Health and Disability

This is an old idea (I ran across it in the 70's), but this study shows a cellular basis for the idea.

http://goo.gl/j6twvZ

That is the conclusion of a study appearing today in the journalProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

"It is clear that, over time, copper's cumulative effect is to impair the systems by which amyloid beta is removed from the brain," said Rashid Deane, Ph.D., a research professor in the University of Rochester Medical Center (URMC) Department of Neurosurgery, member of the Center for Translational Neuromedicine, and the lead author of the study. "This impairment is one of the key factors that cause the protein to accumulate in the brain and form the plaques that are the hallmark of Alzheimer's disease."

A useful summary of basic principles of pain medication prescription and management

http://goo.gl/nDmv2o

“It’s a major health care problem,” said Raymond Hobbs, M.D., a Henry Ford Internal Medicine physician, and senior author of the clinical review published in the Journal of American Osteopathic Association. “We have physicians who have been well trained and have been practicing medicine a long time, but didn’t receive training in pain management.”

While acute pain results from an injury or is otherwise temporary and is resolved within three-to-six months, chronic pain persists for much longer. Chronic pain is often long-term and even lifelong. Chronic pain is also not always consistent with an injury, and for that reason can be a challenge to the doctor treating the patient.

“Pain is the most common reason a patient sees a physician. For most patients, the duration of the pain is short,” said Dr. Hobbs. “Unfortunately, for some patients the pain never goes away. It is these situations that present physicians with their greatest challenge since few are formally trained in effectively managing pain.”

The physician needs to look at the pain, but also how it affects the patient’s life, said Hobbs. Pain affects a patient in terms of psychological, social and cultural contexts.

http://goo.gl/7Gm8AW

Technology is re-shaping the healthcare industry. With HIPAA and other regulations getting stricter by the day while technology becomes more prevalent for things like maintaining patient records, staying compliant becomes challenging. At the same time, new technology is streamlining the delivery of patient care, reducing medical errors and saving lives. Leading experts in health technology are taking to the blogosphere to keep both providers and consumers up-to-date on the latest technologies impacting the industry. Here’s a look at a few, listed in no particular order of importance.

Diane Coleman

http://goo.gl/i6YNbn

Assisted suicide advocacy organizations paint themselves as “compassionate progressives” fighting for freedom against the “religious right.” That simplistic script ignores inconvenient truths that are all too familiar to disability advocates, such as:

• Predictions that someone will die in six months are often wrong;
• People who want to die usually have treatable depression and/or need better palliative care;
• Pressures to cut health-care costs in the current political climate make this the wrong time to add doctor-prescribed suicide to “treatment” options; and
• Abuse of elders and people with disabilities is a growing but often undetected problem, making coercion virtually impossible to identify or prevent.
It’s not the proponents’ good intentions but the language and implementation of assisted-suicide laws that lawmakers need to consider.

Ingenious-Think Like an Engineer!

http://goo.gl/ikZnYQ

The outcome of the testing was so consistent that even its developers seemed a bit taken aback. This “single, five-minute test” requiring “equipment costing less than five U.S. dollars” had “comparable test characteristics to other concussion assessment tools, including lengthier, computerized neuropsychological test batteries.”

The practical implications of this finding are obvious. Even the least handy of coaches or trainers can cobble together a makeshift ruler using a puck and dowel, use it to determine athletes’ baseline reaction times, and re-test any player who is suspected of sustaining a concussion. The test reliably can be administered on the sidelines immediately after a hard hit, Dr. Broglio said, and if a player shows a longer reaction time, no matter how slight the increase, the player should almost certainly be removed from play and seen by a doctor.

http://goo.gl/sw68L8

After a 37-year follow-up, researchers found that 487 men had young-onset dementia (YOD) at an average age of 54. Results from the study show that the major risk factors associated with the early-onset disease included:

Alcohol intoxication

Stroke

Use of antipsychotics

Depression

Father's dementia

Drug intoxication

Low cognitive function at enlistment

Low height at enlistment

High systolic blood pressure at enlistment.

http://goo.gl/W84zsX

He notes that most errors are skill-based errors, or errors that occur when you are in automatic mode, doing tasks that you have done over and over--indeed tasks at which you are expert.

http://goo.gl/QJd7Gh

Two out of three seniors over 60 report having two or more chronic conditions and just under half have three or more, so we’re talking about a lot of folks facing these kinds of considerations. Their answers depend a lot on what their goals are. What factors should be weighed? Is watchful waiting a good option? What about adherence to regimens if the patient has dementia? What are the most important aspects of their lives? These questions need to be raised by patients, by families and thoughtful practitioners. And in raising them, we need to craft responses that reflect values, preferences and goals that clearly matter to them; not what’s clinically expedient or meets some prescribed pathway. 

http://goo.gl/4xf9Bn

Learn how the health care law works for you and your family.

This is a support services system despite the name:

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/health/july-dec13/aging_08-08.html

The village offers transportation to doctors and grocery stores, and provides free exercise classes and lectures on current events. It organizes social clubs like the weekly Second Cup gathering at the Beacon Hill Bistro, where members discuss books, movies and, perhaps most importantly, politics.