Drugs that block weight loss
Following the Wheat Belly lifestyle of wheat and grain elimination results in weight loss in the majority of people in short order.
But there are exceptions. The exceptions should not be interpreted to mean that this lifestyle does not work; it should initiate a search for why the weight loss effect of wheat and grain elimination is being blocked. Iodine deficiency, for example, is a common cause for failed weight loss, no matter how perfect your diet and how much you exercise.
Another common cause for failed weight loss are prescription drugs and a few over-the-counter drugs. Among the common drugs that will block your...
Source: Wheat Belly Blog - February 15, 2015 Category: Cardiology Authors: Dr. Davis Tags: Wheat Belly Lifestyle gluten grains prescription drugs Weight Loss Source Type: blogs
HealthCare SocialMedia Review #53
All the news that’s fit to link
Welcome one and all to the 53rd running of the HealthCare SocialMedia Review #HCSM. Social media in healthcare is going more and more mainstream, so there’s plenty of good new stuff to profile.
Bad hair day? Wax Impressions offers advice on how to handle a social media crisis. Hint: Don’t wait around doing nothing!
Type a doctor’s name into Google and chances are you’ll find dozens of links, many for physician ratings sites. What’s a poor practice to do to exert some influence on the message? Joe Chierotti has some practical ideas.
Twitter’s new prof...
Source: Health Business Blog - May 14, 2014 Category: Health Managers Authors: David Williams Tags: Blogs e-health healthcare Joe Chierotti social media Wax Impressions Source Type: blogs
Best healthcare social media campaign
How do you get allergy sufferers to buy your drug?
With cute animals, of course!
ZYRTEC partnered with JWT New York to create FURTEC :: the very first virtual pet walking experience for the game-playing, pet-loving allergy sufferer.
This is a Facebook App that allows people who are suffering from allergies and stuck inside, to walk their pet without going outside. The cyber-simulated walk allows users to upload a picture of their pet and explore a “park” in a virtual, outdoor world, all within Facebook.
When the interactive, and electronically exhausting journey ends, the app highlights the absurdity of the experienc...
Source: Nicola Ziady - April 10, 2014 Category: Medical Marketing and PR Authors: Nicola Ziady Tags: Brand Advertising interactive marketing Source Type: blogs
Reuters Exclusive: Bayer, Novartis, others eye Merck's consumer health
unit - sources
By Olivia Oran, Soyoung Kim and Anjuli DaviesNEW YORK/LONDON (Reuters) - A handful of consumer and healthcare companies including Bayer AG and Novartis are exploring a deal for Merck & Co Inc's consumer healthcare business, as they seek to gain scale in a fragmented industry, according to several people familiar with the matter.Reckitt Benckiser Group PLC and Procter & Gamble Co are also among the parties that have held discussions with Merck about buying the unit, best known for Coppertone sunscreen and Claritin allergy medicine, the sources said this week.The Merck business, which also includes Dr. Scholl's ...
Source: PharmaGossip - February 20, 2014 Category: Pharma Commentators Authors: insider Source Type: blogs
Still Don’t Use These Abbreviations
Remember all of those “do not use” abbreviations?
I wrote a post about them a loooong time ago, but since then things have changed.
We went from written medical charting to almost exclusively computer [hack hack] generated medical records.
So the whole Joint Commission issue about a “>” looking like the number “7″ or the notation “cc” looking like two extra zeroes is – or at least should be – a moot point.
And I still believe that if someone can’t tell the differences in dosing between “MSO4″ and “MgSO4″ then they shouldn’t b...
Source: WhiteCoat's Call Room - October 5, 2013 Category: Emergency Medicine Doctors Authors: WhiteCoat Tags: Random Thoughts Source Type: blogs
Do Negative DTC Ads Improve a Drug's Efficacy viz-a-viz the Competition? Another Lesson Pharma Can Learn from Politics
A study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) -- of all places -- suggests that watching a direct-to-consumer (DTC) ad makes the advertised pill "more effective." DTC advertising is often defended by the drug industry as beneficial to the public's health because it motivates people to visit their doctors (see, for example, "Rethinking the Value of DTC Advertising"). PhRMA, the US drug industry trade organization, says in its DTC Guiding Principles:"DTC advertising of prescription medicines can benefit the public health by increasing awareness about diseases, educating patients about treatm...
Source: Pharma Marketing Blog - August 1, 2013 Category: Pharma Commentators Tags: Zyrtec Claritin DTC Advertising Source Type: blogs
Apparently, Ads Make Antihistamines Work Better
This PNAS paper's title certainly caught my attention: "Advertisements impact the physiological efficacy of a branded drug". The authors, from the University of Chicago, are digging into the business end of the placebo effect. After giving a set of subjects a skin-test panel to common allergans, here's what happened:
We conducted two randomized clinical trials to measure the impact of direct-to-consumer advertising on the objective, physiological effect of Claritin (Merck & Co.), a leading antihistamine drug. A pilot study assessed the efficacy of Claritin across subjects exposed to advertisements for Claritin, advertisem...
Source: In the Pipeline - July 30, 2013 Category: Chemists Tags: Business and Markets Source Type: blogs
MKSAP: 27-year-old woman is evaluated for a 4-week history of wheals
Test your medicine knowledge with the MKSAP challenge, in partnership with the American College of Physicians.A 27-year-old woman is evaluated for a 4-week history of wheals, characterized by a burning sensation without pruritus. Each individual lesion persists for 48 hours and slowly resolves, leaving a bruise. Current medications are diphenhydramine, hydroxyzine, cetirizine, and oral contraceptives. The patient’s mother has systemic lupus erythematosus.On physical examination, vital signs are normal. She has scattered edematous indurated erythematous plaques consistent with wheals. There are scattered ecchymoses a...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - January 20, 2013 Category: Family Physicians Tags: Conditions Dermatology Source Type: blogs
