Organized Medicine’s Child Abuse Problem
By DAVID INTROCASO
This past April 8th federal prosecutors made known former Republican House Speaker, Denis Hastert, sexually molested at least four boys while employed as an Illinois high school wrestling coach beginning in the 1960s. Prosecutors said there was “no ambiguity” about these abuses. They were, they said, “known acts.”1 While the news was disturbing sexual and all other forms of child abuse is commonplace. According to the Centers for Disease Control’s (CDC) Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) study, one in four girls and one in six boys are sexually assaulted before they ...
Source: The Health Care Blog - June 4, 2016 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: John Irvine Tags: Uncategorized Source Type: blogs
A story that showed me how cancer is a social disease
Young women get gynecologic cancers, and I have had my share of conversations about ovarian cancers with women in their 20s and 30s. It rarely happens, but when it does, it is devastating. I make it a point to talk with them about their present and their future; although it is something I try to do with all of my patients regardless of age, it is somewhat more important that I do it when my patients are young. Yet, even with all of my experience gained through years of practice, I was not prepared for Lyn*.
I had read her chart before we met. I knew she was only 16, diagnosed with a rare ovarian germ cell tumor. She had ha...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - May 23, 2016 Category: Journals (General) Authors: Don S. Dizon, MD Tags: Conditions Cancer Source Type: blogs
Fight Aging! Newsletter, May 23rd 2016
FIGHT AGING! NEWSLETTER
May 23rd 2016
Fight Aging! provides a weekly digest of news and commentary for thousands of subscribers interested in the latest longevity science: progress towards the medical control of aging in order to prevent age-related frailty, suffering, and disease, as well as improvements in the present understanding of what works and what doesn't work when it comes to extending healthy life. Expect to see summaries of recent advances in medical research, news from the scientific community, advocacy and fundraising initiatives to help speed work on the repair and reversal of aging, links to o...
Source: Fight Aging! - May 22, 2016 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Newsletters Source Type: blogs
A Few Recent Studies of Exercise, Fitness, and Risk of Age-Related Disease
Today I'll point out a few recent studies on exercise and age-related disease in human populations. Animal studies show that regular exercise improves health and extends healthspan, the period of life free from age-related conditions. Human studies, which use statistical methods on large sets of population data, tend to show correlations only, but these correlations match what is seen in animal studies. It is not unreasonable to believe based on the evidence that exercise is good for you over the long term, and that maintaining fitness as you age reduces the risk of suffering all of the common age-related diseases - that t...
Source: Fight Aging! - May 18, 2016 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Medicine, Biotech, Research Source Type: blogs
Fight Aging! Newsletter, May 9th 2016
This report is comprehensive and interested readers are encouraged to review. The authors provided projections on organ donation and transplantation rates, quality-adjusted life years and life years saved, health risks to patients, living organ donation, cross-border exchange, and health inequalities. Their most favorable scenario projected health benefits including transplanting up to 21,000 more organs annually in the EU, which would save 230,000 life years or gain 219,000 quality-adjusted life years (QALYs). For social impacts, it was predicted that increasing organ transplantation will have a positive effect on quality...
Source: Fight Aging! - May 8, 2016 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Newsletters Source Type: blogs
We Need To Fill The Gap Between What We Know And Don’t Know About E-cigarettes
Cigarettes. Roll-your-own tobacco. Smokeless tobacco. Cigars. Cigarillos. Pipe tobacco. Electronic cigarettes. Gels. Water pipes. The evolution of nicotine delivery systems has raised as many new questions for public health as it has brought new products to market. But none is more controversial than e-cigarettes.
The ongoing debate over the public health implications of e-cigarette use is full of passion. Some argue that e-cigarettes could be the beginning of the end of smoking in the U.S. Others claim e-cigarettes may erase the hard-won progress achieved over the last half-century in reducing nicotine and tobacco addicti...
Source: Health Affairs Blog - May 5, 2016 Category: Health Management Authors: Sudip Parikh Tags: Drugs and Medical Technology Featured Public Health Quality e-cigarettes FDA smoking cessation Tobacco Control Act Source Type: blogs
Throwback Thursday: April 28th, 1986 (30 Years Ago): Anti-Tobacco Groups Blast Cigarette Companies for Not Supporting Development of a Safer Cigarette
April 28, 1986 (AP, New York): Today, a coalition of anti-smoking organizations, heath agencies, and researchers are attacking the nation's cigarette companies for failing to support the development of much safer cigarettes. Health officials complained that for many years, cigarette companies have had the technology to produce a much safer cigarette, but have failed to show any support for even the idea of manufacturing a safer product.Also today, a class-action lawsuit was filed against Philip Morris, R.J. Reynolds, Lorillard, Brown & Williamson and Liggett, alleging that each of these companies could easily have prod...
Source: The Rest of the Story: Tobacco News Analysis and Commentary - April 28, 2016 Category: Addiction Source Type: blogs
Young Adult Cancer Survivor and LIVESTRONG Leader: Valerie
LIVESTRONG Leaders are individuals that make a yearly significant commitment to those in their community affected by cancer by spreading the message of LIVESTRONG. They do this by fundraising, hosting events, bringing LIVESTRONG resources to their local hospitals and more. One of our amazing leaders from France, Valérie Sanja, talks about why she is involved with LIVESTRONG and what she is doing in her community to help spread the LIVESTRONG message.
What is your name, where are you from?
My Name is Valérie Sanja, a french national currently living in Germany following my recent surgery and medical follow up treatment.
...
Source: LIVESTRONG Blog - April 21, 2016 Category: Cancer & Oncology Authors: LIVESTRONG Staff Source Type: blogs
A Young Adult Survivor Story: 15 Years in the Making
Nearly 72,000 young adults, ages 15-39, are diagnosed with cancer every year. April is the time when we highlight the unique challenges that young adult cancer survivors face like school, jobs, dating, getting married and having children. Over the years, LIVESTRONG has interviewed thousands of cancer survivors. Many of those survivors were filmed for our website including a woman named Kim Bergeron. Kim applied to become a LIVESTRONG Leader this year and we jumped at the chance to share her survivor story again 15 years in the making.
Kim’s 2003 interview with LIVESTRONG
LIVESTRONG:
We interviewed you in the early 2...
Source: LIVESTRONG Blog - April 17, 2016 Category: Cancer & Oncology Authors: LIVESTRONG Staff Source Type: blogs
Medical school has killed my soul. What can I do?
Hi Pamela,
I’m a medical student in the UK. Though I’ve only been in med school since September, it has already taken its toll on me. Before I started, I was so in touch with my emotions, spirituality, and nature. Now I feel so empty and desensitized. I hate that when faced with the horrible circumstances of another person, I just don’t feel anything anymore. How can I overcome this? I so badly want to tap into the vibrant me from 6 months ago!
Before starting medical school, I was a curious and loving young man. My life hadn’t been plain sailing: I had been through my parents’ divorce as a young teenager; I had ...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - March 30, 2016 Category: Journals (General) Authors: Pamela Wible, MD Tags: Education Medical school Psychiatry Source Type: blogs
Progress against cancer? Let's think about it.
It is difficult to pick up a newspaper these days without reading an article proclaiming progress in the field of cancer research. Here is an example, taken from an article posted on the MedicineNet site (1). The lead-off text is: " Statistics (released in 1997) show that cancer patients are living longer and even " beating " the disease. Information released at an AMA sponsored conference for science writers, showed that the death rate from the dreaded disease has decreased by three percent in the last few years. In the 1940s only one patient in four survived on the average. By the 1960s, that figure was up to one i...
Source: Specified Life - March 25, 2016 Category: Information Technology Tags: cancer cancer cure cancer statistics cancer treatments orphan diseases progress in cancer research rare diseases Source Type: blogs
Progress against cancer? Let's think about it.
It is difficult to pick up a newspaper these days without reading an article proclaiming progress in the field of cancer research. Here is an example, taken from an article posted on the MedicineNet site (1). The lead-off text is: "Statistics (released in 1997) show that cancer patients are living longer and even "beating" the disease. Information released at an AMA sponsored conference for science writers, showed that the death rate from the dreaded disease has decreased by three percent in the last few years. In the 1940s only one patient in four survived on the average. By the 1960s, that figure was up to one in th...
Source: Specified Life - March 25, 2016 Category: Information Technology Tags: cancer cancer cure cancer statistics cancer treatments orphan diseases progress in cancer research rare diseases Source Type: blogs
Don’t Let the Talking Points Fool You: It’s All About the Risk Pool
Most people are healthy most of the time, and as a consequence, health care expenditures are heavily concentrated in a small share of the population: about 50 percent of the health care spending in a given year by those below age 65 is attributable to just 5 percent of the nonelderly population. The lowest spending half of the population accounts for only about 3.5 percent of health care spending in a year.
Deciding how much of total health care expenditures should be shared across the population and how to share it is the fundamental conundrum of health care policy. There is more risk pooling the larger the share of healt...
Source: Health Affairs Blog - March 15, 2016 Category: Health Management Authors: Linda Blumberg and John Holahan Tags: Costs and Spending Equity and Disparities Featured Insurance and Coverage Medicaid and CHIP Medicare community rating Employer-Sponsored Insurance experience rating guaranteed issue and renewal health savings accounts high-risk pools Source Type: blogs
Data Sharing Should Be In Everyone’s Interest
One of the most important developments in medicine has been an increasing push for transparency about clinical trials and their underlying data. Among many examples, the National Institutes of Health are about to issue a new rule mandating greater disclosure of clinical trial results, and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is considering ways to allow greater access to the clinical trial data it possesses. And in a surprise announcement on January 20, 2016, the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors—representing all the top medical journals in the world—issued a joint proposal to require any aut...
Source: Health Affairs Blog - March 10, 2016 Category: Health Management Authors: Stuart Buck Tags: Drugs and Medical Technology Featured Health Professionals clinical trials data sharing Research Source Type: blogs
CMS Releases Final 2017 Letter To Issuers In The Federally Facilitated Marketplaces (Updated)
Implementing Health Reform (March 3 update). On March 3, 2016, the Office of the HHS Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE) announced that the ACA has resulted in gains in health insurance coverage of 20 million adults through February 22, 2016. This includes 2.3 million young adults who gained coverage under the ACA provision allowing young adults to remain on their parents’ coverage through age 26, and 17.7 million non-elderly adults who have gained coverage between the beginning of open enrollment in October 2013 and the present. The report shows continued progress since ASPE released its last estimat...
Source: Health Affairs Blog - March 3, 2016 Category: Health Management Authors: Timothy Jost Tags: Following the ACA Insurance and Coverage Alaska Medicaid expansion QHPs Supreme Court Source Type: blogs
