Kids need more sleep and later school start times
Last August, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) issued a statement regarding school start times, really a plea to all middle and high schools to start the school day no earlier than 8:30 a.m.
The statement emerged as a result of accumulating evidence showing that earlier school start times effectively restrict an adolescent’s ability to get regular healthful sleep.
The timing of the AAP’s statement came on the heels of another sentinel event in my family’s life. Just a month after its publication, my daughter started school. No big deal, except for the fact that she has never been to school before. Until thi...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - January 30, 2015 Category: Journals (General) Authors: Marvin Wang, MD Tags: Conditions Pediatrics Source Type: blogs
The New Yorker Maps NYC's Shadow Transit System
Matthew Feeney
In a recent article for The New Yorker, Aaron Reiss explores New York City’s shadow transportation system – a network of so-called “dollar vans” that serve mostly low- income areas with large immigrant communities. The system lacks “service maps, posted timetables, and official stations or stops,” but Ross uses interactive maps and videos made with Nate Lavey to detail routes in Chinatown, Flatbush, Eastern Queens, Eastern New Jersey, and the Bronx.
Not too surprisingly, this ingenious shadow system faces serious regulatory obstacles. Vans have had a long and tu...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - July 1, 2014 Category: American Health Authors: Matthew Feeney Source Type: blogs
Molly, Spice, and Orange Crush: Slang for Dangerous Drugs
You overhear two girls talking about last night’s concert, when one says to the other “I can’t believe she took 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine!”
Oh, wait. That would never happen, right? Probably because “Molly,” the nickname given to MDMA, sounds hip and harmless compared to its actual name—which sounds like what it is, a chemical that you shouldn’t put in your body.
Same goes for cathinones, otherwise known as “Ivory Wave,” “Bloom,” “Cloud Nine,” “Lunar Wave,” “Vanilla Sky,” “White Lightning,” and “Scarface” when they are marketed as bath salts—and more recently, as plant ...
Source: NIDA Drugs and Health Blog - May 28, 2014 Category: Addiction Authors: Sara Bellum Source Type: blogs
Angiostrongyliasis and Travel
The following chronology of travel-associated angiostrongyliasis is abstracted from Gideon www.GideonOnline.com and the Gideon e-book series [1]
Four cases of angiostrongyliasis has been reported in Victoria, Australia as of 1999 – including three (one fatal) imported from Fiji.
1982 (publication year) – An outbreak (16 cases) was reported among Korean fisherman in American Samoa – traced to ingestion of giant African snails (Achatina fulica).
1984 (publication year) – Three cases of angiostrongyliasis acquired in Western Samoa were treated at a hospital in New Zealand.
1988 – A French travele...
Source: GIDEON blog - April 12, 2014 Category: Databases & Libraries Authors: Dr. Stephen Berger Tags: Ebooks Epidemiology ProMED Angiostrongylus Travel Source Type: blogs
BBC Reggae The Story of Jamaican Music Programme 1 Forward March
(Source: PharmaGossip)
Source: PharmaGossip - March 20, 2014 Category: Pharma Commentators Authors: insider Source Type: blogs
UC Riverside Scientists Release the Results of their Research on Thirdhand Smoke .........................in their Grant Application
Scientists from the University of California, Riverside have been funded to the tune of more than $400,000 to conduct research on the effects of thirdhand smoke on wound healing in mice. Today, I reveal that they have reported their results to the public. The results appear in which of the following places?A. A journal articleB. A scientific conference abstractC. A research monographD. The grant applicationThe Rest of the Story Indeed, the answer is D. The results of the research are reported in the grant application itself. Once again, these researchers have demonstrated the miraculous ability to determine the results of ...
Source: The Rest of the Story: Tobacco News Analysis and Commentary - February 7, 2014 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Source Type: blogs
Clicked back in…Holiday reading and thoughts on medical writing
Hey everyone…
Welcome to 2014. I’m back from holiday. I like to say ‘holiday’ rather than ‘vacation.’ It sounds more Euro. Plus, if one truly seeks word precision, saying holiday when describing time in Key West works. Everything about that place is celebratory and festive.
Let’s talk about reading and writing.
First, I’m not going to do a top-ten DrJohnM posts of 2013. WordPress sends you a tidy email of your most popular posts. I didn’t look at it. I do enough self-promotion as it is. It feels funny re-posting stuff that is already out there.
Second, I have to tell yo...
Source: Dr John M - January 8, 2014 Category: Cardiology Authors: Dr John Source Type: blogs
Ferguson Welcomes National Workplace Policy On Hiv/aids
It is expected to assist in developing a caring, supportive, and responsible working environment that will protect all workers; reduce HIV and AIDS-related stigma and discrimination; and assist in reducing HIV and AIDS transmission. The White Paper is intended to inform regulations on HIV/AIDS to be appended to the OSH Act, when the Bill is passed. The OSH Act, which is being targeted for passage before the conclusion of the 2013/14 parliamentary year in March 2014, is intended to legislate compulsory provision of healthy and safe workplace environments for employees by their employers. As a precursor to this, a National O...
Source: aids-write.org - January 1, 2014 Category: HIV AIDS Authors: aidswrite Tags: current news Source Type: blogs
How America Is Helping In The Fight Against Aids
Today, as a result of the United States’s unwavering commitment, an AIDS-free generation is achievable. Globally, new HIV infections have declined nearly 33 per cent over the past decade, and AIDS-related mortality has decreased by 30 per cent since its peak in 2005. In sub-Saharan Africa, progress has been even more dramatic, with new infections down by 33 per cent over the past decade, and AIDS-related mortality declining by 32 per cent since its peak in 2005. Notably, on June 18, at PEPFAR’s 10th anniversary celebrations, US Secretary of State John Kerry announced that PEPFAR-supported programmes have enable...
Source: aids-write.org - December 3, 2013 Category: HIV AIDS Authors: aidswrite Tags: current news hiv news Source Type: blogs
For the most desperate, it’s about faith, love, and human kindness
Thirty three years ago my husband and I went to Jamaica for a belated honeymoon. We got married on the last weekend of my internship year, and immediately flew back to Boston for me to start my second year of internal medicine training. Seven months later in the dead of winter, we flew to Jamaica to a lux resort in Ocho Rios where I spent a blissful week drinking sweet rum laced drinks and sleeping them off on a white sandy beach where the water was warm and turquoise, a far cry from the sodden gray snow banks of Massachusetts. We managed to get into the town once, long enough for me to buy a wood carving of two lovers...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - November 4, 2013 Category: Family Physicians Tags: Physician Cancer Source Type: blogs
Olympians and Steroids
The lure of Olympic Gold is strong among amateur athletes all over the world. People toil from childhood for the chance to stand atop the podium and hear their national anthem playing in their honor. Unfortunately, the drive to win a medal leads some athletes to use illegal substances to enhance their performance. SBB has talked about doping, or abusing steroids, in cycling and baseball—but now, American track and field Olympians are under fire.
In mid-July, U.S. sprinter Tyson Gay tested positive for banned drugs, according to a drug test conducted by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency. He has not said what he tested positive ...
Source: NIDA Drugs and Health Blog - July 24, 2013 Category: Addiction Authors: Sara Bellum Source Type: blogs
Drug Rep$
Meet your doctor's generous friend
BY ROB WIPOND, JULY/AUGUST 2013
Pharmaceutical companies have paid billions of dollars in fines in the US for giving bribes and kickbacks to doctors. Are their drug sales representatives behaving any differently in Victoria?
"Dinner and Yankee game with family. Talked about Paxil studies in children.” That note, written by a drug sales representative about his evening with a doctor and his family, was one of many records that forced GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) to pay a $3 billion fine to the U.S. government in 2012.
According to Public Citizen, since 1991, there have been 239 legal...
Source: PharmaGossip - July 10, 2013 Category: Pharma Commentators Authors: insider Source Type: blogs
Service to the American People or to the American State?
Doug Bandow
One of the most persistent utopian visions over the last century and more is national service. By “national service” proponents never mean service to Americans. The United States long has been famous for the willingness of its people to organize to help one another and respond to social problems. Alexis de Tocqueville cited this activism as one of the hallmarks of the early American republic.
Rather, advocates of “national service” mean service to the state. To be sure, they believe the American people would benefit. But informal, decentralized, private service doesn’t count.
The latest...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - June 25, 2013 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Authors: Doug Bandow Source Type: blogs
The 5 Greatest Personal Development Strategies That Actually Work
There are thousands of different strategies and ideas on how to improve your life.
But how are you supposed to know what really works? By these three metrics:
Your personal experience (what has worked for you before?)
Science and research of how humans grow and change (how does change generally work?)
Others' experience (what has worked for others?)
Only you can know the first part, but I'm here to help out with numbers 2 + 3. In my experience, and through all the research I've done on neurological studies, and through all of the case studies I know, these are the five greatest personal development strategies that ac...
Source: PickTheBrain | Motivation and Self Improvement - June 11, 2013 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: sguise Tags: health and fitness motivation psychology self improvement success resources Source Type: blogs
No-user, no cry
The no-user fee policy in Jamaica's public hospitals has been having a tremendous impact on pharmaceutical and medical supplies, with the demand far outweighing the supply.This was the discovery made by Caribbean Policy Research Institute (CaPRI) during a review of the system, which was introduced in 2008 under the Bruce Golding-led administration.Conducting the study between April 15 and May 20, 2012 across all 14 parishes, the think tank found that medication and pharmaceutical supplies in the hospitals were quickly depleted because too many patients wanted free medication and the pharmacies could not keep up with the de...
Source: PharmaGossip - June 5, 2013 Category: Pharma Commentators Authors: insider Source Type: blogs
