AMICOR

Social Justice

2012-02-02T20:08:00.000-02:00

From Dennis Raphael:
Social Justice
Based on

2012-02-02T07:10:00.000-02:00

200TH ANNIVERSARY ARTICLE
The Perpetual Challenge of Infectious Diseases
Anthony S. Fauci, M.D., and David M. Morens, M.D.
N Engl J Med 2012; 366:454-461February 2, 2012
Interactive Timeline

The Perpetual Challenge of Infectious Diseases.
Among the many challenges to health, infectious diseases stand out for their ability to have a profound impact on the human species. Great pandemics and local epidemics alike have influenced the course of wars, determined the fates of nations and empires, and affected the progress of civilization, making infections compelling actors in the drama of human history.1-11 For 200 years, the Journal has captured the backdrop to this human drama in thousands of articles about infectious diseases and about biomedical research and public health efforts to understand, treat, control, and prevent them./../

sustainable development

2012-02-01T11:08:00.000-02:00

RESILIENT PEOPLE
RESILIENT PLANET
A F u t u r e Wo r t h C h o o s i n g

Report

The High-level Panel on Global Sustainability presents its report to the Secretary-General on 30 January 2012 in Addis Ababa.

The 22-member Panel, established by the Secretary-General in August 2010 to formulate a new blueprint for sustainable development and low-carbon prosperity, was co-chaired by Finnish President Tarja Halonen and South African President Jacob Zuma. The Panel's final report, "Resilient People, Resilient Planet: A Future Worth Choosing", contains 56 recommendations to put sustainable development into practice and to mainstream it into economic policy as quickly as possible.

Resilient People, Resilient Planet: A Future Worth Choosing (full report)
* Please note that the full report has not yet been formatted as a publication. The publication version will be available in mid-February 2012.
Overview of the Report
[Overview in letter size paper] [Overview in A4 size paper]

Please click here to view the Press Release of the launch of the report.

2534 - AMICOR 14

2012-01-29T22:46:00.001-02:00

virus + bacteria: evolution

Aloyzio AchuttiemAMICOR - 47 segundos atrás

[image: Evolution of a trait. An image of the protein, LamB, on the surface of the bacterial cell. Scientists examined what happened with the virus could no longer infect the bacteria through this protein.]*An image of a protein, LamB, found on the surface of the bacterial cell. Scientists examined what happened when a virus could no longer infect the bacteria through this protein. CREDIT: Justin Meyer * *View full size image* The arms race between a virus and the bacteria it attacks has helped scientists better *understand one of the mysteries of evolution: How new traits evolve.* ... mais »

Alzheimer

Aloyzio AchuttiemAMICOR - 1 dia atrás

Modelo ideal Por meio do estudo de neurônios criados a partir de células da pele de pacientes com Alzheimer, pesquisadores norte-americanos obtêm dados inéditos sobre mecanismos envolvidos no desenvolvimento da doença. O feito é tema da coluna deste mês de Stevens Rehen. Por: Stevens Rehen Publicado em 27/01/2012 | Atualizado em 27/01/2012 [image: Modelo ideal] Por meio da técnica de reprogramação celular, pesquisadores do Instituto de Pesquisas Salk, da Califórnia (EUA), criaram neurônios a partir de células da pele de pacientes com Alzheimer. (foto: Goldstein et al./ Nature) O estud... mais »

Risk factor by 55

Aloyzio AchuttiemAMICOR - 3 dias atrás

Risk of Cardiac Death Pretty Much Set by 55 *By Crystal Phend, Senior Staff Writer, MedPage Today Published: January 25, 2012 Reviewed by Robert Jasmer, MD; Associate Clinical Professor of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco.* Two or more major risk factors at age 55 predicted a 29.6% chance of death from cardiovascular disease by age 80 for men and 20.5% for women, Donald M. Lloyd-Jones, MD, of Northwestern University in Chicago, and colleagues found.Even a couple of traditional cardiovascular risk factors in middle age spell high lifetime risk for the heart, researche... mais »

Capitalism: Davos

Aloyzio AchuttiemAMICOR - 4 dias atrás

DAVOS How to Save Capitalism By MICHAEL SCHUMAN | January 19, 2012 | * * [image: FABRICE COFFRINI / AFP / GETTY IMAGES] FABRICE COFFRINI / AFP / GETTY IMAGES A guard stands next to a logo of the World Economic Forum (WEF) at the Congress Center in the Swiss resort of Davos on January 24, 2012. As the global economic crisis enters its fourth excruciating year, just about everybody who can be blamed for the downturn has been blamed. Irresponsible bankers. Greedy corporate executives. Incompetent regulators. Bickering politicians. Underpaid Chinese workers. Overpaid Greek workers. Georg... mais »

violence, gender...

Aloyzio AchuttiemAMICOR - 4 dias atrás

Male sex drive 'to blame for world's conflicts'The male sex drive is to blame for most of the world's conflicts from football hooliganism to religious disputes and even world wars, according to scientists. By Nick Collins, Science Correspondent [image: Male sex drive 'to blame for world's conflicts'] Men are programmed to be aggressive towards anyone they view as an outsider Photo: REX FEATURE The "male warrior" instinct means that men are programmed to be aggressive towards anyone they view as an outsider, a study claims. In evolutionary terms an instinct for violence against others... mais »

Underwater paradise

Aloyzio AchuttiemAMICOR - 4 dias atrás

* *

Futurology

Aloyzio AchuttiemAMICOR - 4 dias atrás

[image: Robot] Twenty top predictions for life 100 years from now Continue reading the main story In today's Magazine - How do Australians respond to shark attacks? - Hymn to the birds and trees - Three decades hiding in the Guam jungle - What do Scottish Americans think of independence? Last week we asked readers for their predictions of life in 100 years time. Inspired by ten 100-year predictions made by American civil engineer John Elfreth Watkins in 1900, many of you wrote in with your vision of the world in 2112. Many of the "strange, almost impossible" predictions... mais »

Preventable Risk Factors for NCD

Aloyzio AchuttiemAMICOR - 4 dias atrás

Adult Mortality Attributable to Preventable Risk Factors for Non-Communicable Diseases and Injuries in Japan: A Comparative Risk Assessment *1* Department of Global Health Policy, Graduate School of Medicine, University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan, *2* Epidemiology and Prevention Division, Research Center for Cancer Prevention and Screening, National Cancer Center, Tokyo, Japan, *3* Department of Social and Environmental Medicine, Osaka University Graduate School of Medicine, Osaka, Japan, *4* International University of Health and Welfare Graduate School, Tokyo, Japan, *5* Kitasato Cli... mais »

Thirdhand Smoke

Aloyzio AchuttiemAMICOR - 5 dias atrás

'Thirdhand Smoke' May Be Bigger Health Hazard Than Previously Believed ScienceDaily (Jan. 12, 2011) — Scientists are reporting that so-called "thirdhand smoke" -- the invisible remains of cigarette smoke that deposits on carpeting, clothing, furniture and other surfaces -- may be even more of a health hazard than previously believed. The study, published in ACS' journal,*Environmental Science & Technology*, extends the known health risks of tobacco among people who do not smoke but encounter the smoke exhaled by smokers or released by smoldering cigarette butts./.../ *Scientists are ... mais »

virus + bacteria: evolution

2012-01-29T22:43:00.002-02:00

An image of a protein, LamB, found on the surface of the bacterial cell. Scientists examined what happened when a virus could no longer infect the bacteria through this protein.
CREDIT: Justin Meyer

View full size image

The arms race between a virus and the bacteria it attacks has helped scientists better understand one of the mysteries of evolution: How new traits evolve.

In a series of experiments, the bacteria-infecting viruses repeatedly acquired the ability to attack their host bacteria through a different "doorway," or receptor on the bacteria's cellular membrane, explained Justin Meyer, the lead researcher and a graduate student at Michigan State University. [Video: The Virus Mutates]

Alzheimer

2012-01-28T09:51:00.000-02:00

Modelo ideal

Por meio do estudo de neurônios criados a partir de células da pele de pacientes com Alzheimer, pesquisadores norte-americanos obtêm dados inéditos sobre mecanismos envolvidos no desenvolvimento da doença. O feito é tema da coluna deste mês de Stevens Rehen.

Por: Stevens Rehen

Publicado em 27/01/2012 | Atualizado em 27/01/2012

Por meio da técnica de reprogramação celular, pesquisadores do Instituto de Pesquisas Salk, da Califórnia (EUA), criaram neurônios a partir de células da pele de pacientes com Alzheimer. (foto: Goldstein et al./ Nature)

O estudo das doenças do cérebro humano é fascinante, porém extremamente desafiador.

O neurocientista tem as seguintes opções: 1) analisar o tecido nervoso de pessoas já falecidas, material difícil de ser obtido e que representa na maioria das vezes estágios terminais das neuropatologias; 2) usar animais de experimentação, que, apesar de extremamente úteis, em muitos casos são incapazes de reproduzir várias das características dessas doenças; 3) utilizar células do sangue de pacientes acometidos por doenças neurodegenerativas ou demências. Neste último caso, apesar de essas células ajudarem na identificação de marcadores genéticos dessas patologias, a maioria das características metabólicas de doenças que acometem o cérebro não necessariamente é observada fora dele./.../

Risk factor by 55

2012-01-26T18:30:00.002-02:00

Risk of Cardiac Death Pretty Much Set by 55

By Crystal Phend, Senior Staff Writer, MedPage Today Published: January 25, 2012
Reviewed by Robert Jasmer, MD; Associate Clinical Professor of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco.

Two or more major risk factors at age 55 predicted a 29.6% chance of death from cardiovascular disease by age 80 for men and 20.5% for women, Donald M. Lloyd-Jones, MD, of Northwestern University in Chicago, and colleagues found.Even a couple of traditional cardiovascular risk factors in middle age spell high lifetime risk for the heart, researchers affirmed.

But for 55-year-olds with a clean bill of cardiovascular health, lifetime risk was only 4.7% for men and 6.4% for women in the analysis of patient-level data from more than 250,000 individuals across 18 longitudinal studies.

The effect was similar for heart attacks and strokes and regardless of race or era in which one was born, the group reported in the Jan. 26 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

Risk assessment typically considers only short-term risk, such as 10-year risk with the Framingham prediction tool, the group noted.

"However, the majority of adults in the U.S. who are considered to be at low risk for cardiovascular disease in the short term are actually at high risk across their remaining lifespan," Lloyd-Jones and colleagues wrote./.../

Capitalism: Davos

2012-01-25T11:15:00.000-02:00

DAVOS

How to Save Capitalism

By MICHAEL SCHUMAN | January 19, 2012 |

FABRICE COFFRINI / AFP / GETTY IMAGES

A guard stands next to a logo of the World Economic Forum (WEF) at the Congress Center in the Swiss resort of Davos on January 24, 2012.

As the global economic crisis enters its fourth excruciating year, just about everybody who can be blamed for the downturn has been blamed. Irresponsible bankers. Greedy corporate executives. Incompetent regulators. Bickering politicians. Underpaid Chinese workers. Overpaid Greek workers. George W. Bush. Ben Bernanke. Angela Merkel. Credit-rating agencies. The euro. Spendthrift American consumers. After the worst financial disaster since the Great Depression of the 1930s, there has been no shortage of vilification to go around. With another grim year likely ahead and no ready solutions in sight, a new target has arisen in the public’s crosshairs: capitalism itself.

violence, gender...

2012-01-25T09:47:00.002-02:00

Male sex drive 'to blame for world's conflicts'

The male sex drive is to blame for most of the world's conflicts from football hooliganism to religious disputes and even world wars, according to scientists.

By Nick Collins, Science Correspondent

Men are programmed to be aggressive towards anyone they view as an outsider Photo: REX FEATURE

The "male warrior" instinct means that men are programmed to be aggressive towards anyone they view as an outsider, a study claims.

In evolutionary terms an instinct for violence against others helped early men improve their status and gain more access to mates, but in modern terms this can translate into large-scale wars.

In contrast women are naturally equipped with a "tend and befriend" attitude which means they seek to resolve conflicts peacefully in order to protect their children, researchers said.

The study, published in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, is a review of evolutionary evidence for the so-called "male warrior hypothesis"./.../

Underwater paradise

2012-01-25T09:35:00.001-02:00

Futurology

2012-01-25T09:25:00.000-02:00

Twenty top predictions for life 100 years from now

In today's Magazine

Last week we asked readers for their predictions of life in 100 years time. Inspired by ten 100-year predictions made by American civil engineer John Elfreth Watkins in 1900, many of you wrote in with your vision of the world in 2112.

Many of the "strange, almost impossible" predictions made by Watkins came true. Here is what futurologists Ian Pearson (IP) and Patrick Tucker (PT) think of your ideas./.../

Preventable Risk Factors for NCD

2012-01-25T09:04:00.001-02:00

Adult Mortality Attributable to Preventable Risk Factors for Non-Communicable Diseases and Injuries in Japan: A Comparative Risk Assessment

1 Department of Global Health Policy, Graduate School of Medicine, University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan, 2 Epidemiology and Prevention Division, Research Center for Cancer Prevention and Screening, National Cancer Center, Tokyo, Japan, 3 Department of Social and Environmental Medicine, Osaka University Graduate School of Medicine, Osaka, Japan, 4 International University of Health and Welfare Graduate School, Tokyo, Japan, 5 Kitasato Clinical Research Center, Kitasato University School of Medicine, Sagamihara, Japan,6 Department of Diabetes and Metabolic Medicine, National Center for Global Health and Medicine, Tokyo, Japan, 7 Department of Epidemiology and International Health, National Center for Global Health and Medicine, Tokyo, Japan, 8 Cancer Information Services and Surveillance Division, Center for Cancer Control and Information Services, National Cancer Center, Tokyo, Japan, 9 Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, United States of America, 10 MRC-HPA Centre for Environment and Health, Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Imperial College London, London, United KingdomNayu Ikeda¹^*, Manami Inoue², Hiroyasu Iso³, Shunya Ikeda⁴, Toshihiko Satoh⁵, Mitsuhiko Noda⁶, Tetsuya Mizoue⁷, Hironori Imano³, Eiko Saito¹, Kota Katanoda⁸,Tomotaka Sobue⁸, Shoichiro Tsugane², Mohsen Naghavi⁹,Majid Ezzati¹⁰, Kenji Shibuya¹

Abstract Top

Background

The population of Japan has achieved the longest life expectancy in the world. To further improve population health, consistent and comparative evidence on mortality attributable to preventable risk factors is necessary for setting priorities for health policies and programs. Although several past studies have quantified the impact of individual risk factors in Japan, to our knowledge no study has assessed and compared the effects of multiple modifiable risk factors for non-communicable diseases and injuries using a standard framework. We estimated the effects of 16 risk factors on cause-specific deaths and life expectancy in Japan.

Methods and Findings

We obtained data on risk factor exposures from the National Health and Nutrition Survey and epidemiological studies, data on the number of cause-specific deaths from vital records adjusted for ill-defined codes, and data on relative risks from epidemiological studies and meta-analyses. We applied a comparative risk assessment framework to estimate effects of excess risks on deaths and life expectancy at age 40 y. In 2007, tobacco smoking and high blood pressure accounted for 129,000 deaths (95% CI: 115,000–154,000) and 104,000 deaths (95% CI: 86,000–119,000), respectively, followed by physical inactivity (52,000 deaths, 95% CI: 47,000–58,000), high blood glucose (34,000 deaths, 95% CI: 26,000–43,000), high dietary salt intake (34,000 deaths, 95% CI: 27,000–39,000), and alcohol use (31,000 deaths, 95% CI: 28,000–35,000). In recent decades, cancer mortality attributable to tobacco smoking has increased in the elderly, while stroke mortality attributable to high blood pressure has declined. Life expectancy at age 40 y in 2007 would have been extended by 1.4 y for both sexes (men, 95% CI: 1.3–1.6; women, 95% CI: 1.2–1.7) if exposures to multiple cardiovascular risk factors had been reduced to their optimal levels as determined by a theoretical-minimum-risk exposure distribution.

Conclusions

Tobacco smoking and high blood pressure are the two major risk factors for adult mortality from non-communicable diseases and injuries in Japan. There is a large potential population health gain if multiple risk factors are jointly controlled./.../

Thirdhand Smoke

2012-01-24T12:18:00.000-02:00

'Thirdhand Smoke' May Be Bigger Health Hazard Than Previously Believed

ScienceDaily (Jan. 12, 2011) — Scientists are reporting that so-called "thirdhand smoke" -- the invisible remains of cigarette smoke that deposits on carpeting, clothing, furniture and other surfaces -- may be even more of a health hazard than previously believed. The study, published in ACS' journal,Environmental Science & Technology, extends the known health risks of tobacco among people who do not smoke but encounter the smoke exhaled by smokers or released by smoldering cigarette butts./.../

Scientists are reporting that so-called "thirdhand smoke" -- the invisible remains of cigarette smoke that deposits on carpeting, clothing, furniture and other surfaces -- may be even more of a health hazard than previously believed. (Credit: iStockphoto/Rosemarie Gearhart)enlarge

2533 - AMICOR 14

2012-01-22T11:32:00.002-02:00

Amazonia

Aloyzio AchuttiemAMICOR - 2 minutos atrás

[image: LatinContent/Getty Images]LATINCONTENT/GETTY IMAGES FORESTS Amazonia: What’s Happening to the World’s Biggest Rain Forest? By BRYAN WALSH | @bryanrwalsh | January 18, 2012 | Deforestation in the Brazilian rain forest is slowing, but it's still happening—with major consequences for the global environment. I’d say you have to see the Amazon for yourself to understand how vast it is, but I’ve been there—and even I can’t imagine it. The rain forest is more than 2 million sq. miles—two-thirds the size of the continental United States—and the river system of the gigantic basin pro... mais »

Sympathetic Activity: Hypertension

Aloyzio AchuttiemAMICOR - 8 minutos atrás

From Medscape Education CardiologySympathetic Activity in the Pathophysiology of Hypertension Murray D. Esler, MBBS, PhD The goal of this activity is to provide information on hypertensive patients and discuss issues and trial data as well as how sympathetic activity can be introduced in a patient's management. *Learning Objectives* 1. Explain how the renal nerves can elevate central sympathetic drive and affect blood pressure control 2. Differentiate the role of afferent and efferent renal nerves 3. Review current treatments and experimental interventions aimed at the ... mais »

mental illness 1:5

Aloyzio AchuttiemAMICOR - 15 horas atrás

National report finds one-in-five Americans experienced mental illness in the past yearSubstance dependence and abuse rates higher among those experiencing mental illnessA new national report reveals that 45.9 million American adults aged 18 or older, or 20 percent of this age group, experienced mental illness in the past year. The rate of mental illness was more than twice as high among those aged 18 to 25 (29.9 percent) than among those aged 50 and older (14.3 percent). Adult women were also more likely than men to have experienced mental illness in the past year (23 percent vers... mais »

EMPHYSEMA

Aloyzio AchuttiemAMICOR - 15 horas atrás

EMPHYSEMA Cigarette Smoke Induction of Osteopontin (SPP1) Mediates TH17 Inflammation in Human and Experimental Emphysema 1. Ming Shan1,2, 2. Xiaoyi Yuan1,2, 3. Li-zhen Song1, 4. Luz Roberts1, 5. Nazanin Zarinkamar1, 6. Alexander Seryshev1, 7. Yiqun Zhang3, 8. Susan Hilsenbeck3, 9. Seon-Hee Chang4, 10. Chen Dong4, 11. David B. Corry1,2,5,* and 12. Farrah Kheradmand1,2,5,* 1Department of Medicine, Section of Pulmonary and Critical Care, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX 77030, USA ABSTRACT Smoking-related lung diseases are among th... mais »

CONFLICT OF INTEREST

Aloyzio AchuttiemAMICOR - 1 dia atrás

Who Else Is Paying Your Doctor?Published: January 20, 2012 It took longer than expected, but the Obama administration is finally poised to enact badly needed regulations requiring that the manufacturers of drugs, medical devices and medical supplies disclose all payments they make to doctors or teaching hospitals. The information, which would be posted on a government Web site, will allow patients to decide whether they need to worry about any possible conflicts of interest. - U.S. to Force Drug Firms to Report Money Paid to Doctors(January 17, 2012) Such payments can be for ... mais »

Tobacco: costs & savings

Aloyzio AchuttiemAMICOR - 2 dias atrás

The Return on Investment of a Medicaid Tobacco Cessation Program in Massachusetts - Article - Metrics - Related Content - Comments: 1 1 Department of Health Policy, School of Public Health and Health Services, The George Washington University, Washington, District of Columbia, United States of America, 2 Center for Health Policy Research, School of Public Health and Health Services, The George Washington University, Washington, District of Columbia, United States of AmericaPatrick Richard1¤, Kristina West1,Leighton Ku2* ** Abstract TopBackground and Objective A high pr... mais »

Exercise

Aloyzio AchuttiemAMICOR - 2 dias atrás

Science 20 January 2012: Vol. 335 no. 6066 p. 281 DOI: 10.1126/science.335.6066.281 - NEWS FOCUS AUTOPHAGY Explaining Exercise 1. Ken Garber* Exercise has many benefits, but the mechanisms behind them remain murky. Because autophagy’s recycling of cellular contents helps cells meet energy demands, researchers wondered whether exercise triggers autophagy and if that could somehow account for exercise’s benefits. In the December issue of Autophagy, an Italian research team reported the first evidence that exercise induces autophagy in the skeletal muscles of mice. This week ... mais »

Sexual Activity and Cardiovascular Disease

Aloyzio AchuttiemAMICOR - 2 dias atrás

*AHA Scientific Statement* ----------------------------------------------------------------- *Sexual Activity and Cardiovascular Disease: A Scientific Statement From the American Heart Association* Glenn N. Levine, Elaine E. Steinke, Faisal G. Bakaeen, Biykem Bozkurt, Melvin D. Cheitlin, Jamie Beth Conti, Elyse Foster, Tiny Jaarsma, Robert A. Kloner, Richard A. Lange, Stacy Tessler Lindau, Barry J. Maron, Debra K. Moser, E. Magnus Ohman, Allen D. Seftel, William J. Stewart on behalf of the American Heart Association Council on Clinical Cardiology, Council on Cardiovascular Nursing, ... mais »

Twitter

Aloyzio AchuttiemAMICOR - 2 dias atrás

Nine Things You Didn’t Know About TwitterBy PAUL BOUTINPublished: January 18, 2012 Enlarge This ImageTwitter, the minimalist-format social network that claims to have 100 million users, has built its reputation around its simplicity. Members can post to the service only in text messages of 140 characters or less. They can include a link to another site, or to a photo or video. They can repost other users’ messages on their own pages. They can send each other equally spartan private messages. That’s about it — or so it seems. Dongyun Lee Look more closely, and you’ll find that Twitter... mais »

Alzheimer

Aloyzio AchuttiemAMICOR - 3 dias atrás

Rules Updated for Postmortem Dx of Alzheimer's By John Gever, Senior Editor, MedPage Today Published: January 18, 2012 Reviewed by Dori F. Zaleznik, MD; Associate Clinical Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston. * * - A new guideline for the National Institute on Aging and the Alzeimer's Association recommends the "ABC" system for standardizing neuropathologic staging of Alzheimer's brain pathology on autopsy. - Note that the "ABC" system scores beta-amyloid plaques, neurofibrillary tangles, and neuritic plaques for an assessment of neuropathologi... mais »

Milky Way

Aloyzio AchuttiemAMICOR - 3 dias atrás

*Do Invisible Galaxies Swirl Around the Milky Way?* By MICHAEL D. LEMONICK Thursday, Jan. 19, 2012 NASA / MCT / Getty Images in Unless you're some kind of space nut, you're probably entirely unaware that the Milky Way, our home galaxy, isn't traveling through the cosmos alone. It's being shadowed by a litter of nearly a dozen dwarf galaxies that are far smaller and dimmer — a pack of cubs, you might say, yapping around the edges of the Mama Grizzly. If you widen your gaze to include a much larger swath of space, you'll find what's called the Local Group — a half-dozen full-size ga... mais »

conflicts of interest

Aloyzio AchuttiemAMICOR - 5 dias atrás

QUOTATION OF THE DAY "Patients want to know they are getting treatment based on medical evidence, not a lunch or a financial relationship." ALLAN J. COUKELL, a consumer advocate at the Pew Charitable Trusts, on a rule that would require drug companies to disclose payments they make to doctors. U.S. to Force Drug Firms to Report Money Paid to Doctors By ROBERT PEAR Published: January 16, 2012 WASHINGTON — To head off medical conflicts of interest, the Obama administration is poised to require drug companies to disclose the payments they make to doctors for research, consulting, speak... mais »

About Dying

Aloyzio AchuttiemAMICOR - 5 dias atrás

What Doctors Know — and We Can Learn — About Dying Physicians are more likely to sign advance directives and avoid rescue measures at the end of their lives By SHANNON BROWNLEE | @ShannonBrownlee | January 16, 2012 | * * [image: Getty Images] GETTY IMAGES Brownlee's latest book is*Overtreated: Why Too Much Medicine is Making Us Sicker and Poorer*. Last month, an essay posted by retired physician Ken Murray called “How Doctors Die” got a huge amount of attention, some negative but mostly positive. Murray tells the story of an orthopedic surgeon who, after being diagnosed with pancreat... mais »

O FUTURO DAS CIDADES

Aloyzio AchuttiemAMICOR - 6 dias atrás

"O futuro das cidades", por Jean-Pierre Garnier *Indicado pela Dra. Maria Inês Reinert Azambuja* Le Monde Diplomatique *A luta por espaço * * * *A chegada, aos bairros operários, de grupos sociais pertencentes às classes de maior poder aquisitivo é vista, com frequência, como uma invasão. Para a maior parte dos moradores afetados, essa mudança significa especulação financeira e imobiliária, o que acelera sua expulsão e substituição por cidadãos mais abastados * por Jean-Pierre Garnier

Leucemia linfoide aguda

Aloyzio AchuttiemAMICOR - 6 dias atrás

Causa revelada: leucemia linfoide aguda Pesquisadores descobrem mutação que provoca leucemia infantil e já estudam novos medicamentos para tratar a doença. A pesquisa é tema da seção ‘Em dia’ da edição atual da revista CH. Por: Sofia Moutinho Publicado em 12/01/2012 | Atualizado em 12/01/2012 [image: Causa revelada] Um aspirado de medula óssea de um paciente com leucemia. A doença é o tipo de câncer mais comum entre crianças e adolescentes e faz cerca de 2 mil novas vítimas por ano no Brasil. (imagem: Mary Ann Thompson) Uma equipe de pesquisadores do Brasil e de Portugal, em colaboraçã... mais »

Amazonia

2012-01-22T11:24:00.002-02:00

LATINCONTENT/GETTY IMAGES

FORESTS

Amazonia: What’s Happening to the World’s Biggest Rain Forest?

By BRYAN WALSH | @bryanrwalsh | January 18, 2012 |

Deforestation in the Brazilian rain forest is slowing, but it's still happening—with major consequences for the global environment.

I’d say you have to see the Amazon for yourself to understand how vast it is, but I’ve been there—and even I can’t imagine it. The rain forest is more than 2 million sq. miles—two-thirds the size of the continental United States—and the river system of the gigantic basin produces 20% of the world’s freshwater discharge. The forest holds 100 billion metric tons of carbon—equivalent to more than 10 years’ worth of global fossil-fuel emissions. And the Amazon is the global capital of wildlife biodiversity, with more species calling the forest and rivers home than scientists could ever hope to name. It’s safe to say that as the Amazon goes, so goes the planet’s environment./.../

Sympathetic Activity: Hypertension

2012-01-22T11:18:00.000-02:00

From Medscape Education Cardiology

Sympathetic Activity in the Pathophysiology of Hypertension

Murray D. Esler, MBBS, PhD

The goal of this activity is to provide information on hypertensive patients and discuss issues and trial data as well as how sympathetic activity can be introduced in a patient's management.

Learning Objectives

Explain how the renal nerves can elevate central sympathetic drive and affect blood pressure control
Differentiate the role of afferent and efferent renal nerves
Review current treatments and experimental interventions aimed at the renal nerves to modulate blood pressure
Describe the scientific rationale behind how ablation of renal nerves can be applied to manage resistant hypertension

Sympathetic nervous system activation has been implicated in the development and progression of systemic hypertension related to a number of different etiologies. The degree of sympathetic nervous system activation correlates with the severity of blood pressure elevation and is more pronounced in the context of comorbid metabolic diseases including diabetes, obesity, and the metabolic syndrome. Dr. Murray Esler discusses the issues related to sympathetic activity pertaining to the pathophysiology of hypertension./.../

mental illness 1:5

2012-01-21T20:13:00.000-02:00

National report finds one-in-five Americans experienced mental illness in the past year

Substance dependence and abuse rates higher among those experiencing mental illness

A new national report reveals that 45.9 million American adults aged 18 or older, or 20 percent of this age group, experienced mental illness in the past year. The rate of mental illness was more than twice as high among those aged 18 to 25 (29.9 percent) than among those aged 50 and older (14.3 percent). Adult women were also more likely than men to have experienced mental illness in the past year (23 percent versus 16.8 percent).

Mental illness among adults aged 18 or older is defined as having had a diagnosable mental, behavioral, or emotional disorder (excluding developmental and substance use disorders) in the past year, based on criteria specified in theDiagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV; American Psychiatric Association [APA], 1994)./.../

EMPHYSEMA

2012-01-21T20:07:00.001-02:00

EMPHYSEMA

Cigarette Smoke Induction of Osteopontin (SPP1) Mediates T_H17 Inflammation in Human and Experimental Emphysema

Ming Shan¹,²,

Xiaoyi Yuan¹,²,

Li-zhen Song¹,

Luz Roberts¹,

Nazanin Zarinkamar¹,

Alexander Seryshev¹,

Yiqun Zhang³,

Susan Hilsenbeck³,

Seon-Hee Chang⁴,

Chen Dong⁴,

David B. Corry¹,²,⁵,* and

Farrah Kheradmand¹,²,⁵,*

Department of Medicine, Section of Pulmonary and Critical Care, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX 77030, USA

ABSTRACT

Smoking-related lung diseases are among the leading causes of death worldwide, underscoring the need to understand their pathogenesis and develop new effective therapies. We have shown that CD1a⁺ antigen-presenting cells (APCs) from lungs of patients with emphysema can induce autoreactive T helper 1 (T_H1) and T_H17 cells. Similarly, the canonical cytokines interferon-γ (IFN-γ) and interleukin-17A (IL-17A) are specifically linked to lung destruction in smokers, but how smoke activates APCs to mediate emphysema remains unknown. Here, we show that, in addition to increasing IFN-γ expression, cigarette smoke increased the expression of IL-17A in both CD4⁺ and γδ T cells from mouse lung. IL-17A deficiency resulted in attenuation of, whereas lack of γδ T cells exacerbated, smoke-induced emphysema in mice. Adoptive transfer of lung APCs isolated from mice with emphysema revealed that this cell population was capable of transferring disease even in the absence of active smoke exposure, a process that was dependent on IL-17A expression. Spp1 (the gene for osteopontin) was highly expressed in the pathogenic lung APCs of smoke-exposed mice and was required for the T_H17 responses and emphysema in vivo, in part through its inhibition of the expression of the transcription factor Irf7. Thus, the Spp1-Irf7 axis is critical for induction of pathological T_H17 responses, revealing a major mechanism by which smoke activates lung APCs to induce emphysema and identifying a pathway that could be targeted for therapeutic purposes.

Citation: M. Shan, X. Yuan, L.-z. Song, L. Roberts, N. Zarinkamar, A. Seryshev, Y. Zhang, S. Hilsenbeck, S.-H. Chang, C. Dong, D. B. Corry, F. Kheradmand, Cigarette Smoke Induction of Osteopontin (SPP1) Mediates T_H17 Inflammation in Human and Experimental Emphysema. Sci. Transl. Med. 4, 117ra9 (2012).

2012-01-21T08:54:00.000-02:00

Who Else Is Paying Your Doctor?

Published: January 20, 2012

It took longer than expected, but the Obama administration is finally poised to enact badly needed regulations requiring that the manufacturers of drugs, medical devices and medical supplies disclose all payments they make to doctors or teaching hospitals. The information, which would be posted on a government Web site, will allow patients to decide whether they need to worry about any possible conflicts of interest.

U.S. to Force Drug Firms to Report Money Paid to Doctors(January 17, 2012)

Such payments can be for legitimate research and consulting. But there is also a lot of cash being spread around to pay for doctors’ travel and entertainment or for gifts or modest meals for a prescribing doctor’s staff.

As Robert Pear reported in The Times this week, some prominent doctors and researchers receive hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars a year in exchange for providing advice to a company or giving lectures on its behalf. About a quarter of all doctors take some cash payments from drug or device makers and nearly two-thirds accept meals or food gifts. Analysts contend that even seemingly trivial gifts can influence doctors to prescribe expensive drugs that may not be best for a patient’s health or pocketbook./.../

Tobacco: costs & savings

2012-01-20T11:11:00.002-02:00

The Return on Investment of a Medicaid Tobacco Cessation Program in Massachusetts

1 Department of Health Policy, School of Public Health and Health Services, The George Washington University, Washington, District of Columbia, United States of America, 2 Center for Health Policy Research, School of Public Health and Health Services, The George Washington University, Washington, District of Columbia, United States of AmericaPatrick Richard¹^¤, Kristina West¹,Leighton Ku²^*

Abstract Top

Background and Objective

A high proportion of low-income people insured by the Medicaid program smoke. Earlier research concerning a comprehensive tobacco cessation program implemented by the state of Massachusetts indicated that it was successful in reducing smoking prevalence and those who received tobacco cessation benefits had lower rates of in-patient admissions for cardiovascular conditions, including acute myocardial infarction, coronary atherosclerosis and non-specific chest pain. This study estimates the costs of the tobacco cessation benefit and the short-term Medicaid savings attributable to the aversion of inpatient hospitalization for cardiovascular conditions.

Methods

A cost-benefit analysis approach was used to estimate the program's return on investment. Administrative data were used to compute annual cost per participant. Data from the 2002–2008 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey and from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance Surveys were used to estimate the costs of hospital inpatient admissions by Medicaid smokers. These were combined with earlier estimates of the rate of reduction in cardiovascular hospital admissions attributable to the tobacco cessation program to calculate the return on investment.

Findings

Administrative data indicated that program costs including pharmacotherapy, counseling and outreach costs about $183 per program participant (2010 $). We estimated inpatient savings per participant of $571 (range $549 to $583). Every $1 in program costs was associated with $3.12 (range $3.00 to $3.25) in medical savings, for a $2.12 (range $2.00 to $2.25) return on investment to the Medicaid program for every dollar spent.

Conclusions

These results suggest that an investment in comprehensive tobacco cessation services may result in substantial savings for Medicaid programs. Further federal and state policy actions to promote and cover comprehensive tobacco cessation services in Medicaid may be a cost-effective approach to improve health outcomes for low-income populations.

Exercise

2012-01-20T09:26:00.004-02:00

Science 20 January 2012:
Vol. 335 no. 6066 p. 281
DOI: 10.1126/science.335.6066.281

NEWS FOCUS

AUTOPHAGY

Explaining Exercise

Ken Garber*

Exercise has many benefits, but the mechanisms behind them remain murky. Because autophagy’s recycling of cellular contents helps cells meet energy demands, researchers wondered whether exercise triggers autophagy and if that could somehow account for exercise’s benefits. In the December issue of Autophagy, an Italian research team reported the first evidence that exercise induces autophagy in the skeletal muscles of mice. This week in Nature, other researchers confirm that observation and extend it much further, documenting that autophagy is required for exercise’s beneficial metabolic effects./.../

Exercise-induced BCL2-regulated autophagy is required for muscle glucose homeostasis

Nature

(2012)

doi:10.1038/nature10758

Received: 22 September 2010
Accepted: 06 December 2011
Published online: 18 January 2012

Exercise has beneficial effects on human health, including protection against metabolic disorders such as diabetes¹. However, the cellular mechanisms underlying these effects are incompletely understood. The lysosomal degradation pathway, autophagy, is an intracellular recycling system that functions during basal conditions in organelle and protein quality control². During stress, increased levels of autophagy permit cells to adapt to changing nutritional and energy demands through protein catabolism³. Moreover, in animal models, autophagy protects against diseases such as cancer, neurodegenerative disorders, infections, inflammatory diseases, ageing and insulin resistance^4, 5, 6. Here we show that acute exercise induces autophagy in skeletal and cardiac muscle of fed mice. To investigate the role of exercise-mediated autophagy in vivo, we generated mutant mice that show normal levels of basal autophagy but are deficient in stimulus (exercise- or starvation)-induced autophagy. These mice (termed BCL2 AAA mice) contain knock-in mutations in BCL2 phosphorylation sites (Thr69Ala, Ser70Ala and Ser84Ala) that prevent stimulus-induced disruption of the BCL2–beclin-1 complex and autophagy activation. BCL2 AAA mice show decreased endurance and altered glucose metabolism during acute exercise, as well as impaired chronic exercise-mediated protection against high-fat-diet-induced glucose intolerance. Thus, exercise induces autophagy, BCL2 is a crucial regulator of exercise- (and starvation)-induced autophagy in vivo, and autophagy induction may contribute to the beneficial metabolic effects of exercise./.../

Sexual Activity and Cardiovascular Disease

2012-01-19T22:49:00.000-02:00

AHA Scientific Statement
-----------------------------------------------------------------

Sexual Activity and Cardiovascular Disease: A Scientific Statement From the American Heart Association
Glenn N. Levine, Elaine E. Steinke, Faisal G. Bakaeen, Biykem Bozkurt, Melvin D. Cheitlin, Jamie Beth Conti, Elyse Foster, Tiny Jaarsma, Robert A. Kloner, Richard A. Lange, Stacy Tessler Lindau, Barry J. Maron, Debra K. Moser, E. Magnus Ohman, Allen D. Seftel, William J. Stewart on behalf of the American Heart Association Council on Clinical Cardiology, Council on Cardiovascular Nursing, Council on Cardiovascular Surgery and Anesthesia,
and Council on Quality of Care and Outcomes Research Circulation published 19 January 2012, 10.1161/CIR.0b013e3182447787

Sexual activity is an important component of patient and partner quality of life for men and women with cardiovascular disease (CVD), including many elderly patients.
Decreased sexual activity and function are common in patients with CVD and are often interrelated to anxiety and depression.
The intent of this American Heart Association Scientific Statement is to synthesize and summarize data
relevant to sexual activity and heart disease in order to provide recommendations and foster physician and other
healthcare professional communication with patients about sexual activity. Recommendations in this document are based on published studies, the Princeton Consensus Panel, the 36th Bethesda Conference, European Society of Cardiology recommendations on physical activity and sports participation for patients with CVD, practice guidelines from the American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association and other organizations, and the multidisciplinary expertise of the writing group. The classification of recommendations in this document are based on established ACCF/AHA criteria (Table)
http://circ.ahajournals.org/cgi/reprint/CIR.0b013e3182447787v1?papetoc

Twitter

2012-01-19T15:48:00.001-02:00

Nine Things You Didn’t Know About Twitter

By PAUL BOUTIN

Published: January 18, 2012
Enlarge This Image Twitter, the minimalist-format social network that claims to have 100 million users, has built its reputation around its simplicity. Members can post to the service only in text messages of 140 characters or less. They can include a link to another site, or to a photo or video. They can repost other users’ messages on their own pages. They can send each other equally spartan private messages. That’s about it — or so it seems.

Dongyun Lee

Look more closely, and you’ll find that Twitter has been augmented, by the company and by other Internet toolmakers, with a virtual appliance store of simple, utilitarian features, widgets and services that let users find interesting posts, create photo albums or search Twitter more efficiently. Yet unlike, say, Facebook or Microsoft Office, Twitter’s power tools are easy to find and easy to figure out./.../

Alzheimer

2012-01-19T09:56:00.001-02:00

Rules Updated for Postmortem Dx of Alzheimer's

By John Gever, Senior Editor, MedPage Today Published: January 18, 2012
Reviewed by Dori F. Zaleznik, MD; Associate Clinical Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston.

A new guideline for the National Institute on Aging and the Alzeimer's Association recommends the "ABC" system for standardizing neuropathologic staging of Alzheimer's brain pathology on autopsy.

Note that the "ABC" system scores beta-amyloid plaques, neurofibrillary tangles, and neuritic plaques for an assessment of neuropathologic changes of Alzheimer's independent of premortem cognitive impairment.

Individuals who were cognitively normal at the time of death can nevertheless be diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease on the basis of autopsy findings alone, according to new guidelines endorsed by the National Institute on Aging (NIA) and the Alzheimer's Association.

The guidelines for postmortem assessment of Alzheimer's disease, which replace criteria issued in 1997, also call on pathologists to base diagnoses on an "ABC" risk score that combines assessments of beta-amyloid plaques, neurofibrillary tangles, and neuritic plaques.

Also new to the guidelines are specific protocols for evaluating other pathologies related to cognitive impairment and dementia, such as Lewy body disease, vascular brain injury, and hippocampal sclerosis.

The new guidelines were developed by a team led by Thomas Montine, MD, of the University of Washington in Seattle, and Bradley Hyman, MD, of Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.

They were published in two papers: one in the January issue of Acta Neuropathologica describing the practical assessment, and another online in Alzheimer's & Dementiathat reviewed the evidence base for the update./.../

Milky Way

2012-01-19T09:00:00.002-02:00

Do Invisible Galaxies Swirl Around the Milky Way?

By MICHAEL D. LEMONICK Thursday, Jan. 19, 2012

NASA / MCT / Getty Images

Unless you're some kind of space nut, you're probably entirely unaware that the Milky Way, our home galaxy, isn't traveling through the cosmos alone. It's being shadowed by a litter of nearly a dozen dwarf galaxies that are far smaller and dimmer — a pack of cubs, you might say, yapping around the edges of the Mama Grizzly. If you widen your gaze to include a much larger swath of space, you'll find what's called the Local Group — a half-dozen full-size galaxies and about 30 dwarfs./.../

160 billion planets in the Milky Way?!

M. Kornmesser / ESO

A cartoon view of the Milky Way shows stars bristling with planets. The planets, their orbits and the sizes of their host stars are all vastly magnified in the cartoon.

Alan Boyle

A statistical analysis based on a survey of millions of stars suggests that there's at least one planet for every star in the sky, and probably more. That would add up to 160 billion planets or so in the Milky Way.

"We conclude that stars are orbited by planets as a rule, rather than the exception," an international research team reports today in the journalNature./.../

conflicts of interest

2012-01-17T06:46:00.001-02:00

QUOTATION OF THE DAY

"Patients want to know they are getting treatment based on medical evidence, not a lunch or a financial relationship."

ALLAN J. COUKELL, a consumer advocate at the Pew Charitable Trusts, on a rule that would require drug companies to disclose payments they make to doctors.

U.S. to Force Drug Firms to Report Money Paid to Doctors

By ROBERT PEAR

Published: January 16, 2012

WASHINGTON — To head off medical conflicts of interest, the Obama administration is poised to require drug companies to disclose the payments they make to doctors for research, consulting, speaking, travel and entertainment.

Many researchers have found evidence that such payments can influence doctors’ treatment decisions and contribute to higher costs by encouraging the use of more expensive drugs and medical devices.

Consumer advocates and members of Congress say patients may benefit from the new standards, being issued by the government under the new health care law. Officials said the disclosures increased the likelihood that doctors would make decisions in the best interests of patients, without regard to the doctors’ financial interests/.../
.

About Dying

2012-01-16T12:34:00.001-02:00

What Doctors Know — and We Can Learn — About Dying

Physicians are more likely to sign advance directives and avoid rescue measures at the end of their lives

By SHANNON BROWNLEE | @ShannonBrownlee | January 16, 2012 |

GETTY IMAGES

Brownlee's latest book isOvertreated: Why Too Much Medicine is Making Us Sicker and Poorer.

Last month, an essay posted by retired physician Ken Murray called “How Doctors Die” got a huge amount of attention, some negative but mostly positive. Murray tells the story of an orthopedic surgeon who, after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, chose not to undergo treatment. The surgeon died some months later at home, never having set foot inside a hospital again.

Critics said that the essay was a biased opinion of how one should die, not an actual analysis of how doctors actually do die. And indeed, much of Murray’s essay was anecdotal. Murray writes that his physician friends wear medallions with DNR, or Do Not Resuscitate, orders. They instruct their colleagues to not take any heroic measures and to keep them out of the ICU at the end of life. He’s even seen a colleague with a DNR tattoo, something I’ve been threatening to get for a long time.

2012-01-16T10:38:00.002-02:00

"O futuro das cidades", por Jean-Pierre Garnier

Indicado pela Dra. Maria Inês Reinert Azambuja

Le Monde Diplomatique

A luta por espaço

A chegada, aos bairros operários, de grupos sociais pertencentes às classes de maior poder aquisitivo é vista, com frequência, como uma invasão. Para a maior parte dos moradores afetados, essa mudança significa especulação financeira e imobiliária, o que acelera sua expulsão e substituição por cidadãos mais abastados

por Jean-Pierre Garnier

leucemia linfoide aguda

2012-01-15T17:20:00.000-02:00

Causa revelada: leucemia linfoide aguda

Pesquisadores descobrem mutação que provoca leucemia infantil e já estudam novos medicamentos para tratar a doença. A pesquisa é tema da seção ‘Em dia’ da edição atual da revista CH.

Por: Sofia Moutinho

Publicado em 12/01/2012 | Atualizado em 12/01/2012

Um aspirado de medula óssea de um paciente com leucemia. A doença é o tipo de câncer mais comum entre crianças e adolescentes e faz cerca de 2 mil novas vítimas por ano no Brasil. (imagem: Mary Ann Thompson)

Uma equipe de pesquisadores do Brasil e de Portugal, em colaboração com outros dos Estados Unidos e da Holanda, descobriu nos linfócitos T, células de defesa do organismo, uma mutação que provoca a leucemia linfoide aguda, caracterizada pela proliferação anormal dessas células.

A doença é o tipo de câncer mais comum entre crianças e adolescentes e faz cerca de 2 mil novas vítimas por ano no país, de acordo com o Ministério da Saúde./.../

2532 - AMICOR 14

2012-01-15T10:24:00.002-02:00

Anxiety

Aloyzio AchuttiemAMICOR - 8 minutos atrás

[image: Opinionator - A Gathering of Opinion From Around the Web] [image: ANXIETY] ANXIETYWe worry. Nearly one in five Americans suffer from anxiety. For many, it is not a disorder, but a part of the human condition. This series explores how we navigate the worried mind, through essay, art and memoir. January 14, 2012, *3:00 PM* It’s Still the ‘Age of Anxiety.’ Or Is It?By DANIEL SMITHIt’s hard to believe that anyone but scholars of modern literature or paid critics have read W.H. Auden’s dramatic poem “The Age of Anxiety” all the way through, even though it won a Pulitzer Prize in 19... mais »

How Pleasure Works

Aloyzio AchuttiemAMICOR - 1 dia atrás

Mind Reading: How Pleasure Works By MAIA SZALAVITZ | @maiasz | August 26, 2011 | * * [image: Getty Images] GETTY IMAGES How does the brain create the experience of joy and desire? That’s the subject of David Linden’s new book, *The Compass of Pleasure*. A professor of neuroscience at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Linden studies memory. But here, he explores the basis of craving, addiction and satisfaction. *Many people have heard that the neurotransmitter dopamine is the brain’s “pleasure” signal, but it’s more complicated than that. What does it really do?* It has ki... mais »

Web addiction

Aloyzio AchuttiemAMICOR - 2 dias atrás

[image: Brain scans of white matter]Brain scans of white matter in the brainBy Helen Briggs12 January 2012 Last updated at 00:42 GMT Continue reading the main story Web addicts have brain changes similar to those hooked on drugs or alcohol, preliminary research suggests. Experts in China scanned the brains of 17 young web addicts and found disruption in the way their brains were wired up. They say the discovery, published in Plos One, could lead to new treatments for addictive behaviour. Internet addiction is a clinical disorder marked by out-of-control internet use. A research t... mais »

Prevenindo DCNT: tabaco, álcool, hábitos alimentares e atividade física

Aloyzio AchuttiemAMICOR - 3 dias atrás

De: Vera Luiza da Costa e Silva Caros colegas, antes de mais nada,um feliz 2012! Informo que em 2012 ofereceremos uma disciplina no curso de Pós-Graduação da ENSP, sobre o tema: Prevenindo Doenças Crônicas Não-Transmissíveis: tabaco, álcool, hábitos alimentares e atividade física ENSP.00.813.1 e pode ser encontrado no link: http://www.sigass.fiocruz.br/pub/programa/disciplina.do?codP=1&codPeriodo=700&page=2 Também ofereceremos um Curso de Inverno de Políticas de Controle do Tabagismo ENSP.00.814.1 http://www.sigass.fiocruz.br/pub/programa/disciplina.do?codP=1&codPeriodo=701 A emen... mais »

Nicotine Gum

Aloyzio AchuttiemAMICOR - 3 dias atrás

Nicotine Gum and Skin Patch Face New DoubtBy BENEDICT CAREYPublished: January 9, 2012 The nicotine gum and patches that millions of smokers use to help kick their habit have no lasting benefit and may backfire in some cases, according to the most rigorous long-term study to date of so-called nicotine replacement therapy. Enlarge This Image Chris Goodney/Bloomberg News The study, published Monday in the journal Tobacco Control, included nearly 800 people trying to quit smoking over a period of several years, and is likely to inflame a long-running debate about the value of nicotine ... mais »

Stress & Brain

Aloyzio AchuttiemAMICOR - 3 dias atrás

*The Huffington Post* Amanda L. Chan Extreme Stress Could Shrink The Brain [image: Stress Shrinks Brain] Even for healthy people, stressful moments can take a toll on the brain, a new study from Yale University suggests. Researchers reported in the journal *Biological Psychiatry* that stressful moments in life -- like going through a divorce or being laid off -- can actually shrink the brain by reducing gray matter in regions tied to emotion and physiological functions. This is important because these changes in brain gray matter could signal future psychiatric problems, research... mais »

Weight Loss: Preventing Diabetes ?

Aloyzio AchuttiemAMICOR - 3 dias atrás

Weight Loss No Solution for Preventing Diabetes, Expert Says WASHINGTON -- Community-based weight-loss programs have not been shown to be effective at reducing the incidence of diabetes, so implementing a national program would likely be money down the drain, a diabetes expert said at a symposium on Tuesday.full story

The Neuroscience Of Optimism

Aloyzio AchuttiemAMICOR - 4 dias atrás

The Neuroscience Of Optimism[image: Neuroscience Optimism] *By Christoph W. Kon* *(Click here for the original article)* Ask a bride before walking down the aisle “How likely are you to get divorced?” and most will respond “Not a chance!” Tell her that the average divorce rate is close to 50 percent, and ask again. Would she change her mind? Unlikely. Even law students who have learned everything about the legal aspects of divorce, including its likelihood, state that their own chances of getting divorced are basically nil. How can we explain this?/.../

Guantanamo

Aloyzio AchuttiemAMICOR - 4 dias atrás

10 Years Later, Guantanamo Is STIL SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico -- Suleiman al-Nahdi waits with dozens of other prisoners in a seemingly permanent state of limbo five years after he was cleared for release from Guantanamo Bay. "I wonder if the U.S. government wants to keep us here forever," the 37-year-old al-Nahdi wrote in a recent letter to his lawyers. Open for 10 years on Wednesday, the prison seems more established than ever. The deadline set by President Barack Obama to close Guantanamo came and went two years ago. No detainee has left in a year because of restrictions on tran... mais »

Non Communicable Diseases

Aloyzio AchuttiemAMICOR - 4 dias atrás

*From ProCOR:* Global: NCDs teacher starter pack Attachments [image: UN Secretary Report]UN Secretary Report (137K)[download] [image: Richard Smith's NCD presentation]Richard Smith's NCD presentation (1940K)[download] Download Adobe Acrobat Reader to read PDF files. Richard Smith posted this "starter pack" for teaching NCDs in low- and middle-income countries to the UnitedHealth and NHLBI Collaborating Centers of Excellence discussion board. He was kind enough to share it with the ProCor community as well. The starter pack includes: 1. A PowerPoint presentation that Richard used whi... mais »

Middle-age Brain

Aloyzio AchuttiemAMICOR - 4 dias atrás

The Advantages of the Middle-Age Brain Despite news reports about cognitive decline starting at 45, the middle-age brain actually performs better in other ways By PATRICIA COHEN | @patcohennyt | January 10, 2012 | [image: Getty Images] GETTY IMAGES A study in the *British Medical Journal* lit up the Internet last week with the conclusion that cognitive decline begins at age 45. While it’s true that some innate skills like memory and speed of reasoning fall off as we age, other aspects of intelligence related to learning and experience actually improve. These findings are part of a w... mais »

Demografia Médica

Aloyzio AchuttiemAMICOR - 5 dias atrás

*Do Jornal Medicina: CFM* O jornal Medicina 203, disponível a partir desta segunda-feira (26) no Portal Médico, do Conselho Federal de Medicina (CFM), traz como destaque a desigualdade no acesso a especialistas desvelada no censo brasileiro de médicos especialistas e generalistas – um dos desdobramentos do estudo inédito apresentado pelo CFM em novembro: “Demografia médica no Brasil: dados gerais e descrições de desigualdades”. Uma importante constatação do censo – de que os profissionais das especialidades básicas (Cirurgia Geral, Clínica Médica, Pediatria, Ginecologia e Obstetríc...mais »

Anxiety

2012-01-15T09:57:00.003-02:00

ANXIETY

We worry. Nearly one in five Americans suffer from anxiety. For many, it is not a disorder, but a part of the human condition. This series explores how we navigate the worried mind, through essay, art and memoir.

January 14, 2012, 3:00 PM

It’s Still the ‘Age of Anxiety.’ Or Is It?

By DANIEL SMITH

It’s hard to believe that anyone but scholars of modern literature or paid critics have read W.H. Auden’s dramatic poem “The Age of Anxiety” all the way through, even though it won a Pulitzer Prize in 1948, the year after it was published. It is a difficult work — allusive, allegorical, at times surreal. But more to the point, it’s boring. The characters meet, drink, talk and walk around; then they drink, talk and walk around some more. They do this for 138 pages; then they go home/.../