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Heart Smarts

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From the American Heart Association’s “Scientific Sessions 2010” in Chicago (November 13-17):

Chicago Heart Smarts from Patient Power® on Vimeo.

*This blog post was originally published at Andrew's Blog*

Swing To The Right: How Will The Election Affect Health Reform?

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Like Tom Friedman, who lampooned some of this year’s unreasonable campaign rhetoric in a recent column, I, too, would be in favor of reality-based political campaigns, but that seemed to be too much to ask for this year. Instead of truth, we now have truthiness.

The joke news shows (and their joke political rallies) seemed to be more popular than the evening news. (I wish Jon Stewart and his 200,000 fans on the Washington Mall last weekend had stayed home, canvassing for their candidates of choice.) Fact-checkers told us that many political ads this season were in the “barely true” or “pants on fire” zones according to the Truth-O-Meter. But in the end, the buzzwords seem to have worked their magic, and many “insiders” are out, and “outsiders” are in.

The angry and the impatient on the campaign trail have, in some cases, adopted the line from the movie Network: “I’m mad as hell, and I’m not going to take this anymore,” perhaps forgetting that while that line garnered the Howard Beale character strong ratings, network bosses arranged for his on-air assassination when his ratings fell.

The Utopia tune below, “Swing to the Right,” comes to you from the Ronald Reagan era, and perhaps we are seeing the generational swing of the pendulum back to the right. It does seem to happen every 30 years or so. But don’t blame me — I’m from Massachusetts (home to a Democratic sweep on the recent election night).

The last two years have seen a tremendous amount of change in Washington. The question of the moment, of course, is:  How will the election results affect implementation of healthcare reform? Read more »

*This blog post was originally published at HealthBlawg :: David Harlow's Health Care Law Blog*

Death By Diarrhea? How To Make Your Own Oral Rehydration Solution

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My friend and fellow medblogger Jan Gurley has participated in two mission trips to Haiti this year. On her blog she describes the shocking living conditions that she encountered, including a new outbreak of cholera. Cholera can kill a person in as few as three hours by causing the body to loose all its fluid through the intestines.

Fluid replacement is the key to surviving cholera, though plain water lacks the electrolytes necessary for sustaining life. With just four bottle caps of sugar and one bottle cap of salt in half a liter of water, you can create lifesaving oral rehydration therapy. No need for Gatorade — Dr. Gurley shows you how in this video (please pass it on):

e-Mapping The World’s Health

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We’ve written before about HealthMap, a project spearheaded by folks from Harvard, Children’s Hospital-Boston, and a few other institutions. At TEDMED 2010 we had a chance to interview John Brownstein, co-founder of the project, about what HealthMap is up to these days:

Flashbacks:

The Latest on HealthMap, an Online Disease-Mining System

HEALTHmap Global Disease Tracker

*This blog post was originally published at Medgadget*

November Is American Diabetes Month

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November is American Diabetes Month, and in the video below I talk with a local TV news reporter about risk factors, complications, and ways to prevent diabetes. The interview was only about two minutes and there’s much more to be covered, so check out the American Diabetes Association’s website for more information.

If you find this video helpful, I invite you to view more of my TV interviews on my YouTube channel. Happy November!

*This blog post was originally published at Doctor Anonymous*

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