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New Research On Eggs

April 28th, 2009 by admin in Better Health Network, Health Tips

Tags: Diet and Nutrition, Eggs, Food and Nutrition, Nutrition, Tara Gidus

A meeting this week called Experimental Biology had some really interesting new research presented on eggs. I have written about eggs in the past and tried to clear up some of the confusion around whether they are good or not. Check out my past blog called The Incredible Edible Egg for more background on nutritional plus’s and minus’s on eggs. I also wrote a fun post on eggs which included some food safety tips. I personally love eggs and my favorite way to eat them is a spinach and feta omelet! Mmmmmm……

Here are some of the findings presented at Experimental Biology 2009 this week:
Eggs for Breakfast Helps Manage Hunger and Calorie Consumption
A study led by Maria Luz Fernandez, Ph.D., professor in the department of nutritional sciences at the University of Connecticut, investigated the differences in post-meal hunger and daily caloric intake when eating a breakfast of either protein-rich eggs or carbohydrate-rich bagels. Although the two breakfast options contained an identical amount of calories, the researchers found that adult men who consumed eggs for breakfast:

• consumed fewer calories following the egg breakfast compared to the bagel breakfast
• consumed fewer total calories in the 24-hour period after the egg breakfast compared to the bagel breakfast
• reported feeling less hungry and more satisfied three hours after the egg breakfast compared to the bagel breakfast

Protein for Breakfast Helps Teens Control Appetite
Researchers from the University of Kansas Medical Center assessed the impact of a protein-rich breakfast on appetite and overall calorie consumption among teens who traditionally skip breakfast. While each test breakfast contained 500 total calories, the researchers examined variables including the protein form (solid food or beverage) and the amount of protein versus carbohydrate in the breakfast.

• Teens consumed fewer calories at lunch when they ate a protein-rich breakfast of solid foods compared with a protein-rich beverage breakfast
• Post-meal hunger was significantly reduced when the teens ate a protein-rich breakfast of solid foods

Cracking Open Heart Health Myths
Florida State University researchers examined the relationship between cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors such as body mass index, serum lipids and levels of high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP) (a marker for inflammation), and the degree to which these factors are influenced by dietary intake of fiber, fat and eggs. The study found:

• No relationship between egg consumption and serum lipid profiles, especially serum total cholesterol, as well as no relationship between egg consumption and hs-CRP
• A positive correlation (meaning the more the higher the risk) between dietary trans-fat intake and CVD risk factors, as well as a negative correlation (meaning lowered risk) between fiber and vitamin C intake and CVD risk factors

These studies support more than 30 years of research showing that healthy adults can consume eggs as part of a healthy diet. Eggs are all-natural and packed with a number of nutrients. One egg has 13 essential vitamins and minerals in varying amounts, high-quality protein and antioxidants, all for 70 calories. Eggs are also an excellent source of choline, an essential nutrient vital for fetal and infant brain development but also good for everyone.

For more information, check out the Egg Nutrition Center

CBS Evening News with Katie Couric: First Live Webcast On Swine Flu Tonight, 7pm

April 27th, 2009 by Jon LaPook, M.D. in Better Health Network, Video

Tags: CBSDOC.COM, Dr. Jon LaPook, Flu, Influenza, Swine Flu, Video, Webcast

Due to popular demand, and the need for better public education about the swine flu outbreak, Dr. Jon LaPook will be offering the first ever live webcast at CBS tonight.

Check it out here (click on the link if video below doesn’t work at 7pm):

Uniform Of The Day

April 27th, 2009 by MotherJonesRN in Better Health Network

Tags: Nurse Ratched, Nursing, Nursing Uniforms, White

Holy cow! I can hardly remember when nurses use to wear these types of uniforms. They were so white, so professional, so spotless. Believe me, my uniform wasn’t white and spotless when I went home after a long shift at the hospital. I spent many hours after work fussing over stains on my uniform. Barco made a ton of money off of me. I ended up throwing a lot of uniforms out because I always wanted to look professional. I wish that nurses still wore their caps. Yes, I’m just an old fashioned girl at heart.

Celebrity Shampoo Scare: Why You Don’t Want To Get Your Health Information From Gwyneth Paltrow

April 27th, 2009 by DrRob in Better Health Network, Humor, Quackery Exposed

Tags: celebrity, Dr. Rob Lamberts, Gwyneth Paltrow, Obstetrics And Gynecology, Pediatrics, Shampoo, toxins

Somehow the medical community has missed a very important news Item.  In her website goop.com (dang, I was going to go for that domain), movie star Gwyneth Paltrow weighed in on a very frightening medical subject.

Shampoo.

“A couple of years ago, I was asked to give a quote for a book concerning environmental toxins and their effects on our children.

“While I was reading up on the subject, I was seized with fear about what the research said. Foetuses, infants and toddlers are basically unable to metabolise toxins the way that adults are and we are constantly filling our environments with chemicals that may or may not be safe.

“The research is troubling; the incidence of diseases in children such as asthma, cancer and autism have shot up exponentially and many children we all know and love have been diagnosed with developmental issues like ADHD [Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder].”

Apparently, she went on to point the finger at shampoo as a potential major problem in our society and raised a possible link between shampoo and childhood cancers.  Now, I am not sure how one can use shampoo on the head of a foetus (or a fetus, for that matter), but we have to tip our hat to celebrities for bringing such associations to the forefront.

So I did a bit of science myself to assess the voracity of her claims.  I too was seized with fear when I noted the following:

• All of the kids in my practice who have ADHD have used shampoo.
• All of the kids with cancer have also used shampoo.
• I used shampoo as a kid (but not as a fetus), and I have ADHD.
• The projection is that 100% of the people now using shampoo will die.

Whoa.

This really backs up my misgivings about shampoo.  I have always wondered at the claims these so-called hair-care products make so boldly.  Here are some examples of lies spread by the shampoo industry:

Clarifying shampoo – What are they claiming with this?  Is there such thing as unclear hair?  Do some people look as though they have a giant blob of hair-like substance on their head instead of many separate hairs?  Does  clarifying shampoo make each individual hair once again visible on these people?

pH Balanced – What is pH imbalance?  Is it when the pH sometimes is so acidic that it burns your hair off?  That would be terrifying if true.

Volumizing shampoo – I was not aware volumizing was a word (nor was my spell-check).  This means that the shampoo volumes things.  How can you volume something?  Does each hair get a separate volume, or does the hair suddenly get very loud.  Personally, I am afraid to open the bottles of these shampoos for fear of going deaf.

Shampoo for stressed hair – I have never thought about the emotional state of my hair.  I was not aware that it worries about things.  Perhaps it worries about being volumized or burned by non-pH balanced shampoos.  Perhaps it worries about being put on a foetus.  Does this type of shampoo contain a hair version of valium?

Vitalizing shampoo – At least vitalizing is actually a word, but would you really want vitalized hair?  My dictionary defines this as “giving life and energy to.”  Hair is dead, as we all know.  Does this “hair resurrection” cause your hair to scream every time it is brushed or cut?  Does it move about on your head independently?  What if it decides it wants to become a mullet?? Thank you, but I prefer my hair dead.

Self-adjusting shampoo – Instead of the hair having independent action, this type of shampoo seems to have an intelligence of its own.  How would it self-adjust?  Does it have a computer chip embedded in it or does it somehow have sentience?  How do we know if it will adjust in a way we want?  It could adjust to pH imbalance or de-volumization, couldn’t it?  What if this self-adjusting shampoo, which clearly has some degree of autonomy, gets ideas and causes other shampoos to break the shackles we humans put on it and forms a shampoo revolution?  An even scarier thought is if a self-adjusting shampoo comes in contact with vitalized hair!  What will happen then?  Will they fight, or will they conspire against the shampooee?

Baby shampoo – What is the life-cycle of a shampoo?  How do they find these baby shampoos and why would they steal them from their parents?  This is probably what is causing the shampoos to become self-adjusting.  I will say, shampoos do seem to multiply in our bathroom.  We probably have 16 bottles of different kinds of shampoo in our shower right now.  I just recently noticed some baby shampoo, but I thought my wife had just bought it.  I see now that we should not let the bottles touch each other if we want to have room in our shower to bathe.

So you see, while Miss Paltrow’s fears about shampoo are clearly far short of the whole story, at least they bring attention to this frightening situation.  Shampoo manufacturers are clearly in cahoots and have eyes on world domination.  The condemnation of this celebrity’s claims by “scientists” are clearly a smoke-screen to keep us from noticing the obvious plans for the destruction of humanity.

No more shampoo for me!

Gotta go now.  It’s time for my colon cleanse.

Is IV Sedation Over-Used?

April 27th, 2009 by Harriet Hall, M.D. in Better Health Network

Tags: Anesthesia, Anesthesiology, Dr. Harriet Hall, IV sedation, Necessary, Not, Science Based Medicine, Sedation

We criticize alternative medicine for not being evidence-based, and they criticize conventional medicine in turn, saying that much of what conventional medicine does is not based on evidence either. Sometimes that criticism is justified. I have run across a conventional practice that I suspect began because it sounded like a good idea, but that never was adequately tested and is not carefully thought out for individual patients.

I recently had a bone marrow aspiration. The written instructions said not to eat or drink for 6 hours before the procedure, to bring someone to drive me home, and to expect an IV. I suspected from these instructions that they were planning to use IV sedation, and I was right.

I questioned the need for sedation. I am prejudiced about bone marrow aspirations. I observed several and did one myself during my internship. When I had finished, the patient asked me when I was going to start. We did the procedure at the patient’s bedside in a multi-bed ward with no sedation, only local anesthesia. So my prejudice was that the procedure was no big deal and was not terribly painful.

I can imagine that some patients may be terrified by the idea of a needle going into their bone and may want to be sedated and not remember the experience. But I was not anxious about it, and I saw no need for the fentanyl and Versed they wanted to give me. I figured it would only prolong my time in the hospital, produce amnesia, expose me to a small risk of adverse effects, and leave me groggy; so I asked to opt out. They readily agreed – although they did keep asking me if I was really sure I didn’t want it. They would not have offered the option of no sedation if I had not known to ask.

The pathologist doing the procedure told me the injection of local anesthetic into the skin was the most painful part of the procedure. He was wrong. It was the ONLY painful part of the procedure. The penetration of bone and the aspiration of marrow produced only a pressure sensation.

This study reported that 85% of non-sedated patients had intense pain. I find that hard to believe, based on my personal experience and the experience of the pathologist that the local anesthetic was the worst part of the procedure. I wonder if those patients were anxious and were expecting intense pain. At any rate, I think giving me IV sedation would have been the wrong thing to do.

I had a similar experience with an excisional breast biopsy. They offered me general or local anesthesia and I chose local as presumably the safer option. Then they said they would use IV sedation along with the local. I asked why. They said to relieve anxiety. I told them I wasn’t anxious so if that was the only reason for sedation, I didn’t want it. I finally prevailed. I was comfortable, alert, had a good time chatting with the anesthesiologist, and was able to leave the recovery room much sooner than sedated patients.

I’m not saying that IV sedation is not indicated for some patients, but I am convinced it was not indicated for me. Has it become a knee-jerk reflex to sedate everyone as a general principle? Why? To avoid complaints and keep patients more cooperative during procedures? Are we paternalistically deciding that it is better if the patients don’t remember the procedure? I wonder: if minor procedures are not remembered, might the mystery increase anxiety and fear of the unknown for future procedures? We must ask seriously whether IV sedation is done more for the patient’s benefit or the doctor’s. The answer will vary with the procedure and the patient.

Rather than sedating every patient, why not use some judgment? Even if the patient is anxious, perhaps a non-drug option could relieve that anxiety without risking the side effects of drugs. Surely some anxiety is due to fear of the unknown. Would it help to show patients a video of someone comfortably undergoing the procedure without sedation, with an explanation of exactly what was happening? Would simple reassurance or personal attention from a patient advocate be helpful? Worth looking into? I think so.

Doctors are frequently accused of prescribing unnecessary drugs out of habit or reflex. I suggest that IV sedation for minor procedures is an example of over-prescription that is based more on custom than on good evidence.

*This blog post was originally published at Science Based Medicine.*