Romney on Healthcare in America January 8, 2008
Posted by healthandsurvival in Politics and Medicine, medicine.Tags: Drugs, health, healthcare, Life, prescription candidates, president
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This is my 3rd post on Candidates and healthcare. Mitt Romney has some interesting ideas, the only question is whether he will implement them. It appears he understands the problem and does provide some solutions. First and foremost is tort reform, that is capping the payments to those with unfortunate outcomes. However, no candidates to date have mentioned the problem of prescription drug costs. US Citizens pay more for drugs than any other nation in the world. Recent studies show that the drug companies spend twice as much advertising to us as they do on research. By outlawing direct to consumer advertising, we would save billions.
Fix The Tax Code. Level the playing field by making all health care expenses tax deductible, eliminating the special treatment afforded employer-provided health plans.
Forced Sterilization of Americans, Eugenics and California January 8, 2008
Posted by healthandsurvival in History of Medicine, Politics and Medicine, Survival, health, medicine.Tags: eugenics, health, Life, race, Survival
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This is a story from 2003 I found online. I thought it was interesting and relates to survival of the human race. I hope you enjoy it…….
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Hitler and his henchmen victimized an entire continent and exterminated millions in his quest for a so-called Master Race.
But the concept of a white, blond-haired, blue-eyed master Nordic race didn’t originate with Hitler. The idea was created in the United States, and cultivated in California, decades before Hitler came to power. California eugenicists played an important, although little-known, role in the American eugenics movement’s campaign for ethnic cleansing.
Eugenics was the pseudoscience aimed at “improving” the human race. In its extreme, racist form, this meant wiping away all human beings deemed “unfit,” preserving only those who conformed to a Nordic stereotype. Elements of the philosophy were enshrined as national policy by forced sterilization and segregation laws, as well as marriage restrictions, enacted in 27 states. In 1909, California became the third state to adopt such laws. Ultimately, eugenics practitioners coercively sterilized some 60,000 Americans, barred the marriage of thousands, forcibly segregated thousands in “colonies,” and persecuted untold numbers in ways we are just learning. Before World War II, nearly half of coercive sterilizations were done in California, and even after the war, the state accounted for a third of all such surgeries….. Read the rest of the story here
Drink Alcohol and Live Longer? January 8, 2008
Posted by healthandsurvival in Diet and Nutrition, Fitness, health, medicine, vitamins.Tags: alcohol, diet, health, Life, longevity, nutrition
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Simple Math
Drink Moderately + Exercise + Eat 5 Servivings of Fruits/Veggies + Stop Smoking = 14 extra years of life. At least according to the following study.
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4 healthy habits can add 14 years to your life by Reuters
Overwhelming evidence has shown that these things contribute to healthier and longer lives, but the new study actually quantified their combined impact, the British team said.
“These results may provide further support for the idea that even small differences in lifestyle may make a big difference to health in the population and encourage behavior change,” the researchers wrote in the journal PLoS Medicine.
Between 1993 and 1997 the researchers questioned 20,000 healthy British men and women about their lifestyles. They also tested every participant’s blood to measure vitamin C intake, an indicator of how much fruit and vegetables people ate.
Then they assigned the participants — aged 45-79 — a score of between 0 and 4, giving one point for each of the healthy behaviors.
After allowing for age and other factors that could affect the likelihood of dying, the researchers determined people with a score of 0 were four times as likely to have died, particularly from cardiovascular disease.
The researchers, who tracked deaths among the participants until 2006, also said a person with a health score of 0 had the same risk of dying as someone with a health score of 4 who was 14 years older.
The lifestyle change with the biggest benefit was giving up smoking, which led to an 80 percent improvement in health, the study found. This was followed by eating fruits and vegetables.
Moderate drinking and keeping active brought the same benefits, Kay-Tee Khaw and colleagues at the University of Cambridge and the Medical Research Council said.
“Armed with this information, public-health officials should now be in a better position to encourage behavior changes likely to improve the health of middle-aged and older people,” the researchers wrote.
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A pack per day of cigarettes = impotence in men January 8, 2008
Posted by healthandsurvival in Diseases, Drugs, health, medicine.Tags: chantix, cialis, health, impotence, Life, viagra
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Since diabetes, heart attacks and strokes don’t encourage men to quit smoking, maybe this will. A new study shows that men who smoke up to 1 pack per day have a 39% increased risk of impotence. The number of cigarettes smoked per day is directly related to risk of impotence. The reason is simple. We all know that cigarettes increase clogged arteries. However when people think of this, they generally think of only their heart. The truth is any organ that gets blood (all organs) is at risk for decreased blood flow. The male penis is no exception and erectile dysfunction is the result. Consider Chanitx to help you quit smoking, studies have shown excellent results. If you still have trouble with ED, talk to your doctor about Viagra, Levitra or Cialis.
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By Serena Gordon
HealthDay Reporter
SUNDAY, Dec. 30 (HealthDay News) — If heart disease, stroke and certain cancers haven’t been reason enough for men to quit smoking, consider this: The habit also increases the risk of erectile dysfunction.
“Smoking delivers nicotine and other vasoconstrictors that close down the blood vessels” of the penis, explained Dr. Jack Mydlo, chairman of urology at Temple University School of Medicine and Hospital in Philadelphia.
Erectile dysfunction — also called “ED” or impotence — is the inability to achieve or sustain an erection on repeated occasions. It’s estimated that about two of every 100 American men have erectile dysfunction serious enough to warrant a doctor’s visit, according to the U.S. National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Disorders. As men age, the risk of erectile dysfunction increases.
A recent study of more than 8,000 Australian men between the ages of 16 and 59 found that those who smoked less than a pack a day had a 24 percent increased risk of erectile problems. And, as the number of cigarettes smoked went up, so, too, did the chances of erectile dysfunction. Those men who averaged more than 20 cigarettes a day increased their risk of erectile dysfunction by 39 percent, reported the study, published in the journal Tobacco Control.
Another study, this one published in the American Journal of Epidemiology, found that male smokers in their 40s were more likely to experience erectile difficulties than older nonsmoking males. The risk of erectile dysfunction was nearly doubled for smoking men in their 40s compared to nonsmokers in their 50s.
“Smoking, because it causes blood vessel constriction, is a very big cause of erectile dysfunction,” said Dr. Larry Lipshultz, chief of male reproductive medicine at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston.
Smoking isn’t the only cause of impotence problems — other lifestyle habits can have a big impact on men’s sexual health. Obesity, heavy alcohol consumption and recreational drug use can all cause erectile dysfunction. And a sedentary lifestyle can also contribute to erectile problems, Lipshultz added.
Other causes include diabetes; heart disease; cancer surgery of the prostate, bladder, colon or rectum; high blood pressure medications or antidepressants; a spinal injury; and a hormone imbalance, usually low testosterone, Lipshultz explained.
All of these conditions or lifestyle factors contribute to erectile difficulties in three major ways: By reducing blood flow, causing nerve damage, or changing the hormonal environment.
While there are medications that can help treat erectile dysfunction, both Mydlo and Lipshultz advocated a healthy lifestyle for maintaining good sexual health.
“Take better care of yourself. Make sure you’re not obese, eat well, exercise, and if you have diabetes or hypertension, make sure they’re well-controlled,” advised Lipshultz, who added that by addressing lifestyle factors, you may not need medication to treat erectile dysfunction.
Mydlo echoed that advice, adding, “Stop smoking, drink in moderation, lose weight, and maintain good blood pressure.”
Mydlo added one more word of caution: “Don’t use ED medications — Viagra, Cialis — if you don’t need them. Erections that last longer than four hours — priapism — can cause permanent scar tissue and permanent impotence. It’s not a good idea to use these drugs casually.”
More information
To learn more about erectile dysfunction and how to prevent it, visit the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases.
9/11/2001- Stress may increase risk for heart disease January 8, 2008
Posted by healthandsurvival in medicine.Tags: anxiety, health, Life, stress, Survival
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By AMY WESTFELDT, Associated Press Writer
NEW YORK – Americans who said they became anxious and stressed after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks — some just from watching the collapse of the twin towers on television — reported higher rates of heart disease up to three years later, researchers said.
The research showed that before Sept. 11, about 22 percent of the participants reported they had heart ailments. Three years after the attacks, about 31 percent of them said they had developed heart problems.
People who said they were acutely stressed by the attacks were more than twice as likely to have high blood pressure one year after the attacks, and more than three times as likely to have heart problems two years after the attacks, according to the study reported in January’s issue of the journal Archives of General Psychiatry.
The findings document the physical consequences of stress, especially from watching upsetting events on television, said lead researcher Alison Holman of the University of California-Irvine. About two-thirds of the participants watched the Sept. 11 attacks on live television.
“Seeing something as stressful as that on television is a very important thing to consider,” Holman said. “You don’t necessarily have to be in the (World Trade Center) towers or in the Pentagon to be at risk for other problems.”
The study reported the increased heart disease rates even after taking into account other factors that could cause similar ailments, such as smoking and diabetes.
Steven Woloshin, a physician at the VA Medical Center in White River Junction, Vt., said the findings were problematic because people who report their own medical problems may exaggerate them. He said the study’s participants are more likely to develop heart problems as they age.
“I don’t think they’ve proven anything,” he said. “There are millions of things that cause heart problems.”
Holman and her colleagues used online surveys for their research; the participants were not examined or interviewed beyond the surveys. Most had completed a health survey before the Sept. 11 attacks.
The researchers asked participants whether they experienced anxiety, had flashbacks or worried about terrorism after the Sept. 11 attacks
During follow-up surveys for three years after the attacks, participants were asked whether doctors had diagnosed them, for either the first time or with worsening cases, of high blood pressure, irregular heartbeats and other heart problems.
Psychologist Tom Demaria, who directs a center for bereaved Sept. 11 families at South Nassau Communities Hospital on Long Island, said he helped to counsel a group of about 20,000 people, most of whom didn’t live in New York City, in the months after the attacks. They frequently spoke of panic attacks with increased heart rates and tightness in their chests, he said.
“A lot of people reported a lot of phobic reactions. They didn’t want to go on bridges, planes. The whole word I kept hearing was ambushed back then,” Demaria said.
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On the Net:
Archives of General Psychiatry: http://archpsyc.ama-assn.org
