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Purported Links Between Vaping and Heart Attacks are Based on Crappy Science
This study, being presented tomorrow (Monday) morning at the annual meeting of the American College of Cardiology in New Orleans, reports that " adults who report puffing e-cigarettes, or vaping, are significantly more likely to have a heart attack, coronary artery disease and depression compared with those who don ’t use them or any tobacco products. "These conclusions were based on a cross-sectional analysis of data from the 2014, 2016, and 2017 National Health Interview Surveys. Respondents were asked to report whether they had ever been diagnosed with having had a heart attack, coronary artery disease, or depression....
Source: The Rest of the Story: Tobacco News Analysis and Commentary - March 18, 2019 Category: Addiction Source Type: blogs

An Outline of the OncoAge Consortium
The OncoAge consortium is a scientific interest group focused on the overlap between cancer and aging. Like many factions in the broader aging research community, its members are apparently giving cellular senescence a great deal of their attention these days. Better late than never, I'd say, but this focus is arguably less of an example of scrambling to catch up in their case than for purely aging-focused researchers. After all, the cancer research community studied cellular senescence to a significant degree well prior to the 2011 proof of concept study that finally persuaded gerontologists that accumulation of senescenc...
Source: Fight Aging! - March 5, 2019 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs

Psychology Around the Net: March 2, 2019
This week’s Psychology Around the Net covers the latest on green spaces and mental health in children, our complex relationships with money, why we’re drawn to conspiracy theories, and more. Enjoy! Does Exposure to Green Spaces in Childhood Lead to Better Mental Health? While growing up in urban areas provides a lot of advantages for kids such as easier access to healthcare, education, and amenities, it also could provide some disadvantages — especially in the form of mental health perks, or lack thereof. According to a new study, children who grow up in cities with limited access to green spaces could ha...
Source: World of Psychology - March 2, 2019 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Alicia Sparks Tags: Brain and Behavior Children and Teens Health-related Money and Financial Psychology Around the Net Research Alcohol Abuse Brain Damage childhood Conspiracy Theories Coping Mechanism Finances green spaces kids Smoking Tobacco Source Type: blogs

Bodily Fluids As The Basis For Digital Health
Blood, saliva, urine, sweat or even ear wax can carry valuable information about an individual’s medical state. Until now, even simpler tests on such bodily fluids had to be carried out at medical facilities, but with the recent uptick in the development of digital diagnostic technologies, more and more solutions appear on the market which enable the patient to do such tests at home. Here we take a look around the bodily fluid business. From bloodletting to digital sweat measurement Blood, yellow bile, black bile, phlegm. Although it doesn’t sound appealing, the ancient Greek already thought that bodily fluids ma...
Source: The Medical Futurist - February 27, 2019 Category: Information Technology Authors: nora Tags: Future of Medicine Health Sensors & Trackers Portable Diagnostics blood bodily fluid digital digital health digital solutions digital tattoo saliva smart smart healthcare sweat technology urine Source Type: blogs

Overheard: Using Respiratory Muscle Strength Training in Dysphagia
The objective data comes from what you measure as an outcome. The device is the trainer. Again, use pressure threshold and then set out to measure the outcomes, a scale, a swallow exam, a cough flow rate, a voice quality, etc. Participant: How do you establish goals? There are norms for peak cough, is this what you use? Kiourkas: Respiratory uses cough peak flow to qualify for noninvasive ventilation for ALS and neuromuscular patients. The norms are different for each person. Suggested ranges are used as a guide to assist in determining if the patient is getting worse at subsequent visits. We also use a SNIP (sniffing pres...
Source: American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) Press Releases - February 22, 2019 Category: Speech-Language Pathology Authors: Renee Kiourkas Tags: Academia & Research Health Care Private Practice Schools Slider Speech-Language Pathology Dysphagia dyspnea muscle strength skilled nursing facility Swallowing Disorders Source Type: blogs

An ER Doctor Answers Our Questions About End-of-Life Care
...Dr. Kevin Haselhorst: Life changing, yes! And perhaps a moment of divine intervention. An elderly man with COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) was rushed to the cardiac cath lab after being diagnosed with an acute myocardial infarction (MI). He was struggling to breathe, yet pleaded with me to not insert the breathing tube and to let him die. The cardiologist was scared to do it. With a voice coming from above saying, “Let My People Go!” I honored the man’s wishes. I tremble every time I read this passage. Read the full article on HealthCentral for answers from an ER doctor about end-of-life c...
Source: Minding Our Elders - February 22, 2019 Category: Geriatrics Authors: Carol Bradley Bursack Source Type: blogs

Statins may reduce lung related and all cause mortality in COPD
(Source: Notes from Dr. RW)
Source: Notes from Dr. RW - February 21, 2019 Category: Internal Medicine Tags: pulmonary Source Type: blogs

Computer often fails to diagnose atrial fibrillation in ventricular paced rhythm, and that can be catastrophic
Conclusion: Incorrect computerized interpretation of atrial fibrillation, combined with the failure of the ordering physician to correct the erroneous interpretation, can result in the initiation of unnecessary, potentially harmful medical treatment as well as inappropriate use of medical resources. Greater efforts should be directed toward educating physicians about the electrocardiographic appearance of atrial dysrhythmias and in the recognition of confounding artifacts. (Source: Dr. Smith's ECG Blog)
Source: Dr. Smith's ECG Blog - February 21, 2019 Category: Cardiology Authors: Steve Smith Source Type: blogs

Fight Aging! Newsletter, February 11th 2019
We report that the bone marrow stromal cell senescence is driven by p16INK4a expression. The p16INK4a-expressing senescent stromal cells then feedback to promote AML blast survival and proliferation via the SASP. Importantly, selective elimination of p16INK4a-positive senescent bone marrow stromal cells in vivo improved the survival of mice with leukemia. Next, we find that the leukemia-driven senescent tumor microenvironment is caused by AML induced NOX2-derived superoxide. Finally, using the p16-3MR mouse model we show that by targeting NOX2 we reduced bone marrow stromal cell senescence and consequently reduced A...
Source: Fight Aging! - February 10, 2019 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Newsletters Source Type: blogs

Researchers Tell Public that Vaping Causes COPD as Scientific Rigor in Tobacco Control Drops to an All-Time Low
Based on the results of a cross-sectionalstudy showing an association between using e-cigarettes and reporting that one has ever been told they have COPD (chronic obstructive lung disease), a number of researchers have essentially concluded that vaping causes COPD, and one researcher is telling the public that use of e-cigarettes increases one ' s risk of COPDjust like cigarettes.The paper, published inDrug and Alcohol Dependence, reports the results of a cross-sectional study based on the 2016 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) survey in Hawaii. The outcome variable was reporting ever having been told that...
Source: The Rest of the Story: Tobacco News Analysis and Commentary - February 9, 2019 Category: Addiction Source Type: blogs

Miniaturized Inhaled Nitric Oxide Delivery Units for Use in a Doctor ’s Office
Nu-Med Plus, a medtech firm based in Utah, has developed a range of smart delivery devices for inhaled nitric oxide delivery, including a miniaturized unit that can operate in a doctor’s office. The innovation has been possible as parts of the drug patent for nitric oxide have been invalidated, meaning that the cost of the treatment could come down. Nitric oxide is a vasodilator naturally produced by the endothelium. Inhaled nitric oxide is used to treat a variety of conditions, including chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, high blood pressure, acute respiratory distress syndrome, and erectile dysfunction. However, un...
Source: Medgadget - February 7, 2019 Category: Medical Devices Authors: Conn Hastings Tags: Cardiac Surgery Cardiology Critical Care Medicine Thoracic Surgery Source Type: blogs

Age-Related Diseases are Just the Names we Give to Portions of Aging
Aging is a process of damage accumulation in cells and tissue structures, followed by reactions to that damage, some of which are compensatory and some of which make matters worse, and lastly the consequent failure of biological systems necessary to support health and life. Age-related diseases are names we give to some of the aspects of system failure, but they are not distinct from aging. One cannot draw a line between aging and age-related disease; it is a futile endeavor, and that the medical industry and regulatory bodies are set up to do so is one of the major challenges facing those who want to develop commercial re...
Source: Fight Aging! - February 6, 2019 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs

What will you do for this altered and bradycardic patient?
Written by Pendell MeyersA female in her 60s with COPD, DM, hypothyroidism, CAD, and severe bladder cancer presented from a nursing home with altered mental status, hypotension, hypoxia, and bradycardia.Here is her initial ECG (no prior for comparison):What do you think?Here is another ECG minutes later:There is a regular wide complex bradycardia.There are P-waves at a rate of approximately 100bpm with no clear relationship to the QRS complexes, diagnostic of complete heart block.The QRS morphology is wide (computer QRS duration 179 msec) but it does not fit any clear bundle branch block pattern (it is similar to LBBB but ...
Source: Dr. Smith's ECG Blog - January 13, 2019 Category: Cardiology Authors: Pendell Source Type: blogs

A Randomized Controlled Trial for Fan Therapy in Dyspnea
by Bob Arnold (@rabob)Winter suits me just fine since I do not like heat. I have a lot of sympathy for patients with chronic obstructive lung disease who do not have an air conditioner during the summer. I am told that there is nothing worse than sitting in hot, humid weather and not being able to breathe.As a palliative care physician, I love fans. When my patients are short of breath and opiates do not work (1,2) I send their families down to the local ACE hardware store to buy a hand-held fan. Therefore, I was excited tosee an article in the Journal of Pain and Symptom Management on fan therapy being effective in treati...
Source: Pallimed: A Hospice and Palliative Medicine Blog - January 11, 2019 Category: Palliative Care Tags: arnold dyspnea journal article JPSM Source Type: blogs

Commissioning Healthcare Policy: Hospital Readmission and Its Price Tag
By ANISH KOKA MD The message comes in over the office slack line at 1:05 pm. There are four patients in rooms, one new, 3 patients in the waiting room. Really, not an ideal time to deal with this particular message. “Kathy the home care nurse for Mrs. C called and said her weight yesterday was 185, today it is 194, she has +4 pitting edema, heart rate 120, BP 140/70 standing, 120/64 sitting” I know Mrs. C well. She has severe COPD from smoking for 45 of the last 55 years. Every breath looks like an effort because it is. The worst part of it all is that Mrs. C just returned home from the hospital just days ago. The yo...
Source: The Health Care Blog - January 10, 2019 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: matthew holt Tags: Health Policy Hospitals Medicare Anish Koka hospital readmissions HRRP MedPAC Source Type: blogs