Bitter gourd (also known as bitter melon) is common vegetable in tropics and subtropics, where it is cultivated abundantly and like by many people, for its special bitter taste and also for its various health benefits and medicinal properties, especially liked by diabetics for its anti-diabetic property. There are several health benefits of bitter gourd fruits as well as leaves. Different types of preparations are available, such as bitter gourd nutritional supplement capsules, juice etc.

One of the most important health benefit of bitter melon is that it is very low in calorie, have high concentration of various nutrients and high in fiber content. All these make bitter gourd full of health benefits and an ideal food for weight loss and also good food for individuals with constipation problem.

Bitter gourd has following nutritional contents (source wikipedia.org, UDA Nutrient Database) per 100 gram:

• Energy: 19 Calorie
• Water: 93.95 gram
• Fiber: 2 gram
• Sugars: 1.95 gram
• Protein: 0.84 gram
• Fats: minimal, in traces
• Minerals: calcium (9 mg), potassium (319 mg), sodium (6 mg), phosphorus (36 mg), magnesium (16 mg), zinc (0.77 mg) and iron (0.38 mg).
• Vitamins: A (6 mcg), C (33 mg), E (0.14 mg), K (4.8 mcg), B-complex (thiamine-51 mcg, ribloflavin-53 mcg, niacin-280 mcg, pyridoxine-41 mcg, folic acid-51 mcg). No vitamin B12 is present in bitter gourd.

The health benefits of bitter gourd are:

• Bitter gourd contains ingredients which can reduce blood sugar level in diabetics it is very much liked by diabetes patients.
• Bitter gourd has high fiber which is good for constipation. It can also stimulate digestion and helpful in dyspepsia.
• Rich in beta carotene, which is good for eye health.
• Very low in calorie and ideal for obese people to reduce weight.

Be cautious in bitter gourd consumption:

Bitter gourd/melon has several health benefits, but a word of caution is required, because excess consumption may have adverse health effects.

• Eating excess bitter gourd may cause diarrhea or abdominal pain.
• If you are a diabetic and take bitter gourd regularly (daily) and also you take oral hypoglycemic drugs or insulin, you may need to adjust the doses of your medication. Consult your doctor for dose adjustment.
• The seeds of bitter gourd contain a chemical called “vicine” which may trigger “favism” if an individual is susceptible to it. So be cautious.
• Pregnant women should not take bitter gourd (or its juice) in excess as it can cause stimulation of muscles of pregnant uterus and cause preterm labor (delivery before maturation of fetus/baby).
• Some parts of bitter gourd (such as red arils of seeds) are known to be toxic to children and they should avoid it.

Related posts:

Health Benefits of Omega-3 Fatty Acids

Know about MonaVie

Health Benefits of Spa Baths

Long Term Health Benefits of Breastfeeding in Infants

Health Benefits of Breastfeeding for Mother

Health Benefits of Exercise Bikes

Some Common Terms Used in Health/Nutrition: A to E

Health Risks of Omega-3 fatty acids

Common Terms of Nutrition/Health: F to Z

Best Foods to Reduce Belly Fat

Enlarge Jim Urquhart/AP

A pharmacy buyer at the University of Utah Hospital in Salt Lake City holds a tray of magnesium sulfate, a drug in short supply.

Jim Urquhart/AP

A pharmacy buyer at the University of Utah Hospital in Salt Lake City holds a tray of magnesium sulfate, a drug in short supply.

President Obama is wielding a unilateral prerogative of his office â€" the executive order â€" to get something done about a worsening shortage of essential drugs.

It's a problem that earlier this month one administration official called "a dire public health situation." Many thousands of patients with cancer, life-threatening infections, cardiac disease, severe gastrointestinal disorders and many other conditions aren't able to get the drugs they need.

Every day, doctors, nurses and pharmacy managers scramble to find workarounds. Often, they say, patients aren't aware they're getting a substitute for the preferred, first-line drug that health providers would normally use.

With no immediate prospect of a congressional fix, the president is extending his recent penchant for executive orders to the drug shortage problem.

 

His order has three elements:

• The Food and Drug Administration will broaden its requirements and voluntary requests for drug manufacturers to report potential supply problems.
• The FDA will speed up reviews of manufacturers' applications to begin or alter production of a drug in potentially short supply.
• The FDA will tell the Justice Department about possible instances of collusion or price gouging among drug distributors taking advantage of shortages.

The White House says it's beefing up the FDA's staff to carry out the new mandates.

These are stopgaps. Obama also is expected to announce his support for pending legislation that would require drug manufacturers to notify the FDA six months in advance of a potential shortage. At the moment, companies are only required to notify the government is they're discontinuing production of drugs deemed medically necessary.

And expert observers say that legislation, if it passes, will only be a partial solution to a problem that's rooted in the gradual consolidation of drug production â€" especially the manufacture of injectable drugs used mainly in hospitals. Most of these are older, generic medicines with thin profit margins.

The Department of Health and Human Services has just put out a 20-page economic analysis of the problem.

Only seven companies make the vast majority of these drugs. So when a particular company has contamination on its production line, or can't get an essential ingredient from abroad, other manufacturers can't pick up the slack.

Meanwhile, the problem is getting steady worse. Last year the FDA reported 178 drug shortages, although some sources say the number was really 211. Earlier this month, the number for 2011 had already surpassed that.

Bitter gourd (also known as bitter melon) is common vegetable in tropics and subtropics, where it is cultivated abundantly and like by many people, for its special bitter taste and also for its various health benefits and medicinal properties, especially liked by diabetics for its anti-diabetic property. There are several health benefits of bitter gourd fruits as well as leaves. Different types of preparations are available, such as bitter gourd nutritional supplement capsules, juice etc.

One of the most important health benefit of bitter melon is that it is very low in calorie, have high concentration of various nutrients and high in fiber content. All these make bitter gourd full of health benefits and an ideal food for weight loss and also good food for individuals with constipation problem.

Bitter gourd has following nutritional contents (source wikipedia.org, UDA Nutrient Database) per 100 gram:

• Energy: 19 Calorie
• Water: 93.95 gram
• Fiber: 2 gram
• Sugars: 1.95 gram
• Protein: 0.84 gram
• Fats: minimal, in traces
• Minerals: calcium (9 mg), potassium (319 mg), sodium (6 mg), phosphorus (36 mg), magnesium (16 mg), zinc (0.77 mg) and iron (0.38 mg).
• Vitamins: A (6 mcg), C (33 mg), E (0.14 mg), K (4.8 mcg), B-complex (thiamine-51 mcg, ribloflavin-53 mcg, niacin-280 mcg, pyridoxine-41 mcg, folic acid-51 mcg). No vitamin B12 is present in bitter gourd.

The health benefits of bitter gourd are:

• Bitter gourd contains ingredients which can reduce blood sugar level in diabetics it is very much liked by diabetes patients.
• Bitter gourd has high fiber which is good for constipation. It can also stimulate digestion and helpful in dyspepsia.
• Rich in beta carotene, which is good for eye health.
• Very low in calorie and ideal for obese people to reduce weight.

Be cautious in bitter gourd consumption:

Bitter gourd/melon has several health benefits, but a word of caution is required, because excess consumption may have adverse health effects.

• Eating excess bitter gourd may cause diarrhea or abdominal pain.
• If you are a diabetic and take bitter gourd regularly (daily) and also you take oral hypoglycemic drugs or insulin, you may need to adjust the doses of your medication. Consult your doctor for dose adjustment.
• The seeds of bitter gourd contain a chemical called “vicine” which may trigger “favism” if an individual is susceptible to it. So be cautious.
• Pregnant women should not take bitter gourd (or its juice) in excess as it can cause stimulation of muscles of pregnant uterus and cause preterm labor (delivery before maturation of fetus/baby).
• Some parts of bitter gourd (such as red arils of seeds) are known to be toxic to children and they should avoid it.

Related posts:

Health Benefits of Omega-3 Fatty Acids

Know about MonaVie

Health Benefits of Spa Baths

Long Term Health Benefits of Breastfeeding in Infants

Health Benefits of Breastfeeding for Mother

Health Benefits of Exercise Bikes

Some Common Terms Used in Health/Nutrition: A to E

Health Risks of Omega-3 fatty acids

Common Terms of Nutrition/Health: F to Z

Best Foods to Reduce Belly Fat

Roel Smart/iStockphoto.com

For some people at especially high risk of developing colon cancer, taking a couple aspirin a day appears to help protect them from the disease.

A study in The Lancet finds that people with Lynch syndrome, a hereditary predisposition to cancer of the digestive tract, who took aspirin twice a day for a up to 4 years were about 60 percent less likely to develop colorectal cancer than those who got a placebo.

Put another way, about 4 percent of the people taking aspirin got colorectal cancer compared to 7 percent of those getting the placebo over a follow-up period that averaged about 4 1/2 years.

 

The study found the protective effect took a few years to become apparent. In fact, a 2008 publication of results by the same study group found no benefit to taking aspirin, but follow-up wasn't as long.

The latest results sound promising, right? Well, don't run to the medicine chest without talking to your doctor.

The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, controversial as it can sometimes be, has a recommendation stretching back to 2007 that says the evidence doesn't support people at average risk fo cancer taking aspirin to prevent colorectal cancer. The benefits don't outweigh the risks.

Aspirin carries a risk of gastrointestinal bleeding. And it can increase the risk for strokes. Those risks increase with the dose dose.

The researchers for the Lancet study say the findings now support aspirin to help people with Lynch syndrome as the "standard of care." What's left to do is to figure out the right dose for those patients, probably a lower one than the 600 milligrams a day used in the study.

What about everyone else? Well, the USPSTF recommends that people ages 50 to 75 get screened for colorectal cancer, which can reduce deaths from the disease.

Bitter gourd (also known as bitter melon) is common vegetable in tropics and subtropics, where it is cultivated abundantly and like by many people, for its special bitter taste and also for its various health benefits and medicinal properties, especially liked by diabetics for its anti-diabetic property. There are several health benefits of bitter gourd fruits as well as leaves. Different types of preparations are available, such as bitter gourd nutritional supplement capsules, juice etc.

One of the most important health benefit of bitter melon is that it is very low in calorie, have high concentration of various nutrients and high in fiber content. All these make bitter gourd full of health benefits and an ideal food for weight loss and also good food for individuals with constipation problem.

Bitter gourd has following nutritional contents (source wikipedia.org, UDA Nutrient Database) per 100 gram:

• Energy: 19 Calorie
• Water: 93.95 gram
• Fiber: 2 gram
• Sugars: 1.95 gram
• Protein: 0.84 gram
• Fats: minimal, in traces
• Minerals: calcium (9 mg), potassium (319 mg), sodium (6 mg), phosphorus (36 mg), magnesium (16 mg), zinc (0.77 mg) and iron (0.38 mg).
• Vitamins: A (6 mcg), C (33 mg), E (0.14 mg), K (4.8 mcg), B-complex (thiamine-51 mcg, ribloflavin-53 mcg, niacin-280 mcg, pyridoxine-41 mcg, folic acid-51 mcg). No vitamin B12 is present in bitter gourd.

The health benefits of bitter gourd are:

• Bitter gourd contains ingredients which can reduce blood sugar level in diabetics it is very much liked by diabetes patients.
• Bitter gourd has high fiber which is good for constipation. It can also stimulate digestion and helpful in dyspepsia.
• Rich in beta carotene, which is good for eye health.
• Very low in calorie and ideal for obese people to reduce weight.

Be cautious in bitter gourd consumption:

Bitter gourd/melon has several health benefits, but a word of caution is required, because excess consumption may have adverse health effects.

• Eating excess bitter gourd may cause diarrhea or abdominal pain.
• If you are a diabetic and take bitter gourd regularly (daily) and also you take oral hypoglycemic drugs or insulin, you may need to adjust the doses of your medication. Consult your doctor for dose adjustment.
• The seeds of bitter gourd contain a chemical called “vicine” which may trigger “favism” if an individual is susceptible to it. So be cautious.
• Pregnant women should not take bitter gourd (or its juice) in excess as it can cause stimulation of muscles of pregnant uterus and cause preterm labor (delivery before maturation of fetus/baby).
• Some parts of bitter gourd (such as red arils of seeds) are known to be toxic to children and they should avoid it.

Related posts:

Health Benefits of Omega-3 Fatty Acids

Know about MonaVie

Health Benefits of Spa Baths

Long Term Health Benefits of Breastfeeding in Infants

Health Benefits of Breastfeeding for Mother

Health Benefits of Exercise Bikes

Some Common Terms Used in Health/Nutrition: A to E

Health Risks of Omega-3 fatty acids

Common Terms of Nutrition/Health: F to Z

Best Foods to Reduce Belly Fat

Gene Blythe/AP

Teenage drivers have fewer crashes after they've been driving for a while, but new research suggests that a few months behind the wheel doesn't improve their driving skills all that much.

Researchers persuaded 42 newly licensed teen drivers to have data-recording systems installed in their cars â€" a camera, a GPS, and an accelerometer to measures rapid stops, sharp turns and swerves. They also checked up on how their parents did when driving the same cars.

The idea was to compare the driving habits of novices with those of more experienced drivers under similar conditions.

How did it go? During the 18-month study, the teens experienced 37 crashes and 242 near-crashes, compared to two crashes and 32 near-crashes for the parents.

 

The accelerometer recorded some of the specific behaviors that were putting teens at risk, such as making 25-30 times as many sharp turns as their parents were.

The teens showed a high rate of accidents and near-accidents when they first started driving, which dropped as they gained experience, a pattern seen in previous studies.

But while the teens got more skilled at keeping their cars dent-free, "they did not improve in risky driving," Bruce Simons-Morton said in a media briefing Thursday. Simons-Morton, the lead author of the study, is a senior investigator at the Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.

The findings were published online by the American Journal of Public Health.

It's unclear whether the drivers continued their radical ways because they didn't know how to handle their vehicles or because they liked the way that type of driving feels.

Either way, they are putting themselves at risk for an accident by decreasing the amount of time they have to react to a situation and increasing the chance that they'll lose control of the car.

Simons-Morton noted that the degree to which a driver engages in these risky driving behaviors seems to be a good predictor of who will have a crash in the near future (that's the subject of a follow-up study not yet published). But unfortunately, teens are unlikely to adopt more cautious habits even after they've had an accident.

Learning to steer, brake and check rear-view mirrors only takes a couple of hours. But developing good judgment requires time, an exposure to a wide variety of situations and â€" more often than not â€" the exercise of bad judgment.

"The dilemma is that teens only learn by driving, but the more they drive, the greater the risk," Simons-Morton said.

Most states now have a graduated drivers license program designed to protect brand new drivers from the temptation to speed down the highway at midnight with their cell phone in one hand and a seat full of friends in the back. But the specifics and effectiveness of those programs vary, and some young drivers are finding ways to skirt the system.

Simons-Morton recommended that parents take an active role in their teens' learning process by setting rules that encourage safe driving, like limiting night driving, access to high-speed roads, and the number of passengers allowed in the car. While cruising around town with mom may not be as fun as taking trips with friends, teens can benefit from the guidance and judgment of a more experienced mentor.

Have you come across some words/terms such as antioxidants, BMI, essential amino acids, Probiotics, omegas etc., while reading a topic on health/nutrition? The chances are; you have come across such words/terms, but could not understand clearly what the meaning of these words. To solve your problem of not understanding commonly used terms in nutrition/medicine/health I came up with this article.

Alcohol:

The term alcohol usually denotes ethanol or ethyl alcohol, the commonly consumed alcoholic drinks, such as whisky, vodka, scotch, brandy, beer, wine etc. It contains high calories (7 calories per gram).

Amino acids:

These are smaller building blocks of proteins. A protein molecule is made up of several (a few to several hundreds or thousands) amino acids joined together in different sequences (which differentiate it from other protein). Proteins are made up of 20 different amino acids. A protein may have all the 20 amino acids or may not have all 20. Examples of common human proteins are albumin, globulin etc.

Essential amino acids: There are eight essential amino acids (out of total 20), which our body can not synthesize and must be consumed in diet.

Antioxidants:

These are molecules (such as vitamin E, vitamin C, some minerals etc.) which protect cells/tissues from damage by free radicals, which are free reactive electrons. They give away one electron and stabilize free radicals.

BMI or Body Mass Index:

This is a scale to determine if a person’s body weight is healthy for his height. A BMI of 18.5 to 25 is considered healthy. BMI below 18.5 is thin and BMI of more than 25 is overweight. BMI of more than 30 is obesity. BMI is calculated by dividing body weight in kilograms by height in meter square. For example if you have body weight or 70 kilo and your height is 1.75 meters, your BMI is 70/(1.75×1.75)= 22.85 (a healthy BMI).

Calorie:

This is a measure of energy expenditure by us. This is a measure of energy required to raise temperature of 1 gram of water by 1 degree Celsius (from 14.5 to 15.5 degree Celsius). In nutrition calorie indicate amount of heat (form of energy) released after combustion of food.

What we see in nutrition articles is actually kilocalorie (i.e. thousand calorie), for example if a healthy man need 2500 calorie per day, it actually means 2500 kilocalorie of energy requirement in a day.

Carbohydrates:

One of the three major ingredients of nutrition (carbohydrates, fats and proteins) and made up of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen. Contain 4 calories (4 kilocalories, to be precise) per gram of carbohydrate.

Complex carbohydrates: they are large molecules of carbohydrates, formed by joining of hundreds of monosaccharide (glucose) or disaccharides (fructose). Examples are fibers, starch etc.

Cholesterol:

This is like a two edged sword. It is an essential nutrient and required for performing normal physiological functions. But excess of cholesterol leads to several serious and chronic cardiovascular health problems we all are aware of. Cholesterol is produce in liver from saturated fats. It is required for synthesis of hormones such as steroid hormones.

HDL (high density lipoprotein) cholesterol: this is good cholesterol and help in removing excess cholesterol from bloodstream to liver.

LDL (low density lipoprotein) cholesterol: this is bad cholesterol. LDL carries cholesterol to different parts of the body and deposit in walls of the arteries and cause atherosclerosis (major cause of cardiovascular problems). Intake of high amount of saturated fats can lead to increased cardiovascular problems.

Enzymes:

Enzymes are protein in nature and they act as catalyst for different chemical reactions. For most chemical reactions, such as metabolism of food, enzymes are required. They are synthesized in our body.

Related posts:

Protein Requirement for Us

Important facts about Essential Amino Acids

Nutrition and Nutrients

Know about Sources of Protein

What are the Functions of Proteins?

Know About Whey Protein

Dietary Advise for Hypertension

Scientific Fact About Foods & Nutrition

Know about Unintentional Weight Loss

What are the Causes of Underweight?

Gene Blythe/AP

Teenage drivers have fewer crashes after they've been driving for a while, but new research suggests that a few months behind the wheel doesn't improve their driving skills all that much.

Researchers persuaded 42 newly licensed teen drivers to have data-recording systems installed in their cars â€" a camera, a GPS, and an accelerometer to measures rapid stops, sharp turns and swerves. They also checked up on how their parents did when driving the same cars.

The idea was to compare the driving habits of novices with those of more experienced drivers under similar conditions.

How did it go? During the 18-month study, the teens experienced 37 crashes and 242 near-crashes, compared to two crashes and 32 near-crashes for the parents.

 

The accelerometer recorded some of the specific behaviors that were putting teens at risk, such as making 25-30 times as many sharp turns as their parents were.

The teens showed a high rate of accidents and near-accidents when they first started driving, which dropped as they gained experience, a pattern seen in previous studies.

But while the teens got more skilled at keeping their cars dent-free, "they did not improve in risky driving," Bruce Simons-Morton said in a media briefing Thursday. Simons-Morton, the lead author of the study, is a senior investigator at the Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.

The findings were published online by the American Journal of Public Health.

It's unclear whether the drivers continued their radical ways because they didn't know how to handle their vehicles or because they liked the way that type of driving feels.

Either way, they are putting themselves at risk for an accident by decreasing the amount of time they have to react to a situation and increasing the chance that they'll lose control of the car.

Simons-Morton noted that the degree to which a driver engages in these risky driving behaviors seems to be a good predictor of who will have a crash in the near future (that's the subject of a follow-up study not yet published). But unfortunately, teens are unlikely to adopt more cautious habits even after they've had an accident.

Learning to steer, brake and check rear-view mirrors only takes a couple of hours. But developing good judgment requires time, an exposure to a wide variety of situations and â€" more often than not â€" the exercise of bad judgment.

"The dilemma is that teens only learn by driving, but the more they drive, the greater the risk," Simons-Morton said.

Most states now have a graduated drivers license program designed to protect brand new drivers from the temptation to speed down the highway at midnight with their cell phone in one hand and a seat full of friends in the back. But the specifics and effectiveness of those programs vary, and some young drivers are finding ways to skirt the system.

Simons-Morton recommended that parents take an active role in their teens' learning process by setting rules that encourage safe driving, like limiting night driving, access to high-speed roads, and the number of passengers allowed in the car. While cruising around town with mom may not be as fun as taking trips with friends, teens can benefit from the guidance and judgment of a more experienced mentor.

Have you come across some words/terms such as antioxidants, BMI, essential amino acids, Probiotics, omegas etc., while reading a topic on health/nutrition? The chances are; you have come across such words/terms, but could not understand clearly what the meaning of these words. To solve your problem of not understanding commonly used terms in nutrition/medicine/health I came up with this article.

Alcohol:

The term alcohol usually denotes ethanol or ethyl alcohol, the commonly consumed alcoholic drinks, such as whisky, vodka, scotch, brandy, beer, wine etc. It contains high calories (7 calories per gram).

Amino acids:

These are smaller building blocks of proteins. A protein molecule is made up of several (a few to several hundreds or thousands) amino acids joined together in different sequences (which differentiate it from other protein). Proteins are made up of 20 different amino acids. A protein may have all the 20 amino acids or may not have all 20. Examples of common human proteins are albumin, globulin etc.

Essential amino acids: There are eight essential amino acids (out of total 20), which our body can not synthesize and must be consumed in diet.

Antioxidants:

These are molecules (such as vitamin E, vitamin C, some minerals etc.) which protect cells/tissues from damage by free radicals, which are free reactive electrons. They give away one electron and stabilize free radicals.

BMI or Body Mass Index:

This is a scale to determine if a person’s body weight is healthy for his height. A BMI of 18.5 to 25 is considered healthy. BMI below 18.5 is thin and BMI of more than 25 is overweight. BMI of more than 30 is obesity. BMI is calculated by dividing body weight in kilograms by height in meter square. For example if you have body weight or 70 kilo and your height is 1.75 meters, your BMI is 70/(1.75×1.75)= 22.85 (a healthy BMI).

Calorie:

This is a measure of energy expenditure by us. This is a measure of energy required to raise temperature of 1 gram of water by 1 degree Celsius (from 14.5 to 15.5 degree Celsius). In nutrition calorie indicate amount of heat (form of energy) released after combustion of food.

What we see in nutrition articles is actually kilocalorie (i.e. thousand calorie), for example if a healthy man need 2500 calorie per day, it actually means 2500 kilocalorie of energy requirement in a day.

Carbohydrates:

One of the three major ingredients of nutrition (carbohydrates, fats and proteins) and made up of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen. Contain 4 calories (4 kilocalories, to be precise) per gram of carbohydrate.

Complex carbohydrates: they are large molecules of carbohydrates, formed by joining of hundreds of monosaccharide (glucose) or disaccharides (fructose). Examples are fibers, starch etc.

Cholesterol:

This is like a two edged sword. It is an essential nutrient and required for performing normal physiological functions. But excess of cholesterol leads to several serious and chronic cardiovascular health problems we all are aware of. Cholesterol is produce in liver from saturated fats. It is required for synthesis of hormones such as steroid hormones.

HDL (high density lipoprotein) cholesterol: this is good cholesterol and help in removing excess cholesterol from bloodstream to liver.

LDL (low density lipoprotein) cholesterol: this is bad cholesterol. LDL carries cholesterol to different parts of the body and deposit in walls of the arteries and cause atherosclerosis (major cause of cardiovascular problems). Intake of high amount of saturated fats can lead to increased cardiovascular problems.

Enzymes:

Enzymes are protein in nature and they act as catalyst for different chemical reactions. For most chemical reactions, such as metabolism of food, enzymes are required. They are synthesized in our body.

Related posts:

Protein Requirement for Us

Important facts about Essential Amino Acids

Nutrition and Nutrients

Know about Sources of Protein

What are the Functions of Proteins?

Know About Whey Protein

Dietary Advise for Hypertension

Scientific Fact About Foods & Nutrition

Know about Unintentional Weight Loss

What are the Causes of Underweight?

iStockphoto.com

Brain researchers say the big fluctuations in IQ performance they found in teens were not random â€" or a fluke.

For as long as there's been an IQ test, there's been controversy over what it measures. Do IQ scores capture a person's intellectual capacity, which supposedly remains stable over time? Or is the Intelligent Quotient exam really an achievement test â€" similar to the S.A.T. â€" that's subject to fluctuations in scores?

The findings of a new study add evidence to the latter theory: IQ seems to be a gauge of acquired knowledge that progresses in fits and starts.

In this week's journal Nature, researchers at University College London report documenting significant fluctuations in the IQs of a group of British teenagers. The researchers tested 33 healthy adolescents between the ages of 12 and 16 years. They repeated the tests four years later and found that some teens improved their scores by as much as 20 points on the standardized IQ scale.

 

"We were very surprised," researcher Cathy Price, who led the project, tells Shots. She had expected changes of a few points. "But we had individuals that changed from being on the 50th percentile, with an IQ of 100, [all] the way up to being in the (top) 3rd percentile, with an IQ of 127." In other cases, performance slipped by nearly as much, with kids shaving points off their scores.

Price and her colleagues used brain scans to confirm that these big fluctuations in performance were not random â€" or just a fluke. They evaluated the structure of the teens' brain in the early teen years and again in the late teenage years.

"We were able to see that the degree to which their IQ had changed was proportional to the degree to which different parts of their brain had changed," explains Price. For instance, an increase in verbal IQ score correlated with a structural change in the left motor cortex of the brain that is activated when we speak.

There are lots of factors that may explain changes in IQ. Though this study did not attempt to nail them down, lots of prior research has found that educational environment is key. Some researchers have found that rigorous academic curricula lead to improved IQ scores.

Teens' personalities, work ethic and the home environments are important, too. "There's a lot of variability in neural development during adolescence and in young adulthood as well," says Stephen Ceci, a professor of developmental psychology at Cornell University.

He says this study should give educators and parents pause. "It should caution all of us against assuming that one low IQ score, at one time, is capturing all that an individual is capable of," Ceci says.

Many researchers still say there's loads of evidence to show that IQ scores do reveal something essential about a child's intellectual gifts. Though increasingly, Ceci says, there's a consensus that one test is not deterministic. It can't accurately assess a person's talents or future potential.

This is a guest post by Richard Mitchell.
Mouth cancer used to be something that older folk might get. It was quite unusual in middle-aged or younger people. But not anymore and anyone at any age can get it.
Over the last ten years, we have seen mouth cancer becoming more common in the younger age groups. So what are the warning signs? You should watch out for any of these:
1. A small raised patch on your lip or tongue, inside your cheek, or on the roof of your mouth. The patch can be red, or it may be white, sometimes with red speckles in it. If it doesn’t heal up within 10 days, get it checked by a dentist.
2. A small ulcer or sore on your lip, which doesn’t heal up and becomes crusty around the edges. Lower lips are more affected than upper lips, as they get more sunlight.
3. A small ulcer anywhere else in your mouth that doesn’t heal up within 10 days. Sometimes it may bleed easily. The side of the tongue or under the tongue is a common location.
4. A swelling or lump in your tongue, lip or neck that develops over a few weeks or months, usually painless.
5. You may notice that your teeth seem to have moved position, either because your denture doesn’t fit the same, or your “bite” is different.
All these things may have perfectly normal explanations; but if you find something in your mouth that does not heal up or go away in 10 days, get a dentist to check it.
What causes cancer of the mouth?
Like all cancers, there is no one specific cause, but we DO know of a couple of factors that can trigger a tumor;
1. Smoking
2. Chewing tobacco
3. Drinking alcohol, especially spirits
4. Age

What treatments are there?
There are several possibilities:
1. Surgery
2. Radiotherapy
3. Chemotherapy.

Exactly which treatment is used depends on where the cancer is, and how big / how advanced it is. Generally, the smaller the tumor and the more accessible it is (ie. towards the front of the mouth), the more likely it is to be treated by surgery. This can remove the tumor in one go, and gives the shortest treatment time. If the tumor is bigger, and located further back in the mouth, then radiotherapy is more likely. Sometimes a combination of all 3 treatments is used.

What’s the outlook?
Like all cancers, the smaller it is when discovered, the greater the chance of a complete cure. Tumors near the front of the mouth have the highest cure rates, mainly because they are visible and people spot them sooner. But tumors under the tongue or at the back of the tongue are usually detected only later on, and sometimes the tumor cells may have spread to the neck. This requires more extensive surgery and chemotherapy to treat, but overall success rates are good.

So, if you have any doubts about that little ulcer in your mouth, get it checked!

Richard Mitchell
www.dental-health-advice.com

Image: Salvatore Vuono / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

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A good deal for children's health can be a bad deal for doctors.

Dmitry Naumov/iStockphoto.com

A good deal for children's health can be a bad deal for doctors.

Vaccines vanquished smallpox and have the polio virus on the run. And immunizations recommended routinely in the U.S. help protect people from chickenpox and cervical cancer.

But many doctors who administer the vaccinations lose money on them, according to new data from athenahealth, a company that helps doctors with electronic billing and medical records.

After looking at what insurers paid more than 1,400 doctors for eight different vaccines, athenahealth concluded that almost half the time the payments weren't large enough to cover estimated costs.

 

The easy part of all this is figuring out the direct costs of vaccines, mostly the price charged. The Centers of Disease Control and Prevention tracks those prices for public contracts and also gauges the prices charged in the private market.

But what about the indirect costs, such as the costs of office personnel and vaccine storage? The American Academy of Pediatrics came up with estimates for indirect expenses, concluding they range from about 17 percent to 28 percent of the purchase price of vaccines. So at least 17 percent should tacked onto the purchase price for doctors to have a shot at breaking even, the group concluded.

By that measure, 47 percent of immunizations are money-losers, the athenahealth data show. If the 28 percent figure for indirect costs is used to calculate breakeven, then it's an even grimmer picture: 79 percent of vaccination payments fall short.

The company recommends that insurers use CDC's published direct cost figures as a starting point for payment, then add 17 percent to account for the indirect costs.

In making their own business case earlier this year, the pediatricians wrote that their "practices are the public health infrastructure for the nation's childhood immunization program." Therefore, it's "imperative" they receive "appropriate payments" as an incentive to offer the service.

This is a guest post by Richard Mitchell.
Mouth cancer used to be something that older folk might get. It was quite unusual in middle-aged or younger people. But not anymore and anyone at any age can get it.
Over the last ten years, we have seen mouth cancer becoming more common in the younger age groups. So what are the warning signs? You should watch out for any of these:
1. A small raised patch on your lip or tongue, inside your cheek, or on the roof of your mouth. The patch can be red, or it may be white, sometimes with red speckles in it. If it doesn’t heal up within 10 days, get it checked by a dentist.
2. A small ulcer or sore on your lip, which doesn’t heal up and becomes crusty around the edges. Lower lips are more affected than upper lips, as they get more sunlight.
3. A small ulcer anywhere else in your mouth that doesn’t heal up within 10 days. Sometimes it may bleed easily. The side of the tongue or under the tongue is a common location.
4. A swelling or lump in your tongue, lip or neck that develops over a few weeks or months, usually painless.
5. You may notice that your teeth seem to have moved position, either because your denture doesn’t fit the same, or your “bite” is different.
All these things may have perfectly normal explanations; but if you find something in your mouth that does not heal up or go away in 10 days, get a dentist to check it.
What causes cancer of the mouth?
Like all cancers, there is no one specific cause, but we DO know of a couple of factors that can trigger a tumor;
1. Smoking
2. Chewing tobacco
3. Drinking alcohol, especially spirits
4. Age

What treatments are there?
There are several possibilities:
1. Surgery
2. Radiotherapy
3. Chemotherapy.

Exactly which treatment is used depends on where the cancer is, and how big / how advanced it is. Generally, the smaller the tumor and the more accessible it is (ie. towards the front of the mouth), the more likely it is to be treated by surgery. This can remove the tumor in one go, and gives the shortest treatment time. If the tumor is bigger, and located further back in the mouth, then radiotherapy is more likely. Sometimes a combination of all 3 treatments is used.

What’s the outlook?
Like all cancers, the smaller it is when discovered, the greater the chance of a complete cure. Tumors near the front of the mouth have the highest cure rates, mainly because they are visible and people spot them sooner. But tumors under the tongue or at the back of the tongue are usually detected only later on, and sometimes the tumor cells may have spread to the neck. This requires more extensive surgery and chemotherapy to treat, but overall success rates are good.

So, if you have any doubts about that little ulcer in your mouth, get it checked!

Richard Mitchell
www.dental-health-advice.com

Image: Salvatore Vuono / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

DISCLAIMER: THE STORY(s) DEPICTED ON THIS SITE AND THE PERSON(s) DEPICTED IN THE STORY ARE NOT REAL. RATHER, THIS FICTIONAL STORY IS BASED ON THE RESULTS THAT SOME PEOPLE WHO HAVE USED THESE PRODUCTS HAVE ACHIEVED. THE RESULTS PORTRAYED IN THE STORY AND IN THE COMMENTS ARE ILLUSTRATIVE, AND MAY NOT BE THE RESULTS THAT YOU ACHIEVE WITH THESE PRODUCTS. THIS PAGE RECEIVES COMPENSATION FOR CLICKS ON OR PURCHASE OF PRODUCTS FEATURED ON THIS SITE.

In a new study, researchers found that, after adjusting for demographics, men who have disabilities were four times more likely to be sexually abused during their lifetime compared with men who weren't disabled.

Enlarge Vladimir Kolobov /iStockphoto.com

Researchers found that men who have disabilities were four times more likely to be sexually abused compared with men who weren't disabled.

Vladimir Kolobov /iStockphoto.com

Researchers found that men who have disabilities were four times more likely to be sexually abused compared with men who weren't disabled.

Previous studies have shown that women with disabilities are at a higher risk of becoming targets of sexual violence. But lead study author Monika Mitra, assistant professor of Family Medicine and Community Health at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, tells Shots that research that looks at incidence of sexual violence against men with disabilities has been limited.

"Looking back, I was a little surprised to see the results that we got," she says.

 

Researchers took data from an telephone survey from 2005 to 2009 in Massachusetts to look at the risk of sexual violence that men with disabilities face. In the survey, participants were asked to report if they had experienced any sexual violence in their lifetime or in the past year. That included completed rape, attempted rape, unwanted sexual touching or unwanted sexual exposure. The participants were also asked questions to determine if they had a disability.

Among the almost 26,000 survey respondents, almost 14 percent of men with disabilities said they experienced sexual violence in their lifetimes. That's compared to 3.7 percent of men without disabilities.

Another significant finding of the study, Mitra said, was the much-higher rate at which women with disabilities were affected by sexual violence. The study found that almost 27 percent of women with disabilities and more than 12 percent of women without disabilities reported experiencing sexual violence during their lifetime.

But the study authors write:

The most notable fındings are that the prevalences of lifetime sexual violence, completed rape, and attempted rape against men with disabilities were comparable to those against women without disabilities.

The findings were published online in the latest issue of American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

Researchers noted a few limitations of their work, particularly that those who participated in the survey were high-functioning enough to not need assistance answering the questions over the phone. Also, none of the participants lived in institutions. And the study would exclude people who don't use land-line phones. However, researchers say the results of their study still point to higher rates of victimization among men with disabilities.

With this in mind, Mitra notes two key points for action. One is the importance of accessibility, which could be as simple as having a ramp at a rape-crisis center. And second, she emphasized the significance of inclusion and targeting to address the disparity.

In medical terms, infected hair follicle is called “folliculitis”. Hair follicle infection is a common problem and due infection (by bacteria, fungus etc.) the infected hair follicle become inflamed, red and sometime painful. Folliculitis can occur in any area of skin where hair follicles are present, but common sites of hair follicle infection are legs, bearded area (known as sycosis barbae, when it is due to shaving beard which is a common problem among males), buttocks and scalp. Folliculitis do not occur in areas where hair follicles are absent such as palms and soles of feet.

What are the symptoms of infected hair follicles?

The symptoms of infected hair follicles may vary according to the causative agent, site of infection, e.g. scalp. The symptoms of infected hair follicles include pain, blisters (usually filled with pus), and swelling of the infected area, crust formation (when pus filled blisters break, pus comes out and on drying crust forms).

What are the causative agents of folliculitis?

Different situations and conditions can lead to folliculitis, such as shaving, tight clothing, excessive sweating and skin problems such as acne, dermatitis, unhygienic adhesive dressing etc. Any of the above mentioned condition combined with unhygienic personal habits can lead to folliculitis. The commonest causative agent of folliculitis is a bacterium, Staphylococcus Aureus. Several other different bacteria, fungus and some viruses can also case folliculitis.

Different causative agents and typical symptoms due to them:

Bacterial causes:

• Staphylococcal folliculitis: white pus filled blister which is severely itchy in nature, which may crust.
• Pseudomonas folliculitis: red, round and itchy hair follicles.

Fungal causes:

• Tinea barbae folliculitis: white and itchy hair follicles.
• Pityrosporum folliculitis: pus filled hair follicles commonly seen in chest, neck and back area.
• Pseudofolliculitis barbae: commonly seen in face and neck, especially with scars.

Viral causes:

• Herpetic folliculitis: due to herpes virus and commonly seen in face, shoulders and upper arms and blisters filled with clear fluid.

Image: digitalart / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

DISCLAIMER: THE STORY(s) DEPICTED ON THIS SITE AND THE PERSON(s) DEPICTED IN THE STORY ARE NOT REAL. RATHER, THIS FICTIONAL STORY IS BASED ON THE RESULTS THAT SOME PEOPLE WHO HAVE USED THESE PRODUCTS HAVE ACHIEVED. THE RESULTS PORTRAYED IN THE STORY AND IN THE COMMENTS ARE ILLUSTRATIVE, AND MAY NOT BE THE RESULTS THAT YOU ACHIEVE WITH THESE PRODUCTS. THIS PAGE RECEIVES COMPENSATION FOR CLICKS ON OR PURCHASE OF PRODUCTS FEATURED ON THIS SITE.

iStockphoto.com

Teenagers can, in fact, make some mature decisions when it comes to sex.

The latest government data show that 8 of 10 teen males used a condom the first time they had sex, an increase of 9 percentage points since 2002.

The findings, released yesterday, come from the National Survey of Family Growth, conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention between 2006 and 2010. The data were gathered from in-person interviews with 4,600 teenagers across the country.

The trend toward greater condom use held true for teens of all races, which the report called a "clear change from past patterns," when Hispanic and black males had been significantly less likely to have used a condom during their first sexual experience than their white counterparts were.

Another big change since this survey was last taken is the number of young couples using two forms of birth control at the same time, such as condoms and the pill.

 

The increase in condom use suggests teenagers are becoming more knowledgeable about sex before they start hooking up, perhaps because they are better educated or slightly older. The number of females age 15 to 17 reporting sexual experience has dropped by 10 percentage points since 1988, and among males that number has dropped even more.

While the percentage of teens using condoms the first time they had sex is on the rise, statistics otherwise looked very similar to those reported in 2002, with similar percentages of sexually active teens reporting that they used condoms regularly as they did in the last study.

Overall, the proportion of teenagers having sex has also remained unchanged in recent years, after a sharp decline during the 1990s. About 43 percent of females and 42 percent of males reported having sex at least once, which has dropped from 51 percent and 60 percent, respectively, in 1988.

In medical terms, infected hair follicle is called “folliculitis”. Hair follicle infection is a common problem and due infection (by bacteria, fungus etc.) the infected hair follicle become inflamed, red and sometime painful. Folliculitis can occur in any area of skin where hair follicles are present, but common sites of hair follicle infection are legs, bearded area (known as sycosis barbae, when it is due to shaving beard which is a common problem among males), buttocks and scalp. Folliculitis do not occur in areas where hair follicles are absent such as palms and soles of feet.

What are the symptoms of infected hair follicles?

The symptoms of infected hair follicles may vary according to the causative agent, site of infection, e.g. scalp. The symptoms of infected hair follicles include pain, blisters (usually filled with pus), and swelling of the infected area, crust formation (when pus filled blisters break, pus comes out and on drying crust forms).

What are the causative agents of folliculitis?

Different situations and conditions can lead to folliculitis, such as shaving, tight clothing, excessive sweating and skin problems such as acne, dermatitis, unhygienic adhesive dressing etc. Any of the above mentioned condition combined with unhygienic personal habits can lead to folliculitis. The commonest causative agent of folliculitis is a bacterium, Staphylococcus Aureus. Several other different bacteria, fungus and some viruses can also case folliculitis.

Different causative agents and typical symptoms due to them:

Bacterial causes:

• Staphylococcal folliculitis: white pus filled blister which is severely itchy in nature, which may crust.
• Pseudomonas folliculitis: red, round and itchy hair follicles.

Fungal causes:

• Tinea barbae folliculitis: white and itchy hair follicles.
• Pityrosporum folliculitis: pus filled hair follicles commonly seen in chest, neck and back area.
• Pseudofolliculitis barbae: commonly seen in face and neck, especially with scars.

Viral causes:

• Herpetic folliculitis: due to herpes virus and commonly seen in face, shoulders and upper arms and blisters filled with clear fluid.

Image: digitalart / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

DISCLAIMER: THE STORY(s) DEPICTED ON THIS SITE AND THE PERSON(s) DEPICTED IN THE STORY ARE NOT REAL. RATHER, THIS FICTIONAL STORY IS BASED ON THE RESULTS THAT SOME PEOPLE WHO HAVE USED THESE PRODUCTS HAVE ACHIEVED. THE RESULTS PORTRAYED IN THE STORY AND IN THE COMMENTS ARE ILLUSTRATIVE, AND MAY NOT BE THE RESULTS THAT YOU ACHIEVE WITH THESE PRODUCTS. THIS PAGE RECEIVES COMPENSATION FOR CLICKS ON OR PURCHASE OF PRODUCTS FEATURED ON THIS SITE.

Enlarge Francis Ying for Kaiser Health News/NPR

Three years ago, drugstores like Walgreens began training pharmacists to give customers vaccines. Since then, tens of thousands of pharmacists have been certified to give shots.

Francis Ying for Kaiser Health News/NPR

Three years ago, drugstores like Walgreens began training pharmacists to give customers vaccines. Since then, tens of thousands of pharmacists have been certified to give shots.

Drugstore and supermarket pharmacies across the country have launched a marketing blitz to attract flu shot customers, touting the convenience of stopping at a local drugstore and often offering drop-in vaccinations anytime the pharmacy is open â€" sometimes even 24 hours a day.

"If you decided at 4 o'clock in the morning you wanted to go out and had nothing better to do than get a flu shot, you could walk right in and you could get a flu shot," says Scott Gershman, pharmacy manager at a Walgreens drugstore in Springfield, Va.

 

Shelley Troff and her 13-year-old son dropped by Gershman's pharmacy one afternoon in September to get their annual shots. Troff says she didn't even consider going to her doctor's office. "To be frankly honest, Walgreens is easier," she explains. "Since this is one mile from my house and the clinic is 20 minutes from my house, this is where I come."

Pharmacies usually charge between $25 and $32, while a shot at the doctor's office generally costs at least $48, according to Matthew Davis, a pediatrician and associate professor at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. But for most people with insurance, it's really about convenience. That's because the shots are generally paid for by insurance.

Under the Affordable Care Act enacted in 2010, most insurers can no longer charge copays for preventive care, including flu shots. Some plans are exempt from that because they were grandfathered under the law.

The majority of Americans still get their flu shot at the doctor's office, but an increasing number head to the pharmacy. In 2010, 18.4 percent of adults who were immunized received the flu vaccine at a supermarket or drugstore, just edging out workplace vaccinations for the second most popular venue, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Pharmacists Trained To Give Vaccines

The H1N1 epidemic in 2009 helped propel the trend; the panic sent customers running to drugstores, which often had vaccines available after physicians' offices had run out. "It became clear to the government and Americans that pharmacies can provide easy access to vaccines," says Edith Rosato, senior vice president of the National Association of Chain Drug Stores.

But while more people are going to the pharmacy, the number of Americans who get the flu vaccine each year has remained fairly constant at about 40 percent of all adults.

Drugstores and supermarket pharmacies are eager to stake out a bigger piece of that market. Nationwide, the number of pharmacists trained to deliver vaccines has nearly quadrupled since 2007, from 40,000 to 150,000.

It is not clear how profitable the flu shot is to pharmacies, and experts' views on this differ. Revenue figures are proprietary, but Katherine Harris, a senior economist at the Rand Group who studies the vaccine market, says flu shots are not usually a big money-maker. They often involve taking time away from other duties to educate patients and bill insurers, she explains. Other analysts believe drugstores earn profits of 30 to 50 percent on the procedures, the Wall Street Journal reports.

But getting the flu vaccine at a pharmacy might not be right for everyone, particularly patients with chronic illnesses or for the uninsured. "If you're uninsured, go shopping," says Davis. He says the uninsured can often find a cheaper option at their local health department. The vaccine may even be free.

In medical terms, infected hair follicle is called “folliculitis”. Hair follicle infection is a common problem and due infection (by bacteria, fungus etc.) the infected hair follicle become inflamed, red and sometime painful. Folliculitis can occur in any area of skin where hair follicles are present, but common sites of hair follicle infection are legs, bearded area (known as sycosis barbae, when it is due to shaving beard which is a common problem among males), buttocks and scalp. Folliculitis do not occur in areas where hair follicles are absent such as palms and soles of feet.

What are the symptoms of infected hair follicles?

The symptoms of infected hair follicles may vary according to the causative agent, site of infection, e.g. scalp. The symptoms of infected hair follicles include pain, blisters (usually filled with pus), and swelling of the infected area, crust formation (when pus filled blisters break, pus comes out and on drying crust forms).

What are the causative agents of folliculitis?

Different situations and conditions can lead to folliculitis, such as shaving, tight clothing, excessive sweating and skin problems such as acne, dermatitis, unhygienic adhesive dressing etc. Any of the above mentioned condition combined with unhygienic personal habits can lead to folliculitis. The commonest causative agent of folliculitis is a bacterium, Staphylococcus Aureus. Several other different bacteria, fungus and some viruses can also case folliculitis.

Different causative agents and typical symptoms due to them:

Bacterial causes:

• Staphylococcal folliculitis: white pus filled blister which is severely itchy in nature, which may crust.
• Pseudomonas folliculitis: red, round and itchy hair follicles.

Fungal causes:

• Tinea barbae folliculitis: white and itchy hair follicles.
• Pityrosporum folliculitis: pus filled hair follicles commonly seen in chest, neck and back area.
• Pseudofolliculitis barbae: commonly seen in face and neck, especially with scars.

Viral causes:

• Herpetic folliculitis: due to herpes virus and commonly seen in face, shoulders and upper arms and blisters filled with clear fluid.

Image: digitalart / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

DISCLAIMER: THE STORY(s) DEPICTED ON THIS SITE AND THE PERSON(s) DEPICTED IN THE STORY ARE NOT REAL. RATHER, THIS FICTIONAL STORY IS BASED ON THE RESULTS THAT SOME PEOPLE WHO HAVE USED THESE PRODUCTS HAVE ACHIEVED. THE RESULTS PORTRAYED IN THE STORY AND IN THE COMMENTS ARE ILLUSTRATIVE, AND MAY NOT BE THE RESULTS THAT YOU ACHIEVE WITH THESE PRODUCTS. THIS PAGE RECEIVES COMPENSATION FOR CLICKS ON OR PURCHASE OF PRODUCTS FEATURED ON THIS SITE.

Icoi Johnson for NPR

Chicago attorney Tom Hayward suffered a raging infection after a prostate biopsy. He had to be hospitalized, but has since recovered.

The same group that caused a ruckus by recommending against mammograms for women in their 40s is about to tell men that a routine blood test for prostate cancer does most of them more harm than good.

The problem is that the test doesn't do enough to save lives and subjects many men to additional tests and surgery. The side effects, including impotence and incontinence, outweigh the benefits for men in good heath, according to reports about the findings of the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force.

An independent group of medical experts, the USPSTF is in the business of grading the evidence for common tests and procedures. Under the auspices of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, the group's decisions increasingly serve as guidelines for what doctors do and what insurers and the government will pay for.

 

The USPSTF has been working on the PSA test for a while. In fact, the group had pretty much reached a decision in 2009 that the evidence for routine PSA testing should be graded "D" (which constitutes a recommendation against the service), according to an article coming in The New York Times Magazine this Sunday and already posted online.

But the controversy such a recommendation is sure to cause led to a postponement of votes on it, Shannon Brownlee and Jeanne Lenzer report in the story.

Now it's finally coming out, perhaps as early as today. "The harms studies showed that significant numbers of men â€" on the order of 20 to 30 percent â€" have very significant harms," pediatrician Virginia Moyer, chairwoman of the task force, told the Washington Post.

This year, about 241,000 cases of prostate cancer are expected to be diagnosed, according to estimates from the American Cancer Society. About 34,000 men will die from it. More than 20 million U.S. men have their PSA's tested each year.

A federally funded study presented at a meeting of urologists this spring found that, overall, early surgical removal of the prostate was no better than waiting to see how the cancer would progress. And there were more side effects among men who had surgery.

In a Times editorial published in March, Dr. Richard Ablin, who discovered prostate specific antigen, lamented the overuse of the test. Yes, the test has its place, he wrote, to monitor men after treatment for prostate cancer and in screening men whose family histories put them at high risk.

"But these uses are limited," Ablin concluded. "Testing should absolutely not be deployed to screen the entire population of men over the age of 50, the outcome pushed by those who stand to profit."

While the USPSTF's decisions carry a lot of weight, a separate report out today shows the limits of its ability to change medical practice. The Center for Public Integrity finds that 40 percent of Medicare spending on cancer screenings, or about $1.9 billion over five years, is wasted on tests, including PSA, for people older than the cutoff recommended by the USPSTF.

Opposition to a change in PSA recommendations is certain. Dr. Benjamin Davies, a urologist and cancer specialist at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, tweeted this morning:

the data for screening healthy patients <65 is strong, not debatable, and level 1. Hard to tweet all of the evidence

He called the USPSTF's determination "soulless" and faulted some of the evidence the group, including this Swedish study, used to make its decision.

The American Urological Association disputed the task force's findings. The urology group's president said in a statement that "it is our feeling that, when interpreted appropriately, the PSA test provides important information in the diagnosis, pre-treatment staging or risk assessment and monitoring of prostate cancer patients."

In medical terms, infected hair follicle is called “folliculitis”. Hair follicle infection is a common problem and due infection (by bacteria, fungus etc.) the infected hair follicle become inflamed, red and sometime painful. Folliculitis can occur in any area of skin where hair follicles are present, but common sites of hair follicle infection are legs, bearded area (known as sycosis barbae, when it is due to shaving beard which is a common problem among males), buttocks and scalp. Folliculitis do not occur in areas where hair follicles are absent such as palms and soles of feet.

What are the symptoms of infected hair follicles?

The symptoms of infected hair follicles may vary according to the causative agent, site of infection, e.g. scalp. The symptoms of infected hair follicles include pain, blisters (usually filled with pus), and swelling of the infected area, crust formation (when pus filled blisters break, pus comes out and on drying crust forms).

What are the causative agents of folliculitis?

Different situations and conditions can lead to folliculitis, such as shaving, tight clothing, excessive sweating and skin problems such as acne, dermatitis, unhygienic adhesive dressing etc. Any of the above mentioned condition combined with unhygienic personal habits can lead to folliculitis. The commonest causative agent of folliculitis is a bacterium, Staphylococcus Aureus. Several other different bacteria, fungus and some viruses can also case folliculitis.

Different causative agents and typical symptoms due to them:

Bacterial causes:

• Staphylococcal folliculitis: white pus filled blister which is severely itchy in nature, which may crust.
• Pseudomonas folliculitis: red, round and itchy hair follicles.

Fungal causes:

• Tinea barbae folliculitis: white and itchy hair follicles.
• Pityrosporum folliculitis: pus filled hair follicles commonly seen in chest, neck and back area.
• Pseudofolliculitis barbae: commonly seen in face and neck, especially with scars.

Viral causes:

• Herpetic folliculitis: due to herpes virus and commonly seen in face, shoulders and upper arms and blisters filled with clear fluid.

Image: digitalart / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

DISCLAIMER: THE STORY(s) DEPICTED ON THIS SITE AND THE PERSON(s) DEPICTED IN THE STORY ARE NOT REAL. RATHER, THIS FICTIONAL STORY IS BASED ON THE RESULTS THAT SOME PEOPLE WHO HAVE USED THESE PRODUCTS HAVE ACHIEVED. THE RESULTS PORTRAYED IN THE STORY AND IN THE COMMENTS ARE ILLUSTRATIVE, AND MAY NOT BE THE RESULTS THAT YOU ACHIEVE WITH THESE PRODUCTS. THIS PAGE RECEIVES COMPENSATION FOR CLICKS ON OR PURCHASE OF PRODUCTS FEATURED ON THIS SITE.

Enlarge Elena Korenbaum/iStockphoto.com

Elena Korenbaum/iStockphoto.com

California Gov. Jerry Brown's hand must be tired.

He signed 18 bills on children's health and safety into state law Tuesday. One of them, AB1319, prohibits the sale of any baby bottles or cups that contain more than 0.1 parts per billion bisphenol A.

The chemical, found in some hard plastics, has come under fire for its possible effects on health. Critics claim that even tiny amounts of BPA can act like the hormone estrogen in the body, causing health trouble, especially for the youngest children.

 

The federal Food and Drug Administration has said it has "some concern" about the chemical, but the agency hasn't made an official decision on its presence in food. In the meantime, the Deptartment of Health and Human Services has some tips for parents on how to minimize BPA exposure for their kids.

The California law also prohibit the sale of formula and other foods intended for kids 3 and under that contain more than 0.1 parts per billion of BPA. The liners of some cans used to store food have been found to leach BPA.

The bans takes effect in July 2013. A bunch of other states, including Minnesota, have passed their own laws limiting or banning BPA. Canada banned BPA in baby bottles three years ago.

I emailed the American Chemistry Council for a comment on the law. No word back as of yet.

Halitosis or bad breath (unpleasant odors in exhaled air) is third commonest cause of a visit to a dentist, next only to cavities or dental carries and gum diseases which are the commonest dental problems for which people visit a dentist. It is such a common health problem that there is a good chance that you might also have halitosis (noticeably unpleasant odor of your breath) and you may not even know it. Your friends also may not inform you about this, because of fear of annoying/angering you. Do not hesitate to ask your close friends or relatives, if you have bad breath or not. Accept frank opinion of your friend, who informs you about your problem and this, may save you from embarrassing situations.

Halitosis can be of two types, temporary and permanent. In temporary type of halitosis the problem may be there for few days and disappear after that only to reappear after sometime. In permanent form, the problem of bad/unpleasant odor of exhaled air is permanently present.

You should not ignore halitosis, because it may be due to systemic disease, diseases of esophagus, diseases of stomach, diseases of lungs, diseases of tonsils and nose etc. although they are less common causes of bad breath. The common causes of halitosis include gum diseases, problems in mouth and tongue. Bacteria present in tongue may produce malodorous compounds and fatty acids and responsible for up to 90 percent of mouth-related bad breath. Most commonly, bacteria grow on the posterior aspect of tongue where they survive and thrive on dead cells, deposited food particles and post nasal drip (nasal secretion drops into this area), and the area is not easy to clean and not generally affected by normal activity of eating. There are dozens of different bacteria that can grow and produce bad smell/odor in mouth.

If you have halitosis, seek attention of your dentist, who will try to find out the cause and treat accordingly. Various methods are used for treating halitosis such as cleaning tongue regularly, gargling with mouthwash, maintenance or good oral hygiene etc.

Sometimes it may be very difficult to find out the cause of bad breath and make treatment extremely difficult. Many people use symptomatic approach to such cases such as use of mints, mouth sprays, mouthwash etc. which can not cure the problem but can mask the bad odor temporarily.

Image: photostock / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

DISCLAIMER: THE STORY(s) DEPICTED ON THIS SITE AND THE PERSON(s) DEPICTED IN THE STORY ARE NOT REAL. RATHER, THIS FICTIONAL STORY IS BASED ON THE RESULTS THAT SOME PEOPLE WHO HAVE USED THESE PRODUCTS HAVE ACHIEVED. THE RESULTS PORTRAYED IN THE STORY AND IN THE COMMENTS ARE ILLUSTRATIVE, AND MAY NOT BE THE RESULTS THAT YOU ACHIEVE WITH THESE PRODUCTS. THIS PAGE RECEIVES COMPENSATION FOR CLICKS ON OR PURCHASE OF PRODUCTS FEATURED ON THIS SITE.

Hormone shots that are a popular form of birth control in Africa may increase the risk of HIV infection for women who use them and the men who are their sexual partners.

The risk for male infection from an HIV-positive female partner appeared to nearly double when hormonal forms of birth control were used versus other methods or none, according to a study just published online in Lancet Infectious Diseases. For women using the contraceptives, the risk of HIV infection from an infected male partner also nearly doubled.

Both hormonal contraceptives and the pill were used by women in the study, conducted in East and Southern Africa between 2004 and 2010. But the increased risk was only significant for the injection. Variations in condom use didn't account for the difference observed.

Previous research had suggested hormonal contraceptives could raise the HIV infection risk for women. This study is the first to show that the risk is heightened for their male partners. More than 3,000 couples participated in the research.

The researchers write that some experiments suggest hormonal contraception could lead to various changes that would increase the infectiousness of HIV, possibly including an increase in the shedding of HIV in the cervix and vagina. But the exact mechanism, if it exists, isn't known.

The findings aren't ironclad proof because the couples weren't randomly assigned to receive hormonal contraceptives or an alternative. Nonetheless, World Health Organization epidemiologist Mary Lyn Gaffield told the New York Times, "We are going to be re-evaluating WHO's clinical recommendations on contraceptive use."

Given the importance of effective birth control and the substantial risk of HIV infection in so many African countries, "the donor community should support a randomized trial of hormonal contraception and HIV acquisition" to settle the matter, an accompanying Lancet editorial said.

The study was funded by the National Institutes of Health and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which also provides financial support to NPR.

We all know what hypertension is. Many of your friends and relatives may be suffering from this chronic serious (although it does not seem serious because only a minor percentage of individuals suffering from high blood pressure have troublesome symptoms) disease. Hypertension (and its complications) is a silent killer and it is one of the leading causes of deaths worldwide.

What exactly is hypertension or high blood pressure?

Different experts explain/define blood pressure in different ways. Hypertension or high blood pressure is the high (more than normal) lateral pressure blood puts to the walls of the blood vessels, while flowing through it. It can be compared to water flowing through a rubber tube and if water puts excess pressure than the rubber tube can handle, there is a great risk of bursting of the rubber tube.

The same is true for blood vessels also, which are also elastic in nature and if excess pressure continues for long duration, aneurysms may develop, especially in smaller blood vessels of the brain and this is the reason brain stoke (most commonly due to bursting of aneurysms) is so common among individuals with high blood pressure.

From the above example it is not difficult to understand why and how hypertension develops. But the fact is we still do not know causes of most of the cases of hypertension, hence it is called essential hypertension. Practically more than 95% of cases are essential hypertension and very small percentage the cause is known.

Some of the causes of hypertension are:

• Hypertension can develop if the walls of blood vessels become less elastic.
• Hypertension can occur if there is excess blood volume for any reason.
• Hypertension can develop if blood vessels constricts for any reason.
• Hypertension can occur if osmotic pressure of blood increases, which puts excess lateral pressure to the blood vessel walls with same amount of blood in it.
• Hypertension can occur if walls of blood vessels become thick, as seen in atherosclerosis (deposition of cholesterol in blood vessel walls).

Why the above mentioned things occur/happen is not clear and hence, we do not know the causes of hypertension.

Hypertension is classified as given below:

• Normal blood pressure: systolic/diastolic: <120/<80 mm of Hg (mercury)
• Pre-hypertension: systolic/diastolic: <120-139/<80-89 mm of Hg
• Mild hypertension: systolic/diastolic: <140-159/<90-99 mm of Hg
• Moderate hypertension: systolic/diastolic: <160-179/<100-109 mm of Hg
• Severe hypertension: systolic/diastolic: <160-179/>110 mm of Hg
• Isolated systolic hypertension: systolic/diastolic: >140/>90 mm of Hg

Image: markuso / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

DISCLAIMER: THE STORY(s) DEPICTED ON THIS SITE AND THE PERSON(s) DEPICTED IN THE STORY ARE NOT REAL. RATHER, THIS FICTIONAL STORY IS BASED ON THE RESULTS THAT SOME PEOPLE WHO HAVE USED THESE PRODUCTS HAVE ACHIEVED. THE RESULTS PORTRAYED IN THE STORY AND IN THE COMMENTS ARE ILLUSTRATIVE, AND MAY NOT BE THE RESULTS THAT YOU ACHIEVE WITH THESE PRODUCTS. THIS PAGE RECEIVES COMPENSATION FOR CLICKS ON OR PURCHASE OF PRODUCTS FEATURED ON THIS SITE.

Today marks 35 years since Congress first passed what's come to be known as the Hyde Amendment, which bans most federal abortion funding.

While the actual language of the rider to the annual funding bill for the Department of Health and Human Services has changed considerably over the years, since 2003 it has allowed federal Medicaid funds to pay for abortions in cases of rape, incest, or if the life of the woman is endangered by the pregnancy.

But in practice, according to a new study published in the American Journal of Public Health, even abortions that technically qualify for public funding often don't reimbursed.

 

Researchers from Ibis Reproductive Health, which supports abortion-rights, conducted 50 interviews with abortion providers in 11 states that pay for abortion under Medicaid only under circumstances specified by the Hyde Amendment.

The researchers found that 37 percent of the 1,165 abortions provided for cases of rape, incest, or life endangerment included in the research were ultimately covered by Medicaid.

The rest were paid by the women themselves, by the abortion providers or by nonprofit, contribution-based abortion funds.

Earlier research found some of the barriers to getting Medicaid reimbursement include bureaucracy and Medicaid staff who don't understand the rules.

"Ibis' research has shown that in states where abortion coverage is limited to the Hyde Amendment exceptions, it is extremely challenging for providers to get reimbursed," said Kelly Blanchard, principal investigator of the study and president of Ibis.

But while abortion-rights advocates would like to see the Hyde Amendment eliminated, abortion opponents are pushing just as hard to see it written into permanent law, so it doesn't need to be passed separately each year.

We all know what hypertension is. Many of your friends and relatives may be suffering from this chronic serious (although it does not seem serious because only a minor percentage of individuals suffering from high blood pressure have troublesome symptoms) disease. Hypertension (and its complications) is a silent killer and it is one of the leading causes of deaths worldwide.

What exactly is hypertension or high blood pressure?

Different experts explain/define blood pressure in different ways. Hypertension or high blood pressure is the high (more than normal) lateral pressure blood puts to the walls of the blood vessels, while flowing through it. It can be compared to water flowing through a rubber tube and if water puts excess pressure than the rubber tube can handle, there is a great risk of bursting of the rubber tube.

The same is true for blood vessels also, which are also elastic in nature and if excess pressure continues for long duration, aneurysms may develop, especially in smaller blood vessels of the brain and this is the reason brain stoke (most commonly due to bursting of aneurysms) is so common among individuals with high blood pressure.

From the above example it is not difficult to understand why and how hypertension develops. But the fact is we still do not know causes of most of the cases of hypertension, hence it is called essential hypertension. Practically more than 95% of cases are essential hypertension and very small percentage the cause is known.

Some of the causes of hypertension are:

• Hypertension can develop if the walls of blood vessels become less elastic.
• Hypertension can occur if there is excess blood volume for any reason.
• Hypertension can develop if blood vessels constricts for any reason.
• Hypertension can occur if osmotic pressure of blood increases, which puts excess lateral pressure to the blood vessel walls with same amount of blood in it.
• Hypertension can occur if walls of blood vessels become thick, as seen in atherosclerosis (deposition of cholesterol in blood vessel walls).

Why the above mentioned things occur/happen is not clear and hence, we do not know the causes of hypertension.

Hypertension is classified as given below:

• Normal blood pressure: systolic/diastolic: <120/<80 mm of Hg (mercury)
• Pre-hypertension: systolic/diastolic: <120-139/<80-89 mm of Hg
• Mild hypertension: systolic/diastolic: <140-159/<90-99 mm of Hg
• Moderate hypertension: systolic/diastolic: <160-179/<100-109 mm of Hg
• Severe hypertension: systolic/diastolic: <160-179/>110 mm of Hg
• Isolated systolic hypertension: systolic/diastolic: >140/>90 mm of Hg

Image: markuso / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

DISCLAIMER: THE STORY(s) DEPICTED ON THIS SITE AND THE PERSON(s) DEPICTED IN THE STORY ARE NOT REAL. RATHER, THIS FICTIONAL STORY IS BASED ON THE RESULTS THAT SOME PEOPLE WHO HAVE USED THESE PRODUCTS HAVE ACHIEVED. THE RESULTS PORTRAYED IN THE STORY AND IN THE COMMENTS ARE ILLUSTRATIVE, AND MAY NOT BE THE RESULTS THAT YOU ACHIEVE WITH THESE PRODUCTS. THIS PAGE RECEIVES COMPENSATION FOR CLICKS ON OR PURCHASE OF PRODUCTS FEATURED ON THIS SITE.

Today marks 35 years since Congress first passed what's come to be known as the Hyde Amendment, which bans most federal abortion funding.

While the actual language of the rider to the annual funding bill for the Department of Health and Human Services has changed considerably over the years, since 2003 it has allowed federal Medicaid funds to pay for abortions in cases of rape, incest, or if the life of the woman is endangered by the pregnancy.

But in practice, according to a new study published in the American Journal of Public Health, even abortions that technically qualify for public funding often don't reimbursed.

 

Researchers from Ibis Reproductive Health, which supports abortion-rights, conducted 50 interviews with abortion providers in 11 states that pay for abortion under Medicaid only under circumstances specified by the Hyde Amendment.

The researchers found that 37 percent of the 1,165 abortions provided for cases of rape, incest, or life endangerment included in the research were ultimately covered by Medicaid.

The rest were paid by the women themselves, by the abortion providers or by nonprofit, contribution-based abortion funds.

Earlier research found some of the barriers to getting Medicaid reimbursement include bureaucracy and Medicaid staff who don't understand the rules.

"Ibis' research has shown that in states where abortion coverage is limited to the Hyde Amendment exceptions, it is extremely challenging for providers to get reimbursed," said Kelly Blanchard, principal investigator of the study and president of Ibis.

But while abortion-rights advocates would like to see the Hyde Amendment eliminated, abortion opponents are pushing just as hard to see it written into permanent law, so it doesn't need to be passed separately each year.