Lost amidst the understandable concern about transmission of the swine flu virus is the key role apparently played by industrial pig farms. The town where this flu appears to have originated in surrounded by massive confined animal feeding operations (CAFO), some of them owned by the U.S. pork mega-corporation, Smithfield Foods. Aysha Akhtar, MD, MPH, [...]
Archive for April, 2009
Flu Farms?
Posted in Uncategorized on April 29, 2009 |
Vitamin D May Be Helpful for Prostate Cancer
Posted in Uncategorized on April 28, 2009 |
The role of vitamin D is increasingly recognized to encompass far more than its historically understood role in helping the body to lay down calcium in bone. New research shows a potential role in helping men with prostate cancer. The trial – results of which are due to be published in the journal BJU International – [...]
Pharmaceutical Price Inflation
Posted in Uncategorized on April 18, 2009 |
Maggie Mahar at Health Beat, a Century Foundation health policy blog, has an eye-opening post about the price inflation of cancer drugs, which I urge you to read in full. Explaining a chart that shows prices headed into the stratosphere, she notes: What is extraordinary is how the price of the most expensive bleeding edge [...]
Health Aura
Posted in Uncategorized on April 16, 2009 |
Marion Nestle’s Food Politics blog points out that a recent study showed that people who have a salad as part of their fast food meal are more likely to have french fries. It seems that the salad provides a “health aura” that gives the eater permission to do whatever else they want, no matter how unhealthy. [...]
National Public Health Week (April 6 – 10)
Posted in Uncategorized on April 6, 2009 |
This is National Public Health Week (NPHW). The theme is Building the Foundation for a Healthy America. In cooperation with the American Public Health Association (APHA) and the Kansas Public Health Association (KPHA), we’ll be posting daily updates on this theme as the week progresses. First, here’s a link to the APHA website. You [...]
Cigarette Tax Increase Prods Some to Quit
Posted in Uncategorized on April 5, 2009 |
Taxing behaviors that harm individuals, many of whom will later require public expenditures to treat the diseases they develop due to these behaviors, is a public policy approach that has been most dramatically applied to cigarette smoking, both in the United States and abroad. Today’s Washington Post tells the story: “Cigarettes were $6 a pack, [...]
Study Points to Link Between Vinyl Flooring and Autism
Posted in Uncategorized on April 4, 2009 |
It’s a finding that surprised the researchers. The mechanism isn’t clear but an environmental cause like this one might offer an explanation for the rise in cases in recent years. The Independent has the story. Children who live in homes with vinyl flooring have double the chance of being autistic, research has discovered. The finding – [...]
Believing in Treatments That Don’t Work
Posted in Uncategorized on April 2, 2009 |
When an overwhelming preponderance of research evidence demonstrates that a particular treatment doesn’t work, yet doctors have used it for many years sincerely believing that it does work, what happens? Does evidence trump belief, or does belief carry the day? Read this post on The Well Blog at The New York Times to find out. Hint: [...]
Authors of Psychiatric Guidelines Funded by Drug Companies
Posted in Uncategorized on April 2, 2009 |
From the health blog of The Wall Street Journal, we learn that 18 of 20 authors of newly released psychiatric guidelines have financial relationships with drug companies. This is just one in a long line of recent reports on the incestuous relationship between the pharmaceutical companies and those they rely on to prescribe their products. [...]
Public Health Policy in Hard Times: Implications of Cutting Smoking Cessation Funds
Posted in Uncategorized on April 2, 2009 |
From the health blog at The New Republic, a report from a public health policy researcher at the University of Chicago tells a disturbing tale of the ways that budget cutbacks impcat those who need help the most. A recent story in the Grand Rapids Press illustrates the real-world consequences of this imbalance. As detailed [...]
