All in the name of science
Three co-workers — Brian Sargent, Susan Simpson and Lindsey Goodier — and I have decided to be guinea pigs for four herbal sprays The Oklahoman received Monday.
As anyone who has read this blog knows, we receive a lot of unsolicited, random stuff — usually books, but not always. So far, the sinus cleanser was the strangest, but the herbal sprays and herbal cholesterol pills were close.
To test the effectiveness of these products, we decided to split them up. Susan took “Crave Control.” I took “Energy Shots.” Lindsey took “Immune Boost” and Brian took “Sleep Now.”
NutraMist advertises the sprays as a way to cure “pill fatigue.” Seems like a fair enough reason. But do they work?
Before I get to that, a little information about my selection: I have taken vitamin B12 supplements before, so I know they can make a person perk up. It helps maintain healthy nerve and red blood cells. The body stores B12, mainly in the liver. Vegetarians are at risk of developing vitamin B12 deficiency because it is present in meats. Deficiencies are possible but are usually associated with too little meat/fortified food intake or poor absorption.
The recommended daily allowance is 2.4 micrograms a day for adults. The vitamin is considered to be generally nontoxic, even at high levels.
For more information on B12 and deficiencies, check here.
So, two hours after spraying the grape-flavored mist six times in my mouth, I am more awake and energetic than before. I suppose I should be — the spray is 25,000 times the daily value. The formula also contains ginseng and green tea.
If a person is inclined to use supplements, which I’m generally not, these are pretty handy.
Jeff Raymond, Medical Writer
2:23 p.m.
Feeling a bit of a crash from the vitamins. Sprayed another six. This should last me through the rest of the evening. Tallyho!
Jeff Raymond, Medical Writer
Nobel prizes not too far from home
Below are some excerpts from an Associated Press story on this year’s winners of the Nobel Prize in medicine. This is particularly pertinent because Oklahoma researchers are using some of the same techniques on tiny roundworms.
Mario R. Capecchi, Oliver Smithies and Sir Martin J. Evans won for their groundbreaking discoveries that led to “gene targeting.”
“The process has helped scientists develop models on mice of human disorders including cardiovascular and neurodegenerative ailments, diabetes and cancer. … Gene targeting is often used to inactivate single genes. Such gene “knockout” experiments have elucidated the roles of numerous genes in embryonic development, adult physiology, aging and disease. To date, more than 10,000 mouse genes (approximately half of the genes in the mammalian genome) have been knocked out. … With gene targeting it is now possible to produce almost any type of DNA modification in the mouse genome, allowing scientists to establish the roles of individual genes in health and disease,” according to the prize citation.
Research on C. elegans, the worm used in The C. elegans Knockout Consortium at the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation, has won several Nobel Prizes, but this year’s is the first for gene targeting. The OMRF knockout project creates genetically modified worms on a production-line scale and is a crucial link between scientists’ curiosities and ability to test their ideas on a “model organism.” This year’s Nobel Prize for medicine went to scientists who pioneered the method in mice.
Mice are more complicated — both good and bad, from a research perspective — but that doesn’t detract from the importance of the technology this year’s winners developed and its diffusion to Oklahoma and elsewhere.
Any time my eyes glaze over when I hear about/read about research, I think about what it is scientists are able to do in the lab and how global research powerhouses no longer have a monopoly on talent and technology.
Jeff Raymond, Medical Writer
Calendars to benefit Children’s Miracle Network
The 2008 Children’s Miracle Network calendars are now available for $5 at participating Wal-Mart and Sam’s Club stores, participating credit unions, participating Kiwanis Clubs and the Children’s Medical Research Institute.
The calendar, titled “Miracle Children of Oklahoma,” features 14 children who have benefited from CMN programs throughout the years.
One such child, Elizabeth Smith, Miracle Child for March, was diagnosed with renal failure and a non-functioning bladder four months before she was born. Her mom, Kristal, and Elizabeth went through multiple procedures before her June 2002 birth. Elizabeth was born five weeks early with only 5 to 10 percent kidney function. She received a kidney transplant from her father in December 2002. Afterward, she contracted the UVB virus but survived and underwent a complete reconstruction of her bladder, according to a CMRI press release.
To find out where to buy a calendar, call 271-9042.
Jeff Raymond, Medical Writer
Treating aneurysms at OU Physicians
An OU Physicians surgeon has used a new technique to treat thoracic aortic aneurysm patients. The endovascular stent graft procedure is less invasive than other therapies.
In the procedure, used on patients for whom open-chest surgery would pose serious risks, the surgeon inserts a stent endoscopically from the leg or abdomen using X-rays as a guide. The stent reinforces the aortic walls and helps prevent rupture. The procedure is safer than thoracic surgery and allows patients to recuperate quicker.
“The stent graft is … deployed in the diseased segment of the aorta and ‘relines’ the aorta like a sleeve to divert blood flow away from the aneurysm,” according to the Cleveland Clinic Web site.
Blood passes through the graft without pushing on the aneurysm. Thoracic aortic aneurysms affect approximately 15,000 people in the United States annually.
Jeff Raymond, Medical Writer
Reducing hospital-acquired infections
Consumers Union, publisher of “Consumer Reports,” has made reducing nosocomial, or hospital-acquired, infections a major focus. To learn more, visit www.consumersunion.org/campaigns/stophospitalinfections/learn.html.
Researchers and others track hospital-acquired infections, but the information often isn’t publicly available or disseminated. Some states track the rate; Oklahoma doesn’t.
This is too bad, because nosocomial infections, especially the drug-resistant variety, are a huge health care problem and deserve scrutiny from the media and patients.
I would like to hear your experience with hospital-acquired infections. Have you or a loved one contracted an infection while hospitalized or shortly after discharge? Do you think hospitals and doctors do enough to reduce infections or pay enough attention to the risk? Would greater disclosure of hospital infection rates be something you would research?
Health care providers: How do you deal with nosocomial infections? Are your efforts enough? Are hospitals unfairly criticized? Can infection rates be reduced enough to matter?
The November issue of “Clinical and Infectious Diseases” documents a 7 percent annual increase from 1998 to 2003 in the rate of nosocomial Staphylococcus aureus infections.
The largest increase was among patients hospitalized for invasive orthopedic procedures — 53.5 percent.
The economic impact of hospital-acquired infections is more than $10 billion.
If you’d like to talk about this, please e-mail me at jraymond@oklahoman.com or call 475-3364.
Jeff Raymond, Medical Writer
Benefits to help Children’s Miracle Network
Wal-Mart in Edmond will host a car, truck and motorcycle show to benefit the Children’s Miracle Network.
The show will be from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday in the parking lot of the store, at I-35 and 15th Street.
The event will feature the band Mike Black & The Stingrays, and the car show will be open to all makes and models. Prizes will be awarded for first through third places in three categories. Trophies will be presented at 3 p.m.
Registration forms can be picked up at the service desk of the Edmond store. Registration is $20.
Also, the Belle Isle Wal-Mart will host the “Scratch Charity Bowling Tournament” Sunday at the AMF Windsor Bowling Center, 4600 NW 23rd St.
The tournament will be from 1 to 4 p.m. Everyone older than 6 years old is welcome, and prizes will be given throughout the afternoon.
Entry forms can be picked up at the Belle Isle Wal-Mart, 1801 Belle Isle Blvd. The entry fee for a four person team is $50, which includes shoe rentals.
Jeff Raymond, Medical Writer
Mental health burden
Mental disorders cause 1.3 billion annual days of lost performance, a new Harvard University/National Institute of Mental Health study shows.
Depression is associated with the largest number of lost days. The number of days lost to mental disorders is roughly half that lost to all chronic physical conditions combined, according to a Harvard press release.
More than half of U.S. adults have a mental or physical condition that influences their “role functioning,” according to the release.
The findings are published in this month’s issue of the “Archives of General Psychiatry.” They are based on the National Comorbidity Survey-Replication, a nationwide survey of 9,282 Americans ages 18 and older. Respondents were asked how many days they were completely unable to work or carry out their usual activities because of problems with their physical or mental health.
“Previous research has found that, on the whole, the least amount of health resources are spent on research and treatment of musculoskeletal conditions,” author Kathleen Merikangas of the NIMH said in the release. “These results illuminate the discrepancy between how we allocate our health care resources, and which illnesses have the most impact.”
Jeff Raymond, Medical Writer
