This looks like a harbinger of the future. California will now require that all people approaching the end of life be informed of all their options. Terminally ill patients in California are the first in the nation to have a legal right to information from their doctors, upon request, about end-of-life options, including hospice, palliative [...]
Archive for October, 2008
California Mandates Right-to-Know on End-of-Life Decisions
Posted in Uncategorized on October 22, 2008 |
Institute of Medicine Recommends Increased Vitamin D for Children and Teens
Posted in Uncategorized on October 19, 2008 |
The Institute of Medicine has gone on record in favor of increasing vitamin D supplementation for young people. The Institute of Medicine, chartered to establish dietary standards for all Americans, says children and teenagers need twice the currently recommended daily dose of vitamin Din order to stave off diseases such as osteoporosis as well as [...]
Beverage News
Posted in Uncategorized on October 14, 2008 |
Several cups of coffee a day do not pose a breast cancer risk as had previously been feared, but moderate amounts of alcohol appear to shrink the brain. From today’s MedPage, the story on coffee: Breast cancer risk was not significantly elevated overall by drinking four or more cups of coffee a day (relative risk [...]
Gingko Extract May Protect Brain During Stroke
Posted in Uncategorized on October 10, 2008 |
The leaves of the gingko tree have long been known to aid blood flow, both to the brain and to the extremities (legs and arms). This has led various practitioners over the years to use it for conditions including peripheral vascular disease and dementia. A new study finds that, at least in mice, taking gingko [...]
Cancer and Heart Deaths Plummet in Britain
Posted in Uncategorized on October 9, 2008 |
In the United States, we sometimes become despondent at our failure to reverse many horrifying health trends. This is major news. Great Britain shows that continuing decline is not inevitable. Figures published yesterday show deaths from cancer fell by 18.2 per cent in the decade to 2007 and are on course to hit the target [...]
St. John’s Wort Effective for Major Depression
Posted in Uncategorized on October 9, 2008 |
This new study, published by the respected Cochrane Reviews, is among the most important research reviews on an herbal remedy ever published. The bottom line is that St. John’s Wort is as effective as tricyclic antidepressant medications, with fewer side effects, for severe depression. The herb had previously been shown to be effective for moderate depression. [...]
Court Documents Show Pfizer Manipulated Drug Evidence
Posted in Uncategorized on October 8, 2008 |
The collection and distribution of medical research has essentially been privatized, and the corporations with the strongest stake in the outcomes continue to exert profound pressures to accentuate the positive and eliminate the negative. Case in point, the epilepsy drug Neurontin: The drug maker Pfizer earlier this decade manipulated the publication of scientific studies to [...]
Rising Food Prices Complicate Health Promotion Efforts
Posted in Uncategorized on October 6, 2008 |
Among the key points I emphasize in my clinical nutrition class are that everyone needs substantial amounts of vegetables and fruits and that highly processed foods (sugar, high-fructose corn syrup, white flour, fries, chips, sodas) are a major problem. Virtually everyone in the health field, from the Surgeon General and the National Cancer Institute on down, recognizes [...]
Teens with Insomnia at Increased Risk for Depression, Suicide, Substance Abuse
Posted in Uncategorized on October 4, 2008 |
Insomnia may be a risk factor for developing a variety of emotion-related symptoms, according to a new study published in the October 1 issue of the journal Sleep. At the beginning of the study, each participant reported no signs of depression or substance abuse but 9.4% of them did report symptoms of insomnia, which include [...]
New Twist in Brain Obesity Riddle
Posted in Uncategorized on October 4, 2008 |
The plot thickens further. Scientists discover that eating a poor diet appears to trigger a mechanism in the brain that increases overeating.
