Affordable Health Insurance

Aggressive New Asthma Tactics

Thursday 30 August 2007 at 11:31 am New Asthma Guidelines Would Make Disease Milder, Prevent Severe Attacks
By Daniel J. DeNoon
WebMD Medical NewsReviewed by Louise Chang, MDAug. 29, 2007 – New NIH asthma guidelines promise to make a child's asthma milder and to prevent severe asthma attacks before they happen.

The guidelines come from a panel of asthma experts convened by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI). They closely follow the 2002 update of the original 1997 guidelines. (more)

Five diagnoses that call for a second opinion

Thursday 30 August 2007 at 11:28 am ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- After Marci Smith was told she had a malignant brain tumor, she had surgery and then made an appointment with an oncologist to receive chemotherapy and radiation.

But Smith never kept that appointment.

A nagging voice inside her head told her to get a second opinion. In the end, that voice is the reason Smith is getting the right treatment.

The first doctor's pathologist said Smith had a type of tumor called a sarcoma. But a second opinion -- and a third and a fourth -- said she had a glioblastoma, another type of brain tumor that requires much different treatment. Further pathology tests confirmed the glioblastoma. (more)

47 Million Americans Without Health Insurance, Census Report

Wednesday 29 August 2007 at 12:59 pm A report by the US Census Bureau this week shows that household income is up, the poverty rate is slightly down for the first time this decade, but the number of people without health insurance went up by 0.5 per cent to reach 47 million in 2006.

The Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2006 report draws on information collected in two surveys: the 2007 Current Population Survey (CPS) Annual Social and Economic Supplement (ASEC).

There has been a strong reaction to the report, with the presidential elections coming up next year, the New York Times describes it as a "presidential candidate's gold mine", with the main focus being on the fact that 47 million Americans still have no health insurance and the proportion of children with no health insurance has risen, with the poorest children the most likely to be uninsured. (more)

Bad Memories Easier to Remember

Wednesday 29 August 2007 at 12:57 pm Negative Memories May Be More Vivid Than Happy Ones
By Jennifer Warner
WebMD Medical NewsReviewed by Louise Chang, MDAug. 29, 2007 -- There may be a good reason why most people remember exactly what they were doing when tragedies happen, like the JFK assassination or Sept. 11th, but have a hard time remembering birthdays and anniversaries. It turns out that remembering the bad times just comes more naturally.

Nasal Spray May Ease Cluster Headaches

Tuesday 28 August 2007 at 5:42 pm Study Shows Migraine Drug Zomig May Treat Cluster Headaches, Too
By Miranda Hitti
WebMD Medical NewsReviewed by Louise Chang, MDAug. 28, 2007 -- The prescription nasal spray Zomig, which is used to treat migraines, may ease cluster headaches.

That's according to a new study published in today's edition of the journal Neurology.

Cluster headache, which is a severe type of headache disorder, affects less than 1% of the public, note the researchers, who included Alan Rapoport, MD, of The New England Center for Headache in Stamford, Conn. (more)

8 things no one tells you about being a mom

Tuesday 28 August 2007 at 5:36 pm Babies are adorable! There's nothing like the love surge of a full-body hug or the amazed pride you feel when your toddler takes his first steps!

Enough about the bright side. We do moms a disservice if we only gush about the countless truly terrific aspects of raising a child and neglect to mention the, well, harsher realities. It's useful to know that there are not-so-hot sides of the job, if only to take the edge off those inevitable pains of feeling exasperated, unnerved, or just surprised. And it's reassuring to know you're not the only one to admit a downside even exists. This is my list -- you'll probably have one, too. (more)

Colorado Proposals For Health Insurance Might Cost More Than $1B

Monday 27 August 2007 at 5:05 pm Proposals to reduce the number of uninsured Colorado residents might cost more than $1 billion for state residents, employers, and the state and federal governments, according to a report released on Tuesday compiled for the state by the Lewin Group, the Denver Post reports. The 260-page report details the costs and impact associated with each of four plans chosen by the state's Blue Ribbon Commission for Health Care Reform (Human, Denver Post, 8/22).

Two of the plans, proposed by the Colorado State Association for Health Underwriters and the Committee for Colorado Health Solutions, would require all state residents to obtain health insurance. Under the plans, the state would provide subsidies to residents who cannot afford to obtain health insurance. A third plan proposed by the Health Care for All Colorado Coalition would establish a single-payer health care system administered by the state, and a fourth plan proposed by the Service Employees International Union would expand state health insurance programs and establish a large health insurance purchasing pool (Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, 5/23). (more)

FDA Proposes New Sunscreen Rules

Monday 27 August 2007 at 5:03 pm Proposed Sunscreen Regulation Includes a Rating System, New Warning
By Miranda Hitti
WebMD Medical NewsReviewed by Louise Chang, MDAug. 23, 2007 -- Sunscreens may get a new rating system and a warning, thanks to a new FDA proposal.

The FDA today proposed a new regulation that sets standards for formulating, testing, and labeling over-the-counter sunscreens with ultraviolet A (UVA) and ultraviolet B (UVB) protection.

The proposal includes a four-star rating system for sunscreen protection against UVA light, along with a warning that stresses the importance of not relying solely on sunscreens to prevent skin cancer and skin damage. (more)

American Seniors' Intimacy And Sexual Health Studied

Sunday 26 August 2007 at 3:01 pm The first comprehensive, nationally representative survey on the prevalence of sexual activity among older Americans provides a portrait of the intimate lives of people ages 57 to 85.

A majority of older Americans are sexually active and view intimacy as an important part of life, despite a high rate of "bothersome" sexual problems, according to a new report in The New England Journal of Medicine. The findings come from the National Social Life, Health and Aging Project, research supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The findings shed new light on the intimate social relationships and health of people ages 57 to 85, informing health care providers and patients about sexual norms in the older U.S. population. (more)

New Noroviruses Boost Stomach Flu

Sunday 26 August 2007 at 2:59 pm CDC Identifies 2 New Strains of Norovirus That May Be to Blame
By Miranda Hitti
WebMD Medical NewsReviewed by Louise Chang, MDAug. 24, 2007 -- Battled a bout with stomach flu in the last year? You're not alone. The CDC says reported cases of stomach flu are on the rise, possibly because of two new stomach bugs.

Stomach flu is often caused by viruses called noroviruses, which can spread through food, from person to person, or via contaminated surfaces.

Last October, the CDC started hearing from state health departments about a perceived increase in outbreaks of stomach flu, which doctors call acute gastroenteritis. (more)

Out-of-Body Experiences Tested in Lab

Friday 24 August 2007 at 8:54 pm Scientists Use Virtual Reality to Bend the Body's Borders
By Miranda Hitti
WebMD Medical NewsReviewed by Louise Chang, MDAug. 23, 2007 -- Ever had an out-of-body experience, where you were wide awake and "saw" your body as if you were a bystander?

Scientists may have figured out how out-of-body experiences happen. Turns out, it's all about the eyes.

Two new studies -- both published in tomorrow's edition of the journal Science -- put a state-of-the-art spin on out-of-body research. (more)

Gastric Bypass Reduces Disease Related Deaths Among Severely Obese

Thursday 23 August 2007 at 09:54 am A new US study shows that severely obese patients who have gastric bypass surgery have a significantly lower risk of death from cancer, coronary heart disease, and diabetes. However non-disease related deaths are likely to be higher among gastric bypass patients than those who do not have surgery, the researchers concluded.

The study is published in the 23rd August issue of the New England Journal of Medicine and was led by scientists based at the University of Utah School of Medicine and LDS Hospital.

Lead author, Dr Ted D. Adams, professor at the Division of Cardiovascular Genetics in the University of Utah School of Medicine and co-founder of the Intermountain Health and Fitness Institute of LDS Hospital in Salt Lake City, said that: (more)

Women Don't Know Cholesterol Levels

Thursday 23 August 2007 at 09:52 am Survey Shows Less Than a Third of Women Know Their Cholesterol Numbers
By Jennifer Warner
WebMD Medical NewsReviewed by Louise Chang, MDAug. 22, 2007 -- Most women are seriously lacking when it comes to knowing their cholesterol numbers, according to a new survey.

Researchers found that twice as many women knew how much they weighed in high school than knew their current cholesterol level -- despite the fact that heart disease is the No. 1 killer among women. (more)

Study: Seniors having more sex than you think

Thursday 23 August 2007 at 09:48 am "From a societal perspective, I would say that old people are young people later in life," said Dr. Stacy Tesler Lindau, lead author of the federally funded study, which was published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Sexual activity reported among the 3,005 men and women who participated in the survey did decrease with age, particularly among the oldest participants -- from 73 percent among those 57 to 64 years of age to 53 percent among those 65 to 74 years of age to 26 percent among those 75 to 85 years of age.

Discussion of the sex habits of American seniors has received little attention, even from scientists. (more)

Virtual Online Game Teaches Pandemic Lessons

Wednesday 22 August 2007 at 11:50 am Virtual online computer games can teach epidemiologists lessons about how infectious diseases and pandemics like bird flu might spread in the real world, as a recent glitch in the online game World of Warcraft has revealed, according to an article by two US researchers in a medical journal.

The discovery is published in the September issue of The Lancet Infectious Diseases and is the work of Eric T Lofgren from the Tufts University Initiative for the Forecasting and Modeling of Infectious Diseases (InforMID), based at Tufts University School of Medicine in Boston, Massachusetts and Prof Nina H Fefferman from the Center for Discrete Mathematics and Theoretical Computer Science, at Rutgers University, Piscataway in New Jersey.

Epidemiologists use computer simulations as a research tool to model disease outbreaks and pandemics but they don't incorporate the unpredictable nature of human economic and social behaviour (such as that found in virtual role playing games) and are difficult to validate. (more)

Sex Differences Overrated?

Wednesday 22 August 2007 at 11:00 am Study Debunks Most Claims of Sex Differences in Genetic Diseases
By Daniel J. DeNoon
WebMD Medical NewsReviewed by Louise Chang, MDAug. 21, 2007 -- Many studies claim that a genetic mutation causes more disease in one sex than in another -- but most are wrong.

This provocative statement comes from Nikolaos A. Patsopoulos, MD, of the University of Ioannina School of Medicine, Greece, and colleagues. It's a shot across the bow for researchers tempted to make claims their studies do not actually support. (more)

High Blood Pressure Affects Kids Too

Wednesday 22 August 2007 at 10:57 am There's no doubt that American kids are getting fatter. But as the incidence of childhood obesity increases, so does that of another related condition: high blood pressure. Doctors estimate that there are now about 2 million U.S. kids and teens as young as 3 with hypertension, and a new study in the Aug. 22 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association reports that many of these children go dangerously underdiagnosed.

Dr. David Kaelber, an internist and pediatrician at Children's Hospital Boston, and his colleagues at Case Western Reserve University Medical School analyzed the medical records of 507 hypertensive and pre-hypertensive children and adolescents in the Cleveland area. The children had visited doctors at least three times between June 1999 and September 2006 at a number of Ohio outpatient clinics. During that period, the records showed, 376 patients (74%) had never been properly diagnosed with high blood pressure. (more)

Loneliness Can Speed Aging

Tuesday 21 August 2007 at 09:20 am Unhealthy Effects of Loneliness May Multiply With Time
By Jennifer Warner
WebMD Medical NewsReviewed by Louise Chang, MDAug. 20, 2007 -- Feeling lonely may take its toll on your health as well as your happiness as you get older.

A new study suggests that the unhealthy effects of loneliness accumulate with time and may contribute to the wear and tear of stress and aging on your body.

Researchers compared stress levels among college undergraduates (average age 19) and middle-aged and older people (average age 57) and found that although lonely people reported the same number of major life events as others, they were more likely to report more chronic stressors and unhappy childhood events. (more)

Scientists Say Common Virus Could Cause Obesity

Tuesday 21 August 2007 at 09:17 am Scientists at the 234th national meeting of the American Chemical Society in Boston, Massachusetts this week presented the results of a study that suggests a common virus could be partly responsible for the obesity epidemic that is sweeping across America and other nations. They hope their findings will develop antiviral medication to treat "viral obesity".

According to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), some 97 million adult Americans are obese. Obesity increases risk of many illnesses, including type 2 diabetes, heart disease, stroke, and osteoarthritis.

So far scientists have shown that genetic predisposition increases risk of obesity, as do other contributory factors including over-eating, eating foods high in fat, lack of physical exercise, genetics, and some medications. (more)

Why Girls Prefer Pink

Monday 20 August 2007 at 3:54 pm Girls’ Color Preference for Pink May Have Evolved for Biological Reasons
By Jennifer Warner
WebMD Medical NewsReviewed by Louise Chang, MDAug. 20, 2007 -- Girl’s preference for pink may have developed for evolutionary reasons rather than just a passion for fuchsia.

A new study shows that men and women have natural color preferences. Blue is the overall favorite for both, but women prefer a redder or more pinkish shade of blue than men. (more)

Americans Using Painkillers More Than Ever

Monday 20 August 2007 at 3:51 pm According to a recent analysis by the Associated Press (AP) news agency of figures from the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Americans are using painkillers more than ever before. Between 1997 and 2007 the volume of five major painkillers sold and distributed in the United States by hospitals, retail pharmacies, doctors and teaching centres has risen by 90 per cent.

The DEA figures show that in the most recent year of complete data, Americans bought in excess of 200,000 pounds of codeine, hydrocodone, meperidine, morphine, and oxycodone. That is equivalent to 300 milligrams of painkillers for each member of the population.

Most of the increased sales is in pills that contain oxycodone, the active ingredient in the painkiller OxyContin. Sales of this compound have risen by nearly 600 per cent in the 8 years between 1997 and 2005 says the AP report. (more)

Exercise Must Mean Exertion If You Want Good Health

Sunday 19 August 2007 at 12:21 pm Written by Christian Nordqvist
If you want to get any health benefit from exercise you have to push yourself, according to an article published in the journal Circulation. Members of the American College of Sports Medicine wonder whether some people's idea of 30 minutes of gentle exercise might not be just a bit too gentle...

Stress, Violence May Make MS Worse

Sunday 19 August 2007 at 12:08 pm Bullying Makes Viral Infection, Multiple Sclerosis Worse in Mice
By Daniel J. DeNoon
WebMD Medical NewsReviewed by Louise Chang, MDAug. 17, 2007 -- Mice with an MS-like disease got sicker faster after being chased and bitten by aggressive mouse bullies.

MS -- multiple sclerosis -- is an autoimmune disease in which the immune system attacks the myelin sheath protecting nerve cells. Nobody knows exactly what triggers recurrent relapses and new brain lesions in people with MS. There's some evidence that stress plays a role. (more)

Introspection Develops Much Earlier Than Previously Thought

Saturday 18 August 2007 at 11:28 pm Preschoolers are more introspective than we give them credit for, according to new research by Simona Ghetti, assistant professor of psychology at UC Davis.

Ghetti and her co-investigator, Kristen Lyons, a graduate student in psychology at UC Davis, presented their findings during the "Young Researchers in Developmental Psychology" symposium at the annual meeting of the American Psychological Association in San Francisco.

Scientists have demonstrated that dolphins, monkeys and even rats can engage in some form of "metacognition," or an awareness of their own thought processes. But developmental psychologists have assumed that human children do not develop this capability before about age 5. (more)

West Nile Virus Kills 15 in U.S.

Saturday 18 August 2007 at 4:49 pm CDC Has Reports of 444 People With West Nile Virus in the U.S. So Far This Year
By Miranda Hitti
WebMD Medical NewsReviewed by Louise Chang, MDAug. 16, 2007 -- The CDC today reported that so far this year, West Nile virus has sickened 444 people in the U.S., including 15 people who died of West Nile virus illness.

Those figures, published in the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, include West Nile cases reported to the CDC as of Aug. 14.

Five of the West Nile virus deaths occurred in California. South Dakota reported two deaths from West Nile virus. Alabama, Arkansas, Colorado, Illinois, Mississippi, North Dakota, Oklahoma, and Wyoming each reported one West Nile death. (more)

FDA warning: Codeine may affect nursing babies

Saturday 18 August 2007 at 4:42 pm WASHINGTON (AP) -- Nursing mothers who take codeine should watch their infants for increased sleepiness or other signs of overdose, federal health officials warned Friday.

The Food and Drug Administration warning of the rare but serious side effect was prompted by a 2006 report of the death of a nursing infant whose mother was given codeine for episiotomy pain.

Genetic testing later showed the woman's body converted the codeine to morphine more rapidly and completely than in other people. That led to higher-than-expected morphine levels in her breast milk. (more)

President's Cancer Panel: Tough Talk

Friday 17 August 2007 at 1:04 pm Calls Tobacco, Food, Beverage Industries 'Disease Vectors'; Regulation Urged
By Daniel J. DeNoon
WebMD Medical NewsReviewed by Louise Chang, MDAug. 16, 2007 – The President's Cancer Panel calls for U.S. leaders to "summon the political will" to reduce Americans' cancer risks -- and slams the tobacco, food, and beverage industries as "disease vectors."

Appointed by the President Bush, the panel's three members are cancer survivor and cycling champion Lance Armstrong; Margaret L. Kripke, PhD, chief academic officer at Houston's M.D. Anderson Cancer Center; and panel chairman LaSalle D. Leffall Jr., MD, professor of surgery at Howard University in Washington. (more)

US Government Not Promoting Healthy Living Says Cancer Panel

Friday 17 August 2007 at 12:48 pm Written by Catharine Paddock
The US government should be doing more to promote healthy living says a new report from the President's Cancer Panel (PCP) out this week. Cancer kills more than half a million Americans every year, and nearly three times that number are diagnosed annually with the disease...

Lower your miscarriage risk with new tests, treatments

Friday 17 August 2007 at 12:16 pm When Kori Morrison had her first miscarriage, she and her husband, Tom, were upset but still hopeful. After all, she knew that 15 to 50 percent of all pregnancies end in miscarriage, and most of these women who've miscarried go on to have healthy babies. But in the next eight years, Morrison had four more miscarriages. Sadness and self-blame set in. "I wondered if I was eating the wrong things, if I was overstressed, or, worst of all, if my body just wasn't cut out for pregnancy," she says.

Morrison was eventually found to have a hormone imbalance: Low progesterone during pregnancy kept her uterus from nourishing the embryo. With treatment, she went on to have four children. (more)

A Little Walking Cuts Blood Pressure

Thursday 16 August 2007 at 4:50 pm Study Shows Even Short Walks Can Improve Your Health
By Jennifer Warner
WebMD Medical NewsReviewed by Louise Chang, MDAug. 15, 2007 -- Thirty minutes of walking three times a week may be enough to help lower blood pressure and start you on the path to better health.

A new study shows that even a little bit of weekly exercise is enough to lower blood pressure and improve overall fitness. The results showed that 30 minutes of walking three times a week -- even if it was broken into 10-minute walks throughout the day -- was enough to have a healthy effect on blood pressure as well as measurements around the waist and hip. (more)

Scientists Say Abortion Pill No Riskier Than Surgical Termination

Thursday 16 August 2007 at 4:22 pm A new study on Danish women has shown that using abortion pills to terminate pregnancies during the first trimester is no more hazardous to future pregnancies than surgical terminations.

The study is published in the New England Journal of Medicine and is the work of scientists in Denmark and the US.

Abortion pills, also called medical abortions, are being used more and more by women to terminate unwanted pregnancies during the first trimester but there is little evidence of how this affects the safety of future pregnancies.

However, surgical abortion is still preferred by most women who find themselves with an unwanted pregnancy that they wish to terminate. (more)

Study: Parents in denial, despair as teens drug use grows

Thursday 16 August 2007 at 4:11 pm WASHINGTON (AP) -- Teenagers say drug problems at school are getting worse, and parents express doubts about ever making such schools drug free, a new study says.

The percentage of teens who say they attend high schools with drug problems has increased from 44 percent to 61 percent since 2002, and the percentage in middle schools has increased from 19 percent to 31 percent, according to the survey to be released Thursday by Columbia University's National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse.

Four in five teens in high school told researchers they have witnessed the use, sale or possession of illegal drugs on high school grounds, or seen someone who was drunk or high on campus. (more)