reauthorizes the State Children’s Health Insurance Program. Obama said that getting 11 million children coverage with CHIP is a start to his pledge to have every American covered.

Obama and his advisers are using the economic plight as an open door to initiate a lot of his campaign promises. Financial regulation, renewable energy and rural Internet access have all been in the mix to help restore America’s broken financial system.

Obama said “I refuse to accept that millions of our children fail to reach their full potential because we fail to meet their basic needs. In a decent society, there are certain obligations that are not subject to trade-offs or negotiations, and health care for our children is one of those obligations.”

The children’s health bill summons an extra $32.8 billion of spending on SCHIP, that currently has almost 7 million children in the program. These proceeds were produced by lawmakers by increasing the federal tobacco tax.

There are currently about 8 to 9 million uninsured children in the nation according to health officials. It is estimated by the Congressional Budget Office that straight spending for the CHIP Act will expand by about $32.8 billion during the 2009-2013 years.

Gates, Rotary & governments give $635 million to stamp out polio

Published
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Jana
on February 3, 2009
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One of the most important public health accomplishments of the late 1970’s was the abolishment of smallpox, and it was all completed in approximately 10 years. For more than 20 years now, the world has been trying to wipe out polio, but it’s not quite there yet.

Bill Gates, Microsoft founder and philanthropist,  pledged $255 million to help destroy polio once and for all. Officials from Rotary International and the governments of Germany and the U.K. all joined Gates, and together the group pledged a total of $635 million toward destroying the disease.

last year there were less than 2000 cases of polio reported in the world, but they occurred in some precarious areas such as Afghanistan, Pakistan, Nigeria and Northern India. Also, the amount of cases has increased some from previous years.

In 1988 officials began the polio eradication effort which goal was to free the world of polio by 2000. Unfortunately, getting rid of polio has been harder than predicted partly because numerous people infected with polio show no clear symptoms. The leader of Rotary’s polio efforts, Carol Pandak, said that there is a new 5 year strategy for ending polio which will run through 2013. She also indicated that because freeing the world of polio has proven to be more difficult than expected, they do not set a specific date anymore to end polio.

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