Cigarette Packaging in Italy
On a recent trip to Italy I was amazed when I saw these pictures on packs of cigarettes. If this isn’t enough to scare a smoker away from these nicotine delivery devices, I don’t know what will. For the benefit of my readers I am reproducing what I think is the best of them on my blog.
I made a point to go into a tobacco store and photograph as many as I could. They reminded me of the bubble gum trading cards from the 1960’s that featured Wacky Packages which were not much different from these. The ads said, “Swap ‘em, trade ‘em, collect ’em!”
New smoking laws went into effect in 2016 whi...
Source: Jeffrey M. Levine MD | Geriatric Specialist | Wound Care | Pressure Ulcers - February 3, 2019 Category: Geriatrics Authors: Jeffrey Levine Tags: Featured Medical Articles Travel cigarettes; cigarette smoking; public health; lung cancer; cardiovascular disease; heart disease emphysema gory pictures; italy lung disease Source Type: blogs
Checking Boxes
By HANS DUVEFELT MD
I pay $500 per year for UpToDate, the online reference that helps me stay current on diagnostic criteria and best treatment options for most diseases I might run into in my practice. They also have a rich library of patient information, which I often print out during office visits.
I don’t get any “credit” for doing that, but I do if I print the, often paltry, patient handouts built into my EMR. That was how the rules governing meaningful use of subsidized computer technology for medical offices were written.
If I describe in great detail in my office note how I motivated a patient to quit smoki...
Source: The Health Care Blog - February 1, 2019 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: matthew holt Tags: Patients Physicians EMR Hans Duvefelt primary care Source Type: blogs
Fight Aging! Newsletter, January 28th 2019
In this study, we show that calorie restriction is protective against age-related increases in senescence and microglia activation and pro-inflammatory cytokine expression in an animal model of aging. Further, these protective effects mitigated age-related decline in neuroblast and neuronal production, and enhanced olfactory memory performance, a behavioral index of neurogenesis in the SVZ. Our results support the concept that calorie restriction might be an effective anti-aging intervention in the context of healthy brain aging.
Greater Modest Activity in Late Life Correlates with Lower Incidence of Dementia
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Source: Fight Aging! - January 27, 2019 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Newsletters Source Type: blogs
A stage IV lung cancer survivor story
I want to share how the era of immunotherapy, specifically immune-checkpoint-inhibitors, has changed the landscape of community oncology practice in metastatic non-small-cell lung cancer, for oncologists and, more importantly, patients. I want to tell you the story of Joe. A stage IV lung cancer survivor story. (Name and details changed to protect anonymity.) In 2015, Joe […]Find jobs at Careers by KevinMD.com. Search thousands of physician, PA, NP, and CRNA jobs now. Learn more. (Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog)
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - January 23, 2019 Category: General Medicine Authors: < span itemprop="author" > < a href="https://www.kevinmd.com/blog/post-author/jennifer-lycette" rel="tag" > Jennifer Lycette, MD < /a > < /span > Tags: Conditions Oncology/Hematology Pulmonology Source Type: blogs
Past Progress Towards Control of Cancer Has Been Slow, Steady, and Incremental
Mortality rates for cancer have diminished slowly and steadily over the past few decades. This is a matter of prevention on the one hand and improvements in early detection of cancer on the other. When caught early enough, even comparatively crude approaches to therapy have a decent chance of controlling and eliminating the cancer. This trend will no doubt continue, but the more rapid, more effective progress that we'd like to see will only emerge given the advent of universal cancer therapies, those that strike at mechanisms, such as telomere lengthening, that are shared by many or all cancers. That is a plausible goal fo...
Source: Fight Aging! - January 23, 2019 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs
Fight Aging! Newsletter, January 21st 2019
In this study, scientists screened cells from old animals to identify any RBPs that change upon aging. The screening showed that one particular protein, Pumilio2 (PUM2), was highly induced in old animals. PUM2 binds mRNA molecules containing specific recognition sites. Upon its binding, PUM2 represses the translation of the target mRNAs into proteins.
Using a systems genetics approach, the researchers then identified a new mRNA target that PUM2 binds. The mRNA encodes for a protein called Mitochondrial Fission Factor (MFF), and is a pivotal regulator of mitochondrial fission - a process by which mitochondria break u...
Source: Fight Aging! - January 20, 2019 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Newsletters Source Type: blogs
Large Genome-Wide Study Finds Only a Few Genetic Influences on Human Longevity
The influence of genetic variants on natural variations in human longevity is a very complex matter. The evidence to date supports a model in which thousands of genes have individually tiny, conditional effects. Near all associations identified in any given study population have failed to appear in any of the other study populations, and effect sizes for the very few longevity-associated genes that do appear in multiple studies are not large in the grand scheme of things. These variants provide a small increase in the odds of living to be very old, but the individuals bearing them are still diminished and damaged by aging....
Source: Fight Aging! - January 17, 2019 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs
Dad's Decision Not To Be Treated for Cancer Upsets Daughter
Photo credit Matteo Vistocco
Dear Carol: There’s probably no right answer to what I’m asking but I felt the need to write, just for comfort. My mother died when I was in my teens so Dad has been the only parent that I’ve had for more than 20 years. I have no siblings. Dad’s now in his seventies and has been diagnosed with prostate cancer. He’s beaten both melanoma and lung cancer in the past, but he tells me that this cancer should be slow growing and that he’ll probably die before it’s a problem so he doesn’t want to treat it. I want him to go full-on with every treatment possible. I watc...
Source: Minding Our Elders - January 13, 2019 Category: Geriatrics Authors: Carol Bradley Bursack Source Type: blogs
LESS BAD is not necessarily GOOD
One of the reasons why the Wheat Belly lifestyle is so spectacularly effective for restoring health, losing weight, and turning back the clock a decade or two is because we reject the flawed logic of conventional nutritional advice.
There is a long list of reasons why conventional nutritional advice gets it so wrong, from logical blunders, to relying on flawed observational evidence (rather than clinical trials), to getting too cozy with Big Food companies like Coca Cola and Kraft.
Let’s discuss a common and widely-held blunder in logic that is applied over and over again in nutrition:
If something bad is replaced by...
Source: Wheat Belly Blog - January 8, 2019 Category: Cardiology Authors: Dr. Davis Tags: News & Updates gluten-free grain-free grains undoctored wheat belly Source Type: blogs
Last Month in Oncology with Dr. Bishal Gyawali
By BISHAL GYAWALI MD
Long list of news in lung cancer
September was an important month in oncology—especially for lung cancer. The World Conference in Lung Cancer (WCLC) 2018 gave us some important practice-changing results, also leading to four NEJM publications. The trial with most public health impact is unfortunately not published yet. It’s the NELSON trial that randomised more than 15000 asymptomatic people at high risk of lung cancer to either CT-based screening for lung cancer or to no screening and found a significant reduction in lung cancer mortality rates among the screened cohort compared with the contr...
Source: The Health Care Blog - January 4, 2019 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: matthew holt Tags: Research Bishal Gyawali Breast cancer Cancer drugs Clinical Trials health spending immunotherapy Lung cancer Oncology pembrolizumab Source Type: blogs
When AI Looks at X-Rays: Interview with Qure.ai CEO, Prashant Warier
If you follow the recent advances in medical technology and artificial intelligence, you may have heard people make bold claims that AI will replace tomorrow’s doctors. While there are still ways to go for technology to reach these sci-fi levels, many companies are actively designing AI systems that will accompany doctors or assist them with their daily tasks. One particularly challenging task has been to enable algorithms to examine medical images and make intelligent conclusions, create reports, or provide recommendations. Medgadget recently had the chance to ask Qure.ai’s CEO, Prashant Warier, about the strides his ...
Source: Medgadget - January 3, 2019 Category: Medical Devices Authors: Mohammad Saleh Tags: Exclusive Informatics Radiology Source Type: blogs
Using Blockchain for More Efficient Healthcare Economy: Interview with Digipharm Founder, Ahmed Abdalla
If you’ve been following the news, you know that the U.S. healthcare system has many, many inefficiencies. Some have gone so far as to claim that U.S. healthcare is flat-out broken. While that may be over-dramatization for political purposes, many of the arguments presented are entirely valid. With recent modifications to U.S. legislature, the healthcare market is slowly moving toward outcomes-based pricing, a trend seen in many of the world’s leading health systems. But shifting the entire financial foundation of a decades-old ecosystem of complex institutions is no easy task, requiring quite a bit of innovation. Digi...
Source: Medgadget - January 2, 2019 Category: Medical Devices Authors: Mohammad Saleh Tags: Exclusive Informatics Medicine Public Health Society Source Type: blogs
" Truth " Campaign to Kids: Better to Smoke 19 Cigarettes than to Vape One Juul Pod
And this " Truth " Campaign " Fact " Isn ' t Even TrueOne of the oft-repeated " facts " being disseminated by the " truth " campaign is thatone Juul pod is equal to 20 cigarettes worth of nicotine.More specifically, the " truth " campaign claims, as its#1 most important fact about Juul that: " The amount of nicotine in one JUUL cartridge is roughly equal to the amount of nicotine in a pack of cigarettes. "Joining the " truth " campaign in spreading this factual information is the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), whoseweb site currently states that: " a single JUUL pod contains as much nicotine as a pack of...
Source: The Rest of the Story: Tobacco News Analysis and Commentary - December 27, 2018 Category: Addiction Source Type: blogs
Philips HealthWorks Supports Startups Using AI for Radiology, Ultrasound, and Oncology: Interview
In Philips innovation hubs located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Eindhover, Netherlands, Bangalore, India, and Shanghai, China, 19 startups out of 750 applicants are taking part in an intensive, 12-week Philips HealthWorks program to accelerate their innovations. The focus of this program is leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) in healthcare with the goal to improve patient outcomes and the efficiency of care delivery. During the program, the 19 startups, representing 14 different countries, will validate their value propositions, build, test, and scale their ideas, and explore potential collaborations with Philips and o...
Source: Medgadget - December 19, 2018 Category: Medical Devices Authors: Michael Batista Tags: Exclusive Informatics Medicine Net News Oncology Radiology Society Source Type: blogs
Spotting lung cancers ’ ‘crime hotspots’
Scientists are turning to crime-mapping tech as a new way to look at cancer Related items fromOnMedica Hundreds of lung cancer patients' lives cut short due to treatment variations Mixing complementary therapy with standard cancer treatment Is crowdfunding for cancer patients paying for ‘quackery’? Cancer patients using complementary meds die sooner NICE updates lung cancer guidance (Source: OnMedica Blogs)
Source: OnMedica Blogs - December 11, 2018 Category: General Medicine Source Type: blogs
