October 25th, 2010 by GarySchwitzer in Better Health Network, Health Policy, News, Opinion, Quackery Exposed, Research
Tags: Australia, Big Pharma Campaigns, Consumer Drug Marketing, Direct-To-Consumer Drug Advertising, Disease Mongering, Drug Hype, Femail Urogenital Problems, Gary Schwitzer, HealthNewsReview.org, Medical Advertising, Medical Marketing Language, Medicalization, Menopause, Multinational Pharmaceutical Companies, Postmenopausal Women, Public Relations, Sexual Dysfunction, Sexual Health, Signs of Aging, Vaginal Atrophy, Women's Health
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Just five days ago we wrote about an American journalist’s observations of medicalization of one problem sometimes observed after menopause: Vaginal atrophy.
Today we see that this disease-mongering trend has popped up in Australia as well. This should be no surprise. Such campaigns are usually led by multinational pharmaceutical companies and their advertising and public relations agencies.
What caught our eye was an article on a women’s health foundation website — a foundation that posts a pretty thin excuse for why it won’t tell you its source of funding. Its article on vaginal atrophy uses classic disease-mongering language:
“Ask a woman over the age of 50 about the ‘signs of ag[e]ing’ and she’ll most likely lament about grey hairs, wrinkles and certain body parts having lost their youthful perkiness. What she probably won’t mention is that is that things are ageing “downstairs” too; up to 40% of postmenopausal women show signs of vaginal atrophy.”
The silent epidemic that no one talks about. The huge prevalence estimate — where does that 40 percent figure come from? Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Gary Schwitzer's HealthNewsReview Blog*
October 25th, 2010 by DavedeBronkart in Better Health Network, Health Policy, Health Tips, News, Opinion, Quackery Exposed, Research
Tags: British Medical Journal, Dave deBronkart, Dr. Marcia Angell, e-Patient Dave, e-Patients.net, Empowered Patients, General Medicine, Grant Funding, Inaccurate Studies, JoPM, Journal of Paticipatory Medicine, Lies, Medical Misinformation, Medical Publishing, Medical Research, Medical Science, Medical Studies, Misleading Scientific Conclusions, Peer-Reviewed Journals, Peter Frishauf, Research Grant, Research Studies, Richard Smith, Scientifically Weak, The Atlantic, Understanding Statistics
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There’s an extraordinary new article in The Atlantic entitled “Lies, Damned Lies, and Medical Science.” It echos an excellent article in our Journal of Participatory Medicine (JoPM) a year ago by Richard W. Smith, 25-year editor of the British Medical Journal, entitled “In Search Of an Optimal Peer Review System.”
JoPM, Oct 21, 2009: “….most of what appears in peer-reviewed journals is scientifically weak.”
The Atlantic, Oct. 16, 2010: “Much of what medical researchers conclude in their studies is misleading, exaggerated, or flat-out wrong.”
JoPM 2009: “Yet peer review remains sacred, worshiped by scientists and central to the processes of science — awarding grants, publishing, and dishing out prizes.”
The Atlantic 2010: “So why are doctors — to a striking extent — still drawing upon misinformation in their everyday practice?”
Dr. Marcia Angell said something just as damning in December 2008 in the New York Review of Books: “It is simply no longer possible to believe much of the clinical research that is published, or to rely on the judgment of trusted physicians or authoritative medical guidelines. I take no pleasure in this conclusion, which I reached slowly and reluctantly over my two decades as an editor of The New England Journal of Medicine.” (Our post on Angell is here.)
What’s an e-patient to do? How are patients supposed to research if, as all three authorities say, much of what they read is scientifically weak? Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at e-Patients.net*
October 24th, 2010 by BobDoherty in Better Health Network, Health Policy, News, Opinion, Research
Tags: ACP Advocate, American College Of Physicians, Americans With No Health Insurance, Bob Doherty, Economic Policy Institute, Employment-Based Health Insurance, Government Health Insurance, Health Insurance Coverage, Health Insurance Industry, Healthcare Politics, Healthcare reform, medicaid, Medicare, Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, Patient Satisfaction Surveys, PPACA, U.S. Census Bureau, U.S. Healthcare System, Uninsured Patients
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Last month the U.S. Census Bureau released its annual survey on health insurance coverage. The results were startling, yet few politicians seemed to take notice:
— The number of people with health insurance declined for the first time ever in almost two decades. In fact, as reported by CNN this is the first time since the Census Bureau started collecting data on health insurance coverage in 1987 that fewer people reported that they had health insurance: “There were 253.6 million people with health insurance in 2009, the latest data available, down from 255.1 million a year earlier.” The percentage of the population without coverage increased from 15.4 percent to 16.7 percent.
— Almost 51 million U.S. residents had no health insurance coverage at all, a record high, and an increase of almost five million uninsured from 2008.
— Fewer Americans received health insurance coverage through their jobs, continuing a decade-long trend. The number covered by employment-based health insurance declined from 176.3 million to 169.7 million, reports the Census Bureau. Based on the Census numbers, the Economic Policy Institute observes that “the share of non-elderly Americans with employer-sponsored health insurance declined for the ninth year in a row, down from 61.9% in 2008 to 58.9% in 2009, a total decline of 9.4 percentage points since 2000.” Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at The ACP Advocate Blog by Bob Doherty*
October 24th, 2010 by Toni Brayer, M.D. in Better Health Network, Health Tips, News, Research
Tags: American Academy of Pediatrics, American Pediatric Society, Baby's First Year, Bed Sharing, Better Sleep, Breastfeeding, British Mothers, Dr. Peter Blair, Dr. Toni Brayer, Everything Health, Family Bed, Good Sleep Habits, Healthy Baby, Infant Safety, Mom Sharing A Bed With Baby, New Moms, Newborn Care, Sleep Quality, Sleep Studies, Sudden Infant Death, United Kingdom, University of Bristol
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I’ve watched the pendulum swing back and forth on the wisdom of mom sharing her bed with a baby. The American Pediatric Society has come out against the practice, because of a higher incidence of sudden infant death. But nearly half of all British moms sleep with their baby at times, and one-fifth share a bed regularly during the first year.
According to a British study published in [the October 2010 issue of] Pediatrics, the value of breastfeeding should be considered before advising mothers not to share beds with their infants. The results showed that mothers who shared a bed with their newborns were better educated and of a higher socioeconomic status, and that those whose children routinely slept in their beds during the first 15 months of life reported a significantly greater incidence of breastfeeding.
“Both cross-sectional epidemiological and sleep laboratory studies showed close links between the frequency and duration of breastfeeding and the practice of bed sharing,” writes Peter Blair, PhD, Community-Based Medicine and Social Medicine, University of Bristol, United Kingdom, the author of the study. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at EverythingHealth*
October 24th, 2010 by Iltifat Husain, M.D. in Better Health Network, News, Research
Tags: Cellphone Usage, Health and Smartphones, Health Apps, Health Information on the Web, Health Information Technology, iMedicalApps, Individual Empowerment, Internet-Based Health Information, Medicine and Smartphones, Mobile Health 2010, Mobile Health Apps, Online Health Information, Pew Internet & American Life Project, Searching For Health Information On The Internet, Susannah Fox, Using Cellphones To Manage and Track Your Health
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A new survey from the Pew Internet & American Life Project shows how the proliferation of smart mobile devices is causing a shift in the way users are accessing data and information on health.
Some of the most interesting findings are related to the substantial number of users who actually have applications that help them manage and track their health. Some key findings from the survey:
*17 percent of cell owners have used their phone to look up health or medical information on the Internet; 29 percent of cell owners ages 18 to 29 have done such searches.
*9 percent of cell phone owners have apps they use to help track and manage health.
*The heaviest use of health or medical related apps was by young adults: About 15 percent of those ages 18 to 29 have such apps, compared to 8 percent of cell users ages 30 to 49. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at iMedicalApps*
