Health & WellnessS


Health

Spike in flu cases: seriously ill patients in limbo, waiting on hospital beds in US

Andy Marso
The Kansas City Star
Tue, 23 Jan 2018 17:01 UTC
Flu tent hospital
© Gina Ferazzi TNSA military grade medical tent is set up in the parking lot and used for overflow flu patients outside the Emergency Room at Loma Linda Medical Center in Loma Linda, Calif. Missouri and Kansas each have more hospital beds per capita than California and there have been no reports of tents in parking lots here. But there have been some delays in getting care.
As people with the flu streamed into Missouri hospitals this month, small facilities at times struggled to find places where they could transfer patients who needed higher levels of care.

J. Christopher Lang, the CEO of Cass Regional Medical Center, said his hospital in Harrisonville has had to divert ambulances to other emergency rooms when his was full and hold patients who needed to go to bigger hospitals when those facilities were on diversion.

"We've run into it off and on over the last couple of weeks, so yes, there's been some inability to transfer to a higher level of care because of beds being full," Lang said.

Comment: This flu season seems to be a doozy, with multiple countries reportedly being overwhelmed. See:

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Heart

Scientists say obesity is like a contagious disease

Laura Kelly
The Washington Times
Wed, 24 Jan 2018 00:01 UTC
Obese person
© Associated Press/FileMore than one-third of the U.S. population is obese, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Obesity is deadly, epidemic and ... contagious?

A study in the Journal of the American Medical Association Pediatrics shows that being around obese people for extended periods makes it more likely that you will become obese.

The study also suggests that people who are surrounded by a community and environment that promote healthy living will mirror that lifestyle.

"Even though the word 'contagion' has a negative connotation, what we really want people to take away is that we can actually use it to our advantage," Ashlesha Datar, co-author of the recently published study, told The Washington Times.

Comment: This is rather silly. The idea that obesity is "contagious" leaves out all the factors that are actually contributing to the condition. It's not about where you are - it's about taking on the lifestyle habits of the community in which you're embedded. That doesn't make it "contagious" it simply outlines how susceptible we are to the social norms we're surrounded by. But by calling it a contagion and location dependent, we further the victim narrative and take away each individual's responsibility in their own health.

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Evil Rays

Mother of woman who died of flu urges young people to take symptoms seriously

Freya Drohan
Irish Central
Mon, 22 Jan 2018 16:16 UTC
Katharine Gallagher
© FACEBOOKKatharine with her parents Liz and Phil Gallagher
"Healthy, vibrant" 27-year-old Katharine passed away after contracting the disease, less than two days after she initially went to UrgentCare.

After initially thinking she was recovering, she was found dead on the bathroom floor by her devastated boyfriend of two years, Brendan Carey.

Comment: Taking one's health and well-being seriously is good advice, but there are more effective and safer ways to boost the immune system than getting a flu shot:

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Syringe

Just as in humans, vaccines for fish don't prevent disease

Marco Torres
Prevent Disease
Mon, 22 Jan 2018 20:45 UTC
fish vaccine
The use of vaccines on animals is common throughout the world yet efficacy in disease prevention is scant. A new study shows that vaccines used by commercial fish farmers are not protecting fish from disease.

The study was compiled by researchers at the University of Waterloo, the Pontifical Catholic University of Valparaiso and Chile's University of Valparaiso. It showed vaccinated fish tend to show more symptoms when contracting diseases, with the health impacts and ultimately deaths occurring as if they'd never received a vaccine.

"Today's vaccines are marketed to fish farms as necessary disease prevention and are even required by some insurance companies, but they are not nearly as effective as needed under real world conditions." said Brian Dixon, a professor in biology at Waterloo. "Some operators are giving five vaccinations per fish and then there are fish losses from the stress of receiving multiple handlings and injections."
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Attention

Buyer beware: US FDA just approved GMO rice

Heather Callaghan
Natural Blaze
Tue, 23 Jan 2018 20:22 UTC
GMO rice
Will the first ever GM rice from China make its way to the American table soon?

As we reported last summer, Big Agri pulled some maneuvers and made major inroads in China despite major opposition from China's people. Readers may be surprised to learn that Chinese citizens reject the notion of GMOs but they do. In fact, there is such a demand for organic there, that China is buying up arable land in other countries and trumpeting health campaigns to discourage meat and dairy consumption. Not only has this demand for better food caused food shortages there because of their issues with pollution, but it has also created a bevy of "fake organics" and questionable foods flooding other countries. Are we about to receive a flood of GM rice, too?

Now the FDA has essentially approved a product based on some data turned in by Chinese researchers. It did not conduct its own experiments. Although cultivation of this GM rice is not officially legal, the FDA stamp of approval was meant to set the ball rolling, and garner approval from other markets.
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Heart

The healing and pain relieving power of loving touch

Natalie Rahhal
Daily Mail
Tue, 23 Jan 2018 08:43 UTC
touch pain relief
New dads really should be in the delivery rooms when their partners deliver babies, as a new study inspired by that very scenario showed the real pain-relieving effects of a loving touch
If you're wondering what you can possibly do for your partner when they're in excruciating pain, just holding their hand could be enough, new research shows.

The familiar urge to reach for a hand when we're hurting, or desire to be held when we're sick, now has a biological explanation.

A Colorado University, Boulder study found that the mere touch of a partner can communicate empathy, and reduce the sensation of pain.

Women reported a milder pain experience from heat experiments when their male partners were in the room and holding their hands.

Comment: Touch is the primary language that communicates compassion and as such it is fundamental to bonding and health. It supports our immune system, reduces stress, stimulates oxytocin and dopamine, lowers blood pressure and heart rate, encourages sleep and best of all it has no side effects. It doesn't drain your batteries, but recharges you instead. Touch is life.

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Pills

Enough already! Leading hospital systems to make their own drugs amid skyrocketing prices and shortages

Beth Mole
Ars Technica
Thu, 18 Jan 2018 20:28 UTC
bigpharma, prescription drug prices
For four of the country's largest hospital systems, enough is enough.

Sick of drug companies' eye-popping price hikes and ridiculous shortages, the feisty hospital systems announced Wednesday that they've banded together and formed an unnamed non-profit to make their own steady supply of affordable generic medicines.

The leading hospital system, Intermountain Healthcare, released a statement explaining:
The new company intends to be an FDA approved manufacturer and will either directly manufacture generic drugs or sub-contract manufacturing to reputable contract manufacturing organizations, providing patients an affordable alternative to products from generic drug companies whose capricious and unfair pricing practices are damaging the generic drug market and hurting consumers. The company will also seek to stabilize the supply of essential generic medications administered in hospitals, many of which have fallen into chronic shortage.

Comment: Kudos to these hospital executives who obviously understand that the large price tags attached to many medications are based more on the greed of the pharmaceutical industry than the cost of drug production or research.

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Rainbow

Chromotherapy: What you can heal with colored light

Dr. Mercola
Mercola.com
Sun, 21 Jan 2018 00:00 UTC
chromotherapy
Wouldn't it be wonderful to be able to use colors as a way to make your life healthier? The truth is, you can. Dr. Alexander Wunsch, who is based in Germany, is a world-class expert in the use of light as a therapeutic healing agent, and is a human treasure trove of information on a topic that very few people understand.

In previous interviews, we've discussed the history of photobiology and how LED lighting can compromise your health. Here, our focus in on the therapeutic use of colored light, which Wunsch began experimenting with nearly 25 years ago.
"My first approach was colorpuncture from Peter Mandel. One evening, I met a friend of mine. I told him I would like to go deeper into the colorpuncture issue and learn more about that. He handed me a book by Darius Dinshah, 'Let There Be Light: Practical Manual for Spectro-Chrome Therapy' ...

I thought this is really a fascinating color system. It's not only a color therapy method, it's also a beautiful color system - [the way] Dinshah arranged these 12 basic colors, how they compose the Spectro-Chrome color wheel is a pleasure by itself, because it's very symmetric and there's a very logical plan behind it. I started to evaluate this method on my own."

Comment: More on the therapeutic effects of light:

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Info

Fizzled: Diet Coke's moment of panic

Derek Thompson
The Atlantic
Sun, 14 Jan 2018 16:00 UTC
diet coke
The problem with the soda is right there in the name: It's neither healthy-seeming enough to thrive as a diet drink nor tasty enough to thrive as a cola

With sales of Diet Coke in a prolonged rut, Coca-Cola announced last Wednesday that it is tweaking the design of its most famous zero-calorie soft-drink can to be more slender and colorful. It is also launching several new flavors of Diet Coke, including "Feisty Cherry," "Twisted Mango," and "Zesty Blood Orange."

"You don't mess with a good thing," Coca-Cola said in its statement. But, quite to the contrary, Coca-Cola is in a near-permanent state of messing with its things. The first version of Diet Coke debuted in 1982. The very next year, the company released a caffeine-free Diet Coke, and a cherry-flavored variety followed in 1986. This century, several more flavors have joined the family, including lemon, vanilla, lime, black cherry, and raspberry.

Comment: Fizzled! Despite rebranding Coke's reputation is headed south, looks like even 'brand loyalty' is losing popularity. Bottom line... soda is bad for your health but that doesn't mean that corporations like Coke will give up easily:
Company research indicated that brand loyalty starts young, and once formed it is hard to break. "I would say 90 percent of all soft drink marketing is targeted at 12- to 24-year-olds. . . . It was how we spent all of our time."


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Health

Unnecessary C-sections: Evidence grows that normal childbirth takes longer than we thought

Aimee Cunningham
Science News
Tue, 16 Jan 2018 00:00 UTC
The insight could lead to fewer unnecessary C-sections being performed
woman’s labor
© Tyler Olson/ShutterstockPRECONCIEVED NOTIONS A decades-old idea about how quickly a woman’s labor should progress has not held up in recent studies.
A long-standing "rule" for women in labor has been challenged again.

During labor, the cervix - the narrow, lower part of the uterus - dilates, or opens, to allow for a baby's birth. For decades, the guidance has been that the cervix should dilate by at least 1 centimeter per hour. But a study in two African countries found a slower rate of dilation for many women who went on to have healthy, vaginal births, researchers report online January 16 in PLOS Medicine.

The new study reinforces findings from recent research on pregnant women in the United States, Japan and other countries. Nevertheless, some doctors still wrongly classify slower labor as abnormal, researchers say, leading to unnecessary, potentially risky interventions such as cesarean delivery.

Comment: See also:

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