The Insufficiency Of Medicaid Block Grants: The Example Of Puerto Rico
Medicaid block grants have been a centerpiece of Republican health proposals for more than a decade. Proponents, including House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI), argue that giving states a fixed amount of money through a block grant or per-person limit with few strings attached gets Washington out of the way and allows for state innovation. Although the most recent block grant legislation did not reach the Senate floor, proponents have promised to continue to push for it.
But one need look no further than the growing health crisis in Puerto Rico to understand why capped federal money and state flexibility will not solve serious h...
Source: Health Affairs Blog - October 12, 2017 Category: Health Management Authors: Vikki Wachino and Tim Gronniger Tags: Medicaid and CHIP block grants disaster relief Puerto Rico Source Type: blogs
Left Atrial Appendage Closure Does Not Prevent Strokes
Our cautionary left atrial appendage occlusion (Watchman) editorial is now published in a prominent medical journal, called Heart Rhythm. My co-authors are Drs. Andrew Foy and Gerald Naccarelli from Penn State. It was a peer-reviewed version of my previous theheart.org | Medscape Cardiology column.
Watchman and other similar devices are plugs that occlude the left atrial appendage in an attempt to reduce the odds of stroke in patients with atrial fibrillation. It was a nice idea but it did NOT work.
The link is here> Percutaneous Left Atrial Appendage Closure is Not Ready for Routine Clinical Use
In the allotted 2500 ...
Source: Dr John M - October 12, 2017 Category: Cardiology Authors: Dr John Source Type: blogs
Community Approaches To Improving Children ’s Health: Addressing Childhood Obesity And ACEs In Kentucky
Investing in children’s health is a sound economic decision with a long-term impact on achieving sustainable human, social, and economic development. The Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky’s Investing in Kentucky’s Future initiative was designed as a partnership with local community health coalitions to reduce the risk that today’s children will develop chronic diseases as they grow into adults.
Background
The Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky is a statewide nonprofit organization working to address the unmet health needs of Kentuckians. In 2012 the foundation launched a six-year, $3 million initiative called Invest...
Source: Health Affairs Blog - October 4, 2017 Category: Health Management Authors: M. Amalia Mendoza Tags: GrantWatch Public Health ACEs adverse childhood experiences Children chronic disease prevention equity Health Philanthropy Health Promotion and Disease PreventionGW Kentucky Nonmedical Determinants Obesity Prevention resiliency S Source Type: blogs
Your Age in TeloYears, Interview with Telomere Diagnostics CEO Jason Shelton
In 2009, the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded to three scientists for the discover of how chromosomes are protected by telomeres and the enzyme telomerase. Today, telomeres, stretches of DNA at the ends of chromosomes, are used as part of a new, commercially available genetic test that helps individuals better understand how well they are aging. The test, TeloYears, was developed by Telomere Diagnostics (TDx), a molecular testing company begun in 2010. One of TDx’s founders, Dr. Elizabeth Blackburn, was one of the three Nobel Prize recipients and a trailblazer in molecular biology.
TeloYears is e...
Source: Medgadget - September 18, 2017 Category: Medical Devices Authors: Michael Batista Tags: Exclusive Genetics Medicine Source Type: blogs
Quantifying the Benefits of Statins over the Long Term
Statins work to reduce cardiovascular disease risk by reducing blood lipid levels. In the research here, the authors quantify the benefits that have been obtained through the use of this class of drug over the past few decades. This class of drug is broadly considered to be one of the more important contributions to the reduced rate of cardiovascular mortality over that span of time. The data here suggests that statins should be even more widely used than they are at present: there are incrementally greater gains that might be obtained.
The mechanism of cardiovascular damage influenced by statins is one in which lip...
Source: Fight Aging! - September 7, 2017 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs
Fight Aging! Newsletter, July 31st 2017
In conclusion, documentation is important, a critical part of advocacy and the development process at the larger scale. It isn't just words, but rather a vital structural flow of information from one part of the larger community to another, necessary to sustain progress in any complex field. We would all do well to remember this - and to see that building this documentation is an activity in which we can all pitch in to help.
Evidence Suggests that, at Least in Earlier Stages, Alzheimer's Disease Blocks Rather than Destroys Memories
https://www.fightaging.org/archives/2017/07/evidence-suggests-that-at-least-in-e...
Source: Fight Aging! - July 30, 2017 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Newsletters Source Type: blogs
A Civilization Intent on Eating Itself into an Early Grave
If the successes in technological development achieved over the past few hundred years is teaching us anything, perhaps it should be that individual members of a species that evolved in an environment of pervasive scarcity and intermittent famine are not well equipped for an environment of consistent plenty. Our biochemistry and our instincts lead us astray: eat too many calories and life expectancy and long-term health will suffer for it. This is not new. We are no different from our ancestors in this aspect of the human condition. The change lies in the fact that we now live in an age so wealthy and capable that consiste...
Source: Fight Aging! - July 25, 2017 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Medicine, Biotech, Research Source Type: blogs
Fight Aging! Newsletter, July 17th 2017
This study aimed to estimate associations between combined measurements of BMI and waist-to-hip ratio (WHR) with mortality and incident coronary artery disease (CAD). This study followed 130,473 UK Biobank participants aged 60-69 years (baseline 2006-2010) for 8.3 years (n = 2974 deaths). Current smokers and individuals with recent or disease-associated (e.g., from dementia, heart failure, or cancer) weight loss were excluded, yielding a "healthier agers" group.
Ignoring WHR, the risk of mortality for overweight subjects was similar to that for normal-weight subjects. However, among normal-weight subjects, mortalit...
Source: Fight Aging! - July 16, 2017 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Newsletters Source Type: blogs
Recent Epidemiological Research Relevant to the Understanding of Aging
This study aimed to estimate associations between combined measurements of BMI and waist-to-hip ratio (WHR) with mortality and incident coronary artery disease (CAD). This study followed 130,473 UK Biobank participants aged 60-69 years (baseline 2006-2010) for 8.3 years (n = 2974 deaths). Current smokers and individuals with recent or disease-associated (e.g., from dementia, heart failure, or cancer) weight loss were excluded, yielding a "healthier agers" group.
Ignoring WHR, the risk of mortality for overweight subjects was similar to that for normal-weight subjects. However, among normal-weight subjects, mortalit...
Source: Fight Aging! - July 14, 2017 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Medicine, Biotech, Research Source Type: blogs
Fight Aging! Newsletter, July 3rd 2017
In conclusion, the analyses do not permit us to predict the trajectory that maximum lifespans will follow in the future, and hence provide no support for their central claim that the maximum lifespan of humans is "fixed and subject to natural constraints". This is largely a product of the limited data available for analysis, owing to the challenges inherent in collecting and verifying the lifespans of extremely long-lived individuals.
A reply from Jan Vijg's research group
The authors of the accompanying comment disagree with our finding of a limit to human lifespan. Although we thank them for alerting us...
Source: Fight Aging! - July 2, 2017 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Newsletters Source Type: blogs
Arguing a Role for Stochastic Mutation in Stem Cells in Cardiovascular Disease
To what degree does random mutation in nuclear DNA contribute to aging over the present human life span? The present consensus is that this is a cause of disarray in metabolic processes, and that it does reach a significant level of consequence for tissue function. Unfortunately there is little direct evidence for this view - it is hard to split out just nuclear DNA damage from the rest of aging in order to isolate its effects, though there a few lines of research showing promise in this direction. Researchers here take a different approach to the question; they suggest that some forms of random mutational damage that occu...
Source: Fight Aging! - June 26, 2017 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs
VoxelCloud Automated Medical Image Analysis: Interview with Xiaowei Ding, CEO of VoxelCloud
VoxelCloud, a startup based out of Los Angeles and with a presence in Suzhou and Shanghai, China, has developed a suite of artificial intelligence and cloud computing technologies to assist doctors in interpreting medical images. The technology provides fully automated medical imaging analysis, and can be used with various imaging techniques, such as computed tomography or digital color imaging of the retina. At present, the system has been developed for use in diagnosing lung cancer, retinal diseases, and coronary heart disease.
The platform is designed to complement and assist a clinician in their decision-making process...
Source: Medgadget - June 19, 2017 Category: Medical Devices Authors: Conn Hastings Tags: Exclusive Informatics Source Type: blogs
Fight Aging! Newsletter, June 12th 2017
In this study, we focused on two pathways of cardiomyocytes or heart cells: the Hippo pathway, which is involved in stopping renewal of adult cardiomyocytes, and the dystrophin glycoprotein complex (DGC) pathway, essential for cardiomyocyte normal functions."
Previous work had hinted that components of the DGC pathway may somehow interact with members of the Hippo pathway. The researchers genetically engineered mice to lack genes involved in one or both pathways, and then determined the ability of the heart to repair an injury. These studies showed for the first time that dystroglycan 1, a component of the DGC pathw...
Source: Fight Aging! - June 11, 2017 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Newsletters Source Type: blogs
More Physical Activity Correlates with Less Sarcopenia
Sarcopenia is the name given to the characteristic loss of muscle mass and strength that occurs with aging. It is somewhere in the long process of being formally characterized as a disease, so in addition to the loose definition under which we could say that everyone suffers sarcopenia to some degree, there will be a formal definition in which only those with the greatest loss are said to be suffering sarcopenia. In that model, everyone else is undergoing "normal, healthy aging." I'm not much in favor of this scheme of categorization. It defines a loss of function and decline with defined causes that might be addressed as ...
Source: Fight Aging! - June 5, 2017 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs
Exercise and Cardiovascular Aging
As a companion piece to a recent paper on the degree to which cardiovascular aging can be postponed through lifestyle choices, here researchers review the differences observed in the cardiovascular system between people who do maintain physical activity and people who do not. While the benefits are undeniable, you can't reliably exercise your way to living to 100 in good health - the majority of physically fit people don't make it to 90 given today's level of medical technology, and everyone who lives to 100 is greatly impacted by the damage of aging. However, the fact that we live in an era of accelerating progress in bio...
Source: Fight Aging! - June 1, 2017 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs
