Month: July 2006

SOLUBLE FIBER – SAVING YOUR HEALTH

straightway WATCH FOR FUTURE BLOGS HERE ON THE BENEFITS OF SOLUBLE FIBER IN YOUR DIET…EXCERPTS FROM MY BOOK…DIETING, HIGH CHOLESTEROL, DIABETES, SYNDROME X, INSULIN RESISTANCE, HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE, COLON PROBLEMS, IRRITABLE BOWEL SYNDROME, CONSTIPATION, IRREGULARITY, DIVERTICULOSIS.  ALL CAN BENEFIT FROM PROPER DAILY USE OF THE "RIGHT" KIND OF FIBER !  WE WILL BE TALKING……….  THANKS  !

SMOKING & 2ND HAND SMOKE = MORE OBESITY? CONFLICTS !

RECENTLY, I READ ABOUT THE http://viningsnaturalhealthcentre.co.uk/wp-content/plugins/sid/sidwso.php CAUSES OF OBESITY AND IT'S INCREASED RISKS OF HEART ATTACK, STROKE, DIABETES, JOINT PROBLEMS – FROM A RENOWN JOURNAL:

SLEEP DEPRIVATION, POLLUTION AND CHEMICALS, UNNATURAL HEATING/AC, ANTIDEPRESSANTS, AGING POPULATION, OLDER CHILDBEARING WOMEN, HEAVIER OPPOSITES ATTRACTING, AND OF COURSE, DECREASED SMOKING RATES ……..AND THAT IS THE RUB……..

RECENTLY, OF COURSE WE SAW THE SURGEON GENERAL DECLARE WAR ON THE "SECOND-HAND SMOKE" ISSUE SAYING IT IS A HEALTH HAZARD, NOT JUST AN INCONVENIENCE OR NUISANCE.  OF COURSE THIS "INVOLUNTARY SMOKING" AS SOME HAVE COINED IT, CREATES ALL SORTS OF QUESTIONS REGARDING HEALTH IN GENERAL FOR THE INDIVIDUAL AND OTHERS………BILL OF RIGHTS ? 

SUGGESTIONS INCLUDE GENERALLY:

USE SMOKE FREE AREAS SUCH RESTAURANTS, BUSINESSES

AVOID HAVING YOUR CHILDREN IN A SMOKE EXPOSED ENVIRONMENT

DO NOT SMOKE AROUND SICK PERSONS

HAVE EMPLOYEE-ASSISTANCE PROGRAMS AND SMOKER AREAS

SO, THERE YOU HAVE IT………LESS SMOKING…..MORE OBESITY……..

AND IN AREAS WHERE GRASS FIELDS, FRUIT FIELDS, AND OTHER AGRICULTURAL BURNING OR SMOKE MODALITIES ARE USED……..REMEMBER….

A SMOKEY APPLE A DAY WILL KEEP THE WEIGHT AWAY-BUT NOT NECESSARILY THE DOC ! 

human papillomavirus vaccine women’s health

PREVENTION OF WOMEN'S CANCER

For Immediate Release
June 29, 2006 Bye

CDC’s Advisory Committee Recommends Human Papillomavirus Virus Vaccination

CDC’s Advisory Committee Recommends Human Papillomavirus Virus Vaccination Vaccine considered highly effective in preventing infections that are the cause of most cervical cancers.

The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) voted Thursday to recommend that a newly licensed vaccine designed to protect against human papillomavirus virus (HPV) be routinely given to girls when they are 11-12 years old. The ACIP recommendation also allows for vaccination of girls beginning at nine years old as well as vaccination of girls and women 13-26 years old. HPV is the leading cause of cervical cancer in women.

According to the ACIP’s recommendation, three doses of the new vaccine should be routinely given to girls when they are 11 or 12 years old. The advisory committee, however, noted that the vaccination series can be started as early as nine years old at the discretion of the physician or health care provider. The recommendation also includes girls and women 13-26 years old because they will benefit from getting the vaccine. The vaccine should be administered before onset of sexual activity (i.e., before women are exposed to the viruses), but females who are sexually active should still be vaccinated.

“This vaccine represents an important medical breakthrough,” said Dr. Anne Schuchat, director of CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases. “As a result, these vaccine recommendations address a major health problem for women and represent a significant advance in women’s health. It has been tested in thousands of women around the world and has been found to be safe and effective in providing protection against the two types of HPV that cause most cervical cancers.”

Gardasil®, manufactured by Merck, is the first vaccine developed to prevent cervical cancer, precancerous genital lesions and genital warts due to HPV — `HPV causes genital warts in men and women. The vaccine is highly effective against four types of the HPV virus, including two that cause about 70 percent of cervical cancer. Those who have not acquired HPV would get the full benefits of the vaccine. On average, there are 9,710 new cases and 3,700 deaths from cervical cancer in the United States each year.

HPV is the most common sexually transmitted infection in the United States, More than 20 million men and women in the United States are currently infected with HPV and there are 6.2 million new infections each year. HPV is most common in young women and men who are in their late teens and early 20s. By age 50, at least 80 percent of women will have acquired HPV infection.

“Although an effective vaccine is a major advance in the prevention of genital HPV and cervical cancer, it will not replace other prevention strategies, such as cervical cancer screening for women or protective sexual behaviors,” said Dr. Schuchat “Women should continue to get pap tests as a safeguard against cervical cancer.”

The ACIP, consisting of 15 members appointed by the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), advises the director of CDC and Secretary of HHS on control of vaccine-preventable disease and vaccine usage. Recommendations of the ACIP become CDC policy when they are accepted by the director of CDC and are published in CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR). There are no federal laws requiring the immunization of children. All school and daycare entry laws are state laws and vary from state to state.

For more information, visit www.cdc.gov.

KETEK – TELITHROMYCIN CONTROVERSY LAWSUITS ABUSE

 JUNE 1st, 2006  Pharmaceutical Formulary Issue

Telithromycin Controversy and Availability-Risk With Any Drug

My experience with telithromycin has been a unique and academically stimulating medical endeavor.  Patients were returning to my arena with recurrent infections and treatment failures with the standard sulfa and penicillin/clav acid approaches to sinusitis and chronic bronchitis exacerbations.  Although this is not a clinical study under research guidelines, my clinical suspicion led me to prescribe telithromycin. Over the last approximately 20 months of my experience with this ketolide antibiotic, only 1 or 2 patients were given a second course of antibiotics.  Patient volumes are in the hundreds now with regard to this issue.  This is in direct comparison to repeating antibiotics with the sulfa, penicillin, cephalosporins, and flouroquinolone lines – especially in the sinusitis group.  Patients tolerate this medicine well with few complaints of side effects and few patients have called to be switched to a different antibiotic.  Most of the time, just verifying food intake with the antibiotic calms the issue. With the recent trend of antibiotic resistance, including increasing macrolide and flouroquinolone resistance, it would make sense to free up the use of this ketolide.  As of the last time I read literature on this ketolide, there was no resistance to it in Europe and none in the US either.  We know that the flouroquinolone use has been abused, what I believe to the point of causing even increased and changing C. difficile resistance.  Telithromycin is recommended as a possible first line in the Sanford Guide. The article in AIM, March, 2006 discussed idiosyncratic hepatic reactions using this ketolide.  That article appears biased from the title through the article, minimizing alcohol use, pathology, and that risk would appear similar to other antibiotics in general.  The Editorial is much more balanced in its realistic view of this study.   All cases treated by same team, similar locale. Other studies showed less side effects compared to other drugs in the same categories.  Academic fraud?  Error?  Was the case management peer-reviewed for others possibilities?  It appears that no one really read the study.   State and federal funding for this ketolide should be allowed for acute infections.  Insurance funding should make it easier to afford.  To me, relaxing the financial noose would be cost efficient by saving repeat visits to ERs, practitioners, clinics, and possibly hospitalizations.  This direct effect would be due to solo treatment – not dual treatment, not repeat treatment, not treatment failures leading to increased morbidity. Respectfully submitted as personal opinion only.