Blog Post #11: Australia Passes Tougher Tobacco Laws

Australian
parliament passed legislature banning brand labels on cigarette and
tobacco packages, forcing all companies selling in the country to
have their products placed in solid olive packages, with no mention
of brand. This is just one of many tough anti-smoking laws in the
country. Europe, Canada, and New Zealand have all made similar strict
laws on tobacco products; Bhutan banned the sell of any products
completely. Such laws have angered the big tobacco companies, who
plan on fighting the courts in Australia. Australian Health Minister
Roxon wants to reduce the market of these “deadly products” the
tobacco companies want to sell. But with any prohibition, black
market sales are expected to happen. Arguments have arisen whether or
not countries can implement such bans. However the WTO gives
governments the right to pass laws protecting public health.
Australia already has bans on tobacco advertising, smoking in public
buildings, and displaying cigarettes in shops. It is even illegal to
smoke in a car with a child. The goal of this new legislature is to
hopefully cut the number of smokers down from 15 percent to 10
percent of the population by 2018. The tobacco market in Australia
generated over $10 billion in sales in 2010, up from $8.3 in 2008.

Tobacco
products cause over 5 million deaths worldwide each year and there is
an estimated 1.3 billion people worldwide who use tobacco products.
Studies and research throughout the years have proven time and time
again that tobacco use can cause death, whether though cancer or
other diseases. The US spends on average over $92 billion a year on
tobacco related health problems. So why, with all the research
available, do people continue to use these products. Countries all
over the world are creating stricter laws against the products. (no
public smoking, warning labels on packaging, age restrictions, etc.)
This is a huge social problem that the world is fighting with no
avail. The big tobacco companies fight hard to lift restrictions
simply to keep making a profit, all while knowingly selling products
that can kill people.

http://health.yahoo.net/news/s/nm/us_australia_smoking

Blog Post #10: The Poor Remain Thin

Researchers
have seen a steady increase of obesity and heart disease in many
third world, developing countries around the world. However, these
problems were found to mainly affect the rich and middle class,
leaving the poor underweight and under nourished, making them almost
as bad off as their wealthier, fatter counterparts. With many studies
out negating each other about weigh and health problems around the
world (some projecting a rise in heart disease, heart attacks at
younger ages, and a worldwide drive to be thin), researchers wanted
to see whether or not these have held true over the years. A new
study looked at 2 different groups of a combined number of 547,000
people between 1991 and 2008 and saw a rise, across the scale, in the
percentage of overweight women. But with this rise, researchers also
found that there was a clear division between the wealthy and poor.
While the number of poor women who were obese grew (18 percent), the
difference between that of wealthy people (45 percent) was
staggering. Conclusion that researchers made: “The poor stay
thinner.” While people are getting fatter, there still remains a
large number of the populations that is undernourished. Food in
poorer nations is expensive, making it harder for poorer individuals
to purchase.

In
this situation the distribution of the poor and wealthy is not as
drastic as it is for things like healthcare and other things. While
it may be hard for some people to get, food is usually readily
available in most countries. This social problem, body weight, can go
both ways; the rise of overweight people and the amount of
undernourished people around the world. But what the problem in this
situation is the gap in these less developed countries. While the
problem is getting better, it is still bad in some areas. While
solving one problem, we are in turn creating and adding to another.

http://health.yahoo.net/news/s/nm/us_developing_thin

Blog Post # 9: Recycled Pacemakers Found to be Safe Option

An
estimated one to two million people die each because they don't have
access or the means to receive a pacemaker. But people are beginning
to donate recycled pacemakers to those countries that don't the means
to provide it's people with one. The recycled pacemakers are coming
from people who die with still-functioning pacemakers. (Pacemakers
are small devices implanted into the heart that provides electrical
pluses to keep the heart at a steady pace) A survey in Michigan and
Illinois found that 19 percent of those who died had pacemakers, most
of which are buried with the body or thrown away as medical waste.
The device can cost anywhere between $2,200 and $6,600, not including
doctor and hospital fees. A professor from the University of Texas
Health Center, Bharat Kantharia collected 122 pacemakers and donated
them to a hospital in India where 53 were implanted. All but two of
patients showed remarkable improvements. However, the FDA only
approves one time use for pacemakers in the US, making it hard to get
the recycled devices overseas. Studies suggest the the recycling is
safe, but definitive data is not yet available making if harder to
get the FDA to make any changes in the laws.

Once
again, people of the United States have immediate access to life
saves devices and procedures that are hard to come by in less
developed countries. But in this situation we have millions of excess
devices that are still in working condition, ready to be donated.
However, government policies and regulations prohibit us from doing
so. Unlike with vaccines that are for one time use, pacemakers (as
long as they still have significant battery life left) can be reused
and don't pose much of a cost to third party organizations as do
vaccines. So where does the line end? When do we stop imposing laws
that stop us from helping those less fortunate people who don't have
the medical access that we do here in the United States?

http://health.yahoo.net/news/s/nm/us_heart_pacemakers

Blog Post #8: Measles Outbreak Linked to Unvaccinated

The US and Canada is experiencing the largest outbreak of measles in the
last 15 yeas. So far, 214 people in the US have been affected and 757
in Canada; the norm is somewhere between 60 and 70 on a yearly basis.
The outbreaks were likely caused by travelers coming home from
overseas, Western Europe, Africa, and Asia, and by too many children
being unvaccinated. The CDC and local healthcare facilities were able
to contain the outbreaks, keeping them relatively small. Most of
those who got sick were not vaccinated against the disease. The
vaccine, which came out in the 1960s, is safe and effective in
preventing the disease as well as mumps and rubella. Most children
are vaccinated by the time they are 5 or 6 years old. However, at one
time the vaccine was said to cause autism in children, though it has
never been proven. The vaccination rate is around 90 percent in the
US and because of this the outbreaks were kept small. Officials say
that had the outbreak occurred in areas with low vaccination rates,
that the disease would have spread very quickly due do its high
contagion-ability. Health officials also stress the importance of
vaccination, not only to help protect the individual, but also those
around them; to help prevent spreading the disease in the first
place.

To us in the United States, vaccines are just a part of growing up. We get
them as infants, toddlers, before we go to kindergarten, for the flu,
and various other diseases. All we have to do go to the nearby health
department, our local doctor's office, or even just walk into the
nearest pharmacy and we can get almost any vaccine on the spot.
However, some people/parents choose not to get vaccinated or to get
their children vaccinated for various reasons, which would seem fine
since most of the diseases and infections we vaccinate against are
rare. But when outbreaks occur they risk infection, not only for them
but others. While we have immediate access, people in other parts of
the world (Western Europe, Africa, and Asia) don't have access to
vaccines and have to worry about these diseases on an almost daily
basis. We take for granted all the opportunities that are given to
us, when there are others that have nothing compared to what we have
here. The discrepancies in the distribution of world healthcare is
shocking and the gap, that should and needs to be shrinking, is still
growing despite worldwide efforts. And its sad when we don't take
advantage of what we are allotted when others would kill to have what
we have.

http://health.yahoo.net/news/s/hsn/unvaccinatedkidsbehindlargestusmeaslesoutbreakinyearsstudy

Blog Post #7: Recent Listeria Outbreak, Deadliest in Years

A
listeria outbreak that occurred earlier this month that has been
linked to 116 infected people, 23 of which died, is now being
referred as the deadliest food-borne outbreak illness in the U.S. In
the last 25 years. An outbreak in 1998 killed 21 people and one in
1985 killed 52. This latest outbreak was caused by tainted Colorado
cantaloupes. Deaths have occurred in Louisiana, Colorado, Indiana,
Kansas, Maryland, Missouri, Nebraska, New Mexico, New York, Oklahoma,
Texas, and Wyoming. Once all the contaminated cantaloupes were
removed from the market, the strain of listeria was linked to
equipment and cantaloupe samples at Jensen Farms' packing facility in
Colorado. Though the outbreak is unknown, the FDA is looking at the
farm's water supply and animal intrusion as a possible source.
Listeria is rare and more deadly than salmonella and E. coli,
however, most adults can consume the pathogen with no health effects.
Elderly, people with compromised immune systems, and pregnancy women
are most at risk. The average age of those who got sick was 78; most
were over 60 years of age.

In
today's age, we usually don't have to worry about the food we buy at
grocery stores or the farmers market having any deadly viruses,
bacteria, or anything harmful. We have programs like the FDA that set
standards that make our food and medicines safe to consume. However,
sometimes things like this recent listeria outbreak occur. But we
have to resources and abilities to quickly track down the cause,
remove all infected items, and provide the victims with effective
healthcare. People in other parts of the world, however, are not this
fortunate. They don't have government agencies monitoring the quality
of food, let alone the quality of life. The distribution of quality
of life around the is astonishing. When we in the US have everything
and anything to make life as easy and comfortable as possible at out
fingertips, people in rural China and Africa have very little
compared to us. Where we have vaccines to cure/prevent polio and TB,
people around the world continue to die on daily basis because these
and other already cured diseases simply because they don't have
access to it. This is a huge social problem being addressed by many
organizations from around the world.

http://health.yahoo.net/news/s/ap/us_cantaloupe_listeria

Blog Post #6: Mother's Diet Linked to Birth Defects

Researchers
have found a link between the diet of mothers' and birth defeats.
Women who eat a healthy diet are less likely to have children with
birth defects. Researchers say that a varied diet, full of fruits,
vegetables, and grains, along with vitamin supplements containing
folic acid should greatly decrease the risk of birth defects. Diets
lacking in folic acid and folate have been linked to brain and spine
defects. The study used data to compare 3.400 women who had a child
with a neural tube defect or a cleft lip or palate and 6,100 women
whose child had no defects. The women were asked how frequently they
had eaten a range of foods before they became pregnant and while
pregnant. Weight, vitamin consumption, smoking and drinking habits
were also checked. Women whose diet closely followed that of the
food guide pyramid were 34 percent less likely to have a child with a
cleft lip and 26 percent less likely to have one with a cleft
palate compared to women whose diet did not follow the FGP.
Researchers and health professionals urge women who are pregnant or
are about to become pregnant to closely watch their diet and seek out
better foods.

Diet,
not only for pregnant women had become an ever increasing social
problem in today's world. More and more people are overweight or just
unhealthy in general. What should hopefully scare women into more
closely monitoring their diet is this study, where what they eat not
only affects them, but the livelihood of their unborn child. We in
the United States have access to safe, healthy foods, a large number
of vitamins and supplements, and excellent healthcare so there is no
excuse. Government programs are also available for women who cannot
afford to buy the necessary food needed for them and their children.
So we Americans have no excuse to blame diet on causing birth defects
when women in Africa, India, China, and other rural
countries/continents don't have easy access to what is essential.

http://health.yahoo.net/news/s/nm/us_healthy_diet_tied_fewer_birth_defects

Blog Post #5: Smoking High Among Mining, Food Service, and Contruction Workers

According
to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention workers in the
mining, food services and construction industries smoke the most.
Thirty percent of these workers smoke despite the decline of smokers
in the U.S. in past years. Coming in a close second, the
construction industry had a smoking rate of 29.7 percent. Management
and educational workers had the lowest rate at 9.7 percent. The study
showed that education levels along with poverty and gender are major
factors associated with high smoking rates. Men, with low education
and no health insurance ages 18-24 were found to have the highest
smoking rates. Researchers say that people with lower education
levels tend to have less access to health information and are less
knowledgeable about the dangers of tobacco use. In 2010, 19.3% of
adults were smokers, down from 20.9% in 2005.

When
you look at all the factors that the study shows leads to high
smoking rates, it's not surprising to see that mining, food, and
construction workers are among the highest. They tend to be the least
educated and have the most stressful jobs. But despite the declining
numbers her in the US, this social problem, smoking, is on the rise
all over the world. China is the largest producer and consumer of
tobacco in the world. What amazes me and a large majorly of non
smokers is that despite all the known affects of smoking that people
still continue to smoke. The government requires that all packages
and advertisements have a warning, yet people overlook this. Some
states have high cigarette taxes, yet people still continue to use
them. Smoking is a recognized problem and we have tired to
distinguish it, but despite all our measures, it continues and will
continue to be a problem.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/health/sns-rt-us-smokingtre78s5r5-20110929,0,6572027.stor

Blog Post 4: First Stem Cell Treatment Approved in Europe

Surgeons
in Britain received the approval of the UK Medicines and Healthcare
Products Regulatory Agency this past Thursday to take part in the
first trial of human embryonic stem cell therapy. This will be the
first ever human trial in Europe. This is a huge feat for Britain,
putting them as the leader of stem cell research in Europe. The
trial, aimed to take place in December, will be conducted on 12
patients with Stargardt's macular dystrophy, an incurable eye disease
that is one of the main causes of blindness in young people. The
medical team hopes that the trial, which will inject healthy retinal
cells into the eye, will slow, halt, or reverse the effects of the
disease and hopefully prevent blindness. Patients in the trial will
already be in the advance stage of the disease, where doctors hope
to see greater results. This trial goes alongside a similar trial
that began in July at the University of California, Los Angeles where
only one patient has been treated.

With
all the possibilities that this and many other stem cell projects
hope to achieve, there is still so much controversy that comes along.
The United States government has cut off all federal funding towards
any research. But when one looks at all the potential that stem cells
hold (stem cells have the ability to replicate themselves and become
specialized cells throughout the body), research on these amazing
cells seems almost vital. What makes this a social problem is all the
controversy that comes with the topic from various groups all over
the world. Stem cells come in two from, embryonic and adult.
Embryonic stem cell growth has caused the most controversy because
in order to obtain such cells, scientists “grow” embryos and
then destroy them once the cells have been collected. Anyone can see
the heat that this may cause in religious and anti-abortion
communities. But what we must consider are the endless possibilities
that these cells pose to the future of hundreds, thousands,
potentially millions of people. Isn't it better for one embryo to be
destroyed yet have the power to save many lives? It all depends on
the view of the individual, and these different views will keep this
subject in the headlines for years to come.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2011/sep/22/embryonic-stem-cell-trial-blindness

Blog Post #3: Clinic Stops Prescribing Xanax

A
health clinic is Louisville, Kentucky has stopped prescribing the
anti-anxiety drug Xanax and is changing all preexisting Xanax
prescriptions to alternative drugs. The ban has come as a result of
increasing overdose incidences involving Xanax. The drug is the
eighth most prescribed drug in the US and has had an 89% increase in
ER visits related to abuse of the drug, which is often time fatal.
Though with proper, responsible use the drug has been found to be
extremely successful. It is popular because of its immediate effects.
The goal of the clinic is to eventually, by the end of the year, wean
patients off the drug by either switching to a different drug or by
helping users manage their anxiety. The change was not widely
accepted, even though other clinics around the country have already
made the change, due to the potential harm it could cause users. For
those who have become dependent, almost addicted, it could cause
withdrawal or increase anxiety symptoms. However, doctors still feel
that this change is for the good.

Prescription
drug use has been on the rise in the last 15 years. An estimated 20%
of the US population has at one point taken prescription drugs for
non-medical purposes. More than 200,000 ER visits a year are drug
abusers trying to get their fix. Prescriptions for narcotics,
tranquilizers, sedatives, and stimulants have increased from 170-450%
over the last 20 years. About 1 in 12 high school aged teens have
admitted to prescription drug abuse and that number is on the rise.
This ever growing social problem is not one that is only found the in
US, but is widespread across the globe ( Europe, South Asia, southern
Africa). While these drugs are becoming harder and harder to get,
they are getting easier to get at the same time. Internet sales have
become a discrete and effective way to get a drug of choice, though
this is getting harder as well. Many kids are raiding their parents,
extended family, and friends' medicine cabinets in order to get what
they want. It seems that no matter how hard doctors, government
agencies, etc try to regulate the control of prescriptions, it is
becoming harder to actually do so; all while the abuse is continually
rising.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/14/us/in-louisville-a-centers-doctors-cut-off-xanax-prescriptions.html?ref=health

Blog Post #2: Ibuprofen Warning to Pregnant Women

New research published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal found
that pregnant women taking any type of non-steroidal
anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) increased their likelihood/risk of a
miscarriage by 2.4 times. Even small doses of painkillers such as
ibuprofen, naproxen (Advil), and diclofenac within
the first twenty weeks of pregnancy more than doubles the risk of
spontaneous abortion (miscarriage). Diclofenac was found to be the
most riskiest NSAID that a women could take and rofecoxib, known as
Vioxx in the US, was found to have the least risk of causing a
miscarriage. However, rofecoxib was taken off the market in 2004 and
no longer proves to be a risk. NSAIDs have also been proven in the
past to increase the risk of major birth defects. The Royal College
of Midwives and the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of the UK, advised
that any type of NSAID should be avoided during pregnancy. However if
pain medication is needed, acetaminophen (Tylenol) would be the best
to take, having the least amount of risk involved.

For many people, primarily women, in the United States the finding of
this study seems like common knowledge. Many of us have been told, or
heard from friends and/or family that Tylenol is the only thing that
women can take during pregnancy. And if we didn't know that, it's
one of the first things doctors and nurses will tell someone upon
becoming pregnant. But what is becoming an ever increasing social
problem around the world and in the United States is the lack of
proper/adequate healthcare. How are women in rural China or remote
areas in Africa supposed to hear about this recent find, let alone
have access to a doctor? Not only is the lack of proper healthcare a
growing issue , but lack of proper and necessary medicine is a huge
concern. What if women only have access to one kind of pain
medication? Do they take their chances and cause their unborn
potential harm or do they suffer? Finding solutions to the small
problems is only one step in helping to solve the problem as a whole.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2011/sep/06/ibuprofen-warning-to-pregnant-women

Blog Post #1: Lack of Sleep Linked to Hypertension

A recent study contucted at Harvard Medical School looked at the amount/percentage of slow-wave stages of sleep and its affects on hypertension. The three and a half year study followed 784 healthly men, who had no previous signs of hypertension. The men had their blood pressure checked at various times throughout the study and their level of slow-wave sleep was monitored at home by a machine. The results of the study found that the men who spent the least amount of time in slow-wave (deep sleep) were most likely to have or develop high blood pressure. Normal sleep should consist of 25% slow-wave sleep, however, the men who had the highest risk on average got no more than 4% slow-wave sleep each night. During sleep, slow-wave sleep, the brain's electrical activity slows down, as well as blood pressure, which is a good thing. Lack of sleep, can interefere with brain signals that can directly influence blood pressure. Things that can contribute to lack of sleep include sleep apnea, snoring, as well as certain medications.

With the rising number of people developing sleep disorders on the rise, as well as the number of overweight and obese people, hypertension is on it's way to becoming one of the leading causes of death. In the United States, and in many other countries around the world, people are consuming more salty/sodium rich foods than ever before which lead to not only high blood pressure but an increase in weight, which can cause numerous health issues. The overall issue presented is that our diets, exercise, health, and even sleep habits have a huge impact on our overall health. And with the results of this study, and many others like it, it proves to us that everything we do and eat will have some sort of impact on our bodies; maybe not today, but sometime down the road it will all catch up with us.