Environmental Medicine News

The News Review:

- Bad Medicine for a Serious Infection
- Doctors fail to pass on key data to patients, study says
- US REPRESENTATIVE HENRY E. BROWN (R-SC) HOLDS A HEARING ON POST…
- Stanford: Stanford Ph.D. student discovers complex diabetes link.
- Enable a Moderate Health Care Solution
- This sporting life

Bad Medicine for a Serious Infection
OpEdNews - Sep 29, 2006
The long years of the “Cold War” had, in retrospect, a huge moderating influence on global tensions - albeit with moments of tension itself. In its aftermath, opportunists in America, but also elsewhere, have grasped the absence of any mediator to hijack the progress in planetary equilibrium to pursue their own and corporate agendas. Corruption in the institutionalized nature of governments themselves is something that arguably needs to be addressed - worldwide, but especially in nations who increasingly lay false claim to being “democracies”. A radical change in America might well bring a shift in the attitude of her so-called allies, even a few of her supposed “enemies”, but cultural and economic dependency as it stands needs to be re-examined from scratch. Re-painting the edifice may have some cosmetic appeal, but it borders on folly if the landscape remains shrouded in darkness. Enlightenment is what we need! Indeed, like America, Britain and Australia in particular need a sea-change in government mindset that will see self-interest in the long-term served better by global harmony and equality rather than the present obsession with short-term opportunism. We elect leaders to be responsible managers of our heritage, well-being and legacy… That an “opposing fundamentalism” has emerged as a method of the inevitable response is one of the great tragedies of our times. Actions and responses have created a huge polarization where regressive tendencies are the norm on both sides of the proverbial coin. The absolute nature of these doctrines are themselves an impediment to progress - they must all be overcome in order to protect the planet’s future. ??In the 21st Century, capitalism has outgrown its capacity to recycle itself. It has become a nightmarish machine plunging headlong into its own endgame. The market forces it claims to uphold as its foundation have become devoid of substance and the illusion of a thriving fiscal economy is only sustained by non-recoverable levels of debt and the artificial propping up of the bankrupt dollar. The irony is that so much of this decadent system has itself become dependent on the likes of China and Saudi Arabia who have virtually embraced the model as a weapon of world domination themselves.

Doctors fail to pass on key data to patients, study says
UCLA Daily Bruin - The UCLA Daily Bruin - Sep 29, 2006
The prescriptions included dermatological medications,antibiotics, medications for the ear, nose and throat, and othermedications. The study, which was published in the Sept. 25 issue of theArchives of Internal Medicine, is based on data collected at twohospitals in Sacramento. The purpose was to determine howeffectively physicians explain to patients the name of a newlyprescribed medication, why they need to take it, how to take it,for how long to take it, how frequently to take it, and what thepotential side effects can be. The study was conducted using 185 patients with an average ageof 55 and a group of family doctors, internists andcardiologists. It was found that patients were provided with the name of themedication in 74 percent of the prescriptions. The purpose fortaking the medication was explained to patients in 87 percent ofthe prescriptions while the adverse side effects were stated in 35percent of the prescriptions… This isimportant for patients with chronic diseases,” Tarn said. Though patients can access information about their medicationsthrough the Internet or from their pharmacist, Tarn said patientsmay not receive adequate information through these sourcesalone. While pharmacists know the nature of the medication they aredispensing, they do not know the patient’s medical history,whereas the physician does. “There are some things that don’t come on packageinserts or bottles. The pharmacist may not know what the drug isused for because many drugs are used for more than onecondition,” she said. The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality Web site suggeststhat patients ask their physicians questions about their medicationif they are not provided with adequate information. “A further recommendation from the study is that ifphysicians don’t provide the information voluntarily then thepatients should ask,” Heritage said.

US REPRESENTATIVE HENRY E. BROWN (R-SC) HOLDS A HEARING ON POST…
Free with registration - Political/Congressional Transcript Wire - AccessMyLibrary.com - Sep 29, 2006
KATZ, DEPUTY CHIEF PATIENT CARE SERVICES OFFICER FOR MENTAL HEALTH, DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS DR. BARBARA SIGFORD, NATIONAL PROGRAM DIRECTOR, PHYSICAL MEDICINE AND REHABILITATION, DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS COLONEL ELSPETH CAMERON RITCHIE (USA), M. , PSYCHIATRY CONSULTANT TO THE US ARMY SURGEON GENERAL COLONEL CHARLES W… As most of you here today know, much has been written and discussed relative to post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD. Since the beginning of Operation Enduring and Iraqi Freedom, we are fortunate to have before us some of those who are responsible for providing us critical data on this mental health condition. And I am eager to take this opportunity to learn more about the nature of the disorder and its prevalence among our returning servicemen and women. And while PTSD seems to have captured a majority of the headlines over the last few years, an equal challenging condition is being seen in increasing number at the V. , traumatic brain injury, or TBI. Due to the concussion nature of many of the war-related injuries we’ve seen in Iraq and Afghanistan, TBI can take many forms, ranging from quite mild, almost undetectable, to very dramatic.

Stanford: Stanford Ph.D. student discovers complex diabetes link.
Free with registration - America's Intelligence Wire - AccessMyLibrary.com - Sep 29, 2006
student, calls it his thesis. “It is a culmination of four years of work,” Heit said of the findings, which were published in the Sept. 21 issue of Nature magazine. “The results are exciting. Seung Kim, assistant professor of developmental biology and medicine at the Stanford Medical.

Enable a Moderate Health Care Solution
Washington Post - Sep 29, 2006
, an operation to remove a tumor). Hospitals can charge people as a condition of treatment, and many now do, and hospitals can close emergency departments altogether. Finally, because of cost, shame and human nature, most uninsured get care later in disease progression than the insured, so they suffer needlessly; 20,000 uninsured Americans actually die prematurely from treatable conditions each year, according to the Institute of Medicine. Second, the right blames high health costs on overly generous insurance, so the solution is — surprise, surprise — less generous health insurance. Only the far right can look out and see 46 million uninsured and declare our main problem to be too much health insurance. The right and the President would cut public benefits while limiting tax breaks to those who leave group insurance and purchase pared down policies on their own in the non-group market. Senator Grassley (R-Iowa), the moderate chair of the Senate Finance Committee, thinks so little of this approach that he refused to even hold markup hearings on Bush’s health insurance tax cut proposals this year… , an operation to remove a tumor). Hospitals can charge people as a condition of treatment, and many now do, and hospitals can close emergency departments altogether. Finally, because of cost, shame and human nature, most uninsured get care later in disease progression than the insured, so they suffer needlessly; 20,000 uninsured Americans actually die prematurely from treatable conditions each year, according to the Institute of Medicine. Second, the right blames high health costs on overly generous insurance, so the solution is — surprise, surprise — less generous health insurance. Only the far right can look out and see 46 million uninsured and declare our main problem to be too much health insurance. The right and the President would cut public benefits while limiting tax breaks to those who leave group insurance and purchase pared down policies on their own in the non-group market. Senator Grassley (R-Iowa), the moderate chair of the Senate Finance Committee, thinks so little of this approach that he refused to even hold markup hearings on Bush’s health insurance tax cut proposals this year.

This sporting life
Times Online - Sep 29, 2006
Sport is also dangerous. The more you devote yourself to the idol in the car, the more dangerous it is. At the Olympic Games, the two things that worry you most are the nature of your cell and the efficiency of the transport. When I arrived in Athens for the Games of 2004, it took three hours to get from the airport to the media village; not a good sign, especially as my cell wasn’t in the media village. It was in something called Iaso. I was by no means sanguine about this. In Sydney we had stayed at a hotel that served me a fat boiled egg and Vegemite toast for breakfast, and it had had a nice little bar on the top floor where I could drink Cascade beer at the end of the day… I was dropped somewhere distinctly unpromising: a maternity hospital. I asked a couple of people where to go: no one knew. It would have been a great help had I known then that Iaso was a daughter of Ascelpius, the Greek god of medicine. After half an hour — very amusing it is, walking round and round the same place with the temperature in the high eighties while carrying two bags, one full of laptop and the other full of clean shirts and modern Greek literature, all the time having no idea whatsoever where you are going, and finding no one at all with any idea about anything to do with what you are trying to do — I found out where to go — which was, yes, the maternity hospital. Please don’t think I exaggerate for effect. It was not a former maternity hospital. It was not going to be a maternity hospital as soon as the Olympic Games had finished.