Health & WellnessS


Syringe

Possible contamination at VA facilities sparks call for inquiry

Jennifer Pifer Bixler, Elizabeth Cohen and Sabriya Rice
CNN
Wed, 25 Mar 2009 03:14 UTC
Thousands of veterans in South Florida may have been exposed to hepatitis and HIV because of contaminated equipment after getting colonoscopies at the Miami Veterans Affairs Healthcare System, officials announced Monday. Two Florida lawmakers are asking for an inspector general's inquiry.

"The VA is a model of the type of health care we provide our veterans, and when mistakes like this occur, it undermines the efficacy of the entire system," said Rep. Kendrick B. Meek, D-Florida, in a news release. Meek, along with Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Florida, is requesting an official inquiry by the inspector general of the VA.
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Info

'Take control of your sleep, before it takes control of you'


Sify News
Mon, 23 Mar 2009 20:01 UTC
New Delhi: If you didn't sleep well last night or feel exhausted all day long, you are probably one of thousands suffering from sleeping disorders. It's possible that hypertension, acidity and several other lifestyle diseases are playing havoc with your sleep.

Good sleep helps you to be alert, awake and keeps you energetic throughout the day and hence a good night's sleep is vital for good health, experts say.

"As sleep is vital to our health and well-being, we must not cut ourselves short from the amount of sleep that we get or suffer from sleep problems. Take control of your sleep problems before it takes control of you," advised Ramnathan Iyer, a doctor who treats patients with sleep disorders.
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Bug

Thirteen die after C. diff outbreak at East Sussex hospital

Julian Simmonds
The Telegraph
Tue, 24 Mar 2009 20:55 UTC
Thirteen patients have died after an outbreak of C. diff at Eastbourne District General Hospital in East Sussex.

Three died as a direct result of clostridium difficile while the bug was linked to a further 10 deaths at the hospital.

A further 17 patients are still being treated for the fatal infection.

The deaths were revealed at a press conference following a week of ward closures as the hospital battles to contain the problem.

A special isolation ward has been opened and patients were last week diverted to other sites up to 30 miles away for operations while cleaning work is carried out.
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Nuke

People died at Three Mile Island

Harvey Wasserman
The Free Press
Tue, 24 Mar 2009 20:10 UTC
People died---and are still dying---at Three Mile Island.

As the thirtieth anniversary of America's most infamous industrial accident approaches,
three mile island
© na
we mourn the deaths that accompanied the biggest string of lies ever told in US industrial history.

As news of the accident poured into the global media, the public was assured there were no radiation releases.

That quickly proved to be false.
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Health

Rehab centers see bankers driven to drink

Claudia Parsons
Reuters
Tue, 24 Mar 2009 18:19 UTC
Cocaine and martinis On Wall Street? Nothing new there. Masters of the Universe admitting they have an alcohol problem? Not so common.

Experts say more and more people in finance are seeking treatment for addiction as the global economic crisis sinks its teeth into a high-stakes industry where confidence is the name of the game and nobody wants to admit to a weakness.

"We absolutely do see more people coming in naming either a job loss or huge financial reversals or big investments with Bernie Madoff," said Sigurd Ackerman, medical director at Silver Hill Hospital rehabilitation facility in New Canaan, Connecticut.

"They're being admitted with depression or increases in substance abuse, or both."

Ackerman said there was a high concentration of financial professionals in the town, 40 miles from New York, whose main streets are lined with high-end boutiques catering to the well-heeled wives of hedge fund managers and bankers.
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Heart - Black

Dirty Equipment May Have Infected Veterans With HIV

Todd Wright
Miami News
Mon, 23 Mar 2009 17:18 UTC
More than 3,200 veterans asked to visit their doctor

Doctors at a Miami Veterans Administration hospital may have operated on over 3,200 patients with dirty equipment that may have infected them with deadly diseases.

Officials said Monday colonoscopy patients should meet with a doctor to get screened for HIV, hepatitis and other diseases. That's probably not the best way to pay back people who laid their life on the line for this country.
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Health

Steak and hot dogs linked to early death

Ewen Callaway
New Scientist
Tue, 24 Mar 2009 17:13 UTC
Image
© Soren Hald/Taxi/GettyConsuming lots of red and processed meats increases the chances of dying within a 10-year period

It gives a new meaning to the phrase "meat is murder": a study of more than half a million Americans has found that consuming steaks, hot dogs and other red and processed meats significantly increased participants' chances of dying during the decade in which they were tracked.

Women who consumed the most red meat - 66 grams (2.3 ounces) per 1000 calories - were roughly 36% more likely to die than women who ate the least red meat - 9.1 grams (0.3 ounces). For men, a similar difference in red meat consumption, upped death rates by 31%.

To put it the other way around, the researchers say that 11% of deaths in men and 16% of deaths in women could be prevented if people who eat a lot of red meat cut their consumption.

"This is probably the biggest and most carefully done study on the relationship between diet and mortality that I've seen," says Barry Popkin, an epidemiologist at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, who was not involved in the study.
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Health

HIV-TB 'double trouble' warning


BBC News
Tue, 24 Mar 2009 16:25 UTC
One in four TB deaths is HIV-related, twice as many as previously recognised, experts say.

Co-infection remains a major challenge and more efforts are needed to spot and treat the two conditions in tandem, says the World Health Organization.

HIV and tuberculosis services must be joined up if we are to achieve global disease control, warn disease experts.

Despite TB killing more people with HIV than any other disease, in 2008 only 1% of people with HIV had a TB screen.
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Arrow Down

Increasing Number of Americans Have Insufficient Levels of Vitamin D


PhysOrg
Mon, 23 Mar 2009 22:00 UTC
Average blood levels of vitamin D appear to have decreased in the United States between 1994 and 2004, according to a report in the March 23 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine.

Clinicians previously believed the major health problems associated with vitamin D deficiency were rickets in children and reduced bone mineral content in adults, conditions reduced by fortifying foods with vitamin D, according to background information in the article. More recently, insufficient vitamin D levels have been associated with cancer, heart disease, infection and suboptimal health overall. Evidence suggests that levels of 30 nanograms per milliliter to 40 nanograms per milliliter may be needed for optimum health.

"Vitamin D supplementation appears to mitigate the incidence and adverse outcomes of these diseases and may reduce all-cause mortality," the authors write. However, currently recommended levels of supplementation - 200 international units per day from birth to age 50, 400 international units per day from age 51 to 70 and 600 international units per day for adults age 71 and older - focus primarily on improving bone health. In addition, decreases in outdoor physical activities and successful campaigns to reduce sun exposure may have contributed to vitamin D insufficiency, since sunlight exposure is a main determinant of vitamin D status in humans.
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Sherlock

Gulf War Veterans Display Abnormal Brain Response To Specific Chemicals


Science Daily
Tue, 24 Mar 2009 10:38 UTC
A new study by UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers is the first to pinpoint damage inside the brains of veterans suffering from Gulf War syndrome - a finding that links the illness to chemical exposures and may lead to diagnostic tests and treatments.

Dr. Robert Haley, chief of epidemiology at UT Southwestern and lead author of the study, said the research uncovers and locates areas of the brain that function abnormally. Recent studies had shown evidence of chemical abnormalities and shrinkage of white matter in the brains of veterans exposed to certain toxic chemicals, such as sarin gas during the 1991 Persian Gulf War.

The research, published in the March issue of the journal Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging, enables investigators to visualize exact brain structures affected by these chemical exposures, Dr. Haley said.

"Before this study, we didn't know exactly what parts of the brain were damaged and causing the symptoms in these veterans," he said. "We designed an experiment to test areas of the brain that would have been damaged if the illness was caused by sarin or pesticides, and the results were positive."
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