Health & WellnessS


Pills

Why so many older Americans are overdosing on opioids

Lolade Fadulu
The Atlantic
Fri, 31 Aug 2018 14:30 UTC
ageing
© Chris Shinn
A recent poll suggests many doctors aren't warning elderly patients of the risks when prescribing painkillers.

As the body ages, it often aches. In the United States, 81 percent of adults over 65 endure multiple chronic conditions such as arthritis, hypertension, heart disease, and diabetes. There also can be emotional pain from the loss of relatives and close friends, and concerns about the continued ability to live independently.

For those whose physical ailments prove almost paralyzing and chronic, health providers often prescribe opioid painkillers, such as hydrocodone and oxycodone. But that can lead to trouble. Last year, the Department of Health and Human Services declared the opioid crisis a public-health emergency. The department has spent almost $900 million on treatment services and other initiatives, but still more and more Americans are dying of overdoses on opioids-in the forms of prescription pain pills, heroin, or synthetic drugs. While older adults are not the age group most affected by the crisis, the population of older adults who misuse opioids is projected to double from 2004 to 2020.
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X

Latest low-carb 'study': All politics, no science

Georgia Ede MD
Psychology Today
Wed, 05 Sep 2018 00:01 UTC
low carb tombstone
© Suzi Smith
Recently, the journal Lancet Public Health published a study conducted by researchers at Harvard University and the University of Minnesota warning people that low-carbohydrate diets can cause early death.

The paper, entitled "Dietary carbohydrate intake and mortality: a prospective cohort study and meta-analysis" has enjoyed broad media coverage and ignited passionate debate in nutrition circles around the world.

Comment: Rather ironic that the very same site, Psychology Today, posted another article called "Are Carbs The Culprit?" that sings the praises of this study: "The take-home message: Moderation is best, and focusing primarily on a plant-based diet can help you to live longer." What a crock! It looks like Psychology Today has some decisions to make: stick with the old dying paradigm of low-fat, low/no meat recommendations that have been killing us for decades, or actually look critically at the evidence and recognize the house of cards for what it is.

See also:

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Pills

Nearly 70K children a year go to the ER due to antibiotic side effects

Dr. Mercola
mercola.com
Wed, 05 Sep 2018 15:37 UTC
antibiotics
© antibiotics-info.org
Before the beginning of the 20th century, the average life expectancy was 47 years, even in the industrialized world.1 Infectious diseases such as pneumonia, syphilis and smallpox were rampant. The discovery of penicillin in 1928 marked the beginning of a revolution against microbes that had assailed human health for centuries.

Discoveries of many new classes of antibiotics occurred during the antibiotic era. In the U.S., the leading cause of death became noncommunicable diseases, such as cardiovascular disease, cancer and stroke, as compared to communicable diseases, and the average life expectancy rose to 78.8 years.2 But overuse has led to a reduction in effectiveness.

The drugs that transformed life in the early 1900s now saturate concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs), and are offered to many who seek medical care with anything appearing like an infection. Antibiotics are also sprayed on crops,3 dumped in rivers with treated and untreated waste4 and painted on the hulls of boats5 to keep off barnacles.

Over the decades these tiny microbes have begun to evade the drugs used to kill them, developing into antibiotic-resistant pathogens estimated to cause at least 2 million infections annually, leading to 23,000 deaths each year in the U.S. alone.6 According to the World Health Organization:7

Comment: The Health & Wellness Show: What have we done? Antibiotic resistance in the age of superbugs

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Health

'Incurable' & drug-resistant: Deadly superbug colonizing hospitals across globe


RT
Tue, 04 Sep 2018 09:47 UTC
superbug Staphylcocus epidermidis
© William WEST / AFPThe superbug Staphylcocus epidermidis on an agar plate in Melbourne on September 4, 2018.
Doctors are warning of a potentially fatal and "formidable" pathogen which has spread to hospitals across the globe and is resistant to all known antibiotics.

A team of researchers from the University of Melbourne in Australia discovered three multidrug-resistant strains of Staphylococcus epidermidis which emerged in recent decades and spread globally. The team studied samples from 78 medical institutions across 10 countries, releasing their findings in the journal Nature Microbiology on Monday.

"Often it just colonises the skin," researcher Ben Howden said as cited by ABC News Australia. "It doesn't necessarily lead to infection. But in a smaller number of people it can lead to a serious, invasive infection requiring complex treatment."

S. epidermidis, a relative of the better-known MRSA superbug, is found commonly on human skin, and poses no real threat to the majority of the human population. However, people who have compromised immune systems, are recovering from surgery or have implanted medical devices such as catheters or joint replacements are susceptible to the potentially-severe and sometimes fatal infection.

"The discovery is really that there's this bacteria that's been spreading in hospitals around the world somewhat unrecognised for a number of years," Howden said. "This is just another example of the use of antibiotics driving bacteria to become more and more resistant."
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Wine n Glass

The debate rages: Latest research contends no amount of alcohol is safe


RT
Sat, 25 Aug 2018 17:22 UTC
wine
Any and all alcohol consumption is bad for your health, according to a new global report from health experts, who are attempting to settle the drinking debate once and for all.

The report, published in The Lancet medical journal, claims to be the most comprehensive of its kind and goes against previous studies which have suggested a glass of red wine is equal to going to the gym, or that drinking alcohol makes you live longer.

While the researchers acknowledged that moderate alcohol use can help protect against heart disease and diabetes, they said the risks associated with drinking alcohol - such as cancer and other illnesses - far outweigh any benefits.

"The widely held view of the health benefits of alcohol needs revising," said the report, which called for national medical guidelines - that suggest drinking one or two glasses of wine or beer per day are safe - should be amended.

Comment: This latest pronouncement is unlikely to be the final salvo in the battle; no doubt a contradictory study is on its way to further confuse the issue. See also:

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People

How to spot autistic students who are 'social masking'

Kate Shaw
tes
Tue, 04 Sep 2018 20:30 UTC
crossword
There's a popular saying when it comes to autism spectrum disorder (ASD): "If you've met one person with autism, you've met one person with autism." The spectrum is incredibly vast and every child is different - no one displays all of the same signs in the exact same way. This means that it can be really tricky for teachers to identify them and then offer the right support for those pupils.

So how, as a teacher, can you spot the signs? Girls and boys adopt various coping methods for surviving the social chaos of primary and secondary school. But one of the key indicators for school staff to look out for is a trait called "social masking", which is very common among girls.

Social masking is when a child copies the behaviours of those around them to fit in. It can be hard to spot because the copied behaviour may come across as merely conventional.

However, there are signs to look out for: a girl with ASD might observe behaviour and display an exact copy of it. For example, if a child in their class makes a joke and everybody laughs, the child with ASD may repeat this joke on more than one occasion to trigger the same response from her peers. This can, of course, be irritating for the other children, which may confuse and upset the girl because she may not understand the social issues that repeating somebody else's joke can create.

Comment: Further reading:

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Info

Wash yer hands! Study finds that highest levels of viruses at airports were found in plastic security trays


itv
Tue, 04 Sep 2018 00:00 UTC
plastic security trays
© PAThe research found viruses were most commonly found on plastic trays at the passenger queue.
Plastic security trays retain the highest levels of viruses at airports, a study has found.

Pandemic experts found evidence of viruses on 10% of airport surfaces tested - which also included shop payment terminals, staircase rails, passport checking counters and children's play areas.

The various surfaces were swabbed at Helsinki-Vantaa airport at peak-time as part of a scientific investigation carried out by experts from the University of Nottingham and the Finnish National Institute for Health and Welfare during the winter of 2016.

The research found viruses were most commonly found on the plastic trays that are circulated along the passenger queue at the hand luggage X-ray checkpoint.

Comment: As if the DNA-destroying X-ray machines weren't enough!

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Info

Coconut oil is poison? Cardiologist Dr Aseem Malhotra slams Harvard professor who made the ludicrous claim: 'unscientific nonsense'

Stephen Matthews
The Daily Mail
Fri, 31 Aug 2018 21:29 UTC
Dr. Aseem Malhotra
A Harvard professor who claimed coconut oil is poison has today been slammed as talking 'unscientific nonsense' by a furious cardiologist.

Professor Karin Michels, who also heads the tumour research center at the University of Freiburg in Germany, made the controversial statement last month.

She described the oil as 'one of the worst foods you can eat' - and said even lard is healthier, despite being abundant in saturated fat.

But Dr Aseem Malhotra, an avid supporter of saturated fats and founder of the campaign group Action on Sugar, said her comments were bringing the prestigious Harvard University into 'disrepute'.

Comment: It appears that the regular slamming of low-carb diets in the media is now being joined by the regular slamming of coconut oil. It's likely the hubbub is financially motivated (possibly by the vegetable oil industry?), although a smoking gun has yet to be uncovered.

See also:

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Bacon

An explanation of why saturated fat cannot raise cholesterol levels (LDL levels)


Dr. Malcolm Kendrick
Tue, 03 Jul 2018 00:01 UTC
butter


"Explanations exist; they have existed for all time; there is always a well-known solution to every human problem - neat, plausible, and wrong.' H.L. Mencken.

Of all the flaws of the human mind, the number one must be the overwhelming desire to find simple, easy to understand answers - to everything. I think this is why my favourite film of all time is Twelve Angry Men. It was a stage play first.

A black youth is accused of killing his father. The evidence that is presented by the prosecution seems utterly overwhelming. A unique knife is used for the murder, one that the youth was known to carry. He was seen leaving the apartment after shouting 'I'll kill you' and suchlike. Most importantly, however, he was a young black youth, and young black youths are widely considered to be the sort of person who do such things.

Comment: See also:

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Health

Best of the Web: Former longtime editor of JAMA: 'It's not the fat that makes us unhealthy'

George D. Lundberg, MD
Medscape
Fri, 24 Aug 2018 00:01 UTC
George Lundberg
Hello and welcome. I am Dr George Lundberg, and this is At Large at Medscape. Today I am in my angry-old-man persona. I often write about nutrition and disease. And I usually admit in advance to knowing little about nutrition, much like most of my physician readers.

It has been 11 years since independent investigative science journalist Gary Taubes published his best-seller, Good Calories, Bad Calories,[1] after 15 years of serious study, enabled by that amazing new tool, the Internet. Turns out, it's not fat that makes us unhealthy. In 640 total pages with 459 notes, 1700 references, and 924 Amazon customer reviews, Taubes demolished what the medical, scientific, and nutrition fields (since at least the 1960s) had spent countless billions of dollars building and profiting (but also dying) from: the fat food theory of the causation of "diseases of human civilization" - atherosclerosis, coronary artery heart disease, diabetes, obesity, hypertension, stroke, cancer, dementia, and even osteoporosis and arthritis.

Comment: For the original video of Dr. Lundberg giving this talk, click here.

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