September 3rd, 2011 by John Di Saia, M.D. in Opinion
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From Forbes:
But today, a range of dermal fillers can be injected into those crow’s feet, marionette lines, thinning lips and furrows between the brows, taking years off the face–and all can be done during your lunch hour, with no invasive surgery and little recovery time.
Source: forbes.com/2009/05/26/dermal-filler-cosmetic-forbes-woman-well-being-facelift.html
I love how the press tends to make it seem like Dermal Fillers are the solution for which we have all been waiting. They make it an issue of just “choosing the right one.”
The issue here is that dermal fillers Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Truth in Cosmetic Surgery*
September 3rd, 2011 by Linda Burke-Galloway, M.D. in Health Tips
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At some point during a pregnancy, the topic of labor induction might emerge. Inducing labor means that contractions are being started before a patient begins labor naturally or without any external influence. Elective inductions of labor has doubled in the past 20 years according to medical literature. Early term inductions of labor that begin between 37 and 38 weeks have quadrupled from 2 to 8% within the U.S. Inductions are usually done when the risk of maintaining the pregnancy poses a threat to the mother or fetus. However, more and more patients have requested to have an induction of labor based on personal preference. Early elective inductions have recently been criticized because of an association with an increase in fetal and newborn complications as well as an increase in the C. Section rate.
The Bishop Score was developed in the 1960’s by Dr. Edward Bishop as a means of evaluating the cervix to determine if the patient would successfully have a vaginal delivery. Based on Bishop’s research, he determined that women who were pregnant for the first time and women who had an “unfavorable” cervix were Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Dr. Linda Burke-Galloway*
September 2nd, 2011 by Paul Auerbach, M.D. in Research
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I am often asked by elder persons whether or not they should take the herpes zoster (“shingles”) vaccine. Up until this point, I have been answering “yes” based on my own experience, but now there is some data to support this recommendation.
In the article, “Herpes Zoster Vaccine in Older Adults and the Risk of Subsequent Herpes Zoster Disease,” Hung Fu Tseng and his colleagues reported their findings in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA 2011;305[2]:160-161). They evaluated the risk of herpes zoster after persons received the vaccine in a general practice setting.
In a retrospective (looking back at a cohort of patients from medical records) study, the researchers compared Read more »
This post, Article Recommends Herpes Zoster Vaccine For Adults Over 60, was originally published on
Healthine.com by Paul Auerbach, M.D..
September 2nd, 2011 by RyanDuBosar in Research
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Severe shortages for life-saving medications have driven a “gray market” in the wholesale drug supply industry, a watchdog group reports.
And the mark-up on gray market drugs is a budget-buster, reports the Institute for Safe Medication Practices, a Philadelphia-based nonprofit organization devoted entirely to medication error prevention and safe medication use. Purchasing agents and pharmacists at 549 hospitals responded to a survey on gray market activities associated with drug shortages.
The report includes chilling anecdotes from the respondents about pressure from physicians and administrators to ensure drugs are available, and drastic price gouging from the gray market suppliers. Price mark-ups of 10 times or more than the contract price were reported by about a third of respondents from critical access hospitals and community hospitals, and more than half of university hospitals. Examples include a box of calcium gluconate that cost $750 instead of the contract price of $50 (1,400% mark-up), and a supply of propofol that cost $25,000 instead of $1,500 (1,567% mark-up). Oh, and there’s exorbitant shipping and handling fees, too. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at ACP Hospitalist*
September 2nd, 2011 by MuinKhouryMDPhD in Health Tips, Research
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Campaigns against public spitting in the 19th century were largely driven by concerns about the spread of tuberculosis. However, at the beginning of the 21st century, spitting seems to be making a comeback. Over the past few years, several companies have begun offering personal genomic tests online to the public. There have been famous images of “spit parties”, where celebrities are seen filling tubes with saliva to ship for DNA testing. Getting information on one’s genes has been promoted as fun, as part of social networking, and as a basis for improving health and preventing disease.
When it comes to spitting to improve one’s health, we say: think before you spit. Our knowledge of the potential benefits and harms of these tests is incomplete at best. Despite exciting research advances in genomics of common diseases, there is still much to learn about what this information means and how to use it to prevent disease. A little bit of incomplete or inaccurate information may even be harmful.
There are at least 2 key questions to consider when deciding whether personal genomic tests are worth your spit. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Genomics and Health Impact Blog*
