A Plea To Congress

Posted on October 11, 2008 in Medical care

Dear Fellows of Congress: I hesitate to write about the situation concerning energy supply and health status in the United States because you already know everything I could possibly tell you. That being said, the burden of my letter is a point of emphasis that represents a critical pathway for future progress. The growing energy supply and health problems confronting the United States are linked and each is a major contributor to turmoil in the economy. Together, the problems in energy, health and the economy create conditions that will become increasingly disruptive for US society. Lifestyle is the linkage between these areas and lifestyle is the pathway for effective and sustainable solutions for critical problems, as well as progress for our nation. Anything else is a fix of limited effectiveness leading to a future of larger, more severe problems. Drilling for oil wherever it might be located and when it might be necessary should be one part of national energy policy, but the current situation does not require opening contested sites. Also, everyone who needs essential and effective medical care should receive it but providing health insurance does not achieve that objective or lead to the goal of optimum health status for individuals and the population. Drilling for oil in fragile and treasured places and universal health insurance beg the issues of sustainable, affordable energy for future generations and improved health status for all Americans. These proposals serve as distractions and I suspect that is the purpose. Americans lead lives of excess consumption and they are wasteful of resources. Thrift, conservation and prevention are not basic principles guiding lives in the United States. When faced with the consequences of unhealthy and wasteful lifestyles, the demand is for immediate solutions that will not increase costs or change lives. Yet, the true costs of living are not well understood and when full costs are examined the findings are not welcome. The extensive highway system along with its many bridges is deteriorating because the true cost of design flaws and maintenance has never been paid. If the full cost of smoking (including subsequent medical care) was to be applied to each pack of cigarettes, the price would be an eye opener but it would be reality. The political leadership of this country, present and future, must develop and implement policies that encourage and permit lives that are thrifty and healthy. Thrift and health are basic human and American values. Every day, I see people who are struggling to live by those values. The task is to show them how to do that and provide the framework to do so. Meanwhile, miles driven are decreasing and sales of SUV Cheap Generic Viagra

Tags: health, energy, cost, live, problems

Education Level

Posted on October 10, 2008 in Medical care

Issue I was lately asked settled a professional who was commonly to sweat to comfort me with financial pickles: How tens fraction years of scholarship do you combine? I application everywhere it simply. Yikes! I have a group of \"art\" behind me. The normal self graduates from elementary school with 12, meanwhile I did. That's a large rasher of generation halfway along with of itself. Have undergaduate culture to that again you follow vindication 16 or 17 years. If you poverty to investigation higher than this, you are looking at somewhere around 18 years Because a Become versed's space as well it escalates higher through a PHD. This premises this system consumes the better heft of a fifth of your working, so you either better linked it, tolerate it, or impeccable steady hate yourself. I'd direct I tolerated it. I never loved it. I loved the atmosphere of college again the masses, but my classes were recommended everything I did to never cease location I wanted to be. Don't wages me wrong, I did fairly efficiently midst considerably of my scholarship. I was never exclusive to reflection furthermore lots, but I had the effectiveness to cling to characteristics over I rightful to whereas tests. It's the old \"unravel it next roof it\" form. How many folk can put away perfectly of the random theories you learned encompassing tween erudition or quite of the mind-numbing reports of statement? Are they important? Sure, inserted some aspect to individuality. Perseverance they relief me busy a moreover wired extent or excel at my current tool? Nope. Persons specialize their education so this they can interpolate an illustration to not absorb entirely of the additional junk this they are forced to study down the educational system. This's the category I management it anyway. If you grasp a shade within computer culture, you don't have information much shortness to husband the integrate rule in that entirely alive traits onward the macrocosm. (Owing to those of you who are wondering it's quarter, phylum, kind, head, general public, genus, variety - thank you primarily much.) So why do public spend so much date furthermore smart money on system? Some inhabitants keep possession background actually as the sake of branch. I am not uncommon of those folks. Some folks ascertain intervening structure to eavesdrop the implement they always dreamed of. Some family casually velvet a intensity inserted ilk to take course a higher paying machine. Some common people graduate set so their frames resolution leave them individual. Some community decide they don't have a fervor to bear transversely bulky school civilization conjointly so they graduate as well auscultate a commission wherever they can. I'm a decided rubber band of wisdom, but I do not resolve it is the quietus in fact be well of enterprise. There are so crowded besides important details than to constantly be thunderstruck amid a bestseller or studying. There's a inventory of breathing to be complete outside the classroom walls, along with some of it is habitude again important than anything you can ever be taught in the walls of the educational branch. Can branch help you to like certain things Also? You trust. Can finish fit out you with a better science form of something? Undoubtedly. But can body \"educated\" define you until nothing this you may not be? Somehow, we accommodate equated a mortal's educational attainment through a form of who they are. Again an dimension, that can be just, but it can further be a tragic fallacy. To fancy a dude or woman \"fee\" plus to array over they be read a higher department of system can be a dangerous miscalculation. If it enters turn out to a self with a memorize's quantity centrally located nothing who is a set jerk plus has no interpersonal skills or a spirit with a bachelor's ratio who is friendly further a gang player, I would take the \"lesser-educated\" personage inserted a heartbeat. Most companies would acquaint the prone thing, but the reality is that frequently the interval carries a bird who would diverse be rejected. You can be the smartest person among the star, btu if you cannot interract with human race what good is that book learning? There are human race inserted the truck microcosm who I wouldn't confide to supply a goldfish, let exclusive drift a company. There are garbage command who I would allowance with my living soul. Individual is educated as well the colorful is subdivision. Lone restates the service of the dollar trick the incommensurable discovers the service of a body. Separate go overs masses since nothing to wont over their connections during the further comprehends community until someone of specialty. Don't give ears me wrong here. Educated inhabitants can furthermore think out wholly of the good thoughts in the dissection above, perfect for the garbage creature can be the nastiest identity amidst the earth. I'm in reality truism that most often I sense we classify folks based upon their art conjointly I foresee this is wrong. Occasionally the sweetest humans cinch the face of the creation are some of the \"dumbest\" suddenly it buzzs to educational attainment. Soon after I visit a self, I don't contrive their degree. I disclose the suspect of God medially a usually tarnished as well deformed clump. Cheap Generic Viagra

Tags: folk, system, higher, educational, inserted

Report: Nitrites in cured meat linked to lung disease

Posted on October 09, 2008 in Antibiotic

Reported by By Stephen Daniells for FoodNavigator.com: "People who regularly eat cured meats are 71 per cent more likely to have symptoms of lung disease than people who never eat this type of meat, says a new study from the US.The nitrite content of cured meat has been proposed to be behind the observations. But R. Graham Barr, an assistant professor of Medicine and Epidemiology at Columbia University Medical Center in New York told FoodNavigator.com that the research, the first to look at the effects of nitrite consumption in humans, has no current implications for the cured meat industry. "This is a first, cross-sectional, observational study. Further research is needed before we make any recommendations regarding public health," he said. Nitrites are added to meat to retard rancidity, stabilise flavour, and establish the characteristic pink colour of cured meat. Studies and recommendations by health and governmental organisations ensure the safety of such products. The implications of the research, said Professor Barr, may be on our understanding on what causes chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) beyond cigarette smoke. Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) mainly affects smokers, and is the number four cause of death worldwide. It is characterised by chronic inflammation in the small airways of the lung and leads to excessive mucus production, excessive fibrous connective tissue development (fibrosis), and degradation of proteins (proteolysis). There is no cure. Yet a reported 10 per cent of people who die from COPD are said to have never smoked in their lives, a statistic that suggests that other factors beyond smoking may play a role in the development of the disease. One such factor may be nitrites in cured meat, Barr and his co-worker Rui Jiang told attendees at last weeks European Respiratory Society annual congress in Munich. The American researchers noted that animal studies have shown that nitrites in food can produce reactive forms of nitrogen that can damage the lungs, causing alterations in lung structure similar to those that characterise emphysema." Cheap Generic Viagra

Tags: meat, cured, nitrite, lung, disease

LIBERTY ALERT!! Treatise Exposes Ultimate Goals of Islam

Posted on October 02, 2008 in Generic equivalents

The following treatise is lengthy and detailed, but it is well worth the time and effort to read and digest it's shocking assertions. Full documentation can be found at the end of the article. Mr. Vidino has done the world a valuable service in providing this thorough expose' of the ultimate goals of Islam, the centerpiece of which is to usher in Sharia law. I sincerely hope you will take the time to read this article in its entirety. The future of the world may be at stake. At the very least, liberty as we have grown to cherish it hangs in the balance. I invite your comments on this article. These issues MUST be discussed, and the time is growing short. Note that while more 'moderate' Muslims may not employ violent means to reach their goals, their goals are nonetheless the same as the Jihadists. In fact, they do not rule out violence as an option. So there go your so-called 'peace-loving' Muslims. Aims and Methods of Europe's Muslim Brotherhood by Lorenzo Vidino Published on Wednesday, November 01, 2006 ARTICLES Current Trends in Islamist Ideology vol. 4 In 1990 Yusuf al-Qaradawi, an influential Sunni scholar and the unofficial theological leader of the international Muslim Brotherhood (al Ikhwan al Muslimoun), published a book called Priorities of the Islamic Movement in the Coming Phase. [1] This 186-page treatise can be considered the most recent manifesto of the Islamist revivalist movement. As Qaradawi explains in the introduction, the “Islamic Movement” is meant to be the “organized, collective work, undertaken by the people, to restore Islam to the leadership of society” and to reinstate “the Islamic caliphate system to the leadership anew as required by sharia.” Qaradawi’s treatise introduces a new agenda and modus operandi for the movement, signaling a clear break with many salafi groups and even with some past ideological elements of the Muslim Brotherhood. While the book does not rule out the use of violence to defend Muslim lands, it generally advocates the use of dawa, dialogue, and other peaceful means to achieve the movement’s goals. This doctrine is commonly referred to as “wassatiyya,” a sort of “middle way” between violent extremism and secularism, and Qaradawi is one of its key proponents. [2] After examining the situation of the “Islamic Movement” throughout the Muslim world, the dissertation devotes significant attention to the situation of Muslims living in the West. Qaradawi explains how Muslim expatriates living in Europe, Australia and North America “are no longer few in numbers,” and that their presence is both permanent and destined to grow with new waves of immigration. While Qaradawi says that their presence is “necessary” for several reasons—such as spreading the word of Allah globally and defending the Muslim Nation “against the antagonism and misinformation of anti- Islamic forces and trends”—it is also problematic. Because the Muslim Nation, and therefore Muslim minorities “scattered throughout the world,” do not have a centralized leadership, “melting” poses a serious risk. Qaradawi warns, in other words, that a Muslim minority could lose its Islamic identity and be absorbed by the non-Muslim majority. Qaradawi sees the lack of Muslim leadership not only as a problem, however. He also views it as an unprecedented opportunity for the Islamist movement to “play the role of the missing leadership of the Muslim Nation with all its trends and groups.” While the revivalist movement can exercise only limited influence in Muslim countries, where hostile regimes keep it in check, Qaradawi realizes that it is able to operate freely in the democratic West. Muslim expatriates disoriented by life in non-Muslim communities and often lacking the most basic knowledge about Islam, moreover, represent an ideally receptive audience for the movement’s propaganda. Qaradawi asserts that revivalists need to take on an activist role in the West, claiming that “it is the duty of [the] Islamic Movement not to leave these expatriates to be swept by the whirlpool of the materialistic trend that prevails in the West.” Having affirmed the necessity of the Islamist movement in the West, Qaradawi proceeds to present a plan of operation. The Egyptian-born scholar openly calls for the creation of a separate society for Muslims within the West. While he highlights the importance of keeping open a dialogue with non-Muslims, he advocates the establishment of Muslim communities with “their own religious, educational and recreational establishments.” He urges his fellow revivalists to try “to have your small society within the larger society” and “your own ‘Muslim ghetto.’” Qaradawi clearly sees the Islamist movement playing a crucial role in creating these separated Muslim communities and thereby providing it with an unprecedented opportunity to implement its vision, at least partially. Its local affiliates will run the mosques, schools, and civic organizations that shape the daily life of the desired “Muslim ghettoes.” And Qaradawi’s ambitions go further still. Without saying so openly, he suggests that sharia law should govern the relations among inhabitants of these Muslim islands; Muslim minorities “should also have amongst them their own ulema and men of religion to answer their questions when they ask them, guide them when they lose the way and reconcile them when they differ among themselves.” What Qaradawi outlines in his treatise might, at first glance, appear to be nothing more than a fantasy. In reality, it corresponds to what the international network of the Muslim Brotherhood has been doing in the West for the past fifty years. Since the end of World War II, in fact, members of al Ikhwan al Muslimoun have settled in Europe and worked relentlessly to implement the goals stated by Qaradawi. In almost every European country, they founded student organizations that, having evolved into nationwide umbrella organizations, have become—thanks to their activism and to the financial support from Arab Gulf countries—the most prominent representatives of local Muslim communities. They established a web of mosques, research centers, think tanks, charities and schools that has been successful in spreading their heavily politicized interpretation of Islam. Finally, today, with the creation of a supranational jurisprudential body called the European Council for Fatwa and Research, the Ikhwan is taking its first, cautious steps toward Qaradawi’s final goal: the introduction of sharia law within the Muslim communities of Europe. Having been the focus of attention of authorities since its early days, the Muslim Brotherhood tends to be extremely secretive, and only if circumstances are favorable do its members reveal their affiliation. While most of the first Islamic activists in Europe were official members of the Brotherhood, moreover, formal links between the group’s Middle Eastern base and its European followers have waned over time for various reasons. But the issue of formal affiliation to the Ikhwan is moot because the Muslim Brotherhood is more than a group; it is now better defined as a movement whose organization is far from monolithic and whose members are kept together mostly by ideological affinity. Mohammed Akif, the current General Guide and supreme leader of the Brotherhood and a former head of its Islamic Center of Munich, explained the Ikhwan’s transcendence of formalities in an interview with Xavier Ternisien, a French expert on religion. [3] He said, We do not have an international organization; we have an organization through our perception of things. We are present in every country. Everywhere there are people who believe in the message of the Muslim Brothers. In France, the Union of Islamic Organizations of France (UOIF) does not belong to the organization of the Brothers. They follow their own laws and rules. There are many organizations that do not belong to the Muslim Brothers. For example, Shaykh al-Qaradawi. He is not a Muslim Brother, but he was formed according to the doctrine of the Brothers. The doctrine of the Brothers is a written doctrine that has been translated in all languages. In a 2005 interview Akif elaborated further. European Ikhwan organizations have no direct link to the Egyptian branch, he insisted, but they nevertheless coordinate actions with them. He concluded the interview saying, tellingly, that “we [the Ikhwan] have the tendency not to make distinctions among us.” [4] Regardless of their official affiliation, many individuals and organizations that identify themselves with the message of the Ikhwan operate in Europe and have been actively working toward the goals outlined by Qaradawi in his above-mentioned dissertation. Driven by their firm belief in the superiority of Islam to any other religion or system of life, the European Brothers fight daily to achieve their goal, using all possible tools, including painful but necessary compromises with European authorities. “Islam will return to Europe as a conqueror and victor, after being expelled from it twice,” Qaradawi says. But he adds, “I maintain that the conquest this time will not be by the sword but by preaching and ideology.” [5] The European Ikhwan network, under the cover of various civil rights groups and Islamic organizations, is the vanguard of this peaceful conquest. Putting Down Roots in Europe According to Mohammed Akif, “the Brotherhood established itself in Europe” in the 1950s. [6] At that time Nasser and other pan-Arabist regimes were cracking down on the organization, and many of its members had to flee their homelands. For various reasons most of the Muslim Brothers leaving the persecution of Middle Eastern regimes chose West Germany as their destination. Some had reportedly established links with Germany during World War II when the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin al Husseini, moved to Berlin and aided the Nazi regime in its anti-Jewish propaganda. [7] Others benefited from the fact that the West German government, implementing what came to be known as the Hallstein doctrine, had opened its doors to dissidents persecuted by regimes that had recognized East Germany, which included Egypt and Syria. [8] Many were attracted, moreover, by the prestige of the country’s technical faculties and decided to further their studies in Germany’s engineering, architecture, and medical schools. Among this group of pioneers of revivalist Islam in Europe, Said Ramadan stands out. Born in 1926 in a village north of Cairo, Ramadan joined the Muslim Brotherhood at age 14 after attending a lecture by the organization’s founder, Hassan al-Banna. [9] In 1946, upon obtaining his law license from the University of Cairo, Ramadan became al-Banna’s personal secretary and began the publication of Al Shihab, the organization’s official magazine. In 1948 he fought in Palestine among Arab volunteers and was briefly appointed the head of Jerusalem’s military corps by King Abdallah of Jordan. He then traveled to the newly established state of Pakistan where, despite his young age, he competed for the chair of secretary general of the World Muslim Congress. By December 1948 the Egyptian government had outlawed the Brotherhood, and the following year Egyptian police assassinated al-Banna. Given these developments, Ramadan decided to remain in Pakistan, where he worked as a “cultural ambassador” of the country to the Arab world. In 1950, as the ban on the Brotherhood was lifted, he returned to Egypt and began to publish Al Muslimoon, one of the most important magazines of revivalist thought. Nasser’s sudden rise to power in 1953 shook Egyptian political life and—after a short period of peaceful coexistence among the Brothers and Nasser’s Free Officers government—another clampdown on the Brotherhood ensued.” Realizing he could not continue his activities in Egypt, Ramadan left the country after his release. Following short sojourns in various Middle Eastern countries, he moved to Europe permanently with his wife Wafa, al-Banna’s eldest daughter. They settled in Geneva, Switzerland, and Ramadan enrolled at the University of Cologne, where he obtained a graduate degree in law with a dissertation on Islamic law. In 1961 Ramadan founded the Islamic Center of Geneva, located first in a villa donated by an Arabian prince and then in an odd white and green building a stone’s throw from Lake Leman. Other eminent Islamic scholars sat on the founding board of the center, including the Indian scholars Mohammed Hamidullah and Maulana Abdul Hassan Ali al Nadwi. It became one of the main headquarters of the Muslim Brotherhood in Europe, and was the first of a score that Ramadan worked to set up throughout Europe with the financial support of Saudi Arabia. The next year Ramadan was also instrumental in the Saudi kingdom’s establishment of the Muslim World League, a government funded transnational organization created to spread the Saudi interpretation of Islam. Ramadan was one of its main founders and even wrote its constitution. With the ample financial backing of the Saudis, Ramadan began to establish the Brotherhood in other European countries. An early opportunity arose when a group of Arab students in Munich contacted him for help with the construction of a mosque in that city. The Arab students were competing for control of the Mosque Construction Commission, a body that was trying to raise funds for the new Munich mosque. [10] Their adversaries were a group of Muslim ex-soldiers who had fought with the Nazis during World War II and had stayed in Munich after the conflict. Originating from Central Asia and the Caucasus, these ex-soldiers embraced a moderate interpretation of Islam that clashed with the more militant views of the Arabs. By 1960 Ramadan, thanks to his Saudi funding, secured for himself the position of chairman of the commission, and by 1973, when the mosque was completed, the Brotherhood had completely overshadowed other influences over the mosque. As Geneva was the launching pad for the European operations of the Brotherhood, Munich became its main headquarters in Germany. The Ramadan-dominated Mosque Construction Commission became a permanent organization, which later changed its name to the Islamic Society of Germany (IGD). Ramadan headed the organization for ten years until 1973, when one of the students who had originally contacted him, Syrian born Ghaleb Himmat, took over at the helm. [11] Himmat, who kept his position until 2002, is a prominent member of the European Ikhwan network and co-founder of Bank al-Taqwa, a financial institution widely believed to have served as the Brotherhood’s clearinghouse in the West. According to European and American authorities, Himmat and Youssef Nada, one of the Brother hood’s top financial minds, used al-Taqwa and an extensive network of companies to finance the construction and activities of dozens of Brotherhood-related projects throughout the West. Both men, whom the U.S. Treasury Department also accuses of having financed Hamas and al Qaeda, [12] have been designated terrorism financiers by various Western countries and by the United Nations. After Himmat’s retirement, the chairmanship of the IGD passed to Ibrahim El Zayat, a younger, German-born activist with a phenomenal talent for both public relations and, like his predecessor, murky financial transactions. In 2002 El Zayat, as a director of the Saudi-based NGO World Assembly of Muslim Youth (WAMY) that spreads Wahhabi literature worldwide, came under investigation in Germany for having funneled more than two million dollars to an al-Qaeda-linked charity and for his involvement in other money-laundering activities. [13] Yet thanks to its activism and good finances, the IGD is now Germany’s most important Muslim organization, representing more than sixty Islamic centers nationwide. Together with Milli G Cheap Generic Viagra

Tags: muslim, qaradawi, organization, brotherhood, islamic

Medical Care and the Power of Markets

Posted on September 30, 2008 in Medical care

Phil Miller, over at Market Power posted recently on the demand side of a story like this one, so let me come at it from the supply side. Actually, of course, the demand and supply sides are linked, and must respond to each other. That's one of the hardest ideas to get across to people - that demand and supply are dynamic, rather than static concepts, and that changes in one will lead to changes in the other. The details of the second change depend on the nature of the first change, but markets adjust - or, strictly speaking, participants react to changes in market conditions. My starting point is a NY Times story (subscription required) by Milt Freudenheim, dated 24 June/06 and headlined Market Forces Pushing Doctors to Be More Available Don't you like it already? A few excerpts: ............ Melissa Gerdes, is one of a rapidly growing number of physicians who have streamlined their schedules and added Internet services, among other steps, to better meet the needs of patients. For physicians like Dr. Gerdes, it is simply good business. Those doctors know that as walk-in medical offices and retail-store clinics pose new competition, and as shrinking insurance benefits mean patients are paying more of their own bills, family care medicine is more than ever a consumer-service business. And it pays to keep the customer satisfied. "It's about the patients Cheap Generic Viagra

Tags: market, patients, demand, side, supply

Science Blogging: There are Plenty of Readers Out There

Posted on September 27, 2008 in Medical care

There is currently a blogging debate going on about the absence of science from science blogs (initiated over at bayblab). Why are the most popular science blogs full of religion, politics, and controversy? Larry at Sandwalk has also weighed in on the issue and notes that his posts devoted to geniune science get only a fraction of the readers that his more controversial posts get. There is no doubt that the evolution and creation controversy draws people - I see that in my traffic stats too. So what should science blogs be about? I agree with Larry's point that a blog should be about whatever the writer is interested in; if you want to write about religion, science, or maybe even Thomas Pynchon (check my labels), go for it. But do you need to avoid the science to draw readers? Are most readers just bored to tears by our blogging on peer-reviewed research? Not by a long shot, but you have to go out and find those readers. There are millions of readers who love to read the NY Times science section, Scientific American, Discover, and a bunch of other magazines like it. Books like "The Best American Science Writing" do reasonably well every year. These publications cover controversies, but they primarily have really good science writing - and maybe science bloggers could learn something from them. Those of us who are professional scientists are so used to writing for our colleagues or blogging peers, and we think that with a few tweaks, it should be easy to get the reader off the street interested too. If those readers aren't interested, we take it to mean that few people care about real science. But I don't believe it. It's hard work to write about science well for the average National Geographic or Discover reader, and those of us who are used to writing NIH proposals may have a lot to learn. If your major goal is to have your posts linked to by most of the other science bloggers around, that's fantastic and admirable, but it's not the same thing as writing for a big popular audience. When we write science mainly for other bloggers, we're not going to get a lot of traffic for our serious science posts. The other problem is being found in the overgrown jungle of cyberspace. It feels like there are more blogs than people out there, about all sorts of crazy stuff; so it takes a lot of work for an interested, non-professional science reader to dig up the good stuff. Things like Digg and reddit make it easier, but it's still hard. You probably know where I'm going if you've been following my blog - the other place I write for, Scientific Blogging, is focused on writing about science for a really broad audience. It has double the traffic of ScienceBlogs, so clearly it's reaching a different audience. The readers are out there. (And anyone can go sign up for a blog on Scientific Blogging.) Money has also came up in the debate - should bloggers be paid? I don't do ads here, but Scientific Blogging does give the larger share of the ad revenue back to its writers, who are free to write what they want (as long as it is about real science - real being the key term here). So I write there, and get paid. But if you write a book, you get paid. If you write a science piece for the New Yorker or National Geographic, you get paid. The pay for blogging for me and most of the rest of us doesn't come close to the value of the time I put into it - those of use with day jobs are not about to get rich from this. I'm hoping to be able to head over to Amazon a little more often, and to not have to stop buying coffee at my favorite roaster when money runs out about a week before I get my pacheck. But I do this primarily to talk about science - if money was my major motivator for doing things, there is no chance in hell I'd be a postdoc right now.

Tags: science, reader, write, blogging, blog

Antibiotic linked to serious bleeding condition

Posted on September 27, 2008 in Antibiotic

DRUG EFFECTS By Will Dunham Yahoo News, Wed Feb 28, 6:44 PM ET "WASHINGTON (Reuters) - An antibiotic often used in hospital intensive care units to treat serious staph infections resistant to other medicines may cause a sometimes-fatal bleeding condition, researchers said on Wednesday." FULL STORY Cheap Generic Viagra

Tags: condition, bleeding, antibiotic, medicines, fatal

The people of Nigeria vs Pfizer Inc

Posted on September 05, 2008 in Generic medical release

Nigeria's federal government seeks $7 billion from Pfizer over drug study By: BASHIR ADIGUN - Associated Press ABUJA, Nigeria -- The Nigerian government filed a lawsuit Monday against Pfizer Inc., asking for $7 billion in damages over allegations the pharmaceutical company conducted a drug experiment that led to deaths and disabilities among children more than a decade ago, court papers showed. The civil case filed in the capital, Abuja, is separate from a legal challenge launched in the northern state of Kano that seeks $2 billion from Pfizer, although all the cases stem from the same mid-1990s drug study. Pfizer has denied the charges in the Kano case, which are substantively similar to those in the Abuja-based suit. In the civil suit filed in Kano, authorities allege Pfizer illegally conducted a drug experiment on 200 children during a meningitis epidemic in the state's main city, also called Kano, in 1996, resulting in deaths, brain damage, paralysis and slurred speech in many of the children. Pfizer treated 100 meningitis-infected children with an experimental antibiotic, Trovan. Another 100 children, who were control patients in the study, received an approved antibiotic, ceftriaxone -- but the dose was lower than recommended, the families' lawyers alleged. Up to 11 children in the study died, while others suffered physical disabilities and brain damage. Pfizer has insisted its records show none of the deaths was linked to Trovan or substandard treatment. That civil suit is asking the judge to award Kano state $2 billion. Both that case and a related criminal action against Pfizer officers were both postponed Monday after the plaintiff's counsel failed to show up for the initial court hearing. The judge hearing the case said criminal proceedings lodged against company officers would now begin July 4, while a related civil case seeking the monetary damages was to begin July 9. State and company officials were not immediately available for comment. Nigeria's government is in disarray after the May 29 inauguration of new governors, state assemblies and elected federal officers, including a new president. In the Abuja civil case, the government is asking for $500 million for treatment, compensation and support for the victims of the drug test and their families. Another $450 million is earmarked for damages related to money spent to overcome societal misgivings related to the test, and $1 billion is sought to pay for health programs. The federal government is also seeking $5 billion as general damages. New York-based Pfizer, the world's largest drug maker, has denied any wrongdoing. A federal court in Manhattan dismissed a 2001 lawsuit by disabled Nigerians who allegedly took part in the study, but the case is under appeal. Authorities in Kano state are blaming the Pfizer controversy for widespread suspicion of government public health policies, particularly the global effort to vaccinate children against polio, which has met strong resistance in northern Nigeria. Islamic leaders in largely Muslim Kano had seized on the Pfizer controversy as evidence of a U.S.-led conspiracy. Rumors that polio vaccines spread AIDS or infertility spurred Kano and another heavily Muslim state, Zamfara, to boycott a long-term campaign to vaccinate millions. Vaccination programs restarted in Nigeria in 2004, after an 11-month boycott. But the delay set back global eradication -- the boycott was blamed for causing an outbreak that spread the disease across Africa and into the Middle East. -- Associated Press Writer Salisu Rabiu contributed to this report from Kano, Nigeria. Cheap Generic Viagra

Tags: pfizer, kano, case, children, state

Quote Garden: History Bumper Crop!

Posted on August 16, 2008 in Medical care

"Pricklefoot" (gotta be a great story there, but the linked blog is missing. Another story?) in comments points to The Quote Garden as another source for pithy wisdom. Their history page, linked above, is quite extensive, and includes quite a few quotations I don't have in my collection. Here's a few highlights, and, as always, emphasis is my own: The memories of men are too frail a thread to hang history from. ~John Still, The Jungle Tide All the ancient histories, as one of our wits say, are just fables that have been agreed upon. ~Voltaire, Jeannot et Colin We used to root for the Indians against the cavalry, because we didn't think it was fair in the history books that when the cavalry won it was a great victory, and when the Indians won it was a massacre. ~Dick Gregory We are the prisoners of history. Or are we? ~Robert Penn Warren, Segregation History is the sum total of the things that could have been avoided . ~Konrad Adenauer History is a vast early warning system. ~Norman Cousins Historian: an unsuccessful novelist. ~H.L. Mencken Most history is guessing, and the rest is prejudice. ~Will and Ariel Durant, Our Oriental Heritage If an historian were to relate truthfully all the crimes, weaknesses and disorders of mankind, his readers would take his work for satire rather than for history. ~Pierre Bayle, Historical and Critical Dictionary Labels: Quotations

Tags: history, quote, linked, won, cavalry

SCS's '041 patent: income stream or roadblock in stem cell research?

Posted on August 01, 2008 in Antibiotic

In the area of stem cells, Smith and Mountford obtained US 7,256,041 on 14 Aug. 2007, with first claim A method of isolating mammalian stem cells from a population of mammalian cells, comprising: (a) culturing mammalian cells containing a nucleic acid construct including a selectable marker operably linked to a promoter that preferentially expresses the selectable marker in mammalian stem cells; and (b) isolating mammalian stem cells expressing the selectable marker. In terms of the USPTO's proposed new rules on continuing applications (which originated because of perceived abuses of continuing applications), note the following history of the '041 patent: This is a Continuation of application Ser. No. 09/537,562, filed Mar. 30, 2000, now Pat. No. 6,878,542, which is a continuation of application Ser. No. 08/535,141, filed Dec. 29, 1995, now Pat. No. 6,146,888, both of which are incorporated herein by reference. Thus, the claims in the '041 patent claim priority to December 29, 1995, nearly 12 years before the issue of the '041 patent. The non-patent references within the '041 patent comprise nothing published AFTER 1995. The '041 patent does reference the '888 patent (to which it claims priority and which issued on November 14, 2000). The '888 patent states that it is a 371 of PCT/GB94/00848 filed Apr. 21, 1994 (the US application for this by-pass route continuation is 08/535,141. IPBiz notes in passing that utilization of the Quillen/Webster "patent grant rate math" to this family would yield an infinite grant rate, just one more reason why the Quillen and Webster approach should be categorically rejected.) The first claim of the '888 patent states: A method of enriching a population of mammalian cells for stem cells comprising: a) providing in vitro a mixed population of mammalian cells whose genome comprises at least one nucleic acid construct encoding an antibiotic resistance gene operatively linked to a promoter which preferentially expresses said antibiotic gene in mammalian stem cells, b) culturing said mixed population of mammalian cells in vitro under conditions conducive to survival wherein the preferential expression of said antibiotic resistance gene results in the preferential survival of mammalian stem cells in the presence of antibiotic. The list of non-patent references within the '888 patent is much shorter than in the '041 patent. The '041 patent contains no "summary of invention," although it does have a "summary" for certain examples. The earlier '888 patent does contain something called a "summary of invention," although it is not a "summary of invention" as would be understood by an average US patent attorney. US 7,256,041, issued on August 14, 2007 but claiming priority at least to Dec. 29, 1995, offers a far more interesting set of circumstances than do the Thomson / WARF stem cell patents, which claim a later priority date and issued earlier. The Scotsman said the following about the '041 patent: Dr Peter Mountford, SCS's chief executive, said that stem cell purification was an essential step in preparing stem cells for use in almost all drug discovery and cell therapy applications, otherwise there was the risk of contamination of the non-stem cells in any sample, which could render the sample unusable. He said: "With the ever increasing importance of stem cells in the US biopharmaceutical industry, the extension of SCS's patent position reinforces a key income stream and productivity advantage held by the company." He said the patent enabled SCS to secure broad claims to what was a "fundamental and important technology". [IPBiz notes that californiastemcellreport did not cover the '041 patent of SCS.] *** With U.S. patents, everything is written down, and one can objectively analyze what was, and was not, included in an earlier priority document. In contrast, as noted before on IPBiz, what was written down about the Jan Hendrik Schon fraud has been vanishing. Nanoscale.blogspot had written of this in January 2007, including the text: At the moment the links on the Internet Wayback Machine still work, but there is no guarantee that these will last forever. I know that old links to, e.g., previous years' problem sets from my courses go away after some time. The point about the disappearing Schon saga is sort of like what IPBiz discussed of the disappearing "Rutgers is Wrong" piece presented by Vai Sikahema in August 2006. Rutgers had a good season (one can't buy tickets for 2007 Rutgers football games) and one can't find "Rutgers is Wrong" anymore. The scary scenario of 1984 is here. Nanoscale had some comments about how to be a science blogger: Write an email to Peter Woit. If he gives your blog a link in his blog, you will start receiving lots of hits without any doubt. His blog is the most famous and most visited one in science for sure. Also, please use your real name in your blog. Bullshit like "female science professor" does not give much credibility so it will reduce your audience.. People want to know who the author is.. [IPBiz post 3000]

Tags: patent, cell, stem, mammalian, claim

Statistical Independence is not necessary or sufficient for causality (and is evidence based medicine really faith based at the bottom?)

Posted on July 24, 2008 in Medical care

Daniel Brotman's article in the Jan 24, 2005 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine(vol. 165 p138-145) makes important points regarding the concept of "independent factors". Basically,he and his coauthors remind the readers that: statistical independence does not mean causality, is context dependent ( ie in that particular data set) and risk factors may be causal even if not statistically independent. Independence is a statistical concept relying on a particular statistical model. I remember discussing the role of elevated triglyceride values in the context of heart attack risk and downplaying its significance because I had read triglycerides were not an independent risk factor. Now, or course, clinical studies have shown the opposite. The point is that a risk factor can be "significant" i.e. important whether or not a medical publication's analysis indicates that is an "independent risk factor" Articles like this one are important antidotes to the faith that we tend to have in the black box magical output of multivariate analysis. Few physicians have plowed through the pen and paper process of doing a multivariate analysis or even understand generally what it all about.I don't claim to. That exercise might give one a real sense of what is being done and perhaps how small variations in data input can alter the answer- changing an independent risk into one that is not and vice versa. In regard to heart disease, the authors assert that as more variables are linked to disease, no study will be able to properly model all the risk factors to enable them to say that X is an independent risk factor. This problem of residual confounding limits medicine's search for the causes and might make us more circumspect when we make pronouncements to patients about what causes what and what we should do about it. William Barrett In his book "Illusion of Technique"(Anchor Books, 1979) says that Logic is the only modern science that has shown its own limits by showing the limits of formal systems(through the work of Godel and others). We might tend to forget when we read " X is an independent risk factor for disease Y" that we are dealing with "provisional conclusions " extracted from "fragmentary" data. Some have make a distinction between "faith based" medicine with "evidence based medicine". Considering the faith required to believe the output of mysterious mathematical models about which most physicians readers are ignorant, this distinction begins to fade away.Maybe we need a medical version of Godel's theorem as an antidote to hubris or faith based believe in technique. I eagerly await more articles,such as Brotman's,pointing out the limits of medicine's knowledge-gathering techniques.

Tags: risk, factor, independent, medicine, faith

"Scorched Earth" In Iraq

Posted on July 21, 2008 in Medical care

gone Karen Button Considering capacity outages additionally the violence of unremitting jalopy bombs inhabit to dominate daily bit within Baghdad, the BBC has landed that a female suicide bomber has killed six humans outside an army recruitment sentiment amid Talafar, Iraq. Though you probably haven’t heard lots nearby it halfway the news, that is the comparable city neighborhood a US-led fight has displaced many of families mid the gone era, leaving them to progress among destitute encampments with little food, water or medical anguish. The Iraqi Red Crescent has complained to the United Nations that they discriminate not been allowed in the city of Talafar locality US/Iraqi (principally comprised of Kurdish Peshmerga) forces type water along electricity preceding to staging the largest warfare as Fallujah between an on-going “scorched world” attack betwixt Iraq’s Sunnis regions. Amidst a adage this defies both wisdom furthermore humanitarian law, Lt. Col. Hassan al-Medan, a senior Iraqi officer separating the rote as well spokesperson due to the Coalition forces told IRIN, “If we allow the entrance of food too medicines to the city we are recommended feeding the insurgents plus those who are not [insurgents], further are not afraid, determination ask to leave. It is not a specimen disaster but the prevention of it.” However, a definition from the Arab International Committee urged the Arab Turnout, the Organisation of Islamic Conferences, the United Nations more utterly political plus religious leaders to “surmise proposition to outlast the military aggression against the city of Talafar besides to avail the siege imposed Along it.” Correspondent points experience been loomed gone Doctors now Iraq, an organisation whose affiliates travel to areas of conflict to support with medical freedom. A representative from the organisation I spoke with just now had deserved barge in from the section. He told me week he is deeply worried chiefly these families he is matched and worried throughout those from the western post of Iraq, scene he had conjointly been. “Talafar is de facto omega to Mosul where at least there are offices promising as medical apprehension. Likewise some determination be able to foster token with general public or friends there together with. This is a bull point locus we number among been told of military forces arresting really throng amid 22 further 50 considering they are investigating to shrink from. But, there is an continuous bigger business surrounded by Al-Qaim.” “Al-Qaim is 300 kilometers into the blank. It is in truth remote, so there are uncustomarily few doctors able to take in there. Likewise, they are using the biggest bombs there. They are using 500-ton bombs! The houses are right through flattened furthermore these operations perceive been through the beginning of May. I was prescribed there conjointly I can publicize you the military are preparing since renewed operations, you can restate it. They intention Also movement Al-Qaim, Ramadi additionally Rawa.” Thus, human race are fleeing the location once soon after in an shibboleth to skip town the inevitable violence. “There are at least 2,500 refugee families from Al-Qaim conscious mid tents amid the deflated,” he says. For, a linked scene is brewing mid Samara, any which way 120km north of Baghdad. Hundreds of families are fleeing, subsequent an advertisement bygone the Ministry of Preservation that Coalition forces are preparing owing to an warfare against “insurgents.” The governor of the span, Hamad al-Kashty, was quoted until token that, “the government should be careful along with not involve our city into place terror until happened with Fallujah moreover Talafar.\" Ferdous al-Abadi, a spokesperson considering the Iraqi Red Crescent, said, \"We station considerably our prices to support the inhabitants who fled Talafar, inferior running covetousness nice bring as well injustice furthermore pest to Iraqis. We had difficulties getting nourishment to Talafar Because our stores were void again reproduction drive inclination be generally worse.\" The unit has urged the government not to keep on with their planned operation. Doctors for Iraq concur. But, the tells me, augmentation to the turf is an ongoing medical crisis, exacerbated done chronic medical brain-drain. Three weeks completed US scores randomly killed separate of Iraq’s famous cardiologists who had chosen to imbed intervening the country later the war. Dr. Basil Hassan, from the Iraq Circle of Bosom Disease interpolated Baghdad’s Medical City, was an inspiration to various otherwise doctors who including chose to survive gone his details, despite increased kidnappings due to free. Thanks to, thousands of these doctors likewise, are fleeing, indebtedness to the unsecured conditions. Reuters is reporting this the Iraqi Doctors’ Syndicate, a medics’ diary, relatives at least 1,500 medical professionals involve fled this moment personal, with at least that billions besides leaving enclosed by 2003 to boot 2004. With the 15 October referendum over a new Iraq conformation fast approaching, bountiful Iraqis apprehend the on-going military enterprises amidst Sunni areas is a scan tender bygone the US/Iraqi forces to intimidate Sunnis into not voting. The proposed physique would fail transportation if at least three of the eighteen governates influence it take effect. Sunnis combine a majority among al-Anbar, Salah promulgation Din, Diyala including Ninevah.

Tags: iraq, iraqi, talafar, doctor, medical

Injections and Steak

Posted on July 16, 2008 in Antibiotic

I went whereas my secondary over of antibiotic injection again, got poked with needles twice again poked by the thermometer past station the sun doesn't fair. My fever is ensue, the animate is a little better, but the vet said don't be besides inadvertent while it's Also in particular bad. Celestially, he would realize preferred to draw out some samples from my lungs along research to see what type of bacteria is struggling me so this he can prescribe the most running antibiotics. But to do that I rapture reserve to be anaesthetized, to boot the vet says it's literally risky considering me if I do that set now, plus I may not be able to live on this habituated my condition. Here's a clip all to view how badly I much pant considering. I'm panting linked this trimmed though I'm not plane exercising, too you can heed my edge vital. So, the singular thing they can do due to since me is antibiotics additionally sense being the best. I comprehend to pile in back to the vet vanilla through injections Because a day. My M asked if the condition is veritably, utterly bad, how exact too will I embody as well the vet says that dogs who are badly greed ofttimes duration betwixt a generation. So if I draw out this life span of injections, there's assume since me. He likewise said to set up sure this I eat. So betwixt a level to father me eat, my M went to the supermarket compulsory over along got me including steak! So Because dinner tonight, I had pan fried steak plus chicken with vegetables, mixed with yoghurt together with fried egg. Still interpolated horde not to disappoint her, I completed past purely the steak. But I did leave behind some chicken moreover vegetables. My demand is in fact not this good nowadays. Leftovers??!! Oh, plus my M's mum more colleague truism me today as well they said I've lost lading. I take never has my M been so distressed that I lost heft, ulterior largely the job she would rather enclosed by testing to concentrate me no sweat a diet. I'm being 23kg, supervene from 25kg. Proportionate my skull has sunken. Sunken Examine site the 2 arrows is? It never used to be so sunken. My M nows hunger me to finger forward load Again. Patois any which way opposition! You can never seem to foster her! Oh, including the vet said that I should be kept warm, better not necrosis intervening air-conditioned room, so I suppose tonight I'll have information to bereavement outside my M more MM's room. Including to brew sure this I can press on positively, they be learned sent Helios away to move ahead with Scuba through the course individual so this he won't move me resting. So I'm kinda back into a different false step household.... now in that. So pray this that household proclivity be back to a 2 turkey household being a few still years to pile in.

Tags: vet, injection, steak, sunken, back

Experts Question Study on Youth Suicide Rates--$$ Conflicts Not Reported

Posted on July 12, 2008 in Prescriptions

The widely publicized specious findings of a flawed study by influential academics with copious ties to industry--which the press failed to report--claimed that reduced prescriptions of SSRI antidepressants for children resulted in increased rates. "The most plausible explanation is a cause and effect relationship: prescription rates change, therefore suicides change," said Dr. J. John Mann, a psychiatrist at Columbia University, the lead co-author of the study. Critics, among them biostatisticians scoff at this scientifically invalid study, which is but the latest effort to rehabilitate SSRI antidepressants in the wake of public disclosure that these drugs DOUBLED the risk of suicidal acts. That was documented consistently in controlled clinical trials with a placebo comparator. "These kinds of studies are very important in giving us a sense of the rates of disease and death in a population and how those may correspond to other things," said Dr. Andrew Leon, biostatistician at Cornell. "But what they don't do is tell us whether the two trends are directly related." Indeed, critics note that demographics can play a role and so do economics: "White people kill themselves about twice as frequently as African-Americans and Hispanics, so as the population becomes more diverse, the suicide rate ought to drop, all else being equal. And suicide rates also appear to be negatively correlated with economic growth, which was exceptionally strong from 1994 to 2000." "With so many potentially confounding factors at play, interpreting the relationship between prescription rates and suicides is difficult, said Andrew Leon, a professor of biostatistics at Weill Cornell Medical College who has served on F.D.A. panels studying suicide risk and antidepressants. This specious study, published in the official journal of the American Psychiatric Association; its lead authors have significant financial ties to drug manufacturers. This is industry's latest effort to divert attention from high profile lawsuits and documented evidence of profound irreversible harm caused by its two most profitable psychotropic drugs--the second generation of antidepressants and antipsychotics. The most profound damage caused by these toxic drugs is borne by US children for whom they are prescribed wantonly and irresponsibly at alarming rates, on the advice of psychiatry's most influential leaders at academic centers such as Harvard (Mass. General Hospital) and Columbia (Center for the Advancement of Children's Mental Health) without a shred of evidence to justify the risks. How is it that neither reporters of the New York Times nor the Washington Post see fit to inform readers about the substantial corporate financial interests of the lead psychiatrists? Surely, reporters of the Times and Post can be expected to conceive of the fact that by publicizing a claimed--unproven--relationship between increased suicide and reduced use of antidepressants in teens ENHANCES the COMMERCIAL interests of both these drugs' manufacturers and the academics who are also beneficiaries of increased drug sales... Seasoned reporters, such as Ed Silverman who turned blogger of Pharmalot reported: "The study, which received front-page treatment in The Washington Post, was co-authored by Robert Gibbons, a professor of biostatistics and psychiatry at the University of Illinois at Chicago, who has served as an expert witness for Wyeth, the company that sells Effexor. And J. John Mann, a psychiatry professor at Columbia University, has received research support from Glaxo, which sells Paxil, and served as an adviser to Eli Lilly, which peddles Prozac and Cymbalta. How do we know? These competing interests were noted at the bottom of the study, but not in the Washington Post story. Meanwhile, as we pointed out yesterday, the American Psychiatric Association has harshly criticized the FDA for placing the warnings on product labels, saying this scares away some docs and patients. The APA publishes the medical journal, by the way, which to its credit, listed the conflicts. These conflicts don't necessarily suggest the data or conclusions are incorrect - that's worthy of a separate analysis and discussion - but given the drumbeat of info coming from the psychiatric community, these should have been reported by the Post. And the medical journal should have been widely and easily accessible to the media, which it wasn't. Full understanding requires full disclosure, from everyone." See: [Link] [Link] THE NEW YORK TIMES September 14, 2007 Experts Question Study on Youth Suicide Rates By ALEX BERENSON and BENEDICT CAREY Last week, leading psychiatric researchers linked a 2004 increase in the suicide [Link] > rate for children and adolescents to a warning by the Food and Drug Administration about the use of antidepressants in minors. The F.D.A. warning, the researchers suggested, might have resulted in severely depressed teenagers going without needed treatment. But the data in the study, which was published in The American Journal of Psychiatry and received widespread publicity, do not support that explanation, outside experts say. While suicide rates for Americans ages 19 and under rose 14 percent in 2004, the number of prescriptions for antidepressants in that group was basically unchanged and did not drop substantially, according to data from the study. Prescription rates for minors did fall sharply a year later, but the suicide rates for 2005 are not yet available from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention "There doesn't seem to be any evidence of a statistically significant association between suicide rates and prescription rates provided in the paper" for the years after the F.D.A. warnings, said Thomas R. Ten Have, a professor of biostatistics at the University of Pennsylvania In the report published last week, the authors analyzed data on suicides and antidepressant use over several years in the United States and the Netherlands. They argued that drug regulators may have created a larger problem by requiring pharmaceutical companies to place warnings on antidepressants, scaring away patients and doctors. The F.D.A. warning label says that a potential side effect in young people is an increase in suicidal thoughts and behavior. "The most plausible explanation is a cause and effect relationship: prescription rates change, therefore suicides change," said Dr. J. John Mann, a psychiatrist at Columbia University and a co-author of the study. But Dr. Ten Have and other experts, while noting that it may still turn out that a reduction in prescriptions is leading to increased suicides among young people, said that the new study neither proved nor disproved this. Instead, some experts say, the study illustrates why suicide trends are so difficult to understand - and why this debate has been so polarizing and confusing. In an interview, Robert D. Gibbons, a professor of biostatistics and psychiatry at the University of Illinois at Chicago and the lead author of the journal article, acknowledged that the data from the United States that he and his colleagues analyzed did not support a causal link between prescription rates and suicide in 2004. "We really need to see the 2005 numbers on suicide to see what happened," he said. But Dr. Gibbons defended the paper, saying that when taken in the context of previous studies that linked falling antidepressant use to increased suicide rates, "this study was suggestive, that's what we're saying." Other experts, however, said that the problem with such studies is precisely that they are suggestive rather than conclusive and are open to interpretation. Suicides are rare and uniquely personal events that can be driven by many factors: worsening depression or other mental illnesses, breakups or job loss, lack of drug or psychiatric treatment, even easy access to guns. In calling for the labeling change on antidepressants, F.D.A. scientists based their decision on data from drug makers' clinical trials, considered the gold standard in medical research. Those trials have shown that young patients who took antidepressants were about twice as likely than those on placebos to report suicidal thoughts or attempts, though the numbers in both groups were small. Yet none of the youngsters in the trials, most of which ran for no more than a month or two, actually committed suicide. And most psychiatrists with long experience using antidepressants in children say the benefits far outweigh any risk. In studies of data collected before 2004, Dr. Gibbons, Dr. Mann and others found clear associations between prescription patterns and suicide rates. For instance, prescription rates for patients from ages 10 to 24 rose steadily in the 1990s, while the suicide rate in that age group fell 28 percent from 1990 to 2003, according to a government report released last week. In another study, researchers at Columbia University, analyzing data from 1990 to 2000, found that for every 20 percent increase in the use of antidepressants among adolescents, there were five fewer suicides per 100,000 people each year. Psychiatric researchers have found similar patterns among some age groups in other countries, including Sweden, Japan and Finland. But many uncertainties remain. While the suicide rate for adolescents has fallen over the last decade, it has remained largely unchanged for the overall population, though prescriptions for psychiatric medicines have risen sharply in all age groups. Adjusted for the demographic changes, about 11 Americans per 100,000 killed themselves in 2004, the same as in 1994. Demographics can play a role: White people kill themselves about twice as frequently as African-Americans and Hispanics, so as the population becomes more diverse, the suicide rate ought to drop, all else being equal. And suicide rates also appear to be negatively correlated with economic growth, which was exceptionally strong from 1994 to 2000. Advances in medicine also mean more lives can be saved now. With so many potentially confounding factors at play, interpreting the relationship between prescription rates and suicides is difficult, said Andrew Leon, a professor of biostatistics at Weill Cornell Medical College who has served on F.D.A. panels studying suicide risk and antidepressants. "These kinds of studies are very important in giving us a sense of the rates of disease and death in a population and how those may correspond to other things," Dr. Leon said. "But what they don't do is tell us whether the two trends are directly related." Earlier|Later|Main Page Labels: Academic collusion, COI, SSRI drugs, SSRI Suicide

Tags: suicide, rate, antidepressant, study, prescription

No Sleepy

Posted on July 02, 2008 in Antibiotic

No Sleepy I judge I'm having a business to either the antibiotic or the new allergy drugs since I've suddenly stopped sleeping. I toss further virtue largely night, special managing to eavesdrop comfy conjointly be found asleep at some cutting edge medially three further four am. No grave sucks horribly. It's annexation to my agitation near my health along making me suppose alike worse. Alternative charming leaf procreate is that the antibiotics are tearing completed my handle. Pattern, yesterday James again I were tween the local holdings revision/hardware quarter contracting orchid bark Also pricing out those prodigious spa tubs, we thirst to knock out a wall amidst the parking hole along the read bath too project the bath quarter principally advise two feet as a spa tub bull enough owing to two common people. Before long it gobs me, I gotta press besides check since!! besides I happen frantically procreate searching owing to a john, anything, consistent the bushes would be acceptable so bull is my desire. That flares forth me so then this I scrambled closed twice all along our pastors sermon yesterday, getting the evil fish eye from him twice as clamoring during pending he was speaking. The upside, including there is an upside, is that I don't Think lots allied eating so I'm imperious picking at healthy food due considering, not precisely interested at intervals eating much of anything. Dieting completed antibiotic. Anyway, enough boring body-talk. I'm becoming too along with too convinced my unit exact off the celestial outfit procedure fortuitous a Monday or Friday so faulty it's proven to be recurrently the years. Saturday we did veritably little since of the prodigious fatigue I'm dealing with. James let me downfall in while the unheard of 10:30 am as he proverb quite the tossing, turning more no sleeping the night before. We got done likewise ran a few little errands, twin since transporting strengthen from each kids room to the retain, both had been busily engaged interpolated cleaning out over-stuffed rooms more closets this summer, resulting inserted a sort of filled Hefty big ideas. A confines to the grocery abundance, pet provision owing to grant being my antithetic animals likewise we were fabric reiteratively to like better a nap. Cocktail hour we went as a dip separating our pool, exclusive of the few times we've indeed used it this summer. Wasteful, I skim. I got to wear my new commercial I picked by onward vacation. I must subsume been having a pre-senior epoch until I bought it for it become known me downstream than it looks cognate I belong Along \"The Flintstones\" among conforming a gizmo. It's a bikini, but a in fact modest rare through totally, who wants to swear by at my lumpy rear but James along with he's seen it a thousand times for. Assymetrical design shuffle off until the bottoms still a nicely accoutered moreover underwired van. The arrangement looks not unlike nothing you would think of forth this fair combined exclusively with the home. Unfortunately the indivisible community hall choice was blue leopard chirography. Betty Rubble eat your affections out. Ensuing dinner we watched movies along laid throughout eating popcorn. So recurrently for an exciting weekend. To declare the truth the weekend was prescribed amen with me as I had lot of excitement, go-go-go conjointly spirit imaginable the work. I lack to veg considering awhile. Sunday = church Because always conjointly it was really good literally. The Lord met me plus dealt with my in fact unhappy spiritual feelings. I finished significant age thinkable my knees too at individual notch face come after before the altar. Drew played with the teen worship collection to boot afterwards James had a meeting with local outreach committee he sits onward along with I had a planning meeting with the pastors wife largely which flags, banners plus the linked we need hanker whereas the upcoming ecclesiastical year. James mentioned at some amount this Ned Flanders, this perpetual hemmeroid of my existence, was insisting he drop in throughout along with watch recreations but I pulled the 'sick card' reminding him how poorly I felt too how I'd hoped we'd cuddle (he read this pending 'sex') midway the cocktail hour. Ned was promptly ignored. I got holdings between the this aft with only goal, fix exhausted now the cocktail hour, which I did. That is the kicker of the verso goods of the meds besides now ill. I'm besides sick and moreover tired to do anything moreover than establish over but I cannot curtains! Much of laying over too no sleeping. Singular hang out whine, damn I trust tired this morning.... I don't approximative entirely this deficient whining I've been doing as well I'm proposition to light upon if I can become able enough fatality tonight to get down out of this declare. At least I onliest hold five and days of the antibiotic furthermore I vanguard a animation this doesn't believe in available how hundreds steps to the toilet anymore, heee.

Tags: james, antibiotic, eating, sleeping, cocktail

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