Health

Evidence Based Medicine

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I found a good website discussing some of the benefits of evidence based medicine. It explains what it is, what a systematic review is, and what this means to you. The information is from The Informed Health Online/Gesundheitsinformation.de Team: IQWiG. My favorite paragraph is talking about what to do when there is no clear answer for your medical treatment. It is important to remember, too, that just because there is no clear answer now, it does not mean that there is nothing a patient can do and that someone should take over for them. If there is no conclusive evidence about a treatment, patients need the best description possible of the potential advantages and disadvantages of the alternatives they face so that they can choose what they want to do. A variety of medical and personal issues can influence this … Read more

Dental Spending Expected to Slow

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The Office of the Actuary in the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services reports that the growth in dental spending is expected to slow. The projected 2 percent increase from $99.9 billion in 2008 to $101.9 billion in 2009 may prove to be the lowest annual increase in dental spending since 1960. This is tied to the peformance in the economy. Today the DOW fell below 7,000 for the first time since 1997. People have to cut back somewhere, so they may be doing so by forgoing visits to the dentist. Even so, this is not a safe bet. You should have a checkup and cleaning atleast once a year. Dental spending is expected to return to more normal levels in 2010. It is projected that there will be an increase of 4.3 percent in 2010 and a 6 percent … Read more

Stress Affects Memory In the Brain

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Researchers using functional MRI (fMRI) have determined that the circuitry in the area of the brain responsible for suppressing memory is dysfunctional in patients suffering from stress-related psychiatric disorders. “For patients with major depression and other stress-related disorders, traumatic memories are a source of anxiety,” said Nivedita Agarwal, M.D., radiology resident at the University of Udine in Italy. “Because traumatic memories are not adequately suppressed by the brain, they continue to interfere with the patient’s life.” Dr. Agarwal and colleagues used brain fMRI to explore alterations in the neural circuitry that links the prefrontal cortex to the hippocampus, while study participants performed a memory task. All patients reported s varying degrees of stressful traumatic events, such as sexual or physical abuse, difficult relationships or bullying or harassment – in their lives. The fMRI images revealed that the prefrontal cortex, which … Read more

Colon Cancer and Inflammation

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Researchers led by Dr. Brian Iritani at The University of Washington found that mice that lack the immune inhibitory molecule Smad3 are acutely sensitive to both bacterially-induced inflammation and cancer. I actually study some of the Smad moelecues in Biology classes at University by performing Western blot plots. Absence of Smad3 inhibits inflammation and  increase susceptibility to colon cancer. To examine whether Smad3 signaling contributes to development of colon cancer, mice deficient in Smad3 were studied. It was found that these mice are acutely sensitive to bacterially-induced inflammation and cancer due to both deficient T regulatory cell function and increased expression of proinflammatory cytokines. “That the inflammatory response to microorganisms is a key event in these results reveals important ‘tumor-suppressive’ functions for Smad3 in T effector cells, T regulatory cells, and intestinal epithelial cells, all of which may normally limit … Read more

High School Senior Drug Use

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Parents have long worried whether their kids at college are drinking too much or just abusing drugs. Lately there have been a large number of young people abusing prescription opiates. It is rather common knowledge now that several years ago, attention-deficit drugs such as Ritalin and Adderall became popular among students. This was so that they could improve concentration or lose weight. Now more dangerous drugs and powerful painkillers are being used largely by such students such as OxyContin, Vicodin and Percocet. Earlier this month, several drug experts testified at a congressional hearing named Generation Rx In 2006, 2.2 million people ages 12 and older said they started abusing pain relievers within the past year. It has also been seen that young adults ages 18-25 show the greatest overall use of any age group. Even so, these drugs are still … Read more