The Medical Freedom Channel

“As diabetes is rapidly becoming one of the world’s most common diseases, its financial cost is mounting, too, to well over $200 billion a year in the U.S. alone, according to a new study. The study, released Tuesday, puts the total at $218 billion last year — the first comprehensive estimate of the financial toll diabetes takes, according to Danish drugmaker Novo Nordisk A/S, which paid for the study. That figure includes direct medical care costs, from insulin and pills for controlling patients’ blood sugar to amputations and hospitalizations, plus indirect costs such as lost productivity, disability and early retirement. The $218 billion amounts to about 10 percent of all U.S. healthcare spending by government and the public, about $2.1 trillion in 2006, and nearly half the $448.5 billion cost of heart disease and stroke.” (11/19/08)

http://tinyurl.com/5nburr

“True or false? Last year’s flu vaccine was a complete failure. False. The truth is, last year’s flu shot was 44 percent effective in preventing the flu in the general population and about 54 percent effective in preventing the flu in healthy people, according to Dr. Anthony Fiore, a medical epidemiologist with the Influenza Division of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. … There are few who would disagree with Fiore’s assessment of the flu shot. Influenza and its related complications hospitalize about 200,000 people and kill some 36,000 people each year in the U.S.” [editor’s note: And for some of us, just taking our vitamins, and noticing when “the season” is around us … works just as well or better — with no other “side-effects” - SAT] (11/19/08)

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,454926,00.html

“Leaders of some large academic medical centers and community hospitals called for Governor Deval Patrick to examine how Massachusetts General Hospital, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Children’s Hospital, and a few other institutions are able to obtain higher prices from health insurers even though there is, especially for the most common procedures, often no demonstrated difference in the quality of the care delivered by those hospitals. Hospital executives and state officials say the practice of insurers paying substantially higher fees to a handful of powerful Boston medical centers is imperiling some rival hospitals and distorting the greater Boston healthcare market.” (11/20/08)

http://tinyurl.com/56y7dr

“Two Dartmouth researchers call for greater scrutiny of the relationship between medical journalists and the health care industries they cover. Their study was published online today, Nov. 19, in the British Medical Journal, or BMJ. The BMJ paper outlines three areas where journalists might become entangled in conflict-of-interest issues: 1.) during educational activities that may be drug company sponsored, 2.) when accepting sponsored awards, or 3.) in the day-to-day practice of reporting the news by relying too heavily on industry supplied sources. ‘The media play a role as society’s watchdogs,’ says Steven Woloshin, an author on the paper and an associate professor of medicine and of community and family medicine at Dartmouth Medical School (DMS). ‘Good medical journalism can expose links between doctors and rewards from pharmaceutical companies. But who’s looking to see whether the journalists are being influenced?’” (11/19/08)

http://tinyurl.com/5e3fmw

“Doctors saved the life of a British toddler by using medical super glue to plug tiny holes in her brain, London’s Daily Mail reported. Ella-Grace Honeyman, 17 months, has vein of Galen malformation, which results in abnormal communications between the arteries and the veins in the blood vessels, according to veinofgalen.co.uk, a Web site promoting awareness of the disease. The vein of Galen malformations lack capillaries, so the blood flows too quickly through the holes, which causes an aneurysm, the Web site said. Patients can end up with congestive heart failure, be developmentally delayed and have hydrocephalus or seizures. Surgeons at St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital in New York inserted a hollow tube containing the super glue through Ella-Grace’s groin, letting it reach her brain.” (11/20/08)

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,455304,00.html

“Maggots, the larval stage of certain flies, are already a federally approved treatment for people with nasty bed sores, chronic post-surgical wounds and diabetic foot ulcers. Now, maggot therapy has received a boost from the medical establishment that could make it easier for patients and doctors to get insurance reimbursement for this treatment. … Today, specially prepared maggots, typically of the green bottle fly, are used to ‘debride’ wounds, feeding on sick tissue so healthy cells can move in and further infection is avoided. Maggot therapy was common in the United States in the 1930s but was replaced by antibiotics in the following decade or so. Now, with the emergence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria including MRSA or methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, maggot therapy is getting a second look.” (11/19/08)

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27808424/

“Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) and state Department of Health and Hospitals Secretary Alan Levine on Friday announced details of the Louisiana Health First initiative, a pilot program aimed at restructuring the state’s Medicaid program by shifting thousands of low-income children and adults from the current fee-for-service model to private managed care networks, the Baton Rouge Advocate reports. The proposed plan, outlined in a 65-page concept paper, is designed to cut costs and improve the health outcomes for Medicaid beneficiaries, but details of how it will be financed remain unclear, the New Orleans Times-Picayune reports. The plan also must be approved by the state Legislature and federal government before it is implemented.” [editor’s note: We hope this won’t just be another copy of Tenncare’s mistakes … but we ain’t exactly holding our breaths - SAT] (11/19/08)

http://tinyurl.com/63b797

“Another notable name is joining Barack Obama’s Cabinet — former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle will be Health and Human Services secretary pending Senate confirmation, FOX News learned Wednesday. Daschle accepted the offer, according to two Democratic sources close to Daschle and with intimate knowledge of the decision. Daschle had been a longtime adviser on Obama’s campaign and served as a frequent surrogate on the campaign trail and in media interviews. The appointment has not been announced, but these officials said the job is Daschle’s, barring an unforeseen problem as Obama’s team reviews the background of the South Dakota Democrat.” (11/19/08)

http://tinyurl.com/62oe9k

“A growing body of research is erasing any doubt that eating is as much about our brains as our stomachs. Consider, for example, a study published this summer that found that ghrelin, a hormone released when your stomach is empty and growling, may help stave off depression. Researchers found that underfed mice with higher levels of the hormone showed fewer signs of depression and anxiety than well-fed counterparts, swimming longer when plunged into water and seeming more adventurous in a maze. A paper published last month in the journal Science suggests some people may overeat because their brains simply don’t get as much pleasure out of food — a chocolate milkshake, to be specific — so they keep eating in an attempt to feel satisfied. And a study published last week in the Journal of Neuroscience found that when a mother rat ate a fatty diet, her babies’ brains were wired with neurons that produce molecules that stimulate their appetite.” (11/19/08)

http://tinyurl.com/55mech

“The Mushroom Council is dedicated to funding research with the goal of improving the treatment for and curing breast and prostate cancer. The Council is contributing to the $560,000 committed for a 3-year human clinical study on breast cancer as well as prostate cancer research. Researchers at the City of Hope, a National Cancer Institute-designated cancer center, are investigating the effects of mushroom extract in post-menopausal women, after preliminary research showed that mushroom extract slows breast cancer growth in mice.” (11/19/08)

http://tinyurl.com/5fof6a