Comparing Military Spending and COVID-19 Related Medical Costs
Christopher A. PrebleAs the United States struggles to contain the coronavirus outbreak, it has revivedthe perennial guns versus butter debate. Or, in this case, guns versus medical equipment. Might some of the money spent on the U.S. military have been better spent on more useful things closer to home? Might a few million additional N ‑95 masks have protected more Americans than a few additional M1 Abrams tanks? Might the money spent on even a single F ‑35 fighter plane have saved more lives — in April and May of 2020, at least — if it had been used to buy a few thousand more ventilators?Such q...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - April 7, 2020 Category: American Health Authors: Christopher A. Preble Source Type: blogs
‘Sophie’s Choice’ in the time of coronavirus: Deciding who gets the ventilator
Three otherwise healthy patients go to the emergency department with severe acute respiratory failure. Only one ventilator, required to sustain life until the worst of the coronavirus infection has passed, is available. Who gets the vent?
That’s what “A Framework for Rationing Ventilators and Critical Care Beds During the COVID-19 Pandemic,” a Viewpoint just published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), addresses. Douglas White, MD, MAS, Endowed Chair for Ethics in Critical Care Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine ...
Source: blog.bioethics.net - April 6, 2020 Category: Medical Ethics Authors: Bioethics Today Tags: Health Care Author: Lewis syndicated Source Type: blogs
Our Liberties Have Value Too
Ryan BourneWhen thinking through the wisdom of COVID-19 lockdowns and orders, commentators often compare the value of lives saved against some loss of economic output (GDP) to determine whether the measure was cost ‐effective. But this is an apples vs. oranges comparison.The value of a statistical life is some calculation of what the average U.S. citizen is willing to pay for a reduction in their probability of dying. Suppose I ’m willing to pay $20,000 to avoid a 0.2 percent chance of death. The value of a statistical life for me is thus $20,000/0.2 percent = $10 million per statistical life sav...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - March 31, 2020 Category: American Health Authors: Ryan Bourne Source Type: blogs
Time to Move on the Economy vs. Public Health Debate
Ryan BourneHuman life is highly valuable. Basic economic reasoning therefore suggests that, given the risks of COVID-19 to vulnerable populations, we should be willing to withstand large economic costs to prevent the risk of substantial numbers of deaths. This is particularly true if most of those economic costs are temporary.In response to Donald Trump ’stweet last week suggesting “WE CANNOT LET THE CURE BE WORSE THAN THE PROBLEM ITSELF,”many economists have indeed been makingthese points.They highlight estimates suggesting that the estimated value of a statistical life (commonly around $9.3 million) and a ...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - March 27, 2020 Category: American Health Authors: Ryan Bourne Source Type: blogs
Does Beverly Hills MD Brow Serum work and other beauty questions? episode 213
We have a lot of beauty questions to answer today, including:
What do we think of the Beverly Hills MD brow serum
Are lash tints safe?
Why do anti-aging ingredients affect skin color?
Why do dermatologists keep saying hyaluronic acid is pointless?
Perry and Valerie are under self imposed quarantine! But we’re still recording.
Beauty science news
Are cosmetics going to be more regulated?
The spokesperson from the EWG (who likes this new legislation by the way) said the following about the cosmetics industry. “…no category of consumer products is subject to less government oversight than cosmetics and o...
Source: thebeautybrains.com - March 19, 2020 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Perry Romanowski Tags: Podcast Source Type: blogs
If you have only two embryos, should you transfer both of them ? or should you transfer one and freeze the other one?
This is a common quandary for patients with a poor ovarian response !If you have 2 top-quality blastocysts, what should your strategy be ? Should you transfer one and freeze the other ? Or transfer both together?If you put both together, you increase your chance of getting pregnant in that cycle - but this is an unfair comparison - after all, you shouldn't compare apples to oranges !You should compare transferring two embryos at one time , with transferring one embryo at a time in two consecutive cycles.And the pregnancy rate with transferring a single embryo in two consecutive cycles - a sequential single embryo transfer ...
Source: Dr.Malpani's Blog - February 7, 2020 Category: Reproduction Medicine Source Type: blogs
What are ultra-processed foods and are they bad for our health?
You hear it all the time: the advice to “eat less processed food.” But what is processed food? For that matter, what is minimally processed food or ultra-processed food? And how do processed foods affect our health?
What are processed and ultra-processed foods?
Unprocessed or minimally processed foods are whole foods in which the vitamins and nutrients are still intact. The food is in its natural (or nearly natural) state. These foods may be minimally altered by removal of inedible parts, drying, crushing, roasting, boiling, freezing, or pasteurization, to make them suitable to store and safe to consume. Unprocessed or...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - January 9, 2020 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Katherine D. McManus, MS, RD, LDN Tags: Healthy Eating Source Type: blogs
Monk fruit –More than a healthy sweetener?
Because I wanted a benign and healthy way for followers of the Wheat Belly lifestyle to recreate dishes such as chocolate chip cookies, cheesecake, and pies with none of the health problems of grains or sugars, I helped Wheat-Free Market develop its Virtue Sweetener product.
Yes, you could do without such sweeteners. But I learned long ago when I introduced Wheat Belly concepts to patients in my cardiology practice that having options while entertaining friends, during holidays, and pleasing kids was important for staying on course on this lifestyle. Before I understood how to use such natural sweeteners, patients would ...
Source: Wheat Belly Blog - December 12, 2019 Category: Cardiology Authors: Dr. Davis Tags: Open blood sugar diabetes Dr. Davis Inflammation insulin low-carb monk fruit natural sweeteners undoctored virtue sweetener Weight Loss wheat Wheat Belly Total Health Source Type: blogs
Why single embryo transfers are a better option
Many IVF patients want us to put as many embryos back as possible , because they want to get pregnant as quickly as possible, and they know that the more the embryos they transfer, the better their chances of conceiving. This is why some clinics will routinely put back three or four embryos at a time.I actually think this is irresponsible , because it increases the risk of a multiple pregnancy. Some of these patients end up with premature labors, which means their babies spend months languishing in a NICU, and maybe handicapped because of the prematurity. Even worse, the doctor does a selective fetal reduction to "tre...
Source: Dr.Malpani's Blog - December 3, 2019 Category: Reproduction Medicine Source Type: blogs
How my dog helps motivate me to manage my high cholesterol
This post is sponsored by Kowa Pharmaceuticals America, Inc. Personal opinions and thoughts are my own.
As a wellness author and speaker, people often ask me questions about cholesterol and heart disease. In partnership with Take Cholesterol to Heart, I’m answering some of the most common questions. Want to learn more? Be sure to visit Take Cholesterol to Heart for more information on managing your cholesterol levels.
Q: I know that exercise is an important piece of a cholesterol management plan, but I find it hard to get motivated. Do you have any advice?
A: Yes! As the video below shows, partnering with an enthusias...
Source: Embrace Your Heart Wellness Initiative - October 29, 2019 Category: Cardiology Authors: Eliz Greene Tags: Exercise Tips Heart Disease Risk Factors Heart Health cholesterol Take Cholesterol To Heart Source Type: blogs
How Creating Balance in Your Gut Can Help Alleviate Anxiety
Most of us are pretty familiar with how anxiety feels in our body. When you have anxious thoughts, your body responds with a tightening in the stomach, nausea, gas, heartburn, and indigestion. The connection between your brain and your gastrointestinal tract goes the other way as well. If your digestive system is disrupted, it can send signals to your brain that may cause you to become anxious. This bidirectional connection is called the gut-brain axis.
We are still learning a lot about the digestive system’s effect on the body and the mind, but what is coming to light through scientific research is that your gut is tru...
Source: World of Psychology - October 26, 2019 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Psych Central Guest Author Tags: Anxiety and Panic Publishers Spirituality & Health Digestion gut balance healthy gut healthy gut microbiome Immune System Source Type: blogs
It ’s World Mental Health Day today: Let’s review how a healthy diet can promote mental well-being
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Should you eat an apple—or a bag of Oreos? Go to McDonald’s—or the vegetarian restaurant on the corner?
When we make these everyday food choices, many of us think first of our physical health and appearance. But there’s another factor we may want to consider in picking foods: their impact on our mental health.
A growing body of research is discovering that food doesn’t just affect our waistline but also our moods, emotions, and even longer-term conditions like depression. Which makes sense, after all. Our brains are physical entities, running on the energy that we put into our bodies, affected by ...
Source: SharpBrains - October 10, 2019 Category: Neuroscience Authors: Greater Good Magazine Tags: Cognitive Neuroscience Health & Wellness evidence mental health Nutrition well-being Source Type: blogs
Part 3 - Opioids Have Ceiling Effects, High-Doses are Rarely Therapeutic, and Another Hand-Crafted Graph
by Drew Rosielle (@drosielle)A Series of Observations on Opioids By a Palliative Doc Who Prescribes A Lot of Opioids But Also Has Questions.This is the 3rd post in a series about opioid, with a focus on how my thinking about opioids has changed over the years. See also:Part 1 – Introduction, General Disclaimers, Hand-Wringing, and a Hand-Crafted Graph.Part 2 – We Were Wrong 20 years Ago, Our Current Response to the Opioid Crisis is Wrong, But We Should Still Be Helping Most of our Long-Term Patients Reduce Their Opioid DosesThis is Part 3 – Opioids Have Ceiling Effects, High-Doses are Rarely Therapeutic, and Another ...
Source: Pallimed: A Hospice and Palliative Medicine Blog - October 4, 2019 Category: Palliative Care Tags: opioids pain rosielle The profession Source Type: blogs
Beefy Arguments for Libertarianism
This report has layers of flaws and is the most egregious abuse of evidence that I have ever seen,"said Walter Willett of Harvard. "Their recommendations are really irresponsible,"said Frank Hu of Harvard. A contrarian would immediately assume, therefore, that the study in question must be marvelous. Is it?Well, it represents part of a new wave in nutrition, in which a group of scientists who have no financial ties to the food industry set themselves up, like the justices of the Supreme Court, to adjudicate as a panel on a field of research. And, again like the justices of the Supreme Court, they are not frightened from ...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - October 1, 2019 Category: American Health Authors: Terence Kealey Source Type: blogs
Fight Aging! Newsletter, September 23rd 2019
Discussion of Developmental Effects on Aging
Microtubule Function and Longevity in Nematodes
Quantifying the Correlation Between Poverty and Faster Pace of Aging
Matthew O'Connor Presenting on Underdog Pharmaceuticals at Undoing Aging 2019
https://www.fightaging.org/archives/2019/09/matthew-oconnor-presenting-on-underdog-pharmaceuticals-at-undoing-aging-2019/
Here Matthew O'Connor of the SENS Research Foundation talks about the research that led to founding of Underdog Pharmaceuticals, a biotech startup incubated by the foundation to commercialize a means of targeting 7-ketocholesterol in atheroscle...
Source: Fight Aging! - September 22, 2019 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Newsletters Source Type: blogs
