August 17th, 2011 by Toni Brayer, M.D. in Health Tips, Research
Tags: Amniotic Fluid, Baby, Birth, Breast Milk, Diet, Flavor, food, Health, Julie Mennella, Monell Chemical Senses Center, Nutrition, OB/GYN, Obstetrics And Gynecology, Palate, Pregnancy, Prenatal, Research, Taste
No Comments »
Attention, pregnant women! The foods you eat now might influence your babies’ palates after they are born. New research published in the journal Pediatrics, shows that the fetus actually drinks amniotic fluid in the womb. The amniotic fluid is flavored by the foods the mother has recently eaten and flavors can be transmitted to the amniotic fluid and mother’s milk.
It makes sense that as the baby is developing, memories are being created by a sense of taste. Could what a mother eats influence food preferences and odor preferences for life? Researchers fed babies cereal flavored with carrot juice vs. water. They showed that babies who experienced daily carrots in amniotic fluid or mother’s milk ate more carrot-flavored cereal and made less negative faces when eating it.
Julie Mennella studies taste in infants at the Monell Chemical Senses Center (Philadelphia) and she says Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at EverythingHealth*
August 16th, 2011 by Happy Hospitalist in Opinion, Research
Tags: Annals Of Internal Medicine, Cost Shift, Discharge, Elderly, Emergency Department, ER, Hospital, Hospitalist, Medical Utilization, Medicare, Medicare Profit Margins, Palliative Care, Payment, PCP, Policy, Primary Care, Readmission, Research, smoking cessation, Weekend Hospital Admissions
No Comments »
Association of Hospitalist Care With Medical Utilization After Discharge: Evidence of Cost Shift From a Cohort Study.
That’s the title of the latest medical study making the viral rounds. I had an opportunity to read the study in full. I called Happy’s hospital library and Judy had the pdf article in my email in less than 24 hours. Now, that’s amazing. Thanks Judy for a job well done. You deserve a raise.
Presented in the August 2nd, 2011 edition of the journal Annals of Internal Medicine, Volume 155 Number 3 Page 152-159, the study concludes that decreased length of stay and hospital costs associated with hospitalist care are offset by higher medical utilization and costs after discharge.
In summary, hosptitalist patients had an adjusted length of stay 0.64 days shorter and $282 less than patients cared for by primary care physicians, but total 30 day post discharge costs were $332 higher. These additional charges were defined as 59% from rehospitalization, 19% from skilled-nursing facilities, and 22% from professional and other services.
OK fair enough. Let’s come to that conclusion. Let’s say Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at The Happy Hospitalist*
August 16th, 2011 by MellanieTrueHills in Health Tips, Research
Tags: AFib, Amiodarone, Anticoagulation, Atrial Fibrillation, Cardiac Drugs, Dabigatran, Dronedarone, Heart Failure, Irregular Heartbeat, Kidney Failure, Liver Damage, Liver Transplant, Medication, Multaq, PALLAS Clinical Trial, Pradaxa, Risks, Treatment, Women
No Comments »
As a patient, you probably see lots of hype-filled reports about various drugs. After a drug is approved, there’s an inevitable blitz of negative publicity which often scares people away from important new solutions that could help them.
There has been so much news lately about Multaq (dronedarone), the drug designed to provide the benefits of amiodarone but with fewer risks. This drug is important to people with afib, especially those with heart disease whose choices are limited, so it’s time to put into context for patients what has transpired in the two years since FDA approval.
These two companion articles provide an in-depth analysis into issues that have been reported about Multaq, including whether it can cause: Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Atrial Fibrillation Blog*
August 13th, 2011 by RyanDuBosar in Research
Tags: BRCA genes, Breast Cancer, Cancer, Cancer Research, DNA, Faulty Gene, Genetics, Genomics, Mutations, Nature Genetics, Ovarian Cancer, PARP Inhibitors, United Kingdom, Women's Health
No Comments »
British researchers identified a faulty gene associated with a one-in-11 chance of developing ovarian cancer, and they think drugs for breast cancer might also work in these women.
Researchers from England’s Institute of Cancer Research reported that they compared DNA from women from 911 families with ovarian and breast cancer and to a control group of 1,060 people from the general population.
They found eight gene faults in theRAD51Dgene in women with cancer, compared with one in the control group. TheRAD51Dgene repairs damaged DNA, and when it’s faulty, cells are more likely to turn cancerous.
Results appear Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at ACP Internist*
August 12th, 2011 by Medgadget in Health Tips, Research
Tags: Blood Glucose, Charlene Quinn, Diabetes, DiabetesManager, Diabetic Patients, Glucose Meter, HgbA1c, Insulin Pump, Medical Technology, Medicine, Mobile App, Pediatrics, University of Maryland School of Medicine, WellDoc
No Comments »
It seems intuitive (at least to Medgadgeteers) that mobile technology can be used to improve health outcomes, but we still need studies to actually put data behind this idea. A recent study of the DiabetesManager mobile health platform from WellDoc is a step in this direction. We last reported about WellDoc’s mobile diabetes application in 2010, and since that time it has been tested in a clinical trial and was shown to reduce HgbA1c by 1.9%.
The DiabetesManager is a behavioral coaching and clinical decision support system. Patients enter details about blood glucose values, medications, and behaviors via mobile phone, and health care providers receive quarterly summaries based on this information. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Medgadget*
Attention, pregnant women! The foods you eat now might influence your babies’ palates after they are born. New research published in the journal Pediatrics, shows that the fetus actually drinks amniotic fluid in the womb. The amniotic fluid is flavored by the foods the mother has recently eaten and flavors can be transmitted to the amniotic fluid and mother’s milk.
