Funtabulously Frivolous Friday Five 122
Just when you thought your brain could unwind on a Friday, you realise that it would rather be challenged with some good old fashioned medical trivia…introducing Funtabulously Frivolous Friday Five 122
Question 1
What is a Clay-shoveler’s fracture and how do you get one?
+ Reveal the Funtabulous Answer
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Fracture through the spinous process of a vertebra occurring at any of the lower cervical or upper thoracic vertebrae, classically at C6 or C7.
Originally described in Australia associated with (no prizes for...
Source: Life in the Fast Lane - October 23, 2015 Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: Neil Long Tags: Frivolous Friday Five adrenal crisis adrenal insufficiency botulism clay shoveler's fracture erythema multiforme rhabdomyolysis Source Type: blogs
Glyphosate: not JUST a carcinogen
One of the most potentially harmful aspects of genetically-modified crops, or GMOs, are that such crops are often engineered to be resistant to an herbicide. A farmer therefore can spray the herbicide to kill weeds, while the GM crop plant survives. But it means that the plant now has herbicide residues in it. So GMO crops pose a double-whammy: the crop itself with new genetically-programmed components, especially proteins, coupled with an herbicide.
Glyphosate is the most widely applied herbicide in the world, in part because GM corn and soy have been engineered to be glyphosate-resistant. So much glysphosate is being use...
Source: Wheat Belly Blog - October 12, 2015 Category: Cardiology Authors: Dr. Davis Tags: Wheat Belly Lifestyle bowel flora gluten glyphosate gmo grains herbicide microbiota soy Source Type: blogs
Funtabulously Frivolous Friday Five 106
Just when you thought your brain could unwind on a Friday, you realise that it would rather be challenged with some good old fashioned medical trivia…introducing Funtabulously Frivolous Friday Five 106Question 1Which drug is derived from the saliva of the Gila Monster+ Reveal the Funtabulous Answerexpand(document.getElementById('ddet699757968'));expand(document.getElementById('ddetlink699757968'))ExenatideThe hormone exendin-4 occurs naturally in the saliva of the Gila monster, a large venomous lizard native to the southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico.Exenatide is a glucagon-like peptide-1 agonist (GLP-...
Source: Life in the Fast Lane - April 30, 2015 Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: Niall Hamilton Tags: Frivolous Friday Five LITFL FFFF Source Type: blogs
Food Providers: Regulators Should Insist They 'First, Do No Harm'
Everyone needs food, water, and shelter, yet society offers protective standards and regulations for just two of these three essentials. Food regulations focus on preventing illnesses like botulism, but when it comes to chronic diseases like obesity and diabetes, regulations offer little protection to U.S. consumers. (Source: The RAND Blog)
Source: The RAND Blog - April 8, 2015 Category: Health Management Authors: RAND Corporation Source Type: blogs
Avian botulism, or feeding the ducks
On a recent visit to Hillsborough Park to feed the geese, ducks and coots, we spotted some peas on the ground by the side of the lake. We were surprised that birds ate such things, but the Canal and River Trust are recommending that people do indeed feed water birds frozen peas, or lettuce, or grain. This story was picked up extensively in the UK media yesterday and today.But not bread. The video in this piece from the Daily Telegraph has figures for the amount of bread that is fed to water birds. A lot of it is not eaten by the birds, but ends up as a culture medium for microorganisms, ...
Source: Browsing - March 17, 2015 Category: Databases & Libraries Tags: birds botulism Source Type: blogs
What are peptides in cosmetics? The Beauty Brains Show episode 55
Have you ever wondered about peptides in anti-aging products? What are they and how do they work? Listen to today’s show to get the scoop on peptides.
Click below to play Episode 55 or click “download” to save the MP3 file to your computer.
Show notes
Question of the week: What are peptides in cosmetics?
Paulette asks…I was wondering about peptides: what they are, what they do and how long do you have to use them to get results?
What are peptides?
The term “Peptide” is actually common in the world of biochemistry and is the generic name given to a small string of amino acids. Amino acids, remembe...
Source: thebeautybrains.com - November 4, 2014 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Perry RomanowskiThe Beauty Brains Tags: Best Claims Podcast Source Type: blogs
Research and Reviews in the Fastlane 048
This study looked at one institution’s discrepancy rate between EP and radiologist plain film reads over 10 years. They found overall an ~3% discrepancy rate on all plain films. This of course does not mean the radiologist was correct in every discrepancy. But it does show we agree most of the time.
Most interestingly, the rate of discrepancies requiring emergent change in management was a mere 0.056%!
Recommended by: Zack Repanshek
Prehospital/Retrieval
Braude D et al. Air Transport of Patients with Pneumothorax: Is Tube Thoracostomy Required Before Flight? Air Med J. 2014 Jul-Aug;33(4):152-6. PMID: 25049185
C...
Source: Life in the Fast Lane - September 15, 2014 Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: Anand Swaminathan Tags: Anaesthetics Cardiology Education Emergency Medicine Pediatrics Pre-hospital / Retrieval Public Health Respiratory Resuscitation Toxicology and Toxinology critical care Intensive Care literature R&R in the FASTLANE recommendati Source Type: blogs
Botulism in Italy
The following background information of botulism in Italy was abstracted from Gideon www.GideonOnline.com and the Gideon e-book series. [1,2] (primary references are available on request).
Botulism has been a notifiable disease in Italy since 1975. Mean disease rates are similar to those reported in the United States – see graph [3] :
Vegetable preserves are implicated in 57% of cases, and ham and sausage in 15%. Recent outbreaks have been related to mushrooms in oil, pickled olives, fresh-cheese mascarpone and roasted eggplant in oil.
In 2012, a man in England acquired botulism from imported Italian olives.
Three ...
Source: GIDEON blog - March 30, 2014 Category: Databases & Libraries Authors: Dr. Stephen Berger Tags: Ebooks Epidemiology Graphs Botulism Italy Source Type: blogs
New Wrinkle for Old Drug It’s not just for smoothing laugh lines. Botulinum toxin may have the potential to ease OA pain.| Arthritis Today Magazine
Widely used by doctors to soften forehead wrinkles and reduce uncontrollably sweaty armpits, researchers now are exploring botulinum toxin as a potential therapy for osteoarthritis (OA) pain.
Although botulinum toxin (Botox, Dysport, Myobloc) has been studied since the 1950s, recent studies on its use in osteoarthritis pain suggest it could be a new analgesic option for a group of patients that's been hard to treat.
"The Botox story is very intriguing," says David Felson, MD, professor of medicine and epidemiology at Boston University. "It isn't just muscles. It can paralyze nerves. Just like celeb...
Source: Psychology of Pain - October 30, 2013 Category: Psychiatrists and Psychologists Source Type: blogs
Holding Back Experimental Details, With Reason
There's a lot of worry these days about the reproducibility of scientific papers (a topic that's come up here many times). And there's reason to believe that the sharing of data, protocols, and materials is not going so well, either.
. . . authors seem less willing to share these additional details about their study protocols than they have been in the past, according to a survey of 389 authors who published studies in the Annals of Internal Medicine. The findings, presented on 9 September at the International Congress on Peer Review and Biomedical Publication in Chicago, found that over the five years studied the percent...
Source: In the Pipeline - October 16, 2013 Category: Chemists Tags: The Scientific Literature Source Type: blogs
Real-time PCR Detection of Foodborne Pathogenic Clostridia
from Kathie Grant and Corinne Amar writing in Real-Time PCR in Food Science: Current Technology and Applications:The principle Clostridal foodborne pathogens, Clostridium botulinum and Clostridium perfringens are responsible, respectively, for two different toxin mediated foodborne diseases, namely botulism and C. perfringens food poisoning. Foodborne botulism is a severe, life-threatening disease which can affect a large number of people and although incidence is rare, it is considered a public health emergency. Whilst C. perfringens type A food poisoning is far less severe, it is one of the most common causes of bacteria...
Source: Microbiology Blog: The weblog for microbiologists. - April 10, 2013 Category: Microbiology Source Type: blogs
Botulism Trends in the United States
Infants account for most cases of botulism reported in the United States. Although the ratio of infant / food-borne cases was fairly constant prior to 1999, subsequent trends appear to signal a parallel increase in infant and decrease in food-borne botulism. [1,2] See graph [3]
References:
1. Berger SA. Infectious Diseases of the United States, 2012. 1089 pages, 467 graphs, 9760 references. Gideon e-books, http://www.gideononline.com/ebooks/country/infectious-diseases-of-the-united-states/
2. Berger SA. Botulism: Global Status, 2012. 84 pages, 89 graphs, 599 references. Gideon e-books, http://www.gideononline.com/ebook...
Source: GIDEON blog - January 21, 2013 Category: Databases & Libraries Authors: Dr. Stephen Berger Tags: Ebooks Epidemiology Features Graphs ProMED Botulism Infant botulism united states Source Type: blogs
Botox approved for chronic migraines
BOTOX APPROVED FOR CHRONIC MIGRAINES Many doctors have been using Botox for unapproved uses as headache and pain. Now the FDA has approved the drug to treat chronic migraines.The current pain medications for chronic migraines are rarely effective and do not prevent future migraines. Over 12% of Americans suffer from throbbing pulsating pain of migraines.The Botox drug company, Allergan, paid $600 million to settle criminal and civil allegations last month. Botox is a pure live form of the toxin of botulinum,, and is a nerve poison produced by the bacteria that causes botulism. Injections paral...
Source: Dr. Needles Medical Blogs - October 18, 2010 Category: Physicians With Health Advice Tags: BOTOX APPROVED FOR CHRONIC MIGRAINES Source Type: blogs
Black tar heroin coming to white people near you
Graph: Black tar heroin vs powder heroin, and HIV among injection drug users vs HIV among men who have sex with men, in a map of the US and Canada fromCiccarone and Bourgois 2003--click on the graph for a full-size picture.Black tar heroin is moving east,says the LA Times, in this first part of a three part article I'll be reading over the next days, being moved by folks from Xalisco, Mexico. The strategy described in theLA Times article involves low-profile low-weaponry low-volume operations targeting white people who've been using prescription opiates, and moving small cheap quantities of black tar heroin as an alternati...
Source: hemodynamics - February 15, 2010 Category: American Health Tags: Afghanistan bacterial ecology black tar heroin drug companies drug dealers Mexico Source Type: blogs
