Preparation is Vital for a Good Cryopreservation
The cryonics industry provides the only alternative to the grave for people who will age to death prior to the advent of rejuvenation treatments. Sadly, even after four decades of service this remains a small industry and only a tiny fraction of those who die choose to take advantage of what is offered: low temperature preservation sufficient to maintain the fine structure of the brain until such time as the means for revival are created. Everyone else is gone to dust and oblivion, beyond any hope of returning. A number of people have put in a lot of time and effort to describing how the revival of cryopreserved individual...
Source: Fight Aging! - December 19, 2014 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Healthy Life Extension Community Source Type: blogs
An Interview with Bill Maris of Google Ventures
The latest Google Ventures annual report has a third of new investments going to the life sciences and health in the past year. This is of interest principally in the context of Calico Labs and its focus on finding ways to treat aging. This interview provides a little more insight into motivations and goals - such as a strong focus on genetics as a path ahead, something that I think, unfortunately, is going to greatly limit the practical outcomes of these initiatives in terms of years of healthy life added.
Genetics and metabolic studies will broadly improve medicine and drive the creation of new and better tools in biote...
Source: Fight Aging! - December 17, 2014 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs
Cardiology MCQ: Beta blocker in heart failure
Which of the following beta blocker in heart failure had no benefit?
a) Carvedilol
b) Metoprolol extended release
c) Nebivolol
d) Bucindolol
Correct answer: d) Bucindolol
Bucindolol is a beta blocker with partial agonist activity, which did not reduce mortality in heart failure trial [Beta-Blocker Evaluation of Survival Trial (BEST) Investigators. A trial of the beta-blocker bucindolol in patients with advanced chronic heart failure. N Engl J Med. 2001;344:1659 –1667].
Earlier on beta blockers were contraindicated in heart failure because of their negative inotropic effects. But later several large scale trials showed th...
Source: Cardiophile MD - November 28, 2014 Category: Cardiology Authors: Prof. Dr. Johnson Francis, MD, DM, FACC, FRCP Edin, FRCP London Tags: Cardiology MCQ DM / DNB Cardiology Entrance Source Type: blogs
Providers: Mobile Healthcare Revolution Can Change Your Life. Adopt It.
This article provides an overview of mHealth use in the healthcare setting and addresses the benefits of mHealth for both physicians and patients.
Mobile technology use on the rise
Eighty-four percent of physicians use a smartphone in their practices, according to a 2012 Google physician study that included a total of 506 physicians practicing in the United States. Fifty-four percent use a tablet, according to the study. When making clinical decisions, physicians spent twice as much time using online resources as compared to print.
Other studies echo these findings, stating that physicians are increasingly likely to ...
Source: EMR EHR Blog for Physicians - November 26, 2014 Category: Technology Consultants Authors: Alok Prasad Tags: EHR Software EMR System Mobile EHR Source Type: blogs
Top stories in health and medicine, November 24, 2014
From MedPage Today:
Does an IUD and Family History Boost RA Risk? Current use of an intrauterine device (IUD) was associated with an important biomarker of future rheumatoid arthritis risk among women with a family history of the disease.
Pricey Generics Draw Senate Scrutiny. Robert Frankil, RPh, was dismayed when a customer accused him of price gouging. The cost of the customer’s congestive heart failure medication, digoxin, had risen from $15 last year to $120 in 2014.
A Quarter of Uninsured Say They Can’t Afford to Buy Coverage. Just days before the health law’s marketplaces reopened, nearly a quarte...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - November 24, 2014 Category: Journals (General) Authors: MedPage Today Tags: News Infectious disease OB/GYN Rheumatology Source Type: blogs
Continuity Of Care For Chronic Conditions: Threats, Opportunities, And Policy
Continuity of care is a bedrock principle of the patient-doctor relationship and is believed to be a fundamental attribute of high-quality medical care. Mounting evidence suggests that continuity of care for patients with chronic conditions prevents hospitalizations, reduces health care costs, and may prolong life in some populations.
Because patients are most likely to have longitudinal relationships with their pediatricians, family physicians, and internists, taken together, these primary care doctors are integral to translating continuity into meaningful care coordination. However, within the rapidly shifting landscape ...
Source: Health Affairs Blog - November 18, 2014 Category: Health Management Authors: Joseph Ladapo and Dave Chokshi Tags: All Categories Chronic Care Physicians Policy Research Source Type: blogs
Regenerative Medicine and the Future of Healthy Longevity
One of the many possible future banners for applied longevity science is to call these treatments capable of extending healthy life span simply "regenerative medicine." In past years, regenerative medicine has referred to the output of the stem cell research community: ways to manipulate and transplant cells in order to create regrowth and healing to a degree that would not normally occur. But why not broaden the usage to include repair of damage within cells, and removal of metabolic waste in tissue structures between cells? It isn't such a leap. The stem cell research community is presently largely focused on building tr...
Source: Fight Aging! - November 18, 2014 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Of Interest Source Type: blogs
Imminently Croakable
Coming out of a patient's room, my eyes immediately fell on a hallway bed on which a sobbing linebacker-sized 26-year old man rocked back and forth in a fetal position. He looked sort of like “a kidney stone,” but the tech handed me an EKG chirping "chest pain." The EMR indicated he had a past medical history of asthma, hypertension, and congestive heart failure, but he didn't take any medications. He smoked but denied drug use.
The EKG was not normal. There was no worrisome ST segment elevation, but left ventricular hypertrophy with diffuse T wave repolarization abnormalities suggested longstanding poorly...
Source: Lions and Tigers and Bears - November 12, 2014 Category: Emergency Medicine Tags: Blog Posts Source Type: blogs
Imminently Croakable
Coming out of a patient's room, my eyes immediately fell on a hallway bed on which a sobbing linebacker-sized 26-year old man rocked back and forth in a fetal position. He looked sort of like “a kidney stone,” but the tech handed me an EKG chirping "chest pain." The EMR indicated he had a past medical history of asthma, hypertension, and congestive heart failure, but he didn't take any medications. He smoked but denied drug use.
The EKG was not normal. There was no worrisome ST segment elevation, but left ventricular hypertrophy with diffuse T wave repolarization abnormalities suggested longstanding poor...
Source: Lions and Tigers and Bears - November 12, 2014 Category: Emergency Medicine Tags: Blog Posts Source Type: blogs
To Bind or Not to Bind?
An 88-year-old man with a history of congestive heart failure, hypertension, and diabetes mellitus presented to the ED from a nursing home with altered mental status. EMS reported that the patient has had a decreased appetite, diarrhea, and weakness for three days. His initial vital signs were temperature 97.9°F, heart rate 79 bpm, blood pressure 116/64 mm Hg, respiratory rate 16 bpm, and pulse oximetry 98% on room air. His physical exam was remarkable for a depressed level of consciousness. Lab findings showed a creatinine of 2.6 mg/dl, a BUN of 60 mg/dl, and normal potassium and magnesium. His ECG is shown below.
...
Source: The Tox Cave - November 3, 2014 Category: Emergency Medicine Tags: Blog Posts Source Type: blogs
To Bind or Not to Bind?
An 88-year-old man with a history of congestive heart failure, hypertension, and diabetes mellitus presented to the ED from a nursing home with altered mental status. EMS reported that the patient has had a decreased appetite, diarrhea, and weakness for three days. His initial vital signs were temperature 97.9°F, heart rate 79 bpm, blood pressure 116/64 mm Hg, respiratory rate 16 bpm, and pulse oximetry 98% on room air. His physical exam was remarkable for a depressed level of consciousness. Lab findings showed a creatinine of 2.6 mg/dl, a BUN of 60 mg/dl, and normal potassium and magnesium. His ECG is shown below.
...
Source: The Tox Cave - November 3, 2014 Category: Emergency Medicine Tags: Blog Posts Source Type: blogs
Man with Frequent CHF Readmissions Found To Be Half Sponge.
Birmingham, AL -- With seventeen readmissions for congestive heart failure in the last year, 58 year-old Kevin Spencer finally got the answer he was looking for. Doctors at Baptist Hospital diagnosed him as being half sponge after ruling out all possible explanations for his recurrent CHF exacerbations.CHFer found to be half spongeCongestive heart failure is a leading cause of hospitalization in the United States. Hospitals risk losing millions of dollars through complicated formulas when CHF patients are readmitted within 30 days of discharge. To reduce the risk of Medicare penalties, Baptist hosp...
Source: The Happy Hospitalist - November 1, 2014 Category: Internists and Doctors of Medicine Authors: Tamer Mahrous Source Type: blogs
Boosting FoxO1 to Treat Pulmonary Hypertension
Researchers here uncover an interesting role for one of the forkhead box (FOX) proteins, and the potential basis for a treatment for pulmonary hypertension:
An estimated 100 million people worldwide suffer from pulmonary hypertension. The disease is characterised by progressive narrowing of the pulmonary arteries. The reduced diameter of the vessels leads to poor perfusion. The right ventricle tries to compensate by increasing its pumping action. This, in turn, increases the blood pressure in the pulmonary arteries. In the course of time, chronic overload damages the heart. The result is cardiac insufficiency, also known ...
Source: Fight Aging! - October 28, 2014 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs
Why your doctor won’t refill prescriptions over the phone
Giving prescription refills is not quite as fun as it used to be. Years ago, we doctors would whip out our prescription pads — often sooner than we should have — and we’d scribble some coded language that pharmacists were trained to decipher. I’m surprised there were not more errors owing to doctors’ horrendous penmanship. On occasion, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) would require a pharmaceutical company to change the name of a drug so it wouldn’t be confused with another medicine with a similar name. The name of the heartburn drug Losec was too similar to congestive heart failure drug Lasix, so...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - October 13, 2014 Category: Journals (General) Authors: Michael Kirsch, MD Tags: Meds Medications Primary care Source Type: blogs
A family physician misses hospital rounds
As a family doctor, I had the privilege of sitting down at the hospital recently with Mr. M, a longstanding patient of mine, and his family. Mr. M is a college-educated engineer, struggling near the end of his life with end-stage kidney disease, dialysis, severe congestive heart failure and crippling COPD. And he was pretty down about it.
Continue reading ...
Your patients are rating you online: How to respond. Manage your online reputation: A social media guide. Find out how. (Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog)
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - October 1, 2014 Category: Journals (General) Authors: H. Andrew Selinger Tags: Physician Hospital Hospitalist Palliative care Primary care Source Type: blogs
