May 27th, 2011 by Toni Brayer, M.D. in Health Policy, News
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The Center for Disease Control published the top ten public health achievements from 2001-2010, the first decade of the 21st century. In no order they are:
- Vaccine-preventable Diseases – new vaccines for herpes zoster, pneumonia, HPV and rotavirus have saved thousands of lives When you add in the older vaccines for diptheria, pertussus, tetanus and measles/mumps millions of lives have been saved around the world. (I saw diptheria in Haiti and it is horrible)
- Tobacco Control- We have been battling tobacco since 1964 but there is finally progress with more states enacting smoke-free laws and raising cigarette taxes. By 2010, the FDA banned flavored cigarettes and established restrictions on youth access. We have a long way to go. Smoking costs us all about $193 billion a year on medical costs and loss of productivity.
- Motor Vehicle Safety –Enforcing seat belt and child safety legislation has reduced deaths from crashes. Teen drivers have new policies too.
- Cardiovascular Disease Prevention-During the past decade, age-adjusted heart disease and stroke deaths declined. What worked? Treating hypertension, elevated cholesterol and smoking…along with improved treatment and medication. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at EverythingHealth*
March 23rd, 2011 by IsisTheScientist in Humor, True Stories
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“Anyone who will barge into the room while you are on the commode is the boss of you. And when you explain to them that you’re on the commode and that they should leave but they don’t? That’s a high-level boss.”
– Tina Fey from the new InStyle Magazine.
Sister Fey speaks the truth here. Children have no privacy boundaries. There is also something, perhaps related to the way going to bathroom disturbs the Earth’s magnetic fields, that makes a child need something urgently the second trou has been dropped.
That all said, the fact that a child has no understanding of his parent’s privacy does not mean that said child does not demand privacy for himself. Little Isis is going through a period where he is not to be seen doing the deed. Even the thought that someone might be observing him elicits a scream somewhere in the G6 range.
That kid has me in check.
*This blog post was originally published at On Becoming a Domestic and Laboratory Goddess*
November 18th, 2010 by Linda Burke-Galloway, M.D. in Better Health Network, Health Tips, Research, True Stories
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As more older women attempt to beat the biological clock and conceive, they are at greater risk for developing birth-related complications. For women over 45, there is less than a 1 percent chance of getting pregnant using their own eggs. Successful pregnancy for women over 45 is nearly always the result of in-vitro fertilization (IVF) and the use of an egg donor.
Researchers at Tel Aviv University reviewed birth records from 2000 to 2008, specifically looking at the records of 177 women who gave birth at the age of 45 and beyond. The majority of the women had IVF and received donor eggs, and 80 percent of the babies were delivered via cesarean section (C-section).
Despite their celebrity, Kelly Presley (age 47), Celine Dion (age 42), and Mariah Carey (age 40), are older pregnant women who are at risk. The premature birth of Celine Dion’s twin sons did not surprise me at all. Women over 35, and especially those over 45 with underlying medical problems, should be treated prior to becoming pregnant. I cannot emphasize this enough. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Dr. Linda Burke-Galloway*
November 18th, 2010 by Felasfa Wodajo, M.D. in Better Health Network, Health Policy, Interviews, News, Opinion, Research
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[We reported last week from the mHealth Summit in Washington, DC — a conference covering the integration of mobile technologies with medical research, information, diagnosis, treatment, and care.]
One of the highlights of last week’s mHealth Summit was the keynote interview of Bill Gates. While inseparable from his history as founder and leader of Microsoft from 1975 to 2008, his current passion is global health.
Through the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which has now given 3.8 billion (with a “b”) of targeted philanthropy into global health since 1994, he and his wife Melinda are helping bring about profound change to the lives of millions around the world. In a meeting dedicated to exploring the power of mobile devices to shape health in developed and developing countries, Bill Gates eloquently refocussed our attention towards the real urgency of saving the millions of our fellow humans who die needlessly for want of vaccinations or the simplest treatments. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at iMedicalApps*
The Center for Disease Control published the top ten public health achievements from 2001-2010, the first decade of the 21st century. In no order they are:
