Posts

Feds to Give All Your Health Data to Researchers

/0 Comments/in , , /by

The federal government has just launched a 10-year, $1.5 billion project for which researchers want your information . . .

Medical records, mental-health records, lifestyle details, personal habits, physical measurements, blood pressure, height, weight, blood and urine samples, details on health-care visits, procedures, medications, and electronic health records, among others . . .

It’s called All of Us and scientists say they want at least one million people to be under observation on an ongoing basis.

Explains one federal report, the effort by the NIH has the goal of developing “a 1,000,000 person-plus cohort of individuals across the country willing to share their biology, lifestyle, and environmental data for the purpose of research.”

A “soft launch” already has been accomplished, and partners already part of the plan include the TransAmerica Precision Medicine Consortium, Biobank, San Ysidro Health, University of Arizona, University of Pittsburgh and a long list of federal agencies. (Read more from “Feds to Give All Your Health Data to Researchers” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Health Cops Now Calling for Regulation of Caffeine

/0 Comments/in , /by

The health police are turning their sights to energy, calling for tobacco style regulations on caffeine and bans on energy drinks for young Americans.

Nutrition experts are calling on the federal government to heavily regulate the levels of caffeine permitted in energy drinks out of fear that the beverages are harming public health, particularly the youth.

Advocates are concerned there are no rules restricting energy drink manufacturers from marketing to those who face potentially fatal consequences from consuming the beverages, according to an op-ed in The Washington Post.

Pat Crawford and Wendi Gosliner, researchers with the University of California’s Nutrition Policy Institute, want the Food and Drug Administration to crack down on energy drinks with restrictions similar to those placed on alcohol. They argue that the FDA must “ban the marketing of energy drinks to young people of all ages,” and launched a public education effort on the dangers of caffeine.

“Caffeine is a strong and potentially dangerous stimulant, particularly for children and adolescents,” Crawford and Gosliner said in the editorial. “Making matters worse, consumers do not know the risks of the high levels of caffeine in an energy drink. Unlike coffee, energy drinks are widely marketed to adolescents, putting them at risk of extreme caffeine overload with potentially devastating cardiovascular and neurological consequences.” (Read more from “Health Cops Now Calling for Regulation of Caffeine” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

VIDEO: Nine-Year Old Boy Says New Hands Make His Life ‘Complete’

/0 Comments/in , /by

Zion Harvey is nine years old. Like most boys his age, he enjoys baseball and football, does push-ups and loves his mother.

Unlike every other child his age, however, Harvey’s hands belonged to someone else until last year.

According to the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia’s website, Harvey lost his hands at the age of two, thanks to a life-threatening infection. Doctors were forced to amputate “his legs below the knee,” as well, and at the age of four his damaged kidneys were replaced with one from his mother, Pattie Ray.

Harvey now has full use of his legs, and thanks to prosthetics, and in NBC’s video above can be seen with a football, swinging a bat and telling his mother how much he loves her.

“When I got my hands, it’s like, here’s the piece of my life that was missing. Now it’s here. Now my life is complete,” said Harvey, who told his mother in 2015 that “if [the hand surgery] gets messed up, I don’t care, because I have my family.”

“Without my mom, I would not be here right now,” Harvey, who is the first child to ever receive hand transplants, told NBC.

More of Harvey’s amazing story is here, via NBC. (For more from the author of “VIDEO: Nine-Year Old Boy Says New Hands Make His Life ‘Complete'” please click HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Men Are Getting Weaker — Because We’re Not Raising Men

/0 Comments/in , , /by

If you’re the average Millennial male, your dad is stronger than you are. In fact, you may not be stronger than the average Millennial female. You’re exactly the kind of person who in generations past had your milk money confiscated every day — who got swirlied in the middle-school bathroom. The very idea of manual labor is alien to you, and even if you were asked to help, say, build a back porch, the task would exhaust you to the point of uselessness. Welcome to the new, post-masculine reality.

This morning, the Washington Post highlighted a study showing that the grip strength of a sample of college men had declined significantly between 1985 and 2016. Indeed, the grip strength of the sample of college men had declined so much — from 117 pounds of force to 98 — that it now matched that of older Millennial women. In other words, the average college male had no more hand strength than a 30-year-old mom.

Yes, I know it’s only one study. Yes, I know that grip strength is but one measure of overall physical fitness. But as the Post noted, these findings are consistent with other studies showing kids are less fit today. (For example, it takes children 90 seconds longer to run a mile than it did 30 years ago.) Simply put, we’re getting soft — and no cohort is getting softer faster than college men. (Read more from “Men Are Getting Weaker — Because We’re Not Raising Men” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Hepatitis C Deaths Hit All-Time High in United States

/0 Comments/in , /by

Hepatitis C-related deaths reached an all-time high in 2014, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced Wednesday, surpassing total combined deaths from 60 other infectious diseases including HIV, pneumococcal disease and tuberculosis. The increase occurred despite recent advances in medications that can cure most infections within three months.

“Not everyone is getting tested and diagnosed, people don’t get referred to care as fully as they should, and then they are not being placed on treatment,” said Dr. John Ward, director of CDC’s division of viral hepatitis.

At the same time, surveillance data analyzed by the CDC shows an alarming uptick in new cases of hepatitis C, mainly among those with a history of using injectable drugs. From 2010 to 2014, new cases of hepatitis C infection more than doubled. Because hepatitis C has few noticeable symptoms, said Ward, the 2,194 cases reported in 2014 are likely only the tip of the iceberg. (Read more from “Hepatitis C Deaths Hit All-Time High in United States” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Why Dementia Rates May Be Slowing Down

/1 Comment/in , /by

The older we get, the more memories we lose and the more scrambled some of our thoughts become. Some experts believe that such decline in our cognitive abilities is unavoidable if we live long enough.

But in a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, researchers question that theory. Working with data from the long-running Framingham Heart Study—which began in the 1940s and continues to follow the original group, as well as their children and their children’s children—scientists say that rates of dementia may actually be decreasing rather than climbing. Dementia refers to the overall drop in cognitive function and encompasses a number of disorders, including Alzheimer’s . . .

That makes sense, say Seshadri, since dementia is connected to problems in circulation, and the Framingham Heart Study looks at risk factors for heart disease, which include circulation-related factors such as blood pressure and stroke.

It’s possible that lifestyle factors such as physical activity and diet, as well as taking care of heart disease risk factors like hypertension, may all contribute to preventing dementia. Stroke is also a big risk factor for dementia, and keeping the circulatory system and heart healthy can lower stroke risk as well. Understanding that lifestyle factors may play a role in preventing dementia could be critical in reversing the upward curve of dementia rates that most studies are predicting in coming years. The World Health Organization says that 47.5 million people currently live with dementia, and by 2050, 135.5 million could suffer from its effects. (Read more from “Why Dementia Rates May Be Slowing Down” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Drug Shortages in American Emergency Rooms Have Increased More Than 400 Percent

/1 Comment/in , /by

Emergency rooms are health care’s front line – in the United States, nearly 45 out of 100 people visit an ER in any given year. But there’s an issue brewing behind the scenes in emergency medical facilities, one that can’t be fixed by a simple stitch or bandage. A new study published in the journal Academic Emergency Medicine shows that drug shortages in ERs across the United States increased by more than 400 percent between 2001 and 2014.

The study analyzed data from the University of Utah Drug Information Service, which receives drug shortage reports submitted through a public site administered by the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists. Two practicing emergency room physicians assessed whether the reported shortages had to do with drugs used in ERs, then looked at whether they were associated with lifesaving or acute conditions.

Of the nearly 1,800 drug shortages reported between 2001 and 2014, nearly 34 percent were used in emergency rooms. More than half (52.6 percent) of all reported shortages were of lifesaving drugs, and 10 percent of shortages affected drugs with no substitute. The most common drugs on shortage are used to treat infectious diseases, relieve pain, and treat patients who have been poisoned. Though the number of shortages fell between 2002 and 2007, they’ve risen by 435 percent between 2008 and 2014.

That’s nothing less than a public health crisis, said Jesse Pines, director of the office for clinical practice innovation at George Washington University School of Medicine & Health Sciences and the study’s senior author. Shortages “are real, they’re happening, and they’re getting worse,” he said. Pines, who practices emergency medicine, said that though emergency rooms are implementing things like providing posters with quick alternative drug options, there’s no obvious way to cut shortages. (Read more from “Drug Shortages in American Emergency Rooms Have Increased More Than 400 Percent” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

MS Patients See ‘Miraculous’ Healings After Adult Stem Cell Treatments

/0 Comments/in , /by

British sufferers from multiple sclerosis are reporting remarkable improvements in their condition after injection with adult stem cells taken from their own bodies. The treatment is part of a clinical trial of techniques pioneered at America’s Northwestern University by Dr. Richard Burt.

The adult stem cell treatment for MS is just one of many being applied around the world for more than 100 medical conditions, many to do with diseases of the auto-immune system.

Sheffield patient Holly Drewry, a 25-year-old mother of one, went into that city’s Royal Hallamshire Hospital in a wheelchair but left on her own feet after a single treatment using her own adult stem cells, taken from her bone marrow. “I started seeing changes within days of the stem cells being put in. It was a miracle,” she told a BBC interviewer for an episode of Panorama.

Researchers for a clinical trial at Hallamshire and at a London hospital have re-examined Drewry and found her multiple sclerosis in remission.

“I couldn’t walk steadily. I couldn’t trust myself holding her [daughter Isla] in case I fell. … It is scary because you think, when is it going to end?” said Drewry. But after a two-stage treatment involving first chemotherapy to kill her malfunctioning autoimmune system and then adult stem cells to remake it, she reported that “I walked out of the hospital. I walked into my house and hugged Isla. I cried and cried. It was a bit overwhelming. It was a miracle.” (Read more from “MS Patients See ‘Miraculous’ Healings After Adult Stem Cell Treatments” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Beards May Be More Hygienic and Bacteria-Resistant Than Shaven Skin, Study Finds

/1 Comment/in , /by

Beards may contain bacteria which could potentially be developed into new antibiotics, a study has found.

Researchers found that clean-shaven men were actually more likely to harbour infection-causing bacteria resistant to antibiotics when compared to bearded men.

The study, published in the Journal of Hospital Infection, tested swabs from the faces of 408 hospital staff with and without facial hair.

According to the results, clean-shaven men are more than three times as likely to be carrying methicillin-resistant staph auerus (MRSA) on their cheeks as their bearded counterparts.

Clean-shaven men were also more than 10 per cent more likely to have colonies of Staphylococcus aureus on their faces, a bacterium that causes skin and respiratory infections, and food poisoning. (Read more from “Beards May Be More Hygienic and Bacteria-Resistant Than Shaven Skin, Study Finds” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Researchers: There’s No Such Thing as a Mid-Life Crisis

/0 Comments/in , /by

Most doctors say a mid-life crisis might occur anywhere from age 37 all the way through your 50s, for men and women . . .

But researchers from the University of Alberta in Canada now say a mid-life crisis isn’t real… it’s just a myth!

They followed a group of high school students for 25 years and a group of college students for 14 years.

The participants were all asked the same question at different ages: How happy are you with your life?

They found that as the people aged, they became happier and more secure. (Read more from “Researchers: There’s No Such Thing as a Mid-Life Crisis” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.