Nail Salon Air Purifiers - 5 Features That Will Make Them Effective

 

Nail salon air can become unhealthy once chemicals from nail polish, remover, and hardener go airborne and stay there. An effective cleaner should have the 5 features below if it is to make a noticeable difference in how your air smells.

Carbon Filter For Chemicals - This is an essential component. It is recognized as the best type of filter to remove gaseous pollutants including odors and volatile organic chemicals that many salon products emit. Using a cleaner that can effectively absorb chemicals and remove them from the air is one of the most important things to look for in the technical specifications and/or the owner's manual.

HEPA Filtration - HEPA is the term that results from the first letters of high efficiency particle arresting filter. This technology is the best for removing airborne particles. Any indoor space has particulates in the air such as dust, mold and mildew spores, season pollen, bacteria, viruses, and even pet dander brought in by customers who own warm-blooded pets.

Add thousands of pieces of minute pieces of nails that go airborne with grinding and filing and the air can become thick pretty quick. Air thick with particles is unhealthy as well and being able to remove them will keep your air fresh and healthy.

Permanent Split Capacitor Motor - This type of motor is designed to run safely and continuously. Designed for high revolutions per minute (RPM), it doesn't need to be cut off for a certain number of hours each day.

Not having to remember to turn the cleaner on and off means that the air can be filtered continually and the benefit is that the air clean in your shop all the time. Being able to let it filter the air in your salon each night insures that you and your customers walk in to a shop that smells clean and fresh each morning.

Wheels - Air cleaners filter the air that is closest to them first. Sometimes when there is a particularly smelly procedure, it's great to be able to easily roll the purifier closer so that the pollutants that go into the air are removed as quickly as possible. Sturdy wheels on the unit make it easy to roll over all types of flooring.

Variable Filtration Rate - This is invaluable option to have during the busiest time such as evenings and weekends. Doing a lot of manicures and pedicures can make the air smell really awful. Being able to pull air in faster will help remove the chemicals more quickly and limit the amount available to be inhaled. And when the air smells fresh again, it's handy to be able to adjust the filtration speed to medium or low.

Remove unhealthy chemical fumes and particles from your salon air with the Nail Salon Air Purifier from PurerAir.com at http://purerair.com/nails.html.

Purpose of a Chiropractic Adjustment

This may seem like a self-evident topic. Well it's not. The Chiropractic profession cannot even agree on the purpose of an adjustment. There is the fundamental, basic purpose that has been around since 1895 (the inception of Chiropractic) which has not changed, deviated or strayed from its first day. Then there are the fads, the misconceptions, and the attempts to fit nicely into the Medical model.

The most common misconception is that a Chiropractic adjustment is solely for the elimination of symptoms; such as neck pain, back pain, headaches, etc... Although Chiropractic is highly effective at helping to relieve these symptoms, this misconception usually stems from the fact that much of the population does not understand the Nervous System. They believe that nerves only carry messages of pain to the brain. That is obviously not the case. If it was, then there would have to be something other than the brain controlling all of your organs and chemical reactions going on within the body. Simply not so!

The second misconception was perpetuated by early Chiropractors themselves. They actually believed that a Chiropractic adjustment was the cure-all for all diseases. This was in part due to the overwhelming number of "conditions" that seemed to get better under Chiropractic care; and in part due to the frustration directed towards much of the Medical community and their treatment of symptoms, neglecting the "entire person" in many cases. This is obviously just as wrong as the belief that Chiropractic is only for neck and back pain, because many times other things are needed as well to get sick people well. Such as proper nutrition, exercise, rest, and even Medical intervention. Other times, however, a person may have been "sick" for too long for even the body's inborn healing ability to overcome the damage done by years of disease or neglect. Or even for medicine to undo the damage. (i.e.. terminal cancer, people that have had multiple heart attacks, etc).

So what is an adjustment for? Well, when you remove all of the misconceptions and the fads, you are left with one simple fact. A bone in your spine out of place (Vertebral Subluxation), will always have a detrimental effect somewhere in the body due to interference in the Nervous System. This is because structure ALWAYS affects function. Example: If you change the structure of a boat in the water by putting one oar in, the boat will go around in circles. If you put a spoiler on a car, it makes the car more aero-dynamic. If you tie a string around your aorta (the largest artery in your body), blood flow will lessen or stop completely. Structure always changes function. If a vertebral bone is out of place - then it will restrict the communication between the brain and some distant part of the body. ALWAYS! If you remove the interference by removing the bone (vertebrae) from the nerve or spinal cord (this is a Chiropractic adjustment), you once again change the function - in this case improving it. The body's inborn intelligence is once again allowed to control and co-ordinate all bodily functions so that the body can adapt itself to the external and internal environments; survive and prosper.

It comes down to one simple fact; the body will ALWAYS function better without a vertebral subluxation than with a vertebral subluxation. That goes for any and every person with a spine and a Nervous System. Everyone knows that if you do not brush your teeth and get them checked regularly your chances of good oral hygiene are not good. What is more important - your teeth or your spine? When was the last time you had your spine checked?

Fleischer Chiropractic has been voted the favorite chiropractic facility in 2008 and 2009 by the Culver City News Readers poll. Dr. Howard Fleisher graduated from Cleveland Chiropractic College in Los Angeles Magna Cum Laude in 1995 and has been a practicing chiropractor ever since.

Dr. Howard is a passionate chiropractor that cares for his patients and sees that they receive the best chiropractic care possible. Fleischer Chiropractic offers top quality service to all ages from infants to adulthood. Dr. Howard gives healthy living tips and chiropractic advice to his patients so they can live healthier, pain free lives.

The Best Ways To Improve Penis Size With Regards To Natural Penis Enlargement Exercise

Since time immemorial one of the toughest tasks and challenges a man has come across is searching for ways to improve penis size. It has been seen that the majority of men are not satisfied with the size of their penis and always look out for ways to improve penis size. Some men are worried so much, so that they take extreme steps of taking sexual enhancement supplements. While some of them go for herbal remedies for enhancement of their penis size. While some brave men go a one step ahead and make up their mind to go for a surgery to fulfill their dreams.

In order to accomplish this dream so much research is taking place all around the world. You may be wondering as to why researchers are so concerned and are taking pains to get a breakthrough in this field and why so much research is going on to improve the penis size of a worried man is a big question to ponder. It will not be out of context to mention here that penis is the lifeline of a man. Without this a man cannot be said to be a complete man. A man feels more secure and confident with an enhanced penis thus marrying a gorgeous woman of his choice and can live happily thereafter.

According to a survey taken by Durex, 67% of the women are not happy with the size of their partner's penis, as penis enhancement is directly related to making a man's erection bigger and stronger. It enhances the sex drive and men can really perform and their partner can enjoy more sex with zest and zeal. With an enlarged penis a man can easily strengthen the muscles thus hardening it and improving his control when having sex. All this bring a piece of mind to both the partners. A large penis also means increase in semen volume and premature ejaculation help.

Ancient scriptures have also mentioned that exercises are the sole medium through which penis enlargement can be achieved without any hitch. Taking cue from these scriptures now-a-days medical studies and clinical trials has established that exercise can really increase penis length and girth.

How Penis exercises work?

The sole aim of penis exercise is to enhance the penis size and the amount of spongy tissue in your penis. Penis tissues consist of different blood vessels, smooth muscles and fibers. The aim of these penis enlargement exercises is to address growth in these tissues. However, a tissue takes time to grow. Thousands of men have already enhanced the size of their penis through some sort of exercises.

Exercises which improves penis size

Jelquing- Most of the men are acquainted about this ancient enhancement technique which was being used by nomadic Arabian tribes. It has been said if this method is performed regularly it can permanently increase the girth of the penis size. The method involves movements akin to "milking" the penis in an effort to increase the amount of blood thus gaining enlargement during erections.

Penis Stretching- This exercise as the name suggests helps in stretching the tissues of a man's penis. With the help of stretching, cells compose the penis to grow in length.

Kegel Exercises- During this exercise the target is aimed at the pubococcygeus muscle, which helps in delaying the erection. So as soon as you train this muscle you can prolong the erections.

Medical Advice-

If you are really concerned about the size of your penis and are looking for ways to improve penis size, it is recommended to consult a urologist, who is a specialist of sex organs and could help you suggest various exercises. However, never ever have thought of going for an expensive surgery in quest for a larger penis you will only repent later. The best method which has been universally established is adapting various exercises to enhance the size of your penis.

Information just like this will help you to discover more about different ways to improve penis size and also how you can get penile enlargements exercise techniques

Drunken Driving On the Decline

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Drinking and driving dropped to historic lows last year, new government data show, though it?s not necessarily because adult Americans are boozing less?or less often.

The reasons behind the decline are ?not well understood,? U.S. health officials said in their report. But one possibility is that the rough economy is leading people to limit their ?discretionary driving? and opt to drink more often at home.

An estimated 112 million drunken driving instances occurred in 2010, a 30% drop from 2006?s peak of 161 million, according to data released today by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That?s the lowest number of episodes reported since 1993, when the CDC first started tracking drunken driving.

Alcohol-impaired driving fatalities also declined 20%, from 13,491 in 2006 to 10,839 in 2009, the most recent year for which data were available. Deaths linked to drinking and driving represent about one-third of all motor vehicle deaths.

Four in five drunken drivers were men. The CDC estimates four million adults drink and drive each year, with 85% of all alcohol-impaired drives reported by someone who had been binge drinking. Rates remained disproportionately higher for men between the ages of 21 and 34, people living in the Midwest and those who do not always wear a seatbelt, according to the CDC.

At the same time, the CDC said self-reported alcohol consumption and binge drinking in the past 30 days did not significantly decline. The total number of adults drinking and driving?and the number of times they do it?are likely a ?significant underestimate? because the data are self-reported, said CDC Director Thomas R. Frieden on a conference call with reporters.

A more widespread use of weekly or monthly sobriety checkpoints by law-enforcement officials could save between 1,500 and 3,000 lives a year, Frieden said. Broader adoption of ignition interlocks, an in-car breathalyzer device, for convicted drunk drivers could further curb the number of alcohol-impaired drivers. Currently, only about one in five eligible drunken-driving offenders are enrolled in ignition interlock programs.

The nationwide telephone survey polled more than 450,000 people. It did not include people under the age of 18.

In a statement, Mothers Against Drunk Driving, an advocacy group, said the CDC report showed drunken driving continues to be an important safety issue for American families. The group said it would continue urging Congress for funds to research in-vehicle technology that could save an estimated 8,000 lives a year, said MADD Chief Executive Kimberly Earle.

Ways to Treat a Cold Sore Properly

Cold sores can be painful and embarrassing. If you are looking for a quick and easy remedy for a cold sore, there are several options. The best way to handle a canker is to prevent them from occurring in the first place.

Get a New Toothbrush

A toothbrush can actually carry a cold sore virus if you used it while you previously had a cold sore. As such, it is important that you regularly change your toothbrush to ensure the most sanitary hygiene tool. If you are sure that your toothbrush came in contact with a cold sore, toss it immediately. Saving a couple bucks isn't worth risking another cold sore or two.

Lip Protection

Fever blister can be caused by the sun. Don't forget to apply sunscreen to your lips if you intend on being out in the sun for long periods of time. Just like the rest of your skin, your lips require protection from the elements.

Hands Off

If you feel a canker sore coming on or already have one, keep your hands away from it. Touching it, squeezing it or picking at it can just cause it to spread. Canker sores are extremely contagious so don't risk passing it on through physical contact or through sharing items like water bottles or lip balm. Always keep some hand sanitizer nearby in case you do accidentally touch your canker.

Pop a Pill

Over the counter pain killers can help you deal with the pain associated with the canker sores. If you simply can't handle the soreness, take a pain killer. Remember to only take the recommended dosage as directed on the bottle. Do not exceed this recommended dosage.

Ice it Up

Ice can also help you cope with the pain of a fever blister. In addition to numbing the pain, it can actually decrease the amount of time a fever blister appears if placed on the affected area at the first sign of a cold sore.

Got Milk?

Milk has many health benefits but this one doesn't involve drinking it. Soak a cotton swab in milk and place it on the affected area. This will not only help reduce pain, but like ice, it can also help decrease how long the cold sore sticks around.

Chill Out

Stress is another cause of the sores. When they are not causing you pain on the surface, they are hanging around waiting for the best time to rear their ugly heads. Usually, this is in high stress situations. This is why you may often get fever blister at times you least want them like before a big social or work event. Stress is a trigger so by keeping your stress levels down, you can actually lessen the appearance of canker sores.

Stay Healthy

Like any virus, the sores thrive when your body is at its weakest. By keeping yourself healthy and your immune system at its best you can help keep the virus at bay. Keep your diet balanced and healthy and you'll see the difference on the surface.

What Is "DIARRHEA"?

Diarrhea is defined as an increased frequency and decreased consistency of fecal discharge as compared with an individual's normal bowel pattern.

Frequency and consistency are variable within and between individuals. For example:

Some individuals defecate as many as three times a day, while other defecate only 2 or 3 times per week. Most cases of acute diarrhea are caused by infections resulting from viruses, bacteria or protozoa and are generally self limited.
Diarrhea is an imbalance in absorption and secretion of water and electrolytes. Diarrhea may be associated with a specific disease in the GIT tract or with a disease outside the GI tract.

Usually acute diarrheal episodes subside within 72 hours of onset, whereas chronic diarrhea involves frequent attacks over extended time periods.

Signs & Symptoms:

Abrupt onset of nausea
vomiting
Abdominal pain
Headache
Fever
Chills
Malaise
Bowel movements are frequent and never bloody
Diarrhea lasts for 12-60 hrs

Clinical findings:

Stool analysis studies includes examination for
Microorganisms
Blood
Mucous
Fat
Osmolarity
Electrolyte and mineral concentration
cultures

Drugs causing diarrhea:

Laxatives
Antacids containing magnesium
Anti-neoplastics/Anticancer
Antibiotics
Anti-hypertensive
Cholinergic
NSAIDS
PPIs
Cardiac agents

Treatment:

Management of the diet is the first priority for the treatment of diarrhea as recommended by various health articles.
Patient should stop taking solid foods for 24 hours and avoiding dairy products.
When nausea and vomiting is mild, a digestible and low-residue diet is administered for 24 hrs.

Various drugs are used to treat diarrhea. These drugs are grouped into several categories:

Ant motility agents
Adsorbents
Anti-secretory compounds
Antibiotics
Enzymes
Intestinal micro flora

According to health articles these drugs are not curative but palliative:

LOPERAMIDE is often recommended for managing acute and chronic diarrhea. Diarrhea lasting for 48 hours beyond initiating
Loperamide warrants medical attention.
Adsorbents (such as Kaolin pectin) are used for symptomatic relief.
Bismuth sub salicylate is often used for treatment and prevention of diarrhea (traveler's diarrhea) and has antisecretory, anti-inflammatory and antibacterial effects.
Lactobacillus preparation is intended to replace colonic microbial flora. This supposed restores intestinal functions and
Suppresses the growth of pathogenic microorganism.
Ant cholinergic drugs such as atropine block vagal tone and prolong gut transit time.

Health articles say chronic diarrhea is that which last for at least 14 days.

Possible causes of diarrhea:

Following are a few causes of diarrhea...
Intestinal infection
Inflammatory bowel disease
Malabsorption
Secretory hormonal tumor
Drug
Motility disturbances

Select appropriate diagnostic studies e.g.:

Stool culture/ova/parasites/WBCs/RBCs/fat
Sigmoidoscopy
Intestinal biopsy

What Is the Best Way to Stay Healthy?

Have you asked yourself, what is the best way to stay healthy?

Are you living a healthy life?

If you're not then you should definitely read this.

Many people can find following a healthy routine really hard to follow and sometimes it can really become a challenge. In sad cases people forget about taking care of their health and fall into a self destructive lifestyle. Eating cheese-burgers Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays might be okay with you but eventually it can affect your body and heart. I'm not saying you shouldn't eat a cheese-burger at all, just try reducing the amount of fast food you consume every month. You will feel better, guarantee. Our body doesn't really need all that grease and fat, instead a good home made banana milkshake (not from McDonald) along with some oatmeal can really give natural energy to your body, which will put you in a good mood.

I know following a diet can be really hard to follow specially when you're surrounded by people that is eating whatever they feel like and don't care about their health. The people that you're surrounded by can really reflect on the way you live your life. So I suggest you try your best to help your friends follow a healthy routine as well, working together is always easier than alone. Try to be in a healthy environment, it can really help you stay healthy.

When we were kids we never really liked eating veggies and fruits, right?

Classic case of kid not wanting to eat his spinach. But now as parents you get really frustrated when your kids do the same. You should try to understand them and instead find ways to make it easier for your kids to eat their fruits and veggies. The first step would be setting an example. It is definitely the best way!

Try writing down a list of healthy food you would like to eat and have no problem eating on a daily basis. Then you should create a diet, write down or even better type it and print it. You can find many healthy recipes online, prepare yourself some delicious healthy dishes!

Do you like jogging?

If you have a dog perhaps you should consider walking him everyday for at least 10-15 minutes. Even better you should definitely jog for a little bit and take the dog with you, so you won't be the only one running. Many of us might feel lazy at times, but that's completely normal. As long as you don't feel lazy all the time, then my friend you have a problem. Get up from the couch, bed or from whatever you're laying on and do some physical activity for at least 10-15 minutes everyday. It shouldn't be a challenge. For example do jumping jacks for about 5 minutes and then do squads for about 4 or 5 minutes, then stretch your body, legs and arms to finish up you're daily 15 minutes workout. Of course I would really recommend you to do a bit more than that. It doesn't need to be done everyday, make yourself a schedule for a work out routine. For example Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays you got to the Gym for about an hour or two. Even if you can't afford the Gym, there is many home workouts you can perform.

Got kids?

In a relationship?

Well sometimes tend to stress ourselves a lot specially when it comes to having kids and dealing with relationships. It is not easy to put the stress to the side but it is really important you try your best to do so and don't give up until you do. Eventually you will learn how to be a little stress-free and your health will improve as well. Stress can really deteriorate your health and heart. That is why doing yoga and any other relaxation activities can really help you become a better person. Find the inner peace in your body and soul, after all you're the only one that can take care of your health and life. Stress can be very difficult to handle but it is not impossible to learn how to deal with it and relax. If we all lived in peace we will definitely live longer.

So to stay healthy we need to eat a balanced diet, do a little bit of exercise, get enough sleep and try to maintain yourself in peace, put the stress to the side!

I would say the best way to stay healthy would be hard work and will power.

Take care of your loved ones by helping them lead their life to a healthy one!

There is many healthy tips you will find in my site. See which specific fruits and vegetables can help you improve your health within a month! http://www.health-love-money.co.cc/ Stay Healthy!

Top 5 Unnecessary Health-Care Costs

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Mindful of concerns about health-care’s spiraling costs, the Health Blog was struck by?some new?research on what the investigators identified as wasteful practices by family doctors and general practitioners.

Not being doctors, we can’t vouch for the clinical appropriateness of the findings, but there’s no harm in triggering a discussion, right?

What?did the researchers say was?the No. 1 most over-used activity by primary care physicians? Prescribing a brand-name cholesterol-lowering drug without trying a less expensive generic first, according to the research posted online by the Archives of Internal Medicine.

Doctors’ prescribing?a brand-name statin, without first ?checking to see if a lower-priced generic drug would cut a patient’s cholesterol sufficiently, results in $5.8 billion in excess health-care spending, according to the research letter published Oct. 1.

The authors found $6.76 billion in what they said was non-recommended health-care spending after analyzing surveys of patient visits to certain?primary care doctors’ offices and hospital outpatient departments in 2009.

Other practices deemed inappropriate by the authors: bone density scans for women ages 40 to 64 years, costing $527.4 million; ordering CT Scans or MRI’s for lower back pain, amounting to $175.4 million; and prescribing antibiotics to children with sore throats caused by a virus, worth $116.3 million.

Although these?sums aren’t chump change, the authors write that achieving affordable but high-quality health-care will?really depend on finding?”‘high value’ targets” in specialty areas.

Image: iStockphoto

A.M. Vitals: Death Toll From Listeria-Tainted Cantaloupes Hits 18

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More Cantaloupe Deaths: Eighteen people have now died from listeriosis linked to eating tainted cantaloupes, and the number of illnesses associated with the outbreak rose to 100, the WSJ reports. More illnesses are expected to emerge because it can take up to two months for symptoms to appear after infection, FDA head Margaret Hamburg said yesterday.

Additional Warning: The FDA said Roche’s cancer drug Avastin may cause ovarian failure in some women, the WSJ reports. A warning about the fertility problem was added to the drug’s label, as was updated information about the risk of blood clots and bleeding risk and new information about reports of jaw-bone decay.

Projected TB Deaths: Research published in the BMJ suggests that 40 million smokers could die from tuberculosis by 2050, most of them in Africa and the eastern Mediterranean and Southeast Asian areas of the world, BBC News reports. People who smoke are more vulnerable to TB.

Image: iStockphoto

Public-Health Services Get Crunched by Budget Woes

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Immunizations, emergency preparations for hurricanes, and restaurant inspections are among local public-health services being cut back or eliminated amid budget constraints.

Some 55% of the nation?s county and city health departments reduced or eliminated at least one program between July 2010 and June 2011, and the public-health workforce continued to shrink, according to a new survey by the National Association of County and City Health Officials.

The cuts hit maternal and child health services (at 21% of the departments reporting cuts), personal health services (20%), emergency preparedness (20%), chronic disease screenings (17%), and food safety (11%), among other programs.

Health departments lost 5,400 jobs in the first half of this year, after losing 6,000 in all of 2010. There are currently about 120,600 local health department employees across the country after those cutbacks. While the workforce has been shrinking since 2008, the downsizing “is now eating into program capacity,” says Robert Pestronk, NACCHO?s executive director.

Particularly worrying are the cutbacks in emergency-preparedness programs, he says. “It?s troublesome given what we?re seeing in terms of weather conditions and threats in communities,” he tells the Health Blog. Health-department employees help plan for emergencies such as hurricanes, make sure supplies are in place and work as responders.

Meantime, cutbacks in immunization programs are making it harder for some children to get needed polio, tetanus and other preventive vaccinations, while reductions in food-safety programs mean fewer restaurant inspections or staff to interview people sickened in a food-borne illness outbreak, Pestronk says,

These woes aren’t limited to local health departments. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has seen its budget for preparedness and response fall by more than $350 million since 2005, to about $832 million in fiscal 2011. That challenges the CDC’s ability to respond to a pandemic like the type featured in the recent bio-thriller “Contagion,” Rear Admiral Ali Khan, the CDC?s chief of public health preparedness and response, told the Health Blog at a screening of the film.

Bonus: Report Finds Budget Cuts Threaten Health Emergency Preparedness Progress

Image: iStockphoto

AM Vitals: More Freedom for Pacemaker Wearers, HIV Risk and Less Diaper Shopping

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Inside the Machine: Pacemaker wearers could soon be looking at a new world: the inside of an MRI machine. Individuals implanted with pacemakers and defibrillators typically aren’t been able to get magnetic resonance imaging because of the fear that the MRI will interfere with the heart devices, but the WSJ reports that Johns Hopkins’ researchers are trying to fix that program by reprogramming the devices before and after the scans.

Drug Interaction: After so much recent good news about the strides made in the prevention of HIV comes an alarming new study that suggests that a popular contraceptive used in Africa, Pfizer’s Depo-Provera, appears to double the risk that a woman will become infected with HIV, according to the NY Times.

Diaper Rash Spike?: The country’s economic woes are so bad that consumers are cutting back on buying diapers, which some economics say is an unprecedented trend, reports the WSJ. What does this mean for the babies? Some pediatricians say they’re seeing an increase in diaper rash, and the longer a baby sits with a soiled diaper on, the higher the risk for infection.

Image: iStockphoto

Should a Candidate’s Weight Be Part of the Conversation?

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New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie says jokes about his girth are par for the course. But the notion that the extra pounds he carries are a legitimate election issue is absurd, he says.

As the New York Times reports, when Christie bowed out of the 2012 presidential race yesterday, he criticized those who said his weight somehow reflects on his ability to lead a state or country. (He didn’t single out any critics, but the Washington Post’s Eugene Robinson last week wrote a column called “Chris Christie’s Big Problem.”)

“The people who pretend to be serious commentators who wrote about this are among the most ignorant I?ve ever heard in my life,” Christie said at the press conference where he announced his decision, according to the NYT. He continued: “To say that, because you?re overweight, you are therefore undisciplined — you know, I don?t think undisciplined people get to achieve great positions in our society, so that kind of stuff is just ignorant.”

The notion of weight as a matter of personal responsibility “has been central to social, legal, and political approaches to obesity,” wrote researchers at Yale University’s Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity and other institutions in Health Affairs last year. “It evokes language of blame, weakness and vice and is a leading basis for inadequate government efforts, given the importance of environmental conditions in explaining high rates of obesity.”

The folks at Rudd and others would like to see more attention paid to those environmental conditions, with a greater focus on community-centered rather than individual actions to combat obesity.

In a statement posted to the Rudd website, Rebecca Puhl, director of research at the center, objected to criticism of Christie, saying “there is no reason to assume that a person can’t be an effective political candidate or leader simply because of his or her body weight.” She continued: “Discounting an individual’s credentials, training, accomplishments or abilities because of body weight is discriminatory. This communicates a harmful and unfair message that a person’s talents and contributions to society have no value if that person is obese.”

Christie doesn’t shirk personal responsibility for his weight — he says that it likely affects his health and readily acknowledges that he eats too much. But he rejects the idea that the topic of weight has any place in the political arena.

Readers, what do you think? Is a candidate’s weight a proxy for his or her self-discipline or other component of leadership?

Photo: Associated Press

How Quality Indicators Can Hurt the Elderly

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Quality indicators are supposed to encourage better health care.

But in the case of the elderly, they may lead to “unintended harms,” according to a commentary published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

In general, these indicators encourage physicians to provide more care deemed appropriate, not to pare back on care that is inappropriate, says Sei Lee, an author of the piece and an assistant professor of medicine in the geriatrics division at the University of California, San Francisco. (His co-author is Louise Walter, also at UCSF.)

That means a hypothetical doctor who prescribed medications to everyone who came in the door, whether they needed them or not, could look great according to the indicators, Lee — who is also staff physician and associate director of the VA Quality Scholars Fellowship at the San Francisco VA Medical Center — tells the Health Blog.

The elderly population is much more heterogeneous, health-wise, than younger folks, he says. Some 65-year-olds are very active and taking maybe an aspirin a day, while others have had numerous heart attacks and are basically debilitated. Given that variety, “it’s more important to think about targeting” people to be sure they’re getting appropriate care that won’t result in harmful side effects, Lee says.

For example, one quality measure looks at what percentage of patients have their blood sugar controlled. But there’s no routine measurement of how many people develop too-low blood sugar, necessitating emergency glucose tablets or even a trip to the E.R., says Lee. An indicator measuring how many women receive mammograms could be balanced by one reporting “the rates of inappropriate screening mammography (i.e. in patients with preexisting advanced cancer or dementia who are unlikely to benefit),” the commentary says.

(A study published last year found a significant number of people with advanced, incurable cancer were still receiving screenings for other cancers.)

To help make sure preventive care goes to those likely to benefit, quality indicators could account for how long a person is likely to live and encourage “prevention only in those patients whose predicted life expectancy exceeds the intervention’s lagtime to benefit,” the commentary says. For example, rather than rating a physician on whether he or she offers colorectal cancer screening for adults aged 50 to 75, it could encourage screening for people with a life expectancy of more than seven years.

That would help ensure an 80-year-old with no major health problems would get screened, while protecting a 70-year-old with a serious, incurable condition from an invasive test that isn?t likely to help.

A study recently published in the Archives of Internal Medicine found primary-care doctors cite the incentives created by quality indicators as a reason for treating patients more aggressively than is ideal.

Image: iStockphoto

A.M. Vitals: Cloning Technique Used to Create Human Embryos

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Cloning Technique Success: Researchers reported in Nature that they created 13 early-stage human embryos that were partial clones of diabetic patients, albeit abnormal ones, with three sets of chromosomes instead of the usual two, the WSJ reports. That extra set would have to be eliminated if the cloning technique were ever to be used to develop stem-cell based treatments for patients with diseases, the paper says.

Tracking Operations Toward the End of Life: New research published in the Lancet shows that almost one in ten Medicare patients who died in 2008 had surgery in their last week of life, while almost one in three had surgery during their final year of life, the New York Times reports. Researchers said the number of operations towards the end of life was surprising, but an expert not involved with the study said it’s impossible to judge from these data whether or not those surgeries were valuable.

Probing the Middlemen: Rep. Elijah Cummings from Maryland, a Democrat on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, is investigating distributors offering drugs in short supply on the so-called “grey market” at marked-up prices, the WSJ reports. Cummings wrote to five companies about the prices at which they had offered the drugs. The Institute for Safe Medication Practices has called the recent rash of shortages “unprecedented.”

Miscarriage Tied to Tainted Cantaloupe: Adding to the toll from the outbreak of listeriosis linked to eating cantaloupes, an Iowa woman has miscarried after contracting the infection, MSNBC.com reports. The medical examiner for the Iowa Department of Public Health says the woman, who is between 18 and 40, miscarried early in her pregnancy after eating tainted cantaloupe. The cantaloupes were recalled by Jensen Farms of Colorado on Sept. 14 but infection symptoms can take two months to manifest.

Image: iStockphoto

Jobs’s Death Focuses Attention on Rare Form of Pancreatic Cancer

AppId is over the quota
AppId is over the quota

Apple CEO Steve Jobs famously kept quiet about his illness and while a rare form of pancreatic cancer was at the root of his struggles, the company’s announcement of his death yesterday didn?t include information about the precise cause.

But if you ever question what someone can accomplish after being diagnosed with cancer, consider this. In the seven years since Jobs underwent surgery to remove what doctors call a neuroendocrine pancreatic tumor and — except for one medical leave — remained at the helm of Apple, the company:

Broadened the product line of the ubiquitous iPodIntroduced the MacBook Air laptopCreated an online retail phenomenon with the opening of its app storeTransformed the personal digital technology landscape with the introduction of the both the iPhone and the iPad

The high-tech visionary clearly never embraced a role as a cancer survivor and whether he’ll ever be seen as an inspiration in that regard remains to be seen. But his illness has focused attention on a tumor with widely varying prognosis about which little is known.

“We all call these neuroendocrine tumors,? Michaela Banck, a pancreatic cancer expert at the Mayo Clinic, tells the Health Blog. But ?if you have 50 patients, you have 50 different tumors with 50 different prognoses.? As the name implies, the tumors can affect levels of insulin and other hormones produced by the pancreas, but Banck says more research is needed to better understand how the cancer’s impact on hormones affects prognosis.

The encouraging news is that while the much more common form of pancreatic cancer, affecting 95% of cases, is especially fast moving and lethal, neuroendocrine tumors are often slow-growing and can be effectively treated with surgery — even cured in some cases if caught early enough. (As the WSJ reports today, Jobs’s disease ran a fairly predictable course.)

Two drugs — Afinitor from Novartis and Sutent from Pfizer — were approved for neuroendocrine pancreatic tumors early this year. No information is available on whether Jobs was treated with the drugs.

Jobs also had a liver transplant in 2009, though its connection to the cancer wasn’t disclosed. One worry about the role of transplants for cancer patients is that drugs used to prevent rejection of the organ depress the immune system, potentially opening the door for the cancer to return.

Interestingly, Afinitor is a member of a class of drugs originally developed to prevent organ rejection.

Mayo’s Banck is hopeful that the explosion information about cancer in general from genetic analysis of tumors will soon unlock some of the mysteries of the disease that struck Jobs.

Photo: Getty Images

U.K. Pledges $31 Million to Help Wipe Out Guinea Worm Disease

AppId is over the quota
AppId is over the quota

The British government has pledged about $31 million to help eradicate guinea worm disease, a donation that public-health experts say will bring them close to finishing the job.

A quarter century ago, the?crippling parasitic infection afflicted 3.5 million people a year in more than 20 countries. This year, there are expected to be just over 1,000 cases in four African countries. More than 98% of those cases are in South Sudan, with a few dozen in Ethiopia, Mali, and Chad.

Guinea worm disease is passed along when people drink water from sources containing water fleas that harbor guinea worm larvae. Once inside a human, the larvae spawn worms that can reach three feet in length. The worms incubate for a year and then emerge slowly through painful lesions. When people soak their lesion-covered limbs in water, the worms release larvae, starting the cycle all over again.

The 25-year-long push to eradicate guinea worm is championed by former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, whose Carter Center in Atlanta has led the effort. The donation from the U.K. Department for International Development will be made over four years to the Carter Center.

According to the center, the best way to eliminate the disease is to “prevent people from entering sources of drinking water with an emerging guinea worm and to educate households to always use household or pipe filters to sieve out tiny water fleas carrying infective larvae.”

Donald Hopkins, vice president for health programs for the Carter Center, said $275 million, donated by several governments, has been spent so far wiping out the disease. The U.K. donation will go toward the $75 million the Carter Center estimates is needed to get the job done and to verify eradication.

“We?re very close,” says Hopkins, who has been working on guinea worm eradication since 1980. “This is going to happen. I can?t predict when, but it will be soon.” The Carter Center?s goal is to break the cycle of disease transmission in South Sudan next year, with no cases reported in 2013, he says. It would take three years of no cases to certify that the disease has been wiped out.

The donation comes as the U.K. is growing foreign-aid donations while implementing belt-tightening elsewhere, said Annabelle Malins, British Consul General in Atlanta. “We hope this will be a major tipping point to provide for the full funding requirement” for guinea worm eradication, she said.

Guinea worm disease would be the second human disease to be eradicated after smallpox, and the first to be wiped out without a vaccine or medical treatment. The disease hurts local agriculture in particular as it cripples workers temporarily during planting or harvests.

Image: Associated Press

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KARACHI: While fewer women in Pakistan are diagnosed with breast cancer compared to countries such as the US, Pakistan still has the highest number of women dying of the condition in the world, according to Dr Jo Anne Zujewski, a visiting expert from the US National Cancer Institute.

She was speaking at a round-table talk on breast cancer awareness, risks and prevention, treatment and survivorship arranged at the Avari Towers by the US consulate, this week. By South Asian standards, Pakistan shows an unusually high incidence of a disease that was largely seen as one of the affluent in the West. Comparing Pakistan to India, she said that while one in every 22 women in India is likely to develop breast cancer, the risks amounts to one in every nine women for Pakistan.
Local estimates show that Pakistan sees almost 90,000 cases of breast cancer, resulting in almost 40,000 deaths per year. [This rate of mortality is as high as the US, that has the highest rate of cancer patients in the world. “This means that even if you are less likely to develop breast cancer in Pakistan, your death is more likely here if you develop it” she told.]
She explained that the incidence of the disease is higher in the US than in Pakistan mainly because lifestyle differences: “We eat more and reproduce less, which is not the case in Pakistan and other developing countries”. The growing rate of the disease in Pakistan is, thus, a matter that requires proper investigation, she concluded.
She also said that as obesity is a major cause of breast cancer in the West, coming generations in Pakistan can draw a lesson to avoid poor nutrition and over-eating.
Attempting to erase misconceptions, she said that men can also develop breast cancer, although they are less likely to do so than women, and that the disease can be passed down not only through the mother but also through the father, and Pakistan is one of the countries where incidence of breast cancer is observed to be growing more due to hereditary factors rather than lifestyle, although only proper research will yield firm conclusions. She said that “being a woman and getting older is all that you basically need” to develop breast cancer, although a family history of the disease increases the risk up to 60 per cent. The disease mostly affects older women although it can also affect young women and reproductive factors that contribute to high risk are never giving birth or being older at the time of the first birth, having menses at age 11 or earlier and experiencing menopause at age 55 or later, she said.
Most breast cancer cases in Pakistan are detected at stages III and IV. After these advanced stages, the cancer can reach the bones, neck, lymph nodes, arms, liver and lungs. According to the Pink Ribbon Campaign, without treatment, 75 per cent of breast cancer patients in Pakistan may die within five years while the rest are likely to die within the next five.
With the average age of occurrence of the disease being 53 in Pakistan, she recommended that women should go for scans from age 40, and get a physical examination every year.
TREATMENT
The different stages
Stage I: Confined to the breast only
Stage II: Breast and lymph nodes – operable
Stage III: Breast and regional lymph nodes – inoperable
Stage IV: Spread to distant parts of the body
MYTHS
This is not true:
Breast cancer only affects older women.
If breast cancer does not run in your family, you will not risk it.
Only your mother’s family history of breast cancer can affect your risk
Breast cancer is a contagious disease.
Breast cancer can be a result of a curse/evil eye.
Breast feeding increases the chance of breast cancer