Health & WellnessS


Attention

How Social Networks Can Both Help And Harm Our Kids


redOrbit
Mon, 08 Aug 2011 10:15 UTC
Social Network Studies
© redOrbit
A new study has shown that too much social media time on websites such as Facebook may be bad for children.

Larry Rosen, a psychologist at Cal State Dominguez Hills, has been studying the effect of technology on people for more than 25 years. And recently, he has done several studies on how social networking sites such as Facebook affect children.

Speaking Saturday at the American Psychological Association's annual convention in Washington, D.C., Rosen said teens who spend more time using the Internet and playing video games tended to have more stomach aches, sleeping issues, anxiety, and depression.

Rosen also found in his study that teens who logged onto Facebook constantly were more narcissistic since social networking is exactly what the narcissist seeks out. They can share themselves constantly on their terms using social networking.

"While nobody can deny that Facebook has altered the landscape of social interaction, particularly among young people, we are just now starting to see solid psychological research demonstrating both the positives and the negatives," Rosen said.

The study: "Poke Me: How Social Networks Can Both Help and Harm Our Kids," shows both the negative and positive effects social networks have on today's youth and adults.
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Pills

Antidepressant Use Increasing Among Those with No Psychiatric Diagnosis

Eric W. Dolan
RawStory
Sun, 07 Aug 2011 16:17 UTC
Image
© Unknown
Antidepressants became the third most commonly prescribed class of medications in the United States thanks in part to non-psychiatrist providers prescribing the drugs to individuals without any psychiatric diagnosis, according to a new study led by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

"We've seen a marked increase in antidepressant use among individuals with no psychiatric diagnosis. Nearly four out of every five antidepressant prescriptions are written by non-psychiatrist providers," said Ramin Mojtabai, MD, PhD, MPH. He was lead author of the study and an associate professor with the Bloomberg School's Department of Mental Health.

"Between 1996 and 2007, the number of visits where individuals were prescribed antidepressants with no psychiatric diagnoses increased from 59.5 percent to 72.7 percent and the share of providers who prescribed antidepressants without a concurrent psychiatric diagnosis increased from 30 percent of all non-psychiatrist physicians in 1996 to 55.4 percent in 2007."

The results are featured in the August 2011 issue of Health Affairs.
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Black Cat

The Invisible IQ Lowering Drug Most Americans Consume Daily

Dr. Mercola
Mercola.com
Sun, 07 Aug 2011 11:52 UTC
Did you know there's an "invisible" drug that a majority of Americans consume on a daily basis - a drug so harmful it's been proven to cause serious health issues, including damage to your bones and teeth, as well as your kidneys, thyroid, pineal gland, and even your brain. This drug is so pervasive that over 40 percent of all American teens between the ages of 12 and 15 show visible signs of having been overexposed to it, and, shockingly, recent international studies indicate that even small doses of this drug can lower the IQ in children.

What is this drug?
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Pills

New Antidepressants Can Increase Risks for Elderly, Study Suggests


ScienceDaily
Wed, 03 Aug 2011 00:00 UTC
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© fingerfreak.com
Older people taking new generation antidepressants are at more risk of dying or suffering from a range of serious health conditions including stroke, falls, fractures and epilepsy, suggests a new study involving researchers at The University of Nottingham.

The research, published on the British Medical Journal website, discovered that selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) are more strongly associated with an increased risk of several adverse outcomes in people over the age of 65 with depression compared with older tricyclic antidepressants (TCAs).

The authors say the risks and benefits of different antidepressants should be carefully considered when prescribing these drugs to elderly patients and have called for further research to investigate the findings.

Comment: In addition to being potentially dangerous, many studies have shown that these drugs don't work:

Placebo Works as Well as Antidepressant Drugs

Why Antidepressants Don't Work for Treating Depression

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Family

Omega 3 Fatty Acids Have Protective Benefits When Taken During Pregnancy, Study Suggests


ScienceDaily
Fri, 05 Aug 2011 00:00 UTC
Image
© blog.find-healthy-food.com
An Emory University study published online on August 1 in Pediatrics suggests consuming Omega 3 fatty acids during pregnancy helps protects babies against illness during early infancy.

The randomized, placebo-controlled trial followed approximately 1,100 pregnant women and 900 infants in Mexico. The women were supplemented daily with 400 mg of Docosahexaenoic Acid (DHA) supplements in the algal form or placebo from 18 to 22 weeks gestation through childbirth.

Researchers found those whose mothers took DHA supplements had fewer colds and shorter illnesses at one, three and six months of age.

"This is a large scale, robust study that underscores the importance of good nutrition during pregnancy," says Usha Ramakrishnan, PhD, associate professor, Hubert Department of Global Health at Emory's Rollins School of Public Health. "Our findings indicate that pregnant women taking 400 mg of DHA are more likely to deliver healthier infants."
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Attention

What's causing this lady's stomach to bloat after eating?

Dr. John Briffa
drbriffa.com
Thu, 04 Aug 2011 00:00 UTC
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Food babies: This is Kerri after she ate a small slice of cherry pie. She returns to her normal size 10 figure after a few hours
I came across this story today. It concerns a young lady who, it is claimed, can bloat up like a balloon shortly after she eats. Normal testing has not identified any particular problem.

I was interested in this story because it reminded me of a similar story given to me some years ago when I was lecturing in Toronto. One dinner, I sat next to the very nice Canadian administrator of the event on which I was teaching. I noticed she (let's call her 'Louise') was eating only tiny portion of food. Often, individuals assume that someone eating micro-portions of food has something to do with weight control. But I've learned in practice to avoid making assumptions, and (gently) asked Louise why she was not eating much.
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Beaker

Monsanto to Sell Biotech Sweet Corn for U.S. Consumers

Jack Kaskey
Bloomberg
Thu, 04 Aug 2011 18:10 UTC
corn & cross bones
© Current.com
Monsanto Co., the world's biggest vegetable seed maker, said it will begin selling genetically modified sweet corn in the U.S. this year, the first product it has developed for the consumer market.

The sweet corn seeds are engineered to kill insects living above and below ground and to tolerate applications of the company's Roundup herbicide, Consuelo Madere, Monsanto vice president for vegetables, told reporters at company headquarters in St. Louis today. They will be introduced to growers serving the U.S. fresh corn market starting in the autumn, she said.

Monsanto previously sold only engineered crops that are processed into sugars and oils, used as animal feed or made into fibers. The new seeds will initially target the 250,000-acre market for fresh corn in the eastern U.S., Madere said. Monsanto is in discussions with companies that would can or freeze the corn, she said.

Monsanto will compete with pest-killing sweet corn seeds that Syngenta AG (SYNN) of Switzerland has sold for more than a decade, she said.
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Pills

Everyday medicines can destroy lives, conference warns


MedicalXpress
Thu, 07 Jul 2011 07:50 UTC
Image
© Unknown
Experts have called for increased awareness about the issue of adverse drug reactions after hearing how everyday prescription medicines are destroying the lives of some patients.

Delegates at an international conference heard that more needed to be done to raise the profile of the Yellow Card scheme, which allows patients to directly report serious side effects of prescribed medicines that have not previously been included in pharmaceutical product literature.

It followed recent research led by academics at The University of Nottingham, University of Aberdeen, the Drug Safety Research Unit (DSRU) and Liverpool John Moores University which showed that patient reporting of suspected adverse drugs reactions, or ADRs, through the Yellow Card scheme is richer in detail and better at describing the impact on their daily lives than information supplied by health care professionals.

Tony Avery, Professor of Primary Health Care in the University's School of Community Health Sciences, who led the research and spoke at the conference, said: "Not only do patients' voices matter, the experiences of everyday people taking prescribed medicines can also increase the understanding of adverse effects.

Comment: Shouldn't be drugs thoroughly tested before introducing them to the market? Talk about shifting responsibility!
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Briefcase

Big Pharma Spends $95 Thousand Per Doctor on Marketing Each Year

Heidi Stevenson
Gaia Health
Fri, 29 Jul 2011 07:36 UTC
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© Unknown
The amount of spending to market Big Pharma's products comes to about $95,000 per doctor per year in the US alone. Now, they're interacting with docs at the point of writing prescriptions.

You've likely seen your doctor using a nifty mobile phone application, called Epocrates, before writing a prescription. Such a clever device - and your doc didn't have to pay a penny for it. But you do. You pay for it in terms of adverse effects, less effective drugs, and money. Lots of money.

Mobile devices are the big new thing in pharmaceutical marketing, and one company now dominates the industry: Epocrates. Clever name that, but it plays on the name of Hippocrates, whose oath includes a statement that a doctor should first do no harm. That oath is shredded by Epocrates' Big Pharma connections and funding by advertisements.

Of the $60 billion spent each year on marketing, according to former Epocrates CEO, Kirk Loevner, $16 billion is spent trying to directly influence doctors. That's $23,333 per doctor per year, and the industry is planning to increase that figure. They do it for one reason alone: it works.

Doctors who claim it doesn't are, at best, fooling themselves. Epocrates says that pharmaceutical companies that purchase DocAlerts return three dollars for every dollar spent. Doc Alerts are thinly-disguised advertisements that physicians must go through before getting to their drug searches. Obviously, these ads are effective in convincing doctors to prescribe drugs.
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Ladybug

US: New Tick-Borne Disease Found in Upper Midwest

John Gever
Medpage Today
Thu, 04 Aug 2011 22:47 UTC
A tick is shown in this file photo.
© Kent Wood/Getty ImagesA tick is shown in this file photo.

A previously unknown species of the tick-borne Ehrlichia bacterium was responsible for mysterious infections affecting four people in Wisconsin and Minnesota in 2009, researchers reported in the Aug. 4 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

Culturing, serological testing, and DNA analysis confirmed that the four individuals, all of whom recovered, were infected with a still unnamed Ehrlichia species distinct from E. chaffeensis and E. ewingii, the most common pathogens responsible for ehrlichiosis in the U.S., according to Dr. Bobbi S. Pritt of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. and colleagues.

Currently designated as Ehrlichia Wisconsin HM543746, the new species appears most closely related to E. muris, which until recently was thought to be confined to eastern Europe and parts of Asia. Pritt and colleagues found the two species to be 98 percent genetically similar.
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