Monthly Archives: March 2012

iPad helps saves man’s life

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Think the iPad is just for e-mail, eMagazines and Angry Birds? Even before the anticipated release of iPad3 very shortly with a higher resolution monitor, the iPad has been credited with helping to save a man's life. 

Still think it couldn't work for digital pathology?  Read an eSlide, make an eDifference? Get the right diagnosis for the right patient at the right time?

Still think Pathology 2.0 doesn't have a place along side Medicine 2.0?

Keep reading...

The world-renowned Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota has been issuing iPads to physicians for a while, and now one of the Apple tablets is credited with helping to save the life of a man who suffered an arterial blockage at the facility.

As reported in the Post-Bulletin newspaper, 48-year-old Andy McMonigle was working out with his cycling club at the clinic's Dan Abraham Healthy Living Center when he began to feel intense pressure in his arm. McMonigle has a history of heart trouble, so he immediately went to the locker room and asked a man for help. That man was Mayo Clinic internal medicine resident Dr. Daniel Leuders, who stayed by the side of McMonigle and yelled loudly for assistance.

03-01 andy mcmonigle sj

Two other Mayo residents (brothers Daniel and Christopher DeSimone) were literally just around the corner, so when they arrived Leuders reached into his backpack and pulled out his iPad. Within seconds, Leuders was connected to the Mayo's electronic medical record system, where he was able to pull up McMonigle's medical history.

 

The history showed that McMonigle had a heart stent installed after a previous heart attack four years ago, which made the physicians suspect that he was suffering from a blockage in the stent. When an ambulance crew arrived, Leuders and the other physicians held the iPad record of McMonigle's previous EKG alongside the strip chart that was being printed in real time. What they saw further confirmed their suspicions about the blockage.

The physicians made a choice based on the EKG records that probably saved McMonigle's life. Rather than wait upwards of three hours to run a blood test to verify the clotting, the doctors rushed McMonigle to the cardiac catheterization lab where a team (alerted by activating an emergency code) was waiting. They removed the clot from his artery, which was about 90 percent blocked.

Within three days, McMonigle was released from the hospital and after four more days, he was working out again at the Healthy Living Center.


 

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Harvard Medical School: No-surgery option of aortic stenosis not for everyone

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QUESTION: My cardiologist says I have aortic stenosis and need a new aortic valve. Apparently the FDA has approved a new procedure that replaces the aortic valve without open-heart surgery. This option sounds safer to me, but my doctor says it is not for everyone. Can you walk me through the pros and cons of these two approaches?

ANSWER: Ask your doctors. This is a complicated decision that requires an individualized answer depending on your health, your preferences and -- above all -- the experience and skill of your cardiac care team. With that said, let's discuss some general considerations.

The aortic valve is a three-flapped structure that ensures the one-way flow of blood from the heart's main pumping chamber to the rest of the body. In some people, the aortic valve becomes encrusted with calcium deposits that stiffen and narrow it, restricting blood flow.

When people with aortic stenosis start feeling symptoms such as light-headedness or fainting, breathlessness, fatigue and loss of appetite, quality of life goes downhill quickly until the valve is replaced.

Until recently, replacing the aortic valve required open-heart surgery. Now that the FDA has approved a no-surgery technique for replacing a failed aortic valve, many people with aortic stenosis are asking, "Can I get this procedure?"

The answer is "Maybe." That's because the FDA has currently restricted its use to people who are not good candidates for open-heart surgery.

As you point out, it's easy to see why people might prefer the new approach, called transcatheter aortic valve implantation, or TAVI. The new valve is placed using a wire, or catheter, that is maneuvered into the heart from a blood vessel in the groin. Both the hospital stay and recovery are shorter and less painful than with open-heart surgery.

The FDA based its approval on a clinical trial dubbed PARTNER. In this trial, 69% of the patients undergoing TAVI were alive after a year, compared with 50% of a group that received standard therapy, which included balloon valvuloplasty, an attempt to increase the valve opening with a balloon-tipped catheter.

PARTNER data presented at a scientific meeting in late 2011 showed that more than two-thirds of the people in the standard-care group had died after two years, compared with 43% in the TAVI group. Another analysis found that quality-of-life scores after one year among the TAVI group improved by 32 points on a 100-point scale, while scores among the standard-care group improved by only 4 points.

But although it prolongs life and is less invasive than open-heart surgery, TAVI has its drawbacks. TAVI recipients in the trial had more than twice the number of strokes and many more serious bleeding complications than patients in the other group.

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Harvard Medical School: No-surgery option of aortic stenosis not for everyone

Holistic ageing for the times

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A four-day congress on healthy ageing in Kuala Lumpur next week will see a broad interdisciplinary discussion on ageing.

ORGANISED by the Malaysian Healthy Ageing Society (MHAS) and co-sponsored by the World Health Organisation (WHO), the 1st World Congress on Healthy Ageing 2012 (WCHA 2012) will be held at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre from March 19-22.

According to Associate Professor Dr Nathan Vytialingam, president of MHAS and WCHA 2012 organising chairman, healthy ageing is one of the major challenges for the world, and hence the need for experts and policymakers to work together to come up with an all-encompassing policy and approach towards tackling the impending scenario.

Malaysia is on its way to becoming an ageing society, though the percentage of the elderly is not as high as Japan or Singapore, said Assoc Prof Nathan in a recent interview.

WHO projections show that the proportion of the worlds population who are over 60 years old will double from less than 11% to 22% from 2000 to 2050, and the total number of people aged 60 years and above is expected to increase from 605 million to almost two billion.

On how WCHA 2012 is different from other meetings on ageing, Assoc Prof Nathan said that other gatherings had tended to focus on the various bits and pieces related to mainstream (medical) approaches, such as on loss of vision, bone loss and so on. WCHA intends to be holistic in its approach, and we will bring together experts from various fields, including those from the complementary medicine and alternative therapies.

With the theme Evolution: Holistic Ageing in an Age of Change, this international congress will have presentations from WHO (Dr John Beard, Director of Ageing & Life Course), Tony Buzan (inventor of Mind Mapping, United Kingdom), Prof Makoto Suzuki (Director of Okinawa Research Centre for Longevity Science, Professor of Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of the Ryukyus, Department of Community Medicine, University of the Ryukus Hospital, Japan), Prof Suresh Rattan (Professor of Biogerontology, Aarhus University, Denmark), just to name a few.

The scientific programme will be robust, with Dr Wong Teck Wee, consultant cardiologist and senior lecturer at Hospital Serdang, Selangor, acting as scientific chairman to oversee around 400 paper presenters from all over the world.

When we talk about living longer and healthier, its about creating the best environment, and that has a lot to do with keeping the environment safe and clean, said Assoc Prof Nathan, who is intrigued with the factors that lead to longevity and health of the elderly in the worlds blue zones, a term popularised by Dan Buettners book titled The Blue Zones: Lessons for Living Longer From The People Whove Lived The Longest.

A blue zone is concept used to identify a demographic groups and/or geographic area of the world where people live measurably longer lives (like in Okinawa, Japan, or Sardinia, Italy).

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Immortality beckoning for Big Buck's

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As our Olympians may well appreciate later in the year, the only thing better than winning a gold medal is winning a gold medal with a bit of history attached to it. The biggest stage is the best place to rewrite the record books so, at this week's annual jump-racing championshipfest in Gloucestershire, step forward Big Buck's.

The nine-year-old gelding is odds-on to set a unique mark at the Cheltenham Festival and equal a record winning streak that has lasted for 59 years. Yet this is a horse with none of the popular acclaim of his Paul Nicholls stablemate Kauto Star, a Desert Orchid or a Red Rum; he has not yet leapt the fence that divides his sport from a wider public.

He is one of the best and classiest jumpers ever to have leapt an obstacle, and is peerless in his own specialist sphere. But there's the rub. Big Buck's is not a steeplechaser,with all that job's implied boldness and glamour. He's a hurdler, plying his trade over three-foot-six of flattenable, gorse-packed timber panels rather than four-foot-six of close-packed, unyielding birch. And even among hurdlers he's not one of the perceived elite, those who skim over the minimum distance of two miles. Big Buck's operates over the long distances that are jump racing's least fashionable division.

But he has made being a marathon man sexy. On ratings, which can be used to assess horses of different talents and eras, he is currently the best hurdler in training, better even than the two-mile king Hurricane Fly, due to defend his Champion Hurdle crown on Tuesday and himself judged the best of his ilk since the magnificent Istabraq.

On Thursday Big Buck's, unbeaten in his past 15 races, will go for an unprecedented fourth Ladbrokes World Hurdle, the Grade One stayer's crown. Victory would also enable him to equal the record sequence for a jumper set by Sir Ken, the last of whose 16 serial successes came with the second of his three Champion Hurdles, at the 1953 Festival.

The first step of Big Buck's road to immortality was almost accidental; he reverted to hurdles as a confidence-booster after a clumsy series of efforts over fences. And since he started his winning run in January 2009 he has galloped relentlessly into the hearts of those closest to him and of regular racegoers alike.

At Nicholls' Somerset base Big Buck's is regarded with the same awe and respect accorded to Kauto Star. "He perhaps doesn't get the credit outside the sport that he deserves," said the trainer, "but we're very privileged to have a horse like him, and we know it. Every season I've kept thinking something will come out of the woodwork and give him a real fright, but he just keeps beating them all. What he has done already is quite remarkable; four World Hurdles and equalling that record would be phenomenal."

For his trainer, Big Buck's is a challenge. His ability is beyond doubt, but his personality would keep a convention of psychiatrists happy. He hates being alone, he paces incessantly round his stable, has a tantrum if he is not first of the Manor Farm inmates to be fed in the morning and, as he does not always put it all in on the training gallops, is tricky to bring to peak fitness. "Whatever it takes," added Nicholls, "we'll indulge him."

In his races, Big Buck's is no longer the recidivist he once appeared to be, but can still toy with his supporters' faith with an indolent style and the finishing burst that has to be delivered as late as possible. But for rider Ruby Walsh, whose velvet-fisted horseman's style suits the quirky gelding perfectly, what we see is not what he gets. "Stayers are not supposed to be able to quicken and win on the bridle like he does," he said, "that's why they have to be stayers. But this one has got such an engine, just pricks his ears and goes. He doesn't do flashy, but he'll keep running for you."

For the owner, Andy Stewart, and his family, particularly son Paul during his recovery from a serious spinal injury, Big Buck's has become an inspiration. "Going back over hurdles with the horse after he's been chasing was a bit of a bonkers idea hatched by a mad genius [Nicholls]," said Stewart, "but it doesn't look so bonkers now. It is all a bit of a nervous responsibility and he's bound to be beaten sometime. But win, lose or draw on Thursday, he'll always be special."

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Immortality beckoning for Big Buck's

Dr. Gerald E. Jackson Tells How to Prolong True Love in New Book

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Jonathan Erik Veal

Dr. Gerald E. Jackson

*Though Valentines Day has passed, it does not mean true love between two people stops.

It is more so about the longevity of the relationship; and how to keep the bond with your significant other.

Dr. Gerald E. Jackson, founder and chairman of G.E. Jackson & Associates Inc., is here to help. Not only is he does he provide readers with a strategic planning disciplines; but, he offers couples the opportunity to keep the relationship alive as well as a way to enhance their love for each another.

Dr. Jackson, a Southern California native served six years in the Special Forces within the United States Navys Nuclear Powered, Ballistic Missile Submarine Service as a navigation electronic technician; so, you may wonder what he would know about writing about true love?

I am a romantic at heart, said Jackson. I love all of my life and over the 20 plus years, Ive had some interesting experiences; and the people that I have shared my story with have benefited from it.

Dr. Jacksons new book, True Love & Longevity: Romance Guide andWorkplan provides a road map to the heart and soul of loving, long-lasting fulfillment within each one of us. Additionally, it was helps those in a relationship who have experienced long days, hard work, and a great deal of heartbreak attempting to make their commitment bond healthy and vital.

There are four keys to true love in my opinion which would help anyone who is and who is not in a relationship, said Jackson. He describes the four keys for individuals to genuinely have an understanding of each other, truly bring out the best of each other, speaking to the interpersonal that directs to an establish and encouragement to an abiding relationship with God and his word and to establish the importance of knowing that they truly love each other. My personal definition of true love is the souls recognition of its counterpoint in another, said Jackson.

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Dr. Gerald E. Jackson Tells How to Prolong True Love in New Book

Joint replacement gives seniors leg up on activity, longevity

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A lifetime of wear and tear on his joints caused Dick Pryor, a 77-year-old retired landscape architect, to undergo not one but two surgeries to replace his knees.

Neither slowed him down for long.

"With one knee replacement, I was back skiing three months later," said Pryor, a Sacramento resident who began skiing a half-century ago. "I could have gone skiing sooner, but the snow wasn't any good."

Like Pryor, many of his 130 fellow members of the local 49er Ski Club average age 72 have dealt with chronic knee and hip problems, and many remain athletically active after joint replacement surgery.

Pryor also walks every day to stay in shape. Bill Anthony, 83, a retired Roseville family physician who had both hips replaced and, most recently, recovered from a broken back, likes to bike three times a week and lift weights when he's not skiing.

"And we kayak in the summer," said Anthony.

"We also do a lot of hiking," said ski group member Judy Agid, 73, a hip replacement veteran and retired Sacramento State fencing coach who has hiked hundreds of miles through Spain and biked across America twice.

While that level of activity might sound unusual, experts on aging say it hints at a new norm. For more energetic seniors today, knee and hip replacements provide a break from vigorous physical activity, not the end of it.

In part, that's because older adults have learned a key lesson: They expect to maintain a good quality of life, because they know that age does not equal infirmity and illness.

"I'd say that age is irrelevant," said Pat Beal, 74, Senior Center of Elk Grove executive director.

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Students at Diamond Bar’s Brahma Tech debate genomic engineering ethics

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DIAMOND BAR - Is it appropriate to use emerging synthetic genomic engineering technology to build new forms of "life"? Should genetic engineering techniques and processes be used in agriculture?

These were some of the issues debated by Brahma Tech students at Diamond Bar High last week. The great debate was part of a week of competition for the Technology Student Association.

The Brahmas recently became the first high school in California to join the national organization, according to technology teacher Alina Gallardo.

More than 150,000 middle and high school students throughout America belong to the association. Members learn about technology through competitions, events and conferences.

Sophomore Alice Jin spearheaded the effort to join the Technology Student Association.

"I found out about it on the Internet, then talked to my classmates about forming a local chapter," the 16-year-old explained.

Diamond Bar has more than 400 students in the Brahma Tech Academy. The academy is a specialized math, science and technology program with four career paths.

"Students also have to do 150-hour internships with high-tech companies," Gallardo explained.

It attracts students like 17-year-old Drew Liu. "I want to major in bioengineering in college," the senior said.

Liu was one of the group of students competing in technology week. Earlier, the techies made videos. Participants had to write, shoot and edit

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Students at Diamond Bar's Brahma Tech debate genomic engineering ethics

ROCK DOC: Basic biology implicated in wild spending spree

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It's pretty common for us "little peanuts" to feel some envy about the wealthy and better-known citizens among us. Who, after all, wouldn't want to be a millionaire?

But recently the news carried a piece about Ed Bazinet, 68, a wealthy New Yorker who went on a wild spending spree that ran through the millions of dollars. His problem, it turns out, is the brain malady known as manic depression, otherwise known as bipolar disorder.

According to ABC News, Bazinet spent five days buying millions of dollars worth of furniture, art and knickknacks before he realized his behavior was owing to mania and he checked himself in for treatment.

Medical science has long recognized that wild spending is a classic sign of the manic phase of mood and energy that people with bipolar disorder must sometimes contend with.

Such sprees can be disastrous to a person's finances, obviously, and they can also be deeply embarrassing. While an American in more typical circumstances than Bazinet may go through a modest spending spree, say racking up thousands of dollars of bills on a credit card, the scale of Bazinet's spending and his fame in New York meant that his personal problem became a public news item.

Still, it could be that some good can flow from Bazinet's difficult experience. As his publicist put it, "There is no shame with seeking help for this treatable illness, and we hope that this opens a dialogue to educate others."

Manic depression is not a disease of just modern times. Going back all the way to ancient Greece, there are medical descriptions of people with strongly alternating periods of energy and moods. Early doctors noted that a person could be "high" and then "low" in quick succession, with alternating periods of tears and euphoria.

Indeed, in what are now called mixed states, people can experience ups and downs that are strongly interlaced with each other. The bipolar brain, if you will, can run the "upside" as well as the "downside" chemistry at pretty much the same time.

Like schizophrenia, bipolar tends to show up in adolescents and young adults. It cuts down people including some very able ones just as they are really coming into their own. The good news is that doctors are now more likely to recognize bipolar symptoms earlier than they once did. And early treatment can lead to better outcomes for the individual.

But that's hardly to say everything is rosy in the bipolar world. Some manic-depressives experience more than just highs and lows. In extreme cases, patients can suffer psychotic symptoms such as visual or auditory hallucinations. That fact makes the disease deeply scary, both for the person experiencing it and for friends and family members.

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ROCK DOC: Basic biology implicated in wild spending spree

'Anatomy of Injustice' review: Looking at capital punishment

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ANATOMY OF INJUSTICE Raymond Bonner Knopf $26.95, 298 pages

When George W. Bush was running for president in 2000, he said he was confident that "every person that has been put to death in Texas under my watch has been guilty of the crime charged and has full access to the courts."

Bush signed the death warrants for more than 150 people when he was governor of Texas, about one every nine days and the most in history at that time. (His successor, Rick Perry, has presided over many more.) Texas is far and away the most likely place to be executed in the U.S.: 37 percent of all executions since 1976 have occurred in Texas. It again led the nation with 13 executions last year, more than the two closest states (Alabama and Ohio) combined but a much lower rate than the previous decade.

After Bush's comments, The New York Times assigned Raymond Bonner and another reporter to research and write about capital punishment. One of their articles was cited by the majority and the dissent in a 2002 U.S. Supreme Court case that resulted in a ban on executing people who are "mentally retarded."

Another case, involving the 1982 murder of an elderly woman in South Carolina, attracted Bonner's attention because he believes it "raises nearly all the issues that mark the debate about capital punishment: race, mental retardation, bad trial lawyers, prosecutorial misconduct, 'snitch' testimony, DNA testing, a claim of innocence."

Bonner's short book "Anatomy of Injustice: A Murder Case Gone Wrong" covers all those bases while telling the story of Edward Lee Elmore, an African American who was convicted by three different juries and spent 11,000 days in jail, most of them on death row, before being released a few days ago (after the book was published) for a crime Bonner, a lawyer and a Pulitzer Prize winner, and many others believe he did not commit.

Capital punishment is an issue of fierce, passionate debate, in Oregon and around the country. Gov. John Kitzhaber placed a moratorium on executions two weeks before a convicted murderer was scheduled to die by lethal injection. Kitzhaber was governor in 1996-97, when Oregon's only two executions since 1976 took place, and said he regretted allowing them. He did not, however, commute the sentences of Oregon's 37 death row inmates, something he has the legal authority to do. Josh Marquis, the Clatsop County district attorney, said when Kitzhaber declared the moratorium that the governor should carry out the law. Marquis will join Bonner for what is sure to be a lively discussion at 7:30 p.m. Friday at Powell's City of Books.

The Elmore case, as Bonner noted, touched on many of the most important issues in capital punishment:

Race: More than 75 percent of the victims in capital punishment cases are white, compared with about 50 percent of murder victims overall. About 34 percent of those executed since 1976 are African American; 13 percent of the overall population is African American. More than 250 African Americans have been executed for killing a white; 18 whites have been executed for killing an African American.

Mental disability: Elmore dropped out of school in the fifth grade and does not understand the concept of north, south, east or west or winter, spring, summer and fall. H e could not do the math necessary to maintain a checking account. His IQ tested at a level of mental disability.

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'Anatomy of Injustice' review: Looking at capital punishment

Couple gives $2 million to honor late son, create chair in neurology at LVHM

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The founder of East Penn Manufacturing and his wife have given $2 million to Lehigh Valley Health Network to develop the hospital system's 13th endowed chair.

Interest generated from the Timothy M. Breidegam Endowed Chair in Neurology will support research and education, LVHN said in a statement announcing the gift from Helen and DeLight Breidegam Jr.

The chair honors the couple's son, Timothy, who died at age 21 in 1978 during his last semester at Moravian College.

When the chair was announced Thursday during an event at the Lehigh Country Club, Timothy was remembered as a generous young man who led many clubs, teams and organizations and donated his time teaching English to Spanish-speaking residents of Allentown.

"Our endowed chairs allow us to improve patient care, thereby creating a healthier community," said Ronald W. Swinfard, president and chief executive officer of Lehigh Valley Health Network. "These endowed chairs are made possible by very generous donors such as the Breidegams. Their philanthropy helps us take that extra step from great to excellent."

Health network neurologist John Castaldo has been named the chair holder.

The chair "will live on in perpetuity, providing funds to advance the diagnosis, treatment and research for neurological care in our region," Castaldo said. "It is truly an awesome privilege and a profound responsibility to accept this gift, and to know that it will propel us from regional to national excellence."

In 1946, DeLight Breidegam founded East Penn Manufacturing Company, the world's largest independent battery manufacturer and producer of Deka batteries.

East Penn is the largest employer in Berks County. The company has remained a family businessdaughter Sally Miksiewicz is the chief executive officer and son Daniel Breidegam serves as vice president of metals.

Daniel Patrick Sheehan

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Couple gives $2 million to honor late son, create chair in neurology at LVHM

Queen of the Valley supports new medical group

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ISABELLE DILLS Napa Valley Register | Posted: Saturday, March 10, 2012 12:15 am |

Dr. Joyce Colton-House had just finished her medical residency in June 2010 when she saw a job posting with Queen of the Valley Medical Associates. Like many of her peers, Colton-House wanted to avoid the complications of going into private practice.

By joining the new Napa medical group, Colton-House, an ear, nose and throat doctor, would be free of administrative responsibilities, like billing insurance companies and hiring staff.

I went to medical school, not business school, Colton-House said. I really wanted to focus on patient care.

Queen of the Valley Medical Associates began two years ago to attract more physicians to the Napa Valley and keep them practicing locally, said Walt Mickens, CEO of Queen of the Valley Medical Center. Currently, the group has nine physicians.

Physicians employed by the medical group provide outpatient and hospital-based services at facilities operated by Queen of the Valley, but the hospital does not manage the medical group.

All administrative responsibilities are handled by St. Joseph Heritage Healthcare, a medical practice foundation operated by the St. Joseph Health System, to which Queen of the Valley Medical Center belongs.

The medical group uses fully electronic medical records, including physician notes, billing information and prescription orders, allowing the physicians within Heritage and Queen of the Valley Medical Associates to communicate and share information electronically, Queen spokeswoman Vanessa deGier said.

Before the medical group formed, the most viable local option for physicians was to join the not-for-profit Kaiser Permanente. Kaiser operates a closed-system model, offering both health coverage and medical care through its own clinics and hospitals.

Unlike most private practice physicians who operate on fee-for-service contracts, Permanente doctors are given fixed salaries.

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Queen of the Valley supports new medical group

Natural Medicine Specialists, San Francisco Preventive Medical Group, Announces Dr. Mehmet Oz as Featured Speaker

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San Francisco, CA (PRWEB) March 10, 2012

Holistic medicine experts, San Francisco Preventive Medical Group, is announcing that its medical practitioners, Dr. Paul Lynn and Daniel Dunphy PA-C, will join Dr Mehmet Oz on a panel at the Body, Mind and Spirit Women's Symposium on March 10 from 8:30 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. at the Oracle Auditorium in Redwood City. Renowned cardiothoracic surgeon, author and TV host, Dr. Mehmet Oz, will keynote the symposium.

This first-ever womens symposium is being held to raise awareness of the various health services Lions Club offers to members of the community, Dr. Paul Lynn of San Francisco Preventive Medical Group said. A limited number of tickets are on sale now.

Other high-profile speakers will include Eydie Miskel, missionary and executive director of Raining Hope; Jane Scarbrough, registered investment advisor; and Syndi Seid, recognized as the world's leading authority on business protocol and etiquette. The conference is being hosted by Lions Club of District 4-C4.

"We welcome Dr. Oz and our distinguished panel of speakers in helping to spread the message of our community services," Eleanor Lindquist-Britter, board member of the PSI Lions Club and Guiding Lion, said. "The Bay Area has seen an increase in demand for health services--especially those for women--and too often, those in need are underserved or neglected. It is our mission to serve our community."

At the conference, Dr. Oz, Dr. Lynn and Mr. Dunphy will speak about keeping families fit, and the body, mind and spirit. In the interest of keeping the community informed and empowered, Dr. Lynn would also like to take this opportunity to discuss the changes occurring with double blind studies behind the headlines" that must be taken into account by doctors and health community leaders alike.

Double blind studies were created to give modern medical culture a much needed source of unbiased conclusions about the effects of medical treatments. Early on, it provided clarity in areas that needed it. In other words, the double blind study was originally designed to uncover the true benefits (and risks) of a treatment, which were not obviously apparent upon simple observation.

Sadly, my conclusion is that double blind studies are now more likely than not to be well-planned marketing devices, Dr. Lynn said. Most are now conducted in a specific manner to introduce bias instead of eliminating it. The bias is to raise the odds that the data collected will allow a new product to pass the FDA or enhance sales of a patented product already on the market. The original single intent to discover the truth has been subordinated in the large majority of studies to an attempt to get people, including volunteer groups, to believe one newly patented expensive medication is of more value than one that has lost its patent protection and is available generically at a much lower cost.

This change of intent over the past 20 years from an unbiased search for the facts represents a total corruption of a system that initially offered a great service and gained the respect of doctors and patients alike.

The purpose of discussing this is to alert and remind doctors, informed consumers and community leaders to read the fine print carefully. Everyone has to adjust to to this new reality, Dr. Lynn said. Learn what an overseas Contract Research Organization [CRO] is. Too many doctors and community health leaders are still in the dark about these changes and accept the new studies and findings as if this now present and growing level of bias does not exist.

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Natural Medicine Specialists, San Francisco Preventive Medical Group, Announces Dr. Mehmet Oz as Featured Speaker

Majid Ali, MD * Spleen in Integrative Medicine Part Two * ALI ACADEMY – Video

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06-03-2012 23:47 Prof. Ali describes how his understanding of the physiology and pathology of spleen changes during his work as a surgeon, pathologist, nutritionist, and integrative practitioner. We ask you to support his vision of an authentic anf no-cost video encyclopedia. Please go to http://www.majidali.com to order his books and DVD on natural healing.,

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Majid Ali, MD * Spleen in Integrative Medicine Part Two * ALI ACADEMY - Video

Stage chemistry

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Michelle Griffin has written and stars in a new comedy cabaret show Love, Chemistry and Cryogenics, playing at Bathurst Memorial Entertainment Centre (BMEC) Friday, March 23 and Saturday, March 24. I caught up with her mid-rehearsals to find out how on earth science and cabaret come together on stage.

Where did you get the wacky idea for a cabaret show about science?

My original thought was simply what is the least likely subject for a cabaret? I felt that science was a fairly unconventional theme, but also one with a great deal of potential. There is a surprising amount of music written on the subject of science, and I really enjoyed the opportunity to explore several B-movie, science fiction clichs. This theme is also something of a tribute to my family, all of whom are in the medical sciences. My father is a (retired) Hospital Scientist, my mother is a Physiotherapist, and my sister is an Occupational Therapist, so science is something that runs in the family.

So, is Love, Chemistry and Cryogenics autobiographical?

Faintl y autobiographical - it contains a kernel of truth wrapped in a thick layer of complete fabrication. I was considered something of a nerd in primary school (my nickname for a while was Dictionary) and I've always had an interest in science and geek culture. The teacher aspect of the character was also pretty familiar territory, but in reality, I think I'd make a pretty poor scientist. I wouldn't mind being cryogenically frozen and re-awoken in the distant future, though.

When did you first get involved in music and performing?

I started attending Early Childhood Music classes at about three years of age. This involved singing nursery songs, marching about to the beat, and sitting around making noise on a variety of percussion instruments. This set me up pretty well for my current career, as sitting around making noise is essentially what I do for a living.

Map out your music career to date for us...

I studied piano in Bathurst with Jennie Menzies, and later at Newcastle Conservatorium with Natalia and Gian-Franco Ricci. I sang in a lot of choirs, and performed with the Newcastle Chamber Choir in several national and international tours. In my twenties, I started having singing lessons with Maureen Lewis. These days I work as a piano and singing teacher, accompanist and choral director at Mitchell Conservatorium and various schools in the Bathurst region. In my spare time I have founded a kazoo orchestra, written several youth theatre shows, and taught myself to play the ukulele.

Who are your big musical influences? Do we see their mark on this new solo show?

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Stage chemistry

Linsane chemistry thing of the past for Knicks

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MILWAUKEE Sometimes, its the most over-used, over-worked term in sports. Chemistry? You know what the best team chemistry is? Having Babe Ruth hitting third in your lineup, Lou Gehrig fourth. Having Michael Jordan running one side of the floor, Scottie Pippen the other. Terry Bradshaw throwing the football, Lynn Swann catching it.

Thats good enough chemistry that you can slap it on the periodic table.

But sometimes, its the most over-looked, undervalued element in all of sports. Sometimes there really is a delicate balance, a fleeting mixture of talent and tenacity, of star power and selflessness. Weve seen it all across the sporting universe this year: the Cardinals in baseball, the Mavericks in basketball, the Giants in football.

EPA

MIDDLE MAN: Jeremy Lin (center), who had 20 points and 13 assists, goes up for a shot between Beno Udrih and Larry Sanders (right) during the first half of the Knicks 119-114 loss to the Bucks last night.

You know good chemistry in basketball, Amare Stoudemire said last night, when you see it. Its obvious.

And bad chemistry? Thats even more obvious, and in some ways its more damaging than good chemistry is helpful. Bad chemistry is destructive. Its divisive. And in the case of the Knicks, it can be every bit as devastating to the health of the unit as a staph infection.

They sprinkled bad chemistry all over three states, four cities and two time zones across the past six days. They arrived in Boston last Sunday sitting at .500 and talking large about soaring up the Eastern Conference food chain. By the time they take the floor tomorrow at the Garden they will be four games south of sea level, clinging to a one-game loss-column lead over the Cavaliers the Cavaliers! for the eighth and final playoff slot in the East.

The are battered, they are bleeding, they are broken. And they are beaten. They hit their first 11 shots of the game last night against the Bucks and didnt even escape the first quarter with the lead. They performed their nightly self-exhumation, shaving all but one point off a 15-point lead with seven minutes left, twice possessing the ball with a chance to take the lead in the final moments.

Never could.

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Linsane chemistry thing of the past for Knicks

Linsane chemistry a thing of the past

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MILWAUKEE Sometimes, its the most over-used, over-worked term in sports. Chemistry? You know what the best team chemistry is? Having Babe Ruth hitting third in your lineup, Lou Gehrig fourth. Having Michael Jordan running one side of the floor, Scottie Pippen the other. Terry Bradshaw throwing the football, Lynn Swann catching it.

Thats good enough chemistry that you can slap it on the periodic table.

But sometimes, its the most over-looked, undervalued element in all of sports. Sometimes there really is a delicate balance, a fleeting mixture of talent and tenacity, of star power and selflessness. Weve seen it all across the sporting universe this year: the Cardinals in baseball, the Mavericks in basketball, the Giants in football.

EPA

MIDDLE MAN: Jeremy Lin (center), who had 20 points and 13 assists, goes up for a shot between Beno Udrih and Larry Sanders (right) during the first half of the Knicks 119-114 loss to the Bucks last night.

You know good chemistry in basketball, Amare Stoudemire said last night, when you see it. Its obvious.

And bad chemistry? Thats even more obvious, and in some ways its more damaging than good chemistry is helpful. Bad chemistry is destructive. Its divisive. And in the case of the Knicks, it can be every bit as devastating to the health of the unit as a staph infection.

They sprinkled bad chemistry all over three states, four cities and two time zones across the past six days. They arrived in Boston last Sunday sitting at .500 and talking large about soaring up the Eastern Conference food chain. By the time they take the floor tomorrow at the Garden they will be four games south of sea level, clinging to a one-game loss-column lead over the Cavaliers the Cavaliers! for the eighth and final playoff slot in the East.

The are battered, they are bleeding, they are broken. And they are beaten. They hit their first 11 shots of the game last night against the Bucks and didnt even escape the first quarter with the lead. They performed their nightly self-exhumation, shaving all but one point off a 15-point lead with seven minutes left, twice possessing the ball with a chance to take the lead in the final moments.

Never could.

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Linsane chemistry a thing of the past

'Anatomy of Injustice' review: Looking at capital punishment

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ANATOMY OF INJUSTICE Raymond Bonner Knopf $26.95, 298 pages

When George W. Bush was running for president in 2000, he said he was confident that "every person that has been put to death in Texas under my watch has been guilty of the crime charged and has full access to the courts."

Bush signed the death warrants for more than 150 people when he was governor of Texas, about one every nine days and the most in history at that time. (His successor, Rick Perry, has presided over many more.) Texas is far and away the most likely place to be executed in the U.S.: 37 percent of all executions since 1976 have occurred in Texas. It again led the nation with 13 executions last year, more than the two closest states (Alabama and Ohio) combined but a much lower rate than the previous decade.

After Bush's comments, The New York Times assigned Raymond Bonner and another reporter to research and write about capital punishment. One of their articles was cited by the majority and the dissent in a 2002 U.S. Supreme Court case that resulted in a ban on executing people who are "mentally retarded."

Another case, involving the 1982 murder of an elderly woman in South Carolina, attracted Bonner's attention because he believes it "raises nearly all the issues that mark the debate about capital punishment: race, mental retardation, bad trial lawyers, prosecutorial misconduct, 'snitch' testimony, DNA testing, a claim of innocence."

Bonner's short book "Anatomy of Injustice: A Murder Case Gone Wrong" covers all those bases while telling the story of Edward Lee Elmore, an African American who was convicted by three different juries and spent 11,000 days in jail, most of them on death row, before being released a few days ago (after the book was published) for a crime Bonner, a lawyer and a Pulitzer Prize winner, and many others believe he did not commit.

Capital punishment is an issue of fierce, passionate debate, in Oregon and around the country. Gov. John Kitzhaber placed a moratorium on executions two weeks before a convicted murderer was scheduled to die by lethal injection. Kitzhaber was governor in 1996-97, when Oregon's only two executions since 1976 took place, and said he regretted allowing them. He did not, however, commute the sentences of Oregon's 37 death row inmates, something he has the legal authority to do. Josh Marquis, the Clatsop County district attorney, said when Kitzhaber declared the moratorium that the governor should carry out the law. Marquis will join Bonner for what is sure to be a lively discussion at 7:30 p.m. Friday at Powell's City of Books.

The Elmore case, as Bonner noted, touched on many of the most important issues in capital punishment:

Race: More than 75 percent of the victims in capital punishment cases are white, compared with about 50 percent of murder victims overall. About 34 percent of those executed since 1976 are African American; 13 percent of the overall population is African American. More than 250 African Americans have been executed for killing a white; 18 whites have been executed for killing an African American.

Mental disability: Elmore dropped out of school in the fifth grade and does not understand the concept of north, south, east or west or winter, spring, summer and fall. H e could not do the math necessary to maintain a checking account. His IQ tested at a level of mental disability.

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'Anatomy of Injustice' review: Looking at capital punishment

Intermittent fasting promotes brain health

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By Michelle Bosmier

According to a new study carried out at the National Institute on Aging in Baltimore, fasting for one or two days each week may help improve the condition of individuals suffering from Alzheimer's and Parkinson's. Researchers have found that stopping nearly all food intake for short periods of time triggers a protection mechanism within the brain which also works against the effects of neurodegenerative disorders.

Calorie intake impacts the brain

Professor Mark Mattson, lead author of the study and professor of neuroscience at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, explained at the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Vancouver that "reducing your calorie intake could help your brain, but doing so by cutting your intake of food is not likely to be the best method of triggering this protection. It is likely to be better to go on intermittent bouts of fasting, in which you eat hardly anything at all, and then have periods when you eat as much as you want. In other words, timing appears to be a crucial element to this process." Read more...

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Heart Disease Stem Cell Therapies – Development Must Come From Several Specialties

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Editor's Choice Academic Journal Main Category: Heart Disease Also Included In: Cardiovascular / Cardiology;Stem Cell Research Article Date: 09 Mar 2012 - 4:00 PST

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5 (1 votes)

The paper's lead author, Kenneth Chien from Harvard University in the USA explains:

Until now, clinical trials have been based on heart attacks, chronic heart failure as well as dilated cardiomyopathy, but regardless of the fact that regenerative therapies that are based on various non-cardiac cell types seem to be safe, their efficacy has not yet been tested in a clinical trial.

However, possible new targets and treatment strategies are now emerging due to recent progress in cardiac stem cell research and regenerative biology.

Scientists used to think that the heart only has a minimal capacity for self-renewal and saw no prospect in reversing the loss of healthy heart muscle and function. This perception has been altered because of recent findings, such as the discovery of several distinct embryonic progenitor cell types of which some are found in the heart.

A certain number of these cells can be activated in people with cardiac injuries and are now targeted by scientists to develop novel cardiac regenerative therapeutics either by delivery of the cells, or by new methods that activate expansion and conversion of functioning heart cells.

For instance, clinical studies conducted a short while ago demonstrated that scar formation following a heart attack can be reduced by taking cells from the patient's own heart tissue. Even though it remains uncertain whether the delivered cells are indeed stem cells, these studies nevertheless demonstrate that this is a small, educational step towards the goal of utilizing the heart's potential for self-healing.

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Heart Disease Stem Cell Therapies - Development Must Come From Several Specialties