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Thursday, September 30, 2010
Cardiologia do Exercício
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Governance Matters 2010:
Governance Matters 2010: Worldwide Governance Indicators Highlight Governance Successes, Reversals, and Failures
, Senior Fellow, Global Economy and Development
The Brookings Institutio
SEPTEMBER 24, 2010 —
Editor’s Note: The updated version of the Worldwide Governance Indicators, covering 213 countries over the 1996-2009 period was released today at www.govindicators.org. It is accompanied by a new report, "The Worldwide Governance Indicators: Methodology and Analytical Issues." The WGI constitute one of the largest and well-known compilations of cross-country data on governance./.../
Monday, September 27, 2010
Bernard Lown: Unending Frustration
U.S. Media: Unending Frustration (Part 1)
Imagine a new head of state rising to absolute power in a country threatening our extinction. Imagine further that an American doctor enters that leader’s inner sanctum and that the two hold a lengthy conversation. Would the American media not widely report the meeting and besiege the physician?
Such an event actually took place. The country was the Soviet Union, then targeting the United States with a vast nuclear arsenal. The new leader was Mikhail Gorbachev, and I was the American doctor. We met in the Kremlin on December 18, 1985, and conversed for three hours.
Outside Russia little was known about Gorbachev. He had unexpectedly been anointed general secretary of the Communist Party, the highest office in the USSR. Before that he was the minister of agriculture, a dead-end position that in the past had led to political oblivion. Gorbachev, who unlike any of his predecessors was born after the October Revolution, had not been part of the Moscow Communist Party bureaucracy. In further contrast to the ossified gerontocracy that had dominated the Politburo for decades, Gorbachev was in his early 50s, highly intelligent, well educated, brilliantly articulate, and bursting with charisma.
Health and Illness
Most people think luck, treatment options and lifestyle choices shape whether they are healthy or not. After all, that is the current mantra – eating better and exercising will lead to a healthier existence – a mantra that Canadians have wholeheartedly internalized. But that’s only part of the equation, and not the biggest part, says Raphael, a professor in York's School of Health Policy & Management in the Faculty of Health.What makes us sick has less to do with lifestyle, says profWhat makes us sick? Is it genetics or lifestyle? Is it too many burgers, too much alcohol, not enough exercise? Not according to York Professor Dennis Raphael, who, like the fourth-century BC philosopher Plato, attributes poor health to living conditions. Things like income level and people’s access to food, housing, education, and health and social services, are what determines whether people are ill or healthy, he says.
That’s contrary to what most Canadians believe, says Raphael in his new book About Canada: Health and Illness (Fernwood Publishing, 2010), which looks at who stays healthy, who gets sick and why. It’s written with the goal of educating the informed Canadian, as well as university students.
“Decades of research and hundreds of studies in Canada and elsewhere tell a different story: the primary factors that shape the health and well-being of Canadians – the factors that will give us longer, better lives – are to be found not in those much-discussed areas, but rather in the actual living conditions that Canadians experience on a daily basis,” says Raphael inAbout Canada: Health and Illness.
the First Nine Months Shape the Rest of Your Life
Pregnant Woman
Heide Benser / Corbis
There's a list of conventional answers to these questions. We are the way we are because it's in our genes. We turn out the way we do because of our childhood experiences. Or our health and well-being stem from the lifestyle choices we make as adults.
Read more: http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,2020815,00.html?xid=newsletter-europe-weekly#ixzz10iv6ZSdv/.../
Sunday, September 26, 2010
Saving Our Oceans
One woman's dream to create national parks in the sea
The Sargasso Sea has no shores. The 2 million-sq.-mi. body of water in the middle of the Atlantic is defined by two features: the ocean currents forming the North Atlantic subtropical gyre, which cycles around the sea, and sargassum, the free-floating golden-brown seaweed. The sargassum can be found scattered throughout the sea, sometimes entwined in vast waterborne mats. When Christopher Columbus encountered the sargassum while crossing the Atlantic, he ordered his men to fathom the depths, believing he had struck land. The oceanographer Sylvia Earle, though she prefers not to think in land-based metaphors, calls the sargassum "the golden rain forest of the sea," a base for scores of juvenile creatures, a floating nursery in a sea that was long believed to be a watery desert. She has traveled to Bermuda, on the western fringes of the Sargasso Sea, to see the sargassum and the ocean life she has worked for decades to protect. "The sargassum is the shelter," she says as her boat passes beyond Bermuda's coral reefs. "It is the island in the stream."/.../
Saturday, September 25, 2010
diastolic HF and aldosterone receptor antagonist
Mixed Signals for Diastolic Heart Failure Drug | ||||
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Friday, September 24, 2010
Einstein's Theory is Proved: Time is relative
Albert Einstein proposed that time is a relative concept and the higher you live
above sea level the faster you should age
Scientists use atomic clocks to show that time moves faster at altitude,
even on Earth
even on Earth
The world’s most accurate clock has neatly shown how right Albert Einstein was 100 years ago, when he proposed that time is a relative concept and the higher you live above sea level the faster you should age.
Einstein’s theory of relativity states that time and space are not as constant as everyday life would suggest. He suggested that the only true constant, the speed of light, meant that time can run faster or slower depending on how high you are, and how fast you are travelling.
Now scientists have demonstrated the true nature of Einstein’s theory for the first time with an incredibly accurate atomic clock that is able to keep time to within one second in about 3.7 billion years – roughly the same length of time that life has existed on Earth./.../
SCIENTISTS SEEK TO UNLOCK KEY TO LONGER LIVES
Helen Faith Keane Reichert was born on Nov. 11, 1901 on Manhattan’s
Lower East Side. Together with her brother Irving, 104,
and Peter, 100, and her sister Lee, who died in 2005 at
the age of 102, she is part of the oldest quartet of
siblings in the world.
The Secrets of the Supercentenarians
By Samiha Shafy
Der Spiegel
Der Spiegel
How is it possible to live more than a century yet still remain healthy and lucid? Scientists believe there may be a genetic link. The Kahn siblings in America, aged 108, 104 and 100, are helping researchers to unlock those secrets.
Helen is 108 years old. She hates salads, vegetables, getting up early and just about everything that has to do with a healthy lifestyle. She loves rare hamburgers, chocolate, cocktails and nightlife in New York: all the exotic restaurants, Broadway shows, movie theaters — where she recently saw “Iron Man 2″ — and the Metropolitan Opera. That’s where she attended her first opera, “Samson et Delila,” in 1918. It was a present from her father for her 17th birthday.
State of the Heart’ CVD Report
State of the Heart’ CVD Report
Every year, 17.1 million lives are claimed by the global burden of heart disease and stroke - 82% of which are in the developing world . The number of deaths – especially in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) – is alarming and saddening, particularly since through steps such as eating a healthy diet, regular physical activity and avoiding tobacco, the majority of these deaths could be prevented.
On the occasion of the 10th anniversary of World Heart Day the World Heart Federation, in partnership with the World Health Organization (WHO) and the World Economic Forum (WEF), is launching the ‘State of the Heart’ CVD Report.
- The World Heart Federation has initiated this report – the first of its kind – to reflect on the great achievements in cardiovascular disease (CVD) over the past decade, and raises awareness of the challenges still ahead of us in the fight against the number one killer worldwide.
- The report also calls upon employers, healthcare professionals, policy-makers and other stakeholders to implement the necessary activities to fight the growing burden of CVD.
New Discoveries into the Pathogenesis of Type 1 and Type 2 Diabetes
New Discoveries into the Pathogenesis of Type 1 and Type 2 Diabetes
STOCKHOLM -- In this exclusive press conference coverage, researchers discuss new findings in the pathogenesis of diabetes, including the potential involvement of environmental factors such as enteroviruses in triggering type 1 disease and DNA methylation in muscle cells leading to insulin resistance in patients with type 2 diabetes.
Wednesday, September 22 Available Now
Early Diabetes Not Helped by Intense Therapy
Early Diabetes Not Helped by Intense Therapy | |||||
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Social Cohesion
What is social cohesion?
As a concept, social cohesion has a long tradition in academic enquiry. It is of fundamental importance when discussing the role of consensus and conflict in society. From the mid‐1990s, interest in the dynamics of social cohesion grew amid concerns prompted by the impact of globalisation, economic change and fears fuelled by the ‘war on terror’. There is, however, no agreed definition of social cohesion. Most current definitions dwell on intangibles, such as sense of belonging, attachment to the group, willingness to participate and to share outcomes. They include three common elements: Shared vision: Most researchers maintain that social cohesion requires universal values, mutual respect and common aspirations or identity shared by their members.
A property of a group or community: Social cohesion tends to describe a well‐functioning core group or community in which there are shared goals and responsibilities and a readiness to cooperate with the other members.
A process: Social cohesion is generally viewed not simply as an outcome, but as a continuous and seemingly never‐ending process of achieving social harmony.
Differences in definition concern the factors that enhance (and erode) the process of communal harmony, and the relative weight attached to the operation of specific factors. The key factors are:
Economic: Levels of unemployment and poverty, income distribution, population mobility, health, life satisfaction and sense of security, and government responsiveness to issues of poverty and disadvantage.
Political: Levels of political participation and social involvement, including the extent of voluntarism, the development of social capital, understood in terms of networks, norms and social trust that facilitate coordination and co‐operation for mutual benefit.
Socio‐cultural: Levels of consensus and divergence (homogeneity and heterogeneity) on issues of local and national significance.
The present survey has adopted an eclectic, wideranging approach, influenced by the work of social scientists Jane Jenson and Paul Bernard, to incorporate five domains:
Belonging: Shared values, identification with Australia, trust.
Social justice and equity: Evaluation of national policies.
Participation: Voluntary work, political and cooperative involvement.
Acceptance and rejection, legitimacy: Experience of discrimination, attitudes towards minorities and newcomers.
Worth: Life satisfaction and happiness, future expectations./.../
Regulatory Action on Rosiglitazone
Regulatory Action on Rosiglitazone by the U.S. FDA
NEJM | September 23, 2010 | Topics: Drugs, Devices, and the FDA
Janet Woodcock, M.D., Joshua M. Sharfstein, M.D., and Margaret Hamburg, M.D.
There have been ongoing concerns about the safety of the diabetes drugs containing rosiglitazone (Avandia, Avandaryl, and Avandamet) — a thiazolidinedione antidiabetic agent indicated as an adjunct to diet and exercise to improve glycemic control in adults with type 2 diabetes mellitus.
In 2007, a meta-analysis of controlled clinical trials found increases in the risk of myocardial infarction and a near-significant increased risk of death from cardiovascular causes when rosiglitazone was compared with placebo or with standard diabetes drugs.1 Following an advisory committee meeting held in July 2007, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) added information about the possibility of ischemic cardiovascular risk to the drug’s existing boxed warning. At the same time, the FDA also required the sponsors to conduct a head-to-head cardiovascular safety trial of rosiglitazone versus pioglitazone — the other antidiabetic drug in this class available in the United States. After new data became available, the FDA held a second advisory committee meeting on rosiglitazone safety on July 13 and 14, 2010. On September 23, 2010, the FDA announced regulatory actions stemming from these deliberations
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The case of rosiglitazone underscores the need for a robust evidence base to demonstrate the safety of medicines administered long-term. The FDA is committed to advancing the science of drug safety evaluation, during both drug development and in the postmarketing period.
Editor’s note: The European Medicines Agency also took regulatory action on rosiglitazone on September 23 (www.ema.europa.eu/docs/en_GB/document_library/Press_release/2010/09/WC500096996.pdf).
This article (10.1056/NEJMp1010788) was published on September 23, 2010, at NEJM.org../.../
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
Medications increase smokers’ nicotine metabolism
Medications used to treat neurologic and psychiatric conditions increase smokers’ nicotine metabolismFrom: ASH Daily News for 22 September 2010 |
| Researchers from UMDNJ- Robert Wood Johnson Medical School found carbamazepine and oxycarbamazepine, medications commonly used to treat neurologic and psychiatric conditions, increase nicotine metabolism in smokers. As nicotine metabolism increases, cravings for nicotine return more quickly which could lead to more frequent cigarette consumption among individuals who also take these medications. Study author Jill M. Williams, M.D., an associate professor of psychiatry and director of the Division of Addiction Psychiatry at UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, said "the effects of these medications may have serious implications on nicotine metabolism and smoking behaviour." |
Report Predicts Massive Dementia Burden
Report Predicts Massive Dementia Burden
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Monday, September 20, 2010
Objetivos do Milênio
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Tempestade solar altera regras de segurança de voos em Brasília
Tempestade solar altera regras de segurança de voos em Brasília
Decolagens em Brasília serão suspensas entre 14h45min e 15h.
Medidas serão implementadas até o dia 20 de setembro.
O comando da Aeronáutica informou nesta quinta-feira (16) que está implementando medidas de segurança a fim de evitar eventuais problemas causados por uma tempestade solar, que deve afetar o espaço aéreo de Brasília até o dia 20 de setembro.
Veja vídeo ao lado.O fenômeno é uma interferência natural que ocorre por conta do alinhamento entre o Sol e a Terra, causando interferência em sistemas de comunicação, como satélite, e pode durar de 3 a 16 minutos, entre 14h45min e 15h. Durante esse período, todas as decolagens serão suspensas no aeroporto Juscelino Kubitschek.