Previous Medical News
2010/01/09
1. Holiday Uptick in Severe H1N1 Swine Flu (CDC, 1/7/10)
The fall/winter wave of H1N1 swine flu ebbed in December. But there was a disturbing and unusual holiday uptick in flu hospitalizations and deaths. Whether there will be a new wave of infections is unknown. Before we all drop our guard we need to be reminded of the 1957 pandemic. There was a steep decline in deaths in early January, followed by a steep increase in deaths during January and February that finally peaks in March.
2. Swine flu now widespread only in 1 state (CDC, 1/8/10)
Swine flu infections continue to drop and only one state -- Alabama -- was reporting widespread cases last week.
3. Can a Person Freeze to Death? (U.S. Army Research Institute of Environmental Medicine (USARIEM), 1/8/10)
When temperatures dip, frostbite and other health risks are real concerns. And death strikes long before the body actually freezes. Your body loses heat about 25 times faster in water than in air. Your fingers and toes are more prone to frostbite, because those areas will have reduced blood flow. Keep your hands, feet, neck and head especially protected because this is where 90% of your heat is lost.
4. New guidelines back mammograms starting at age 40 (American College of Radiology and the Society of Breast Imaging, 1/4/10)
Mammograms should begin at 40 for women with an average risk of breast cancer and by 30 for high-risk women, according to guidelines released by two groups that specialize in breast imaging, contradicting controversial guidelines from a U.S. advisory panel last year.
5. Radiation Fears From Airport Full-Body Scans? (Examiner.com, 1/2/10; American College of Radiology, 1/10)
To date, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has deployed two types of scanning systems: Millimeter wave technology uses low-level radio waves in the millimeter wave spectrum. Two rotating antennae cover the passenger from head to toe with low-level RF energy. Backscatter technology uses extremely weak X-rays delivering less than 10 microRem of radiation per scan ─ the radiation equivalent one receives inside an aircraft flying for two minutes at 30,000 feet. The health risks are of biggest concerns to airline crew members, frequent fliers, pregnant women, infants, the chronically ill and immune suppressed passengers. Low risk to most individuals but becomes a population problem as billions are scanned each year. The producers of these radioactive ionizing machines have declined to sign any guarantee of no long term harm to users which is telling in itself. Solutions: Use -"Registered Traveler" program: There should be regular standard airport screenings for US Citizens who have met the same full intensive 10 year background check that airline crew members have gone through. Use: Millimeter Wavelength Imaging, which do not use ionizing radiation.
6. A Spoonful of Medicine: Too Often the Wrong Dose (Annals of Internal Medicine, 1/10)
When you need relief from a cold or cough, if you use a spoon to measure the quantity of medicine you may be taking the wrong dose. Using a medium-size tablespoon people erred on the side of caution and tended to underdose. Using a large tablespoon, they overcompensated and overdosed. That is where the real danger lies.
7. Medicare and the Mayo Clinic (WSJ, 1/8/10)
Mayo will no longer accept Medicare patients at one of its primary care clinics in Arizona. Mayo said the decision is part of a two-year pilot program to determine if it should also drop Medicare patients at other facilities in Arizona, Florida and Minnesota, which serve more than 500,000 seniors. Mayo says it lost $840 million last year treating Medicare patients, the result of the program's low reimbursement rates. Its hospital and four clinics in Arizona—including the Glendale facility—lost $120 million.
8. American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists Revises Cervical Cancer Screening Guidelines (Obstetrics & Gynecology, 12/09)
The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) is now recommending women begin cervical cancer screening at age 21, instead of 3 years after the onset of sexual activity, as was previously recommended by the group. Cervical cancer is extremely rare in women younger than age 21 (1 case per million), but screening adolescents has not been successful in preventing these rare cancers. Women should be screened once every 2 years, instead of annually as was previously recommended. Women who have had 3 consecutive negative tests be screened once every 3 years. Certain women, including those with HIV or a weakened immune system, should get screened every year. The same goes for women who have had previous cervical abnormalities, and women exposed to the chemical DES.
9. U.S. lifts restriction on visas to HIV-positive foreigners (CDC, 1/5/10)
Foreign nationals who are HIV-positive will find it easier to visit the United States. The Department of Health and Human Services and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention removed HIV infection from the list of diseases that prevent non-U.S. citizens from entering the country. The new regulation takes HIV infection out of the category of "communicable diseases of public health significance.” It also removes required testing for HIV infection from the U.S. immigration medical screening process and eliminates the need for a waiver for entry into the United States.
10. Octuplets' Doctor Formally Accused of Negligence (California Medical Board, 1/5/10)
The fertility doctor who Nadya Suleman claimed helped her conceive her brood of 14 has been formally accused of negligence and violation of professional guidelines by the California Medical Board. The state licensing body states that Beverly Hills fertility doctor Michael Kamrava acted "beyond the reasonable judgment of any treating physician" by repeatedly providing fertility treatment to Nadya Suleman. Dr. Kamrava is accused of gross negligence in three instances: transferring too many embryos, repeatedly transferring fresh embryos when frozen ones were available, and failing to refer Suleman for a mental health evaluation. Dr. Kamrava is also accused of giving Nadya Suleman too much of a hormone while stimulating in-vitro fertilization, poor record keeping and "failure to recognize that Nadya Suleman’s behavior was outside the norm and that her conduct was placing her offspring at risk for potential harm."
11. Nose treatment cuts hospital-acquired infections (New England Journal of Medicine, 1/7/10)
Researchers in the Netherlands said on Wednesday they were able to cut the risk of a common bacterium by nearly 60 percent by first looking for signs of it in the nose and then treating it with an antibiotic nasal gel and full body wash. The treatment combination also shaved two days off a typical 14-day stay in the hospital. The 504 patients treated with the antibiotic nose gel mupirocin, also known as Bactroban, and washed with chlorhexidine, a common ingredient in mouthwash, developed an S. aureus infection 3.4 percent of the time. The rate for 413 volunteers given placebo treatment was 7.7 percent.
A second infection study, also reported in the journal, found that a chlorhexidine-alcohol combination produced 41 percent fewer surgical-site infections as the commonly used mixture of povidone and iodine, which gives a yellow-orange tinge to the skin.
The chlorhexidine-alcohol mixture may replace the older disinfectant when scrubbing people for surgery, and the nasal disinfection technique should primarily be used for people undergoing cardiac surgery, receiving an implant, or whose immune system is likely to be affected.
12. What an anti-climax: G-spot is a myth (The Journal of Sexual Medicine, 1/10)
British scientists have found that the mysterious G-spot, the sexual pleasure zone said to be possessed by some women but denied to others, may not exist at all. The Journal of Sexual Medicine is planning a debate, with publication of research from the pro and anti G-spot camps.
13. Why People Lose Their Hair (American Academy of Family Physicians, 1/5/10)
- Stress caused by an illness or major surgery. This type of hair loss often is temporary.
- Changes in hormone levels, such as those caused by pregnancy or a thyroid disorder.
- Use of certain medications, such as blood thinners, antidepressants, oral contraceptives, heart medications, gout treatments or vitamin A.
- A fungal infection of the scalp.
- An underlying disease, such as diabetes or lupus.
14. Study Links High Blood Sugar Levels to Cancer (PLos Medicine, 12/09)
Having high blood sugar levels may increase risk of cancer, independently of body weight.
15. Even with fewer risk factors, heavy men die earlier (Circulation, 12/28/09)
Overweight middle-aged men may have a higher risk of heart problems and strokes and die earlier than their thinner peers -- even in the absence of some traditional risk factors: diabetes, high blood pressure, abnormal cholesterol levels.
16. Denim may thwart rattlesnake venom (Annals of Emergency Medicine, 12/09)
A layer of denim offers at least some protection from rattlesnake bites. Denim is now proven it can reduce the amount of venom that penetrates the skin.
17. Quit Smoking to save your Eyesight (American Journal of Ophthalmology, 1/10)
Quitting smoking helps save sight. Macular Degeneration causes damage to the center of the retina which can, in time, even cause blindness. The rate of this retina disease increases by 11% in smokers and it’s never too late to quit smoking.
18. St. John's Wort May Not Help IBS (The American Journal of Gastroenterology, 1/10)
The herbal supplement St. John's wort is unlikely to ease symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome. The herb is used to treat depression. Since antidepressants are commonly used to treat IBS, researchers wanted to see if St. John's wort might also treat IBS. IBS affects up to 20% of adults in the U.S., mostly women. It's a common disorder that causes symptoms such as cramping, abdominal pain, bloating, gas, diarrhea, and constipation.
19. Local Environment Not Cause of Autism 'Clusters' (Autism Research, 1/10)
If some pollutant triggers autism, it's widespread and not confined to specific geographic areas. Autism cases in all of the clusters were more likely to be reported from families with highly educated mothers. There clearly is a genetic predisposition to autism. But genes don't explain why some people get autism and others don't. This study suggests that the environmental causes of autism are not going to be found in local contamination.
20. Evidence lacking for special diets in autism (Pediatrics, 1/10)
There's no rigorous evidence that digestive problems are more common in children with autism compared to other children, or that special diets work.
21. Eating Pomegranates Reduces Risk of Breast Cancer (Cancer Prevention Research, 1/10)
Eating pomegranates can reduce the risk of developing breast cancer. Pomegranates contain ellagitannins which may act as a drug to fight off the onset of the disease. The ingredient works by inhibiting the enzyme known as aromatase, which is needed for many breast cancers to grow. Previous studies have also linked eating pomegranates to increased heart health. Phytochemicals suppress estrogen production that prevents the proliferation of breast cancer cells and the growth of estrogen-responsive tumors.
22. Exercise may prevent incontinence from prostate surgery (Journal of Urology, 2/10)
Men who had their prostate glands removed due to cancer, who were not obese and were getting regular exercise before surgery had the lowest prevalence of long-term urinary incontinence. What's more, even among obese men, those who had been physically active before surgery were less likely to be incontinent one year after surgery.
23. Antidepressants: Best for Severe Depression? (Journal of the American Medical Association, 1/6/10)
Some antidepressants may work best for people with very severe depression, but may provide little or no benefit over placebo for those with mild, moderate, or severe depression. However, the analysis only looked at two antidepressants: paroxetine (Paxil) and imipramine (Tofranil), but they do represent to two main classes of anti-depressant medicines, SSRI (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor) and tricyclic antidepressant.
24. Men Know When They're Aroused, Women May Not (Archives of Sexual Behavior, 1/4/10)
When it comes to sexual arousal, a woman's mind and body are less in sync than a man's. Men who reported feeling turned on tended to also sport an erection, while a matchup between the mind and body wasn't so consistent for women.
25. Chantix safe and effective in cardiovascular disease (Circulation, 1/4/10)
The smoking cessation drug Chantix works as well in people with established cardiovascular disease as it does in the general population. Moreover, Chantix appears to be safe in these cardiovascular disease patients.
26. Signs of Lactose Intolerance (National Library of Medicine, 1/6/10)
Lactose intolerance is an inability to digest a type of sugar in milk called lactose. It's a common condition, affecting some 30 million adults in the United States by age 20. The list of possible warning signs: bloating in the belly, cramping in the abdomen, nausea or diarrhea, stools that float or have a foul odor, gas, malnutrition, slow growth, or losing weight.
27. Soda Fountains Squirt Fecal Bacteria (International Journal of Food Microbiology, 1/10)
Those soda fountain machines found in restaurants and fast food joints may be squirting out liquids contaminated with fecal bacteria. Infections could spread if fountains are not cleaned properly. Nearly half of all sodas dispensed had coliform bacteria -- a group of bacteria banned in drinking water by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) because it indicates the possibility of fecal contamination.
28. Pet Frog Salmonella Spans 31 States (Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, 1/5/10)
Pet African dwarf frogs from a single California breeder caused an 8-month salmonella outbreak in 31 states. The outbreak extended from California to Massachusetts. Of the 85 cases, mostly in children, 16 were hospitalized.
29. Two-Thirds of American Teens Need More Shut-Eye (Journal of Adolescent Health, 1/4/10)
Most U.S. teens aren't getting enough sleep each night. Almost 69 percent of high school students get less than seven hours of sleep nightly. Only about 8 percent of teens get the optimal amount -- nine hours or more -- every night.
30. Abused Kids More Prone to Migraines in Adulthood (Headache: The Journal of Head and Face Pain, 1/10)
Children who were physically or emotionally abused or neglected are more likely to develop migraines and other chronic pain conditions as adults. Stress caused by abuse can alter children's brains, making them more likely to develop chronic pain from such conditions as irritable bowel syndrome, chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia, interstitial cystitis and arthritis.
