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Local news
WEEK COMMENCING 01 AUGUST 2009
BOOK REVIEW:
Men – they’re just not what they used to be
6 August 2009
Males were stronger and faster long ago. Deborah Smith talks to the author of a new book. If you think Usain Bolt is a fast runner, consider an Aboriginal man who was chasing kangaroos or waterbirds barefoot on a lake edge in south-western NSW about 20,000 years ago. Footprints he left in the mud reveal he was sprinting at 37 kilometres an hour, and still accelerating.
Church of Scientology group warns Illawarra doctors
4 August 2009
Illawarra doctors have been warned against prescribing mind-altering drugs, including anti-depressants, in a DVD mass-mailed by a watchdog group founded by the Church of Scientology. The film, Making a Killing: The Untold Story of Psychotropic Drugging, appears to have been mailed to all doctors listed in the region's Yellow Pages last month. The DVD claims psychotropic drugs are harmful and includes testimonies from the family members of people who have committed suicide while medicated.
Perth's hospitals in crisis: AMA
4 August 2009
The Australian Medical Association (AMA) says Perth's hospitals are at crisis point and are failing to cope with an influx of patients during the flu season. It says ambulances were queuing up yesterday and last night to admit patients, who are waiting more than 12 hours to be admitted.
Debate needed on patient records
4 August 2009
Consumer groups frustrated by the slow pace on e-health are forming a coalition to pressure the federal government to release secret documents and engage in an open debate over plans for a national patient record-sharing system. The Consumer-Centred E-Health Coalition is a response to "government secrecy and lack of consultation" launched by the Australian Privacy Foundation, the Public Interest Advocacy Centre, Cancer Voices and the University of NSW's Cyberspace Policy and Law Centre.
Govt media: Extra help for people with chronic disease
3 August 2009
People living with chronic disease will soon have better access to a range of support programs designed to help them better manage their conditions.
Health system needs a bigger dose of reform
3 August 2009
The Federal Government says it's trying to fix health — but a fix won't happen until government and the public face up to the real problems with our health system, writes Ben Eltham.
Health staff face ban from exemptions in tax rort row
3 August 2009
The West Australian government will consider banning doctors, nurses and other public health staff from receiving generous tax exemptions linked to a salary packaging scandal at the Health Department.
Rudd visit to Townsville hush-hush
3 August 2009
The Prime Minister has put Townsville at the top of the nation's health to-do list with a flying visit to the city for a talkfest today.
Gay parents are ‘against the natural order’?
2 August 2009
Dr Andrew Pesce, the new federal head of the Australian Medical Association has argued that IVF is “not a lifestyle choice” and same sex partners using the treatment was not the “natural order”.
Home births back on agenda for Labor
1 August 2009
Canberra is reconsidering its controversial exclusion of home births from a new midwifery indemnity scheme, before a Senate challenge to the draft legislation. Federal Health Minister Nicola Roxon revealed yesterday she was looking at whether the government could accommodate home births in the $25 million indemnity scheme.
Health Minister to open ALSA conference
31 July 2009
The Australian Liquor Stores Association (ALSA) has announced that the Federal Minister for Health and Ageing, The Hon Nicola Roxon MP, will open its annual conference on the Gold Coast in August.
International news
US: The way you eat may affect your risk for breast cancer
4 August 2009
How you eat may be just as important as how much you eat, if mice studies are any clue. Cancer researchers have long studied the role of diet on breast cancer risk, but results to date have been mixed. New findings published in Cancer Prevention Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research, suggest the method by which calories are restricted may be more important for cancer protection than the actual overall degree of calorie restriction.
Pitt researchers find promising candidate protein for cancer prevention vaccines
4 August 2009
Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine have learned that some healthy people naturally developed an immune response against a protein that is made in excess levels in many cancers, including breast, lung, and head and neck cancers. The finding suggests that a vaccine against the protein might prevent malignancies in high-risk individuals.
US: Pilot study: Workplace yoga and meditation can lower feelings of stress
4 August 2009
Twenty minutes per day of guided workplace meditation and yoga combined with six weekly group sessions can lower feelings of stress by more than 10 percent and improve sleep quality in sedentary office employees, a pilot study suggests.
FINLAND: High cholesterol in midlife raises risk of late-life dementia, Kaiser Permanente study finds
4 August 2009
Elevated cholesterol levels in midlife – even levels considered only borderline elevated – significantly increase the risk of Alzheimer's disease and vascular dementia later in life, according to a new study by researchers at Kaiser Permanente's Division of Research and the University of Kuopio in Finland. The study appears in the journal Dementia & Geriatric Cognitive Disorders.
US: Emergency physician judgment on chest pain patients syncs with their outcomes
4 August 2009
Emergency physicians should trust their judgment when evaluating patients who report with chest pain symptoms, said a group of researchers led by Abhinav Chandra, M.D., at Duke University Medical Center. Their research suggests that emergency physicians should counsel with other physicians against discharge when they feel strongly about a patient for whom there is no compelling data, other than our evaluation and judgment, Chandra said.
Mothers need bottle information
4 August 2009
A systematic literature review of mothers' experiences with bottle-feeding found that while mothers recognize the benefits of breastfeeding, those who bottle-feed with infant formula do not receive adequate information and support from their healthcare providers and thus, ultimately put their baby's health at risk.
US: If a health-care bill passes, nurse practitioners could be key
3 August 2009
As the House and Senate prepare to embark on their summer recess without having passed any health-care-reform bills, President Obama's dreams of radically restructuring the system have, at least for now, bumped up against the reality of Washington politics. But even if Congress manages to overcome the many obstacles and pass some kind of meaningful reform this fall, the goal of covering some 50 million currently uninsured Americans will encounter a whole new range of hurdles. Chief among them is that there almost certainly won't be enough doctors to care for that many new patients.
SINGAPORE: My nurse, my friend
3 August 2009
If nursing is a caring vocation, then home nursing is a calling with a highly personal touch. Ms Thelma Sequeira, 55, a nursing officer with Home Nursing Foundation, recalled why she chose to go into home nursing 20 years ago. She said: "The elderly are not given recognition. They have contributed so much to society but when they get a stroke or are bedridden, they're left in a corner and treated like part of the furniture. But when you touch their faces, their eyes light up."
US: PET can help guide treatment decisions for a common pediatric cancer
3 August 2009
A new study published in the August issue of The Journal of Nuclear Medicine shows that positron emission tomography (PET) is an important tool for depicting the extent of neuroblastoma in some patients, particularly for those in the early stages of the disease. Neuroblastoma accounts for six to ten percent of all childhood cancers in the United States and 15 percent of cancer deaths in children.
Millions of US children low in vitamin D
3 August 2009
Seven out of ten U.S. children have low levels of vitamin D, raising their risk of bone and heart disease, according to a study of over 6,000 children by researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University. The striking findings suggest that vitamin D deficiency could place millions of children at risk for high blood pressure and other risk factors for heart disease. The study is published today in the online version of Pediatrics.
SWEDEN: Study finds increased 'sibling risk' of obstructive sleep apnea in children
2 August 2009
A study in the Aug. 1 issue of the journal SLEEP indicates that children have an increased risk of developing obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) if they have at least one sibling who has been diagnosed with the sleep disorder.
UK: Staff in flu frontline ‘given wrong masks’
2 August 2009
NHS workers battling swine flu have been put at extra risk after being given the wrong protective face masks, nurses have claimed. A mix-up with orders of specialised fluid-repellent masks has left frontline workers having to wear ordinary surgical masks which are virtually useless at protecting those wearing them against swine flu.
US: Subjective symptoms of sleep quality and daytime sleepiness associated with declining quality of life
1 August 2009
A study in the Aug. 1 issue of the journal Sleep indicates that self-reported worsening in initiating and maintaining sleep over a five-year period was significantly associated with poorer mental quality of life, and increasing daytime sleepiness symptoms were associated with both poorer physical and mental quality of life.
Family under the microscope
1 August 2009
Is it inevitable that your parent with Alzheimer's disease – or another dementia, such as one caused by a stroke – is not only going to have a memory problem but also be mentally ill? Is there anything you can do to avoid this? I am glad to report that there is.
US: Dementia induced and blocked in Parkinson's fly model
1 August 2009
Parkinson's disease is well-known for impairing movement and causing tremors, but many patients also develop other serious problems, including sleep disturbances and significant losses in cognitive function known as dementia. Now researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have modeled Parkinson's-associated dementia for the first time. Scientists showed that a single night of sleep loss in genetically altered fruit flies caused long-lasting disruptions in the flies' cognitive abilities comparable to aspects of Parkinson's-associated dementia. They then blocked this effect by feeding the flies large doses of the spice curcumin.
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