High-level trauma care may limit disability

Reuters – 1 hr 27 mins ago NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - People treated for severe injuries at a specialized trauma center may survive with fewer disabilities than those at other hospitals, a study from Australia suggests.

The findings, researchers say, add to evidence that patients fare better when they're treated under an organized trauma system -- where hospitals, emergency services and state governments have coordinated plans for getting the right patients to the appropriate treatment.

So-called Level I trauma centers provide the most comprehensive care for traumatic injuries and have to meet certain requirements -- like having a specific number of surgeons and other specialists on duty 24 hours a day.

Studies have found that for severely injured people, getting care at a Level I trauma center can cut the risk of dying by 25 percent.

But there'd been some question about whether that drop in death rates might mean more people are surviving with severe disabilities, according to Belinda J. Gabbe, the lead researcher on the study from Monash University in Melbourne.

"Our study shows that care at specialized trauma centers improves the chances of a better functional outcome -- that is, less disability, which really strengthens the evidence for organized trauma systems," Gabbe told Reuters Health in an email.

The study, reported in the Annals of Surgery, found that of nearly 5,000 seriously injured patients treated in the state of Victoria's trauma system, those seen at a Level I center tended to be less severely disabled one year later.

The sample included people who'd been in a car or motorcycle accident or had suffered a fall with head, chest or spinal cord injuries.

Overall, 35 percent of patients had a "good" recovery -- either back to their healthy selves or with some disruption to their daily activities and relationships.

The odds of a better recovery were 22 percent higher for patients treated at Level I centers versus similar patients at other hospitals.

Overall, patients' outlook also got better over time -- with generally lower levels of disability among patients treated in 2008-2009 versus 2006-2007.

Gabbe said it's not clear why that is.

But, she added, it might be due to the "maturing" of the state's trauma system.

In the U.S., about 45 million people live more than an hour away from a Level I or Level II trauma center (by ambulance or helicopter), according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Like Victoria, where this study was done, some U.S. states have statewide trauma systems that aim to get the right patients to the right hospital as quickly as possible.

But there are also county-level systems.

"There are studies from San Diego, Los Angeles, Maryland and Milwaukee showing similar results" as the current one, said Dr. Raul Coimbra, who heads the division of trauma, surgical critical care and burns at the University of California, San Diego Health System.

So the new findings are "not novel," according to Coimbra, who was not involved in the study.

But, he said in an email, "the findings provide additional support to the concept that organized, regionalized systems of care

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Minors have an easy time buying alcohol online

Reuters – 1 hr 26 mins ago NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Nearly half of all attempts by underage buyers to purchase alcohol online were successful in a new study, exposing weaknesses in both delivery companies' and online vendors' systems for verifying customer ages.

"We know that young people will search for the easiest avenue to access alcohol," said Alexander Wagenaar, a health outcomes and policy researcher at the University of Florida College of Medicine in Gainesville, who was not involved in the study.

"There needs to be real age and ID checking when it's ordered as well as when it's delivered," he told Reuters Health.

The study did not show how often underage buyers actually purchase alcohol online in real-world settings.

But to measure how easy it might be, researchers asked eight young adults, aged 18 to 20 years old, to try to buy alcohol from 100 online vendors.

If websites asked for identification, the buyers could give a false age, but the study required them to provide their real ID card if it was requested.

Among the retailers, only 12 rejected the sale because of the age of the buyer.

Another 16 purchases were stopped at the point of delivery when the driver checked the recipient's ID.

Some attempts to purchase alcohol failed not because the buyer was underage, but for example because a credit card was denied or the vendor wouldn't ship to the buyer's state.

In the end, 45 out of the 100 attempts ended up with alcohol in the hands of a minor, according to findings published in the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine.

Those deliveries included wine, beer and hard liquor.

Rebecca Williams, a professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill who led the study, said she was surprised that minors using their real IDs could buy alcohol online.

"We would imagine that the success rates would have been even higher if they hadn't been forced to use their real ID," she told Reuters Health.

Her study found that deliveries made by FedEx were more likely to overlook the age of the recipient, despite company policies to check identification.

Scott Fiedler, a spokesman for the company, wrote in a statement emailed to Reuters Health that "we take the findings in this report seriously and hope the researches will share additional details with us. After we have had time to review the study, we will take any necessary corrective action to ensure our policies are being followed."

Many of the alcohol vendors in the study exclusively sell wine.

Tom Wark, the executive director of the Specialty Wine Retailers Association, said "just like brick-and-mortar stores, online retailers of alcohol have to be more careful and more rigorous in terms of how they monitor sales that come into their websites."

But Wark took issue with the suggestion that minors are buying wine online in real-world settings.

The process can take one to two weeks, it includes substantial delivery charges, "and then I have to hope my parents aren't around when it's delivered," Wark told Reuters Health. "It's more expensive, very difficult to carry out and much easier to get alcohol in other ways."

Wagenaar said studies have shown that when laws are enforced and retail stores are monitored, about 15 to 20 percent of brick-and-mortar outlets will continue to sell to minors.

When laws are not enforced, as many as 75 to 80 percent of offline stores will sell to minors, he said.

"I think we need policy reform to restrict youth access to alcohol online," said Williams. "Very little policy attention has been given to this industry compared to the Internet tobacco industry."

"Furthermore, substantial restrictions to youth access can be achieved by FedEx and UPS revising and enforcing their own policies," she added.

SOURCE: http://bit.ly/JhG9n5 Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, online May 7, 2012.

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'Social Jet Lag' Can Figure Into Obesity

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As many working people and students can attest, the sound of the alarm clock in the morning  can mean  an unpleasant jolt out of a nice deep sleep.

And disrupting the body’s internal clock in this way can lead to a higher risk of becoming overweight or obese, according to a new European study published  in the journal Current Biology.

The study, led by Till Roenneberg at the University of Munich, evaluated the relationship between social jet lag — which the researchers describe as the discrepancy between one’s internal and social clocks — and body mass index.

Working from questionnaires completed by 6,500 central Europeans about their sleep habits, the researchers found that those who disrupted their biological rhythms, which are determined in part by genetics, had a greater chance of not only becoming overweight or obese but also more likely to smoke and drink more alcohol and caffeinated beverages.

“Our results demonstrate that living ‘against the clock’ may be a factor contributing to the epidemic of obesity,” the authors wrote.

Social jet lag, they explained, starts early in adolescence and continues throughout life until retirement. Early school times are not tuned in to the teenagers’ later natural wake times, and as people enter the work force, those who are night owls but have to wake up early also suffer the effects of insufficient sleep.

The circadian clock also plays a role in how the body burns energy, which “may contribute to weight-related pathologies,”  wrote the authors.

Previous research, they continued, found that not getting enough sleep also increased the risk of obesity and metabolic disease, and shift workers were especially vulnerable.

“The situation, where people have to be active and try to sleep outside their circadian window, has been simulated in carefully controlled laboratory studies called forced desynchrony,” they explained.  “These simulations result in an imbalanced glucose metabolism that normally is associated with metabolic syndrome or type 2 diabetes.”

Short sleep duration has also been linked to other health problems, including preclinical signs of Alzheimer’s disease and heart disease.

The majority of people start their work day before the end of that sleep window and fall asleep well after they feel tired, which the researchers believe is “of key importance in pending discussions on the implementation of daylight-saving time and on work or school times, which all contribute to the amount of social jet lag accrued by an individual,” the authors concluded.

ABC News’ Dr. Samantha Meaney contributed to this report.

 

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1 in 5 White Women Smoked While Pregnant

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One in five white woman have smoked cigarettes while pregnant, according to a new government study released today.

The report, conducted by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, showed that 21.8 percent of pregnant white women ages 15 to 44 had smoked a cigarette within 30 days of when the survey was conducted.

Those numbers contrasted with 14.2 percent of black women and 6.5 percent of Hispanic women of the same age.

“When pregnant women use alcohol, tobacco, or illicit substances they are risking health problems for themselves and poor birth outcomes for their babies,” SAMHSA Administrator Pamela S. Hyde said in a statement. “Pregnant women of different races and ethnicities may have diverse patterns of substance abuse. It is essential that we use the findings from this report to develop better ways of getting this key message out to every segment of our community so that no woman or child is endangered by substance use and abuse.”

The rate of alcohol use during pregnancy among black and white women was about the same: 12.8 percent and 12.2 percent respectively. Only about 7.4 percent of Hispanic women reported drinking alcohol while pregnant.

Black pregnant women were more likely to use illegal drugs than white and Hispanic pregnant women: about 7.7 percent of blacks, 4.4 percent of whites and 3.1 percent of Hispanics reported using drugs at least once in 30 days prior to the survey.

A mother’s smoking habit is one of the key risk factors for Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS), according to Dr. Ari Brown, author of the book “Baby 411.”

“A mom who smokes has less circulating oxygen in her body and thus, so does her unborn baby,” Brown wrote in the book. “This is called fetal hypoxia. There is also less blood flow to the uterus and placenta, and therefore to the baby. Lastly, nicotine goes right through the placenta and circulates in the bloodstream of the fetus.”

Smoking increases the risk of a small fetus who doesn’t grow properly, a placenta that implants in the cervix, a placenta that pulls from the uterine wall prematurely, preterm birth and low birth weight.

As for alcohol, Brown wrote in her book that the latest research shows that much smaller amounts (one to two drinks a day) may adversely affect a child’s birth weight, attention, behavior and IQ. And fetal alcohol syndrome is the number one preventable cause of intellectual disability in children.

“Bottom line: don’t drink. Good news: most women actually lose their taste for alcohol during pregnancy, so most pregnant women won’t be craving a margarita with Mexican food anyway,” he said.

 

 

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Romanian baby born with stunted intestines dies

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Retired couples may need $240,000 for health care

Couples retiring this year can expect their medical bills throughout retirement to cost 4 percent more than those who retired a year ago, according to an annual projection released Wednesday by Fidelity Investments.

The estimated $240,000 that a newly retired couple will need to cover health care expenses reflects the typical pattern of projected annual increases. The Boston-based company cut the estimate for the first time last year, citing President Barack Obama's health care overhaul. Medicare changes resulting from that plan are expected to gradually reduce many seniors' out-of-pocket expenses for prescription drugs.

But Fidelity says overall health care cost trends are on the rise again, so it's raising its cost estimate from last year's $230,000 figure.

"As long as health care cost trends exceed personal income growth and economic growth, health care will still be a growing burden for the country as a whole and for individuals," says Sunit Patel, a senior vice president for benefits consulting at Fidelity, and an actuary who helped calculate the estimate.

However, this year's 4 percent rise is relatively modest. Annual increases have averaged 6 percent since Fidelity made its initial $160,000 calculation in 2002.

The projections are part of Fidelity's benefits consulting business. The study is based on projections for a 65-year-old couple retiring this year with Medicare coverage. The estimate factors in the federal program's premiums, co-payments and deductibles, as well as out-of-pocket prescription costs. The study assumes the couple does not have insurance from their former employers, and a life expectancy of 85 for women and 82 for men. The estimate doesn't factor in most dental services, or long-term care, such as the cost of living in a nursing home.

This year's estimate could change significantly. Next month, the U.S. Supreme Court will decide whether to strike down part or all of the 2010 health care law, including its centerpiece requirement that nearly all Americans carry insurance or pay a penalty.

If the ruling requires significant changes, Fidelity may update its estimate, Patel said.

Although its focus is expanding health care access to people under age 65, the law also is intended to benefit many retirees by gradually closing what's known as the 'doughnut hole' coverage gap in the Medicare drug benefit.

But longer-term, retirees' cost savings aren't expected to offset other factors driving expenses up, such as new medical technologies, greater use of health care services, and more diagnostic tests.

Fidelity's finding of a 4 percent increase in long-term medical costs for retirees is in line with recent data from the Employee Benefit Research Institute, said Paul Fronstin, director of health research and education for the private nonprofit organization.

"Costs are going up," Fronstin says.

EBRI conducts similar research but, unlike Fidelity, doesn't focus on an average. That's because there are so many variables that impact a retiree's circumstances, including life expectancy and prescription drug costs, Fronstin said.

In its latest annual estimate released last August, EBRI projected that a couple with median drug expenses

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Child-sizing radiation doses from medical scans

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CDC: Half of young adults get sunburned

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Testosterone injections can aid weight loss: study

"Obese older men with low testosterone levels can lose weight by taking supplements of the male hormone, according to the findings of a study released. (AFP Photo/Alfredo Estrella)" title

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FDA panel urges approval for Pfizer arthritis drug

"An advisory committee to the US Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday urged US regulators to approve a new treatment for rheumatoid arthritis made by the pharmaceutical giant Pfizer. (AFP Photo/Timothy A. Clary)" title

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US health advisors mull AIDS prevention pill

"Bottles of antiretroviral drug Truvada. US health advisors are poised to decide Thursday on whether to recommend the drug, Truvada, as the first preventive pill against AIDS instead of just a treatment for infected people. (AFP Photo/Justin Sullivan)" title

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Fat Loss 4 Idiots Program

May 9, 2012 by admin

will be the best fat loss diet program that could help you get rid of your flabs. Now following this program, you can become healthier and slimmer in no time.

 

But then again, before deciding on a particular program such as Fat Loss 4 Idiots it is of utmost importance that you find out whether it is a legitimate product or perhaps a scam. This you may do by simply digging up testimonials from previous users sharing their experiences about such program.

 

For the reason that the Internet abounds with such wide assortment of fat loss diet programs ad weight reduction techniques, you must take it upon your shoulders to know whether they are safe for you and will not cause you any problems of adverse side effects later on especially when you have started using it.

 

Do not be overwhelmed with the loads of information you will get from the Internet, especially that there is also a chance that the resources you might be getting may simply be fabricated.

Take care to see both sides of the story by looking equally at the positive and negative testimonials. In that way, you will more or less achieve a fairly logical decision in choosing the most suitable weight reduction and diet program for you.

 

What is more, it would be apt to check as well on the various benefits you may achieve from using the techniques of Fat Loss 4 Idiots. Verify whether these strategies are safe enough to omit any possibility of you experiencing side effects while at the same time, giving you the upper hand in terms of results.

 

But then, keep in mind as well that as with any product or program, there will always be the possibility of getting varied results.

Like what may be effective for another person who used the same product as you may actually not be exactly the same results at all with you. That is why it becomes very crucial that any user hoping to achieve fat reduction as well as weight loss will exert all efforts to follow the given procedures and instructions; after all, the author has made it a point to make everything simple to understand and so easy to follow.

 

Weight Loss

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