More evidence of the obesity epidemic
Maybe you’ve seen this story, but it certainly caught my attention: Tons of kids are taking the “little purple pill” we hear about all the time.
The Associated Press reported Oct. 4 that young children’s use of heartburn drugs has surged 56 percent from 2002-06.
The story rightly put the blame on obesity and overuse.
A survey by Medco Health Solutions, a New Jersey-based pharmacy benefits management company, examined U.S. prescription data from 2002-06. The survey suggested more than 2 million children used drugs for digestive or gastrointestinal complaints last year, The AP reported.
Medco estimated 3 percent of children 4 years old and younger were taking these drugs last year. This was a 56 percent increase, the highest among any child age group.
Acid-reducing drugs, called proton pump inhibitors, are the most commonly prescribed drugs for GI problems, The AP reported. They are used for acid reflux and gastroesophageal reflux disease. Heartburn and acid reflux is common in children and often goes away with time or lifestyle changes.
The story dealt only with prescription drugs, not those available over the counter, which many are.
Please check out The Medicine Bag blog at http://blog.newsok.com/health.
Jeff Raymond, Medical Writer
All-in-one cup
This has to be one of the greatest ideas in the history of food: vitamin-fortified coffee.
I couldn’t wait for the embargo to lift Tuesday morning on this press release so I could write about it. I appreciate fortifying bread and cereal with folic acid, and the importance to pregnant women of getting enough of it, so coffee seems like a natural choice.
Folic acid deficiency leads to devastating birth defects.
My question is: Why hasn’t anyone done this before? I guess it could be like fortifying cigarettes — you don’t want to encourage use of some things because they’re made more nutritious. Still, with half the world’s population addicted to coffee, like me, enriching it with all manner of nutrients seems a no-brainer. Maybe there were technical issues.
According to a press release, beginning in early 2008, food technology company Voyava Republic will add 80 micrograms — one-third of the recommended daily allowance — of folic acid to its SPAVA coffee line.
In doing so, SPAVA will become the first coffee line to fortify its beans with folic acid.
CEO Michael Sweeney unveiled the product today in New York City at the National Coffee Association’s fall conference.
“SPAVA’s ground-breaking fortified coffee announcement marks the latest significant step in the food fortification movement, which has benefited the health of U.S.consumers for decades – from the addition of iodine to salt in 1924 to prevent goiter, to the addition of vitamin D to milk for calcium and phosphorus absorption. Long recognized as an essential nutrient for women, folic acid intake was recently linked with lower breast cancer rates among post-menopausal women in a study published this summer by the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition,” according to the release.
SPAVA uses a patent-pending technology to “imbue” Arabica beans with supplements such as gingko biloba and echinacea. The company said the ”innovative coffee line” aims aims to improve physical and mental health, and deliver benefits for joint health, memory, immunity, metabolism and stress relief.
SPAVA appears in health food stores around the country. It sells for $9.99 to $12.99 per 12-ounce bag. To learn more, visit www.SPAVAcoffee.com.
To me, there are four epochs in the history of food for human consumption:
1. Hunter-gatherers establish agriculture, anchoring them to one place and ending nomadic lifestyles
2. Discovery of cooking
3. Use of preservatives and, later, refrigeration
4. Vitamin-fortified coffee
Please check out The Medicine Bag blog at http://blog.newsok.com/health
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.
Please check out The Medicine Bag blog at http://blog.newsok.com/health
Jeff Raymond, Medical Writer
Breast Cancer Awareness Month
What I remember most is her laugh. She had the best laugh, the kind that you could hear from across a room. She had the kind of laugh that made you want to know her and a smile that warmed whoever she graced with it.
Four years ago, my aunt, Glennis Porter, died of breast cancer. This month, Breast Cancer Awareness Month, I’ll wear a pink bracelet in her memory and in the hopes that other women will fight breast cancer and survive.
A big part of that fight is awareness, which is one of the goals of the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation. The foundation encourages women to have healthy lifestyles, get regular screenings to detect cancer early when its more treatable and to know the factors that can increase risk, like a family history. You can show your support of breast cancer awareness at the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure Oct. 20 in Oklahoma City. Registration is now open. For more information, go to http://www.komencentralok.org/site/PageServer.
I think my aunt will be smiling. – Dawn Marks, MyEdmond reporter
You’re at work, you’re so tired and you think you’ve hit a midday “wall”? You think a nap’s necessary? That may be a good idea. But the real culprits here — more than likely — are obstructed nasal passages and problems sleeping at night, according to a new study by the American Academy of Otolaryngology.
Nasal obstruction is an upper – airway condition that can be caused by a variety of maladies, such as allergies, rhinosinusitis, or a deviated septum.
The recent study indicates that people with chronic nasal obstruction were twice as likely to experience excessive daytime sleepiness than those without nasal obstruction.
These patients also were five times more likely to suffer from “habitual observed apnea,” which is the suspension of breathing during sleep.
The academy surveyed nearly 7,000 patients. The academy represents more than 12,000 physicians.
The study concluded that while nasal obstruction in and of itself is not life-threatening, the condition can severely impact a person’s quality of life by negatively affecting their work and social activities.
Jim Killackey, Medical Writer
Fire Prevention Week upcoming
The state Health Department has partnered with the National Fire Prevention Association to promote next month’s Fire Prevention Week, Oct. 7-13.
Firefighters will remind people about the dangers of house fires and teach about planning and practicing escape routes during a house fire.
According to the prevention association, 3,030 Americans and 92 Oklahomans died in 2005 in house fires. Health officials estimate that only 23 percent of households have implemented and practiced a fire escape plan.
“Many times when we speak to residents who have experienced a fire in their home they recall becoming confused and disoriented by the conditions and severity of the situation. But they realized they needed to get out fast,” said Shelli Stephens-Stidham, Health Department Injury Prevention Service Chief. “Sometimes there are only seconds to escape, but there’s no question that having a plan in place that has been practiced saves precious time and makes survival more likely.”
The Health Department offered eight tips to prepare for a house fire:
— Install working smoke alarms on every level and inside and outside all sleeping areas.
— Develop a fire escape plan that identifies two ways out of each room and a family meeting place outside.
— Make sure the fire escape plan allows for specific needs in the household, including helping infants, young children and disabled people escape.
— Practice a fire escape plan twice a year.
— Remember that some people may not awake to the sound of a smoke alarm and may need help waking up.
— Go to the closest exit if a smoke alarm sounds. Find another route if you encounter smoke. If you must go through smoke, get low and go under the smoke.
— Don’t take your belongings. Move fast, but stay calm.
— Test smoke alarms monthly.
Brian Sargent
Staff Writer
Raise your hands for hand washing
For all of you who obsessively spray alcohol and water at the gym or clean your hands with sanitizers, Canadian researchers have found what medical professionals already knew — old-fashioned soap and water works better than anything to clean your hands.
Hospital-acquired infections — called nosocomial infections — are a huge problem worldwide. One of the most difficult bugs to combat is Clostridium difficile. Michael Libman, director of the Division of Infectious Diseases at the McGill University Health Centre in Montreal studied the most effective ways to eliminate C. difficile from the hands of health care workers.
Researchers tested five hand-washing protocols that emulated hospital conditions as closely as possible, according to a McGill press release. After the hands of 10 volunteers were contaminated with the bacterium, they washed with regular soap and warm or cold water, antiseptic soap and warm water, an alcohol-based solution and a disinfectant towel.
“The results were striking: the protocols that involved washing with water eliminated more than 98 percent of the bacteria, while washing with an alcohol-based solution eliminated almost none! The protocol involving a disinfectant towel eliminated around 95 percent of bacteria,” according to the release.
Part of the challenge in controlling the bacterium is eliminating the resistant spores it produces. Alcohol eliminates “living” bacteria but not spores, the researchers postulated. The chemical action of soap and mechanical action of hand washing eliminates both. Alcohol rubs remain effective in killing bacteria but not spores.
And, by the way, soap is all antibacterial. So unless you get your soap from a hospital supply closet, washing your hands is more mechanical than chemical. And don’t rush it!
Jeff Raymond, Medical Writer
The dangers of cheerleading
If you think sports’ cheerleading might be an easy activity, the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons sharply disagrees. Orthopedic surgeons note that while cheerleading is considered a true sport, it can be a potentially dangerous one, too for severe and traumatic injuries.
Cheerleading, in fact, is the leading sport for severe injuries to women in high school and college. Injuries among cheerleaders often result from gymnastic tumbling or maneuvers such as the “pyramid” and the “basket toss.” In the pyramid drill, the cheerleader at the top is most often injured after falling and landing on a hard surface. The basket toss is a stunt in which a cheerleader is thrown into the air, often between 6 and 20 feet, by three or four other cheerleaders. But injuries such as bruises, twisted ankles, shin splints — even head and neck injuries — can also occur while cheerleaders are performing simple routines on unforgiving surfaces like gymnasium floors. According to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, cheerleading injuries have more than doubled since 1990. Orthopedic surgeons recommend these guidelines:
- A cheerleading squad squad should practice and perform only under the direction of qualified and knowledgeable advisers or coaches.
- Make sure the environment is suitable for activity. Cheerleaderss should practice on a surface with appropriate matting — not on surfaces such as concrete or asphalt, or wet or uneven surfaces.
- All squads should receive thorough training in proper spotting techniques.
- Never build stunts without the coach present.
- All stunts, including “pyramids” and “basket tosses,” should be reviewed and approved by the coach prior to execution.
- Familiarize your squad with the most-common cheerleading injuries and how to treat them.
-Jim Killackey, Medical Writer
Doctors, heal thyself
Doctors sure can be frustrating, can’t they? They want you — the patient — to work around their oh-so-much-more-important schedules.
That’s of course assuming you manage to talk to your doctors, since the more successful they become, the more likely you will end up being palmed off to a physician’s assistant so they can attend to more important matters, such as meeting with the endless stream of pharmaceutical industry representatives, who always seem to be sitting in their waiting rooms, large cases of drug samples in hand.
Even more frustrating is when you are a patient with a problem. If it requires a specialist, no matter how severe the problem is, they are so busy, that they often can’t squeeze you in for an appointment for months. They say to call back to see if there are cancellations. I guess it would be too much to ask that they call you when there is a cancellation, since they’d know first.
What’s even worse is if you have to get caught in the middle of doctors, whose egos prevent them from talking to one another, wanting you to be a middleman. I faced that situation this week. Because of my multiple sclerosis, I suffer from severe fatigue. I take a prescription medication to help keep me up long enough to try to get through the work day. Unfortunately, I have been suffering from major, devastating headaches and the new doctor trying to solve that problem thinks the anti-fatigue pill could be the problem, so he took me off it a week ago.
As a result, I’m dragging, so all week I’ve been trying to get the two doctors to discuss if there is another anti-fatigue medication that I can substitute so I’m not falling asleep at my desk. First, the headache doctor was out of the office until Thursday, so the M.S. doctor’s P.A. didn’t want to do anything until he could consult with him. Unfortunately, the P.A. neglected to tell me that he would be gone Thursday. On Fridays, the M.S. doctor’s office only does a half-day anyway, so my dad was stuck in the middle trying to play phone tag with these bozos. Then, when the headache doctor’s nurse finally calls, it’s to say they are phoning in a prescription TO HELP ME SLEEP BETTER. Sleep is not something I’m having a problem with, staying awake is. Do these people even listen to their patients?
Scott Schuldt, Staff Writer
Free prostate cancer screenings
OU Medical Center and OU Physicians will offer free prostate cancer screenings Saturday for men ages 40 to 70.
The screenings will be at the OU Physicians Building, 825 NE 10th St. Registration is required and is available by calling 271-5000.
The screening consists of Prostate Specific Antigen (PSA) blood tests, funded by the Medical Center Volunteers Inc. and Digital Rectal Exams (DRE) performed by urologists.
Prostate cancer is the number one cancer affecting men in Oklahoma and is the second leading cause of death due to cancer in the United States. Each year, more than 500 Oklahoma men die from prostate cancer. The American Cancer Society recommends men 50 years old and older should have a screening once a year.
