April 20th, 2010 by Paul Auerbach, M.D. in Better Health Network, Health Tips, Opinion, Research
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When we think of people who enjoy the outdoors, the images in our minds are often of healthy and vibrant individuals — stereotypes are young athletes engaged in vigorous activities like climbing, biking, skiing, etc.
Of course, going outdoors is for everyone, and persons may be young or old, active or sedentary, and healthy or infirm. We carry our personal health status with us wherever we go, and the health habits we pursue in our daily lives form the framework for our participation in adventures, recreation and other outdoor activities.
Therefore, public health issues are important, be they adherence to precautions to avoid infectious diseases or lifestyle modifications to maintain optimal physical and mental health. Read more »
This post, Obesity, Smoking And Life Expectancy, was originally published on
Healthine.com by Paul Auerbach, M.D..
April 5th, 2010 by Medgadget in Better Health Network, Health Policy, News, Research
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Researchers from the Medical Device Safety Institute at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston and the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of Washington in Seattle have published an article in the latest New England Journal of Medicine suggesting technological and regulatory actions that they hope will increase the security and privacy of implantable medical devices.
As has been reported earlier, implantable pacemakers, defibrillators, and similar devices are subject to wireless hacking that may influence their functionality. Although a lip-smacking target for devious hackers, an actual incident where a person’s implant has been interfered with is yet to be reported.
NEJM: Improving the Security and Privacy of Implantable Medical Devices…
Flashback: Implant Hacking Possible, Not Probable…Yet
*This blog post was originally published at Medgadget*
December 28th, 2009 by Paul Auerbach, M.D. in Better Health Network, News, Research
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Most of us have learned that bears use brown adipose tissue (“brown fat”) to assist them in hibernation during the winter, and that other animals use it to regulate body weight and adaptive thermoregulation (control of body temperature). What is less well known is that humans also take advantage of their own version of brown adipose tissue. How it functions in humans may not only have implications for thermoregulation, but for a targeted strategy to combat obesity. The ratio of “white fat” (“bad” fat) to brown fat (“good” fat) may also be important. Read more »
This post, Brown Fat Plays A Role In Human (And Bear) Fat Regulation, was originally published on
Healthine.com by Paul Auerbach, M.D..
December 24th, 2009 by Paul Auerbach, M.D. in Better Health Network, News, Research
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Vaccination against infectious diseases is perhaps the most important reason why millions of additional persons do not succumb with morbidity and mortality from viral and bacterial infections in the modern world. Vaccines are most effective when they are administered with sufficient distribution and frequency to protect as many people as possible.
In the July 23, 2009 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine (N Engl J Med 2009;361:335-44, there appeared an article reporting a study by Dipika Sur, MD and colleagues entitled “A Cluster-Randomized Effectiveness Trial of Vi Typhoid Vaccine in India.” The premise of the study was that typhoid fever, caused by infection with the bacteria Salmonella enterica serotype typhi (S. typhi), causes up to 600,00 deaths per year, mostly in developing countries. Injectable Vi polysaccharide vaccine has up to this time been used in a limited fashion in public health programs, and there have been unanswered questions about its effectiveness in children (ages 2 to 5 years) and in particular its use to cause “herd” immunity (e.g., if it is given to a large population living in close proximity, will it promote immunity in the nonimmunized “herd” of people). Read more »
This post, Vi Typhoid Vaccine: Safe And Effective For Young Children, was originally published on
Healthine.com by Paul Auerbach, M.D..
September 23rd, 2009 by admin in Better Health Network, Health Tips, News, Opinion
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This week’s New England Journal of Medicine contained a very, very interesting proposal put forth by a few prominent physicians and researchers working on the obesity crisis in America.
They propose that beverages loaded with sugar should be considered a public health hazard (much like cigarettes) and should be taxes. The proposal calls for an excise tax of “a penny an ounce” for beverages like sugar sweetened soft drinks that have added sugars. They cite research that links obesity to heart disease, diabetes, cancers, and other health problems. They say sugar sweetened beverages should be taxed in order to curb consumption and help pay for the increasing health care costs of obesity.
They estimate that the tax would generate about $14.9 billion in the first year alone and would increase prices of soft drinks by about 15-20%. That is big money, but at what cost?
My personal opinion is that while the tax would generate a lot of money that could be put to good use on anti-obesity programs, it is singling out one industry when obesity has numerous contributing factors. Calories Americans are getting from beverages have actually gone down in the past decade, but obesity rates still climb. Soft drinks alone are not making us fatter.
Americans need to pay closer attention to portion sizes and overall calories coming into their bodies from all sources. We know that Americans also eat too much fried food, candy, ice cream, etc. Should we tax everything that is “bad” for us? Absolutely not! And these foods are not “bad” when consumed in reasonable quantities in reasonable frequency.
We also need to learn how to move our bodies more to burn off some of the sweet treats that we love to indulge in. Weight loss is a simple equation that I don’t get tired of explaining again and again: Move more and eat less.
Taxing soft drinks will not decrease heart disease risk…exercising more and losing body fat by consuming less calories definitely will!
This post, Will Taxing Soft Drinks Solve The Obesity Problem?, was originally published on
Healthine.com by Brian Westphal.
