What ’s new in the updated asthma guidelines?
In 2007, The Sopranos was a hit TV show, patterned jeggings were a fashion trend, and the National Institutes of Health–sponsored National Asthma Education and Prevention Program (NAEPP) published the second edition of the Asthma Management Guidelines.
A lot has changed since 2007, including in the area of asthma. The NAEPP recently published the third edition of the Asthma Management Guidelines to address these changes. This update reflects recent advances in our understanding of the disease mechanisms causing asthma, and the current best practices to manage asthma symptoms. As such, the updated guidelines are an import...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - April 7, 2021 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Kathleen Haley, MD Tags: Asthma Drugs and Supplements Source Type: blogs
A pulmonologist ’s COVID diary
June 25 Like most physicians, I am bad at scheduling my own doctors visit. This year, despite COVID craziness, I had made an appointment with a new PCP to get Singulair refills (my allergies were a killer, and a drippy nose behind an N95 is no joke). I loved my new PCP! She connected with […]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 - July 3, 2020 Category: General Medicine Authors: < span itemprop="author" > < a href="https://www.kevinmd.com/blog/post-author/rizwana-khan" rel="tag" > Rizwana Khan, MD < /a > < /span > Tags: Conditions COVID-19 coronavirus Infectious Disease Pulmonology Source Type: blogs
Live the Wheat Belly lifestyle, get off prescription medications
Take a look at the list of medications people have been able to stop by following the Wheat Belly lifestyle.
These represent medications prescribed by doctors to, in effect, “treat” the consequences of consuming wheat and grains. They prescribe drugs to treat inflammation, swelling, skin rashes, gastrointestinal irritation, high blood sugars, airway allergy, joint pain, high blood pressure, leg edema and other abnormal effects caused by wheat and grains.
The list includes anti-inflammatory and pain medication, acid reflux drugs, injectable and oral drugs for diabetes, numerous anti-hypertensive agents, asthma i...
Source: Wheat Belly Blog - October 27, 2018 Category: Cardiology Authors: Dr. Davis Tags: News & Updates autoimmune blood sugar bowel flora cholesterol Gliadin gluten-free grain-free grains Inflammation undoctored Weight Loss wheat belly Source Type: blogs
Applying AI Based Outlier Detection to Healthcare – Interview with Dr. Gidi Stein from MedAware
Most people who receive healthcare understand that healthcare is as much art as it is science. We don’t expect our doctors to be perfect or know everything because the human body is just too complex and there are so many factors that influence health. What’s hard for patients to understand is when obvious human errors occur. This is especially true when technology or multiple layers of humans should have caught the obvious.
This is exactly why I was excited to interview Dr. Gidi Stein, CEO and Co-founder of MedAware. As stated on their website, their goal is to eliminate prescription errors. In the interview be...
Source: EMR and HIPAA - September 17, 2018 Category: Information Technology Authors: John Lynn Tags: Healthcare Healthcare AI Healthcare Analytics HealthCare IT Allscripts dbMotion Dr. Gidi Stein MedAware Medication Error Detection Medication Errors Source Type: blogs
The scary evolution of direct-to-consumer advertising
One night in 1997, as Americans watched Touched by an Angel they were touched by something else unexpected: an ad for a prescription allergy pill called Claritin, sold directly to patients.
Prescription drugs had never been sold directly to the public before — a marketing tactic called direct-to-consumer or DTC advertising. How could average people, who certainly had not been to medical school, know if the medication was appropriate or safe without a doctor’s recommendation?
Soon, ads for Meridia, Propecia, Singulair, Paxil, Prozac, Vioxx, Lipitor, and Viagra followed — exhorting patients to “ask their doct...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - March 17, 2017 Category: Journals (General) Authors: < a href="http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/post-author/martha-rosenberg" rel="tag" > Martha Rosenberg < /a > Tags: Conditions Cancer Source Type: blogs
Health Expenditure Projections: When Does ‘New’ Become ‘Normal’?
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has released its latest forecast of medical spending for the next decade. The headline number is that medical care as a share of gross domestic product (GDP) is expected to increase from its current 17.5 percent of GDP to 20.1 percent by 2025, resuming an upward increase after a several year slowdown.
Forecasting is an inexact science. To make guesses about the future, analysts typically examine the past. The history of medical spending can roughly be described using Fuchs’ law: medical spending increases have exceeded GDP increases by about 2.5 percentage points annua...
Source: Health Affairs Blog - July 13, 2016 Category: Health Management Authors: David Cutler Tags: Costs and Spending Featured Insurance and Coverage Medicaid and CHIP Medicare Payment Policy ACA ACOs Alternative Payment Models MACRA spending projections Source Type: blogs
Prescription Drugs And The Slowdown In Health Care Spending
Several studies have examined the underlying sources for the recent slowdown in health care spending. These analyses have focused largely on the role of the 2007-2009 recession, the increasing prevalence of high deductible health insurance plans, and other structural changes in the payment and delivery of care. However, the studies examining these factors do not account for the full decline in spending, or raise questions about the pattern and timing of the slowdown.
Role Of Prescription Drugs In The Health Spending Slowdown
Certainly the recession accounted for a component of the post 2007 slowdown in spending. However, t...
Source: Health Affairs Blog - November 18, 2015 Category: Health Management Authors: Kenneth Thorpe and Jason Hockenberry Tags: Costs and Spending Drugs and Medical Technology Featured Quality generic drugs medication adherence Prescription Drugs Source Type: blogs
What medications have you been able to stop on the Wheat Belly lifestyle?
I posed this question on the Wheat Belly Facebook page recently and received an overwhelming response. Here, I share a partial list of the responses: medications people have been able to stop by following the Wheat Belly lifestyle.
Just take a look at this incredible list: these represent medications prescribed by doctors to, in effect, “treat” the consequences of consuming wheat and grains. They prescribe drugs to treat the inflammation, swelling, skin rashes, gastrointestinal irritation, high blood sugars, airway allergy, and other abnormal effects all caused by wheat and grains.
The list includes anti-inf...
Source: Wheat Belly Blog - October 6, 2015 Category: Cardiology Authors: Dr. Davis Tags: Wheat Belly Lifestyle asthma cholesterol diabetes drugs gluten grains hypertension prescription medication reflux Source Type: blogs
Be kind to your doctor
Shared with permission from the FB wall of a GP
Some six years ago, this lady X was brought to me. she has very bad case of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease. I still recall how she used to struggle for breath each time she came. Thank goodness she would quickly recover after nebulization as intra-muscular injection because her case would usually be a narrow decision between admitting and the risk of treating her as out-patient. After a few visits, her symptoms were controlled. Among the things I gave her was Spiriva inhaler, and off label use of Singulair, which worked pretty well on her.
I remember one day on my way ...
Source: Malaysian Medical Resources - February 6, 2015 Category: Global & Universal Authors: palmdoc Tags: - Ethics Source Type: blogs
Top stories in health and medicine, September 11, 2014
From MedPage Today:
Azithromycin Linked to Belly Blockage in Infants. Infants who received azithromycin (Zithromax) in the early days of life were at an increased risk for developing infantile hypertrophic pyloric stenosis (IHPS).
Singulair Doesn’t Ease Wheeze in Most Kids. Intermittent montelukast (Singulair) didn’t alleviate wheezing in children, except possibly for those with a specific genetic mutation.
Single-Pill HIV Therapy Proves Less Toxic. An investigational single-pill regimen for HIV — the first to be based on a protease inhibitor — was less toxic than a similar regimen using separate ...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - September 11, 2014 Category: Journals (General) Authors: MedPage Today Tags: News Infectious disease Pulmonology Source Type: blogs
NIH, FDA and Academic Institutions: Announce Industry Academic Collaborations
Several recent announcements have discussed new industry-academic collaborations as well as new funding opportunities to help translate scientific discoveries to improve patient care and health.
Harvard and AstraZeneca
AstraZeneca and Harvard University's Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering recently announced a partnership "to use its organs-on-chips technology--miniature human organs made of a clear, flexible polymer that contain tiny tubes lined with living human cells--to help improve the way it tests drugs for humans," according to a press release.
"The chips are translucent, which could provide ...
Source: Policy and Medicine - November 27, 2013 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Authors: Thomas Sullivan Source Type: blogs
Merck announces it will slash jobs at research laboratories
By Bloomberg News on June 14, 2013 at 4:24 PM, updated June 14, 2013 at 4:25 PMMerck's plans to cut jobs at its research laboratories comes two months after the company's head of research, Roger Perlmutter, above, took over. Courtesy of Merck Merck & Co., the second-largest U.S. drugmaker, plans to cut jobs at its research laboratories, two months after Roger Perlmutter took helm of the unit.The shakeup includes immediate elimination of some positions and additional reductions over time, said Steve Cragle, a spokesman for the Whitehouse Station-based company. He said it’s too early to s...
Source: PharmaGossip - June 14, 2013 Category: Pharma Commentators Authors: insider Source Type: blogs
Call Me Crazy? No, Thanks.
I thought I was overly emotional when I watched this particular show, but I recorded it to watch when I was lying in bed recovering from surgery. I didn't feel like watching it for a long time, but maybe two weeks ago I was folding the laundry on the bed, near the television where I'd decided to record MANY shows where I thought I'd be lying in bed just watching television recovering (didn't happen), I decided to see what it was all about. It was called Call Me Crazy, and I had heard it was supposed to help with breaking down the stigma of mental illness. Jennifer Aniston directed or produced or was invol...
Source: bipolar.and.me - May 20, 2013 Category: Mental Illness Source Type: blogs
Asthma drug Singulair linked to suicidality
Monday, 6 May 2013, 12:58 pm
Article: Martha Rosenberg
Asthma drug Singulair linked to suicidality
by Martha Rosenberg
May 6, 2013
World sales of Merck's blockbuster asthma drug, Singulair, were about $5 billion a year until last year when its patent expired in the United States. But the drug also has a darkening cloud over it. The Australian medicine watchdog has received 58 reports of adverse psychiatric events in children and teenagers taking Singulair since 2000 and reports have also surfaced in the US.
Singulair, a leukotriene receptor antagonist or LTRA, is one of several "add-on" asthma drugs that were debuted ...
Source: PharmaGossip - May 6, 2013 Category: Pharma Commentators Authors: insider Source Type: blogs
China Chops
China to Cut Prices of More Than 400 Drugs by Average 15%
China will cut the maximum retail prices of more than 400 varieties of drugs by an average 15 percent, including products from Pfizer Inc. (PFE), Novartis AG (NOVN) and Merck & Co. (MRK), to reduce health-care costs in the nation.
The changes, effective Feb. 1, will cover drugs used for respiratory diseases and pain relief, as well as other specialized medicines, the National Development and Reform Commission said in a statement on its website.
This is the fourth set of state-mandated price adjustments since 2011, with earlier cuts for drugs including antibiotics...
Source: PharmaGossip - January 8, 2013 Category: Pharma Commentators Authors: insider Source Type: blogs
