... married and on our honeymoon. Now that we're back we'll get back to work!
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Friday, September 4, 2009
There's an app for that?
We must be feeling really catty today because we weren't going to comment on this story but when you think of what our mission is - our mission is to correct what's incorrect in the news. Headlines: "New Application Aims to Detect Flu Outbreaks Faster" "iPhone users have a new means of monitoring the spread of swine flu and other disease outbreaks." Nothing really incorrect with this story. There is an app for that. We just have to ask - Why?
It's been on ABC, USA Today, US News & World Report you've seen it. We thought that that was our job. Except knowing where the outbreak is is sort of like knowing who has the virus. It's not the flu that needs to worry you, we think. For us its what treatments are available to keep you from dying from the flu.
This app and the others like it turns you into a video game character. What are you supposed to do run from uninfected area to uninfected area? We don't want to turn you into a frogger character. Information that informs should inform. We aren't hating! Really we aren't hating!
We think of the flu as a bad bad cold that kills whether its swine or pneumonia. Dead is dead. We're not jealous but don't allow yourself to be misdirected. Everyone who gets the flu will NOT die. It's not a death sentence. There is an available treatment to make us both resistant and able to recover from the infection. Swine Flu - there's a treatment for that!
It's been on ABC, USA Today, US News & World Report you've seen it. We thought that that was our job. Except knowing where the outbreak is is sort of like knowing who has the virus. It's not the flu that needs to worry you, we think. For us its what treatments are available to keep you from dying from the flu.
This app and the others like it turns you into a video game character. What are you supposed to do run from uninfected area to uninfected area? We don't want to turn you into a frogger character. Information that informs should inform. We aren't hating! Really we aren't hating!
We think of the flu as a bad bad cold that kills whether its swine or pneumonia. Dead is dead. We're not jealous but don't allow yourself to be misdirected. Everyone who gets the flu will NOT die. It's not a death sentence. There is an available treatment to make us both resistant and able to recover from the infection. Swine Flu - there's a treatment for that!
Obese Kids
No one likes an "I told you so" person and we don't mean to be that way BUT... "Researchers are recommending that officials in the United States, United Kingdom and Australia rethink their efforts to combat obesity in children because the current strategies -- emphasizing healthy diets and exercise -- aren't working." While the Atlanta Journal Constitution (AJC) got the numbers wrong and it's not that we need the validation. Our reason to be is to correct these widely reported errors. According to the actual research in the BMJ ( formerly the British Medical Journal): "3958 children visiting their general practitioner in May 2005-July 2006 were surveyed for BMI." The information from the survey is in this decade. We believe that the right prescription is important to receive the right remedy.
Their conclusion is: "Primary care screening followed by brief counselling did not improve BMI, physical activity, or nutrition in overweight or mildly obese 5-10 year olds, and it would be very costly if universally implemented. These findings are at odds with national policies in countries including the US, UK, and Australia."
That's why we blah, blah, blah all these studies of studies that say the answer is more victim blaming like more exercise, dieting, better nutrition. Blah, blah, blah.... We don't get overweight because we want to get overweight. The answer has to be more than just saying: "No!"
The issue of spiraling health care costs must be addressed we support the most effective and efficient methods as an alternative to the current system. Smart and effective change is the only change needed rather than change for change sake. We support "better difference (trademark pending)."
Their conclusion is: "Primary care screening followed by brief counselling did not improve BMI, physical activity, or nutrition in overweight or mildly obese 5-10 year olds, and it would be very costly if universally implemented. These findings are at odds with national policies in countries including the US, UK, and Australia."
That's why we blah, blah, blah all these studies of studies that say the answer is more victim blaming like more exercise, dieting, better nutrition. Blah, blah, blah.... We don't get overweight because we want to get overweight. The answer has to be more than just saying: "No!"
The issue of spiraling health care costs must be addressed we support the most effective and efficient methods as an alternative to the current system. Smart and effective change is the only change needed rather than change for change sake. We support "better difference (trademark pending)."
Thursday, September 3, 2009
Cancer Reviews
You'll be seeing it, reading, hearing it - how you can cut your cancer risk in half a new study reveals. If it sounds too good to be true then it is too good to be true. A review of reviews you know how we don't put much weigh into money spent excessivley to do what we do. 
Especially when the results are the same as our advice you know wash, rinse and repeat (exercise, watch what you eat, die) it's the same blah blah blah. These RESULTS are the same results that we've known since the 50's. Remember the president's council on fitness who enlisted Arnold before he was "the governator?" To us it's more blame the victim research. The problem is we need to get our fat behinds off the couch and stop eating the snacks as though they're our main source of energy. We know this - "But you did not persuade" us. Why you new reader might ask? If you are doing the paranoid thing of taking care of yourself because you're a big "C" fearer you won't be cutting your rise in half. This review is ONLY true if you've been ignoring all the advice that we've known for the last sixty (60) years. If you're overweight and eat what you want when you want and think exercise is for children that's who this advice is addressed to get them to cut their risk bennies (benefits).
Especially when the results are the same as our advice you know wash, rinse and repeat (exercise, watch what you eat, die) it's the same blah blah blah. These RESULTS are the same results that we've known since the 50's. Remember the president's council on fitness who enlisted Arnold before he was "the governator?" To us it's more blame the victim research. The problem is we need to get our fat behinds off the couch and stop eating the snacks as though they're our main source of energy. We know this - "But you did not persuade" us. Why you new reader might ask? If you are doing the paranoid thing of taking care of yourself because you're a big "C" fearer you won't be cutting your rise in half. This review is ONLY true if you've been ignoring all the advice that we've known for the last sixty (60) years. If you're overweight and eat what you want when you want and think exercise is for children that's who this advice is addressed to get them to cut their risk bennies (benefits).
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
Breast Life
This story had it all. It's not as recent as the Federal Drug Administration (FDA) Advisory Group refusing two new cancer drugs for seniors but this story has breast cancer, minority women and survival rates. How could we not focus on the mailed survey results of the over thirty-one hundred (3133) "Latina and African American women"? Their conclusion: "Greater patient involvement in decision making was associated with receipt of mastectomy for all racial and ethnic groups. Patient attitudes about surgery and the opinions of family and friends contribute to surgical choices made by women with breast cancer." In the WebMD story young women afraid of dying from breast cancer opt for a radical mastectomy and the older women with family involvement choose "breast-conserving surgery."
Unfortunately for our Aunt Pearlie and many women seniors a lump means cancer, means never leaving the hospital and means death. The big "C" (cancer) fear is the earliest of our AIDS, terrorism, swine flu for the generations.
As the health care debate rolls on in the media at the very same "Journal of the National Cancer Institute" you can listen to the nine minute fifty-six second (9:56) interview with Dr. Peter Bach of the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center discussing the issue of treatment and health concerns being waged out of patient earshot and awareness - "How much is life worth?" It's being called the $430 Billion Dollar Question. The podcast is in the very same issue as the study from the August issue of the journal. For many seniors with a healthy, active lifestyle and strong family ties the answer is priceless. Unfortunately when pain and inoperable medical conditions apply many individuals like Pearlie Mae Leach decide the answer is a financial concern.
Unfortunately for our Aunt Pearlie and many women seniors a lump means cancer, means never leaving the hospital and means death. The big "C" (cancer) fear is the earliest of our AIDS, terrorism, swine flu for the generations.
As the health care debate rolls on in the media at the very same "Journal of the National Cancer Institute" you can listen to the nine minute fifty-six second (9:56) interview with Dr. Peter Bach of the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center discussing the issue of treatment and health concerns being waged out of patient earshot and awareness - "How much is life worth?" It's being called the $430 Billion Dollar Question. The podcast is in the very same issue as the study from the August issue of the journal. For many seniors with a healthy, active lifestyle and strong family ties the answer is priceless. Unfortunately when pain and inoperable medical conditions apply many individuals like Pearlie Mae Leach decide the answer is a financial concern.
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
Non Emergency Emergencies
When Aunt Pearlie complained of a backache we though maybe some Doan's pills and she'd be back on her feet and eating again. She knew the problem was much worse but we didn't so we delayed treatment.
If the experience taught us one thing is that for family, including ourselves, who are afraid of hospitals and dread emergency rooms (ERs) and non-urgent care center in the mall or shopping center is a good send. Some are over crowded because of their limited hours and specialities but may are crowd free. Taking a family member there while out and about or in lieu of a hospital might be a better alternative. If the situation is at all serious an ambulance from their gets you far ahead of the line than a standard ER walk-in (this is only our anecdotal experience however). According to the latest report in the news (Bloomberg, Reuters, US News & World Report) which miss reads the facts "retail clinics" are a good choice for sore throats, earaches and urinary tract infection. Here's what they actually say according to the editors of Annals of Internal Medicine: "Little is known about retail clinics in the United States. Contribution - The investigators found that nearly all U.S. retail clinics offer care for common symptoms (such as sore throat and cough), immunizations, and routine screening tests (such as lipid and glucose levels). Most are in urban locations, and about half are in 4 states. The investigators estimate that one third of the U.S. population resides within a 10-minute driving distance of a retail clinic. Caution - The findings apply only to retail clinics operating in 2008. Implication - About one third of the U.S. population resides near a retail clinic that provides basic acute and preventive care."
While some Clinics use residents rather than interns physicians we are of the "doctor is a doctor is a doctor" school of medicine in that unless you can get in to see your doctor when you want to see your doctor without a substantial wait time you don't know what you're going to get from the ER or the hospital when you walk in. Again just using our own experience we've had ambulances called from clinics where the doctors live by the "don't sue us school of medicine" where over care is better than under care any day. Our own physicians have never called an ambulance for us (again our experiences are all anecdotal) so your mileage may vary.
If the experience taught us one thing is that for family, including ourselves, who are afraid of hospitals and dread emergency rooms (ERs) and non-urgent care center in the mall or shopping center is a good send. Some are over crowded because of their limited hours and specialities but may are crowd free. Taking a family member there while out and about or in lieu of a hospital might be a better alternative. If the situation is at all serious an ambulance from their gets you far ahead of the line than a standard ER walk-in (this is only our anecdotal experience however). According to the latest report in the news (Bloomberg, Reuters, US News & World Report) which miss reads the facts "retail clinics" are a good choice for sore throats, earaches and urinary tract infection. Here's what they actually say according to the editors of Annals of Internal Medicine: "Little is known about retail clinics in the United States. Contribution - The investigators found that nearly all U.S. retail clinics offer care for common symptoms (such as sore throat and cough), immunizations, and routine screening tests (such as lipid and glucose levels). Most are in urban locations, and about half are in 4 states. The investigators estimate that one third of the U.S. population resides within a 10-minute driving distance of a retail clinic. Caution - The findings apply only to retail clinics operating in 2008. Implication - About one third of the U.S. population resides near a retail clinic that provides basic acute and preventive care."While some Clinics use residents rather than interns physicians we are of the "doctor is a doctor is a doctor" school of medicine in that unless you can get in to see your doctor when you want to see your doctor without a substantial wait time you don't know what you're going to get from the ER or the hospital when you walk in. Again just using our own experience we've had ambulances called from clinics where the doctors live by the "don't sue us school of medicine" where over care is better than under care any day. Our own physicians have never called an ambulance for us (again our experiences are all anecdotal) so your mileage may vary.
Diets Work on Diabetics
Dr Phil is known for saying "Diets Don't Work" but the Annals of Internal Medicine says that research on Italians and Rachel Ray EVOO followers would disagree with that for diabetics of type 2 after four (4) years. Good news and good video. (1:46)"Compared with a low-fat diet, a low-carbohydrate, Mediterranean-style diet led to more favorable changes in glycemic control and coronary risk factors and delayed the need for antihyperglycemic drug therapy in overweight patients with newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes."
Diet or Drugs? The choice is eating a diet of italian style foods or take expensive drugs and make more trips to the pharmacy? Another very tough choice for us to make.
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