Chronic sleep loss is associated with the increased brain plaquing seen in Alzheimer’s disease. Researchers found that chronic sleep deprivation increased so-called plaques in the brain thought to be a main cause of the condition and other dementias. They also found that orexin, a protein that helps regulate the sleep cycle, appears to be directly [...]
Archive for September, 2009
Chronic Sleep Loss Linked to Alzheimer’s
Posted in Uncategorized on September 27, 2009 | 2 Comments »
Cost Control: Video of NEJM Health Care Discussion
Posted in Uncategorized on September 24, 2009 |
If you believe doing nothing to reform the system is something other than a recipe for catastrophe, this video will likely give you much food for thought. Dr. Atul Gawande moderates the discussion. The other participants are experts in health economics, from Dartmouth and Harvard. This 19- minute discussion tends to be somewhat wonky, but for [...]
Mind-Body News: Shamanic Healing in California Hospital
Posted in Uncategorized on September 20, 2009 |
This is the first hospital in the United States to recognize that the medical care of Hmong immigrants from Southeast Asia should include psychospiritual approaches. A recent survey of 60 hospitals in the United States by the Joint Commission, the country’s largest hospital accrediting group, found that the hospitals were increasingly embracing cultural beliefs, driven sometimes [...]
18 Medical Organizations Issue Dire Warning on Health Implications of Climate Change
Posted in Uncategorized on September 17, 2009 |
The alarm bells keep ringing. From the BBC: Failure to agree a new UN climate deal in December will bring a “global health catastrophe”, say 18 of the world’s professional medical organisations. Writing in The Lancet and the British Medical Journal, they urge doctors to “take a lead” on the climate issue. In a separate [...]
Soda Tax Update
Posted in Uncategorized on September 17, 2009 |
I remain skeptical that there will be any state or federal taxes levied on the sugar and other high-calorie sweetener content of soft drinks or other sugar-laden edibles. Nonetheless, the drumbeat of health experts endorsing such a policy shift is growing, as noted in this story from Medpage Today. Since extensive evidence ties sugary drinks [...]
Michael Pollan: The Food Industry Should Be Part of Health Reform Debate
Posted in Uncategorized on September 14, 2009 |
Michael Pollan’s New York Times article makes several important points, one being that without changes in American rates of obesity, reforming the insurance system will be a partial change at best. What’s truly needed, he says, is to find ways to significantly decrease rates of preventable chronic diseases, chief among them diabetes, heart disease, obesity and cancer. [...]
Tom Harkin Is New Chair of Senate Health Committee
Posted in Uncategorized on September 10, 2009 |
Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) is taking over as chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee following the death of Senator Edward Kennedy. Among countless admirable acts past and present, Senator Harkin is currently the chief Senate sponsor of language to prohibit insurance policies from discriminating against licensed health practitioners on the basis of [...]
