Health and Disability

http://goo.gl/jHrsHd 

The Saint Louis team, led by Susan Farr, PhD, a professor of geriatrics at the university, developed a compound called antisense oligonucleotide (OL-1). When tested on mouse models with Alzheimer's disease, they found the compound reversed classic symptoms of the disease - brain inflammationand learning and memory deficits.

This is the latest in a line of studies to look into potential treatments for Alzheimer's. Medical News Todayrecently reported on a study published in Nature Chemical Biology, which suggested that a novel class of compounds called "pharmacologic chaperones" could significantly reduce amyloid-beta levels in Alzheimer's patients.

Recent research from Ohio State University found that caring for horses may ease symptoms of Alzheimer's, while a study from the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, MO, and the University of Pennsylvania suggested that Alzheimer's onset could be slowed with a commonly prescribed antidepressant.

http://goo.gl/MSZZFD

Smoking during pregnancy poses numerous dangers. Nicotine and other toxins can harm a fetus’s lungs, cause other lasting health problems or trigger preterm birth. Yet some 11 percent of pregnant US women still smoke during the final trimester. 

http://goo.gl/MGGwhh

Four common chronic pain conditions share a genetic element, suggesting they could - at least in part - be inherited diseases, say UK researchers.

The four include irritable bowel syndrome, musculo-skeletal pain, pelvic pain and dry eye disease.

The study of more than 8,000 sets of twins found the ailments were common in identical pairs sharing the same DNA.

One of the important causes of medical treatment induced poverty.....

http://goo.gl/dCXV8A

A study just published in JAMA Pediatrics looked at how children with asthma obtained care under different levels of cost-sharing, and how much stress their families were under financially because of their child’s illness. It’s important to understand that children with asthma, by definition, require care.

What we see from this study is that families with higher levels of cost-sharing were significantly more likely to delay or avoid going to the office or emergency room for their child’s asthma. They were more likely to have to borrow or cut back on necessities to afford care. They were more likely to avoid care.

This isn’t a good outcome. We’re talking about children with a completely manageable chronic condition who are being hampered by cost-sharing. That’s not what cost-sharing is supposed to do.

http://goo.gl/SlfKON

An estimated 50% of all women will experience a urinary tract infection at some point in their lives, and 20-40% of these women will have recurring infections, putting them at risk for kidney and bloodstream infections. But now, new research suggests over-the-counter painkillers could help prevent such infections from occurring.

They found that, by inhibiting an immune protein that causes inflammation - called COX-2 - they were able to eliminate repeat urinary tract infections in mice. The team explains that COX-2 can be blocked by non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), which includes ibuprofen.

http://goo.gl/cpRjcE

Still, there was that one patient everyone seemed to avoid, a man in his 20s with back pain. I watched as the medical student picked up his chart, then placed it back on the rack. Nurses, too, weren't going to his room. Finally, I assigned a team to care for him.

"We drew the short straw here," I overheard the nurse say.

The resident sighed. "I already ordered labs and an X-ray. It's going to take too long to examine him, so let's just get this started."

What was different about this patient? Was it a dangerous, contagious disease? A mental health problem marked by a violent streak? A history of weekly drunken visits to the ER?

No. All he had was a wheelchair.

He had been in a car accident five years before and was paralyzed from the waist down. He told me that he was used to waiting, to being the patient that providers avoided. His back pain was from a kidney infection, and it turned out that all he needed was an antibiotic.

All institutions are the same....

http://goo.gl/E2h2Jm

“I started to get picked on every day. People wanted to fight me. … Someone was spreading rumors around about me that I would fight anybody, which was untrue. I never said nothing,” he said. “I was an outcast among outcasts.”

His darkest day came when he learned an ulcer had formed inside his throat and that death would be knocking on his doorstep.

“They told me, ‘Write a letter to your mother, and get ready because you’re going to die. You only have a couple weeks to live,’” he said. “I wasn’t afraid. I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t tell my mother. Every time I wrote to my mother I said I was OK.

5 years isn't long enough?

http://goo.gl/ybSz3X

August 13, 2013 – the date that all LTC facilities were required to have fully automated sprinkler systems – came and went with many facilities unable to meet the deadline. On November 15, CMS issued a memo where the agency maintained its position that it could not grant extensions and that enforcement actions would be taken. Well, in a final rule issued in Monday’s Federal Register, it was noted that LTC facilities are now able to apply for a deadline extension, not to exceed 2 years, if certain circumstances are met.

http://goo.gl/3H6FPt

You don’t really need another reason to get the shingles vaccine, for yourself (if you’re over 60) or your older relatives. A painful rash, possible damage to vision and a substantial risk of the condition called postherpetic neuralgia, which can hurt for a long time — aren’t those enough?

But here’s another reason anyway, courtesy of a British research team: In the six months after a case of shingles, more formally known as herpes zoster, you may face a much higher risk of having a stroke.

The researchers’ study, just published in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases, showed that in the four weeks after a shingles diagnosis, these individuals had a 63 percent higher rate of stroke than at other times. From weeks five through 12, their stroke risk ran 42 percent higher, falling to 23 percent higher in weeks 13 through 26.

http://goo.gl/fIql6v

According to a just released report, “Adverse Events in Skilled Nursing Facilities: National Incidence Among Medicare Beneficiaries”, conducted by the inspector general of the Department of Health and Human Services one of every three patients in skilled nursing facilities suffered a medication error, infection or some other type of harm related to their treatment. The purpose of skilled nursing facilities is to provide specialized care and rehabilitation services to patients following a hospital stay of three or more days.