March 30th, 2010 by Shadowfax in Better Health Network, Health Policy, Humor, News, Opinion
Tags: Abortion Drugs, Amendment, ED, Erectile Dysfunction, Federal Funding, General Medicine, HCR, Healthcare Policy, Healthcare reform, Pedophiles, Pharmacology, Primary Care, Sex Offenders, Viagra
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There’s been some buzz on Twitter that the Democrats in the Senate have killed an amendment which would have prohibited federal funding for erectile dysfunction (ED) medications for sex offenders, which means in the upside-down logic of Washington D.C. that the Democrats favor giving Viagra to pedophiles. Right? Well, not exactly.
First, just a point of procedure: Remember, healthcare reform (HCR) is now a law, on the books, signed by the President. But there was this reconciliation sidecar bill which was meant to fix the HCR law as originally passed—it was passed in the House pretty much as soon as the Senate bill was passed. But it had to pass the Senate in the identical form, word for word, in order to go directly to Obama’s desk for signing. If the Senate mucked things up by tacking on amendments, it would have to go back to the House for approval, and given the razor-thin margin in the House, Democrats very much wanted to avoid that. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Movin' Meat*
March 30th, 2010 by DaveMunger in Better Health Network, Health Policy, News, Opinion, Research, True Stories
Tags: Census Forms, Decennial Census, Gary Locke, Population Policy, U.S. Census Bureau, U.S. Postal Service, U.S. Secretary of Commerce, World Population
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The U.S. is ramping up its decennial census, and a few days ago I received my census form in the mail. Or, perhaps I should say, a census form. It wasn’t really mine at all, because it wasn’t addressed to me. It was addressed to a nearby house that doesn’t get mail delivery.
You see, our street—just two blocks long—has a “north” and “south” portion. My, northern, portion was developed about a decade and a half ago, and for some reason they decided to use the same house numbers as they had on the homes down the street, just with a “north” added to the street name. So there are two homes on the street with the same number—mine and another one about 50 yards away. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at The Daily Monthly*
March 30th, 2010 by Medgadget in Better Health Network, News, Research
Tags: Gene Delivery, Gene Therapy, Genetics, In-Vivo, PNAS, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Rui Maeda-Mamiya, University of Tokyo, Water-Soluble Fullerene
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While gene therapy has always seemed just on the verge of being right around the corner, the limitation has always been delivery of the gene. How do you get the new gene to the right cells and activated?
An in-vivo mice study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) may take us closer to a usable delivery system. Rui Maeda-Mamiya of the University of Tokyo and others were able to get diabetic mice to increase their insulin levels after delivery of a insulin 2 gene by a water-soluble fullerene. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Medgadget*
March 30th, 2010 by KevinMD in Better Health Network, Health Tips, News, Opinion
Tags: American Urological Association, Dr. Daniel Merenstein, Dr. Richard Ablin, General Medicine, New York Times, Oncology, Preventive Medicine, Primary Care, Prostate Cancer Awareness, Prostate Cancer Screening, PSA test, U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, Urology, USPSTF
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Is the tide finally turning on PSA screening for prostate cancer? There’s no definitive data that PSA screening saves lives from prostate cancer, and it indeed can lead to further, invasive, tests that can cause men significant discomfort. Medical societies are divided on the issue. Primary care groups like the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) recommend against it for older men, while the American Urological Association (AUA) continues to recommend screening.
In a strongly worded op-ed in the New York Times, Richard Ablin, also known as the founder of the PSA test, bemoans how our healthcare system has twisted its use. “The test’s popularity has led to a hugely expensive public health disaster,” he writes. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at KevinMD.com*
March 30th, 2010 by Dr. Val Jones in Better Health Network, Expert Interviews, Opinion, Research, True Stories
Tags: Calvert Memorial Hospital, Energy Healing, Erica Mitrano, Evidence Based Medicine, Gary Schwitzer, Health Coverage, Junk Science, mainstream media, Medical Writers, Reiki, Science Based Medicine, Science Journalists, Sensationalism, The Enterprise, Traditional Media, TV Health Stories
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I recently wrote about an experience that I had with a reporter (Erica Mitrano) who interviewed me about energy healing at Calvert Memorial Hospital in southern Maryland. Erica was very friendly and inquisitive, and we had a nice conversation about the lack of scientific evidence supporting any energy healing modality. I thought it would be fun to post what we had discussed at SBM, and then wait to see what trickled down into the finished piece.
When the final article appeared I was very disappointed. Not only was I not quoted, but there was no skeptical counterpoint at all. The story read like an unquestioning endorsement of junk science, and I wondered if it was worth it to continue speaking to journalists to offer expert advice. It seemed to me that this experience was emblematic of all that’s wrong with health reporting these days. (Just ask Gary Schwitzer, who has recently given up on reviewing TV health stories in mainstream media since they are generally so inaccurate.) Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Science-Based Medicine*
