I received an email about a study done on how the FDA is hurting research, innovation, patient care and jobs, and had to post it. The results are really frightening. * On average, innovative new devices are available to U.S. citizens two full years later than patients in other countries. In some cases, American patients wait as long as six years longer than patients elsewhere. * To bring low-risk devices to market, companies must spend $31 million -- $24 million of which is spent navigating the FDA approval process. * To bring higher-risk devices to market, companies must spend $94 million -- $75 million of which is spent navigating the FDA approval process. * Almost half the companies reported that FDA personnel responsible for reviewing their product changed during the course of the review and one-third reported that appropriate staff were not present at meetings between the companies and FDA to discuss review issues. This is bad for us on so many levels. People can't get the drugs and devices people need. New businesses trying to innovate and bring needed products to market can't afford to do so. We lose competitiveness with other nations. The list goes on and on. It's just wrong that one agency can devise a system and receive so little oversight of their procedural processes. Btw, the study was done by the National Venture Capital Association and the Medical Device Manufacturers Association. Here's a link - http://medicaldevices.org/node/846

Thoughtful Thanksgiving: Fighting the Belly Fat (A Real Plan) http://blog.chooseyou.com/2010/11/22/thoughtful-thanksgiving-fighting-the-belly-fat-a-real-plan/ was on the phone with Kathie Nelson, my nutritionist, and I was asserting all of these things I knew. I knew, for example, that a palm sized portion was about 1/2 a cup or 1 carb choice. Roughly. She agreed. And we talked some more. Then I said that belly fat was the most dangerous kind. Suddenly it hit me–I had absorbed this information without the crucial single most important bit of knowledge: why? Belly fat, Kathie explained patiently, seemed to be more easily absorbed into the bloodstream and that’s when the true health hazards begin. Cholesterol. Triglycerides. Clogged arteries. Heart disease. Like a bolt, I realized that I was making sort of thoughtless health choices. I was making good eating choices, good exercise choices, but without really understanding why beyond a general “be healthy, prevent cancer.” I see the outside. It’s easy to get focused on that. My pants are tight or fit well. My hair looks shiny and healthy (or frizzy). That sort of thing. I do not see fat in my blood stream, nor do I feel it. So without getting too above myself in the science and medicine of it all, here’s the lowdown: http://blog.chooseyou.com/2010/11/22/thoughtful-thanksgiving-fighting-the-belly-fat-a-real-plan/

So I could post links, however, I'm too lazy. I do, however, want to have this discussion with people - I have read in several spots the new TSA backscatter scanners (in addition to just in general pissing people off) have not been proven all that safe and a big concern that some doctors and scientists have, because all the radiation gets fully absorbed in the skin/top layers and not through the whole body like traditional x-ray) might pose a risk for breast cancer. Wonder what everyone thinks of this? If you will use the backscatter scanner or not (because of this reason or others). Should they study this more before asking all of us to go through it? (Also, it's being said it poses a higher risk to children, elderly and anyone already immuno-compromised. So basically, it's the safest for a healthy, adult male, which so often is the basis for so many safety tests of chemicals, technology, etc).

Have a Happy (Healthy!) Valentine’s Day! Here’s How… http://blog.chooseyou.com/2011/02/14/have-a-happy-healthy-valentines-day-heres-how/ Want some ideas about how to treat yourself or a loved one in a healthy yet fab way this holiday? I got it covered!

Big health news week: Preventive Care, Vaccines, & Food Poisoning http://blog.chooseyou.com/2011/02/17/big-health-news-week-preventive-care-vaccines-food-poisoning/ Some headlines recently that really caught my attention: HHS Announces $750 Million Investment in Prevention Alcohol and obesity Illness in the millions (all those sick stomachs are on the rise) New National Vaccine Plan (PDF) Read details: http://blog.chooseyou.com/2011/02/17/big-health-news-week-preventive-care-vaccines-food-poisoning/

Sensitive teeth? They may be able to fix that... Dentists have a new treatment for patients suffering from tooth pain and sensitivity caused by excessive tooth whitening, drinking acidic sports drinks and sodas, or stress-related tooth grinding. The treatment, which will be introduced at the Chicago Dental Society conference going on today through Friday, is a new toothpaste that contains a nerve-protecting ingredient. Tooth sensitivity is caused when the dentin layer below the enamel is exposed. Straw-like dentin tubules transmit pain to the tooth's nerve when exposed to heat or cold, acidic soft drinks or bleach in tooth whiteners. The protective ingredient, called NovaMin, contains "a calcium phosphate molecule that, in the presence of saliva, lays down a barrier" and prevents the transmission of pain to the nerve, says Linda Niessen, dentist and chief clinical officer for Dentsply International, which is partnering with GlaxoSmithKline on the NUPRO Sensodyne paste that contains NovaMin. For now, the paste will be administered at dental offices for immediate relief of sensitivity and pain caused by exposed dentin. A high-fluoride commercial toothpaste containing the ingredient will be available this summer. http://yourlife.usatoday.com/health/medical/oralcare/story/2011/02/You-have-your-nerve-protected-by-toothpaste-/44043396/1?loc=interstitialskip

Eat Right: Foods that fight cancer? My analysis of claims that there are certain foods that will reduce your risk of cancer...with scientific backup. Have you heard about diets that claim to prevent cancer? Tried drinking three cups of green tea a day to reduce your risk of breast cancer? How viable are these claims? If you eat the right diet, can you, in fact, prevent or reduce your chance of cancer? Read more and full analysis at: http://blog.chooseyou.com/2011/03/03/eat-right-foods-that-fight-cancer/

Better Benefits, Better Health for Women http://www.healthcare.gov/foryou/betterbenefitsbetterhealth/women.html Thanks to the Affordable Care Act, the health care law passed by Congress and signed by President Obama, you and your family may be eligible for important new benefits that will ensure you get the care you need and deserve for a lower cost. * Most young adults can stay on their parent’s family plan until they turn 26. It doesn’t matter whether you’re married, living with your parents, in school, or financially independent. For more information on how to stay insured, call the customer service number for your or your parents’ insurer and explain your situation. Or visit Facebook.com/YoungAdultCoverage to learn more. * Most health plans cannot deny coverage to children under age 19 because of pre-existing conditions.http://www.healthcare.gov/law/provisions/ChildrensPCIP/childrenspcip.html * If you have been uninsured because of a pre-existing condition, like cancer or having been pregnant, you may be eligible to join the Pre-Existing Condition Insurance Plan. To find out about plans available in your State, visit: www.pcip.gov. * If you are in a new insurance plan, insurance companies cannot charge you a deductible or copays for recommended preventive services, like mammograms and flu shots. See a list of preventive services that will be covered without a deductible or copays. Speak with your doctor for more details. http://www.healthcare.gov/law/provisions/preventive/index.html * If you are in a new insurance plan, you can choose the primary care doctor or OB-GYN in your insurer’s network without a referral. http://www.healthcare.gov/law/provisions/choice_access/index.htmlGo to your insurer’s website or call the customer service number to find out which providers are in your network. * Insurance companies are prohibited from capping the dollar amount of care you can receive in a lifetime, or dropping your coverage due to a mistake on your application when you get sick. http://www.healthcare.gov/law/provisions/limits/limits.html * Seniors who are in the Medicare prescription drug coverage gap known as the donut hole will receive a 50% discount on covered brand name prescription drugs and lower copays for generic drugs. You don’t need to take any action to receive this benefit. * Anyone can visit HealthCare.gov http://finder.healthcare.gov/ and access a personalized list of private insurance plans, public programs and community services that are available to you. For more information, ask your doctor or: Learn details on key parts of the law. http://www.healthcare.gov/law/provisions/index.html View an interactive timeline.http://www.healthcare.gov/law/timeline/index.html Learn more about Better Benefits, Better Health http://www.healthcare.gov/foryou/betterbenefitsbetterhealth/index.html

Lower Your Blood Pressure With Laughter and Music (Health.com) -- Listening to your favorite tunes or funny jokes could lower your blood pressure, perhaps even as much as cutting salt from your diet or dropping 10 pounds, according to the preliminary results of a small study presented Friday at American Heart Association meeting in Atlanta. In the study, Japanese researchers found that people who took part in bimonthly group sessions built around music or laughter lowered their systolic blood pressure (the top number in the reading) by an average of five to six points after three months. By contrast, the average blood-pressure reading in a control group that received neither therapy didn't budge. Though relatively modest, blood-pressure reductions of the size seen in the study have been linked to a 5% to 15% lower risk of death from heart disease or stroke, says Michael Miller, M.D., director of preventive cardiology at the University of Maryland Medical Center, in Baltimore. "I think there's definitely a physiological effect going on, some sort of mind-heart connection," says Miller, who was not involved in the new study but has conducted similar research. Read the rest of the article here: http://www.cnn.com/2011/HEALTH/03/25/laughter.music.lower.blood.pressure/index.html?hpt=Sbin

Most people use around 10 personal care products every day, with an average of 126 different ingredients. We'd like to believe that the government is policing the safety of all of the concoctions we put on our bodies, but it's not. Instead, these unregulated products pose uncertain dangers for our health and our environment. EWG thinks you deserve better. We asked our research team to put together some tips on how to choose better body care products. http://action.ewg.org/salsa/track.jsp?v=2&c=LKw2Ut9sGWe4pfN5D%2F%2Fni0wErWAPTy8g You'll learn how to: * Read a label http://action.ewg.org/salsa/track.jsp?v=2&c=1umhZnOWdNHJMCFSl7AQ1EwErWAPTy8g * Shop for the grown-ups in the house http://action.ewg.org/salsa/track.jsp?v=2&c=wuzXnbeIagdw3C6h6pVKwUwErWAPTy8g * Find the safest body care products for your kids http://action.ewg.org/salsa/track.jsp?v=2&c=XVuQdbU0UKuem%2BHlm%2FhrAEwErWAPTy8g What makes a body care product "better"? Transparency. Better products are truthful in their marketing claims and free of potential worrisome ingredients. Some products might make claims that a product is "gentle" or "natural," but since the government does not require safety testing, personal care product manufacturers can use almost any chemical they want, regardless of risks. Our website shows you how to buy better personal care products. http://action.ewg.org/salsa/track.jsp?v=2&c=JLKEBiMszCx7su3aq3U9BWaNNqjFyXnR

This is just a marketing ploy to me. I'm not a fan of all these energy, stress-relieving, weight loss, etc. drinks that are supposed to make you feel better. I think it's all in your head! ________________________ Stress busting drinks take off USAToday.com - Energy drinks are so 2010. In a stressed-out culture, their antithesis, "relaxation" drinks, are emerging as the beverage world's hot ticket but are also drawing their share of critics. More than 70 of these drinks, heavily marketed as stress reducers in a bottle, have rolled out in the past three years, estimates research specialist Mintel. Nutritionists warn they may be more marketing than substance. "I don't think there's any mainstream research that would support any of this," says Alice Lichtenstein, professor of nutrition at Tufts University. "If you want to relax, drink chamomile tea." Consumer advocates and parents are showing concern, too. The ingredients and marketing techniques of some relaxation drinks are coming under closer scrutiny, says Marc Ullman, an attorney who advises product makers. "The relaxation product category is a category that's looking for trouble." The drinks go by mellow-sounding names: Unwind, iChill, Be Happy and category behemoth Drank. Active ingredients vary from the amino acid L-theanine, found in green tea, to melatonin, used in sleep aids. The category size — from 2-ounce shots to 12-ounce cans — is anyone's guess. Consulting firm Zenith International says it's $500 million, while Terry Harris, president of Frontier Beverage, maker of Unwind, says it's $100 million, a fraction of the $7.7 billion energy-drink juggernaut. Yet few beverage categories are growing faster. Zenith's projected growth rate for the drinks in 2011: 38%. A big challenge: convincing folks it works. While the benefit of energy drinks is widely understood, "The benefits of relaxation drinks are more subjective," says Lynn Dornblaser, Mintel's new products guru. Keep reading: http://admin.themotherhood.com/main/frontpage

Common pain meds don't provide relief for most Study finds that asipirin or acetaminophen were only effective 30 percent of the time If you're suffering from acute pain, don't be surprised if aspirin or acetaminophen doesn't do the trick for you. A new study finds that only about one-third of people who take one dose of aspirin (1,000 milligrams) or one dose of acetaminophen (600 mg) reported experiencing good pain relief. Good relief was defined as feeling that the pain was cut by half for four to six hours. The study reviewed 350 previous trials of pain medications that included 45,000 people in total. Close to 50 drugs or drug combinations were evaluated for their ability to relieve pain at specific doses. Only 14 percent of patients who took codeine (60 mg) said they experienced good relief, the study showed. With the best drugs, 70 percent or more said they experienced good pain relief. Examples of these drugs include etoricoxib at 120 mg and acetaminophen (500 mg) plus ibuprofen (200 mg), the study said. No drug hit a home run — that is, no medication worked well for all patients. And in many cases, more than half of patients did not experience good pain relief, the researchers said. Read more: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44428730/ns/health-pain_center/

Older pills often safer but many think new is better 4 in 10 wrongly believe the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approves only 'extremely effective' drugs, survey finds CHICAGO — Many consumers mistakenly believe new prescription drugs are always safer than those with long track records, and that only extremely effective drugs without major side effects win government approval, according to a new study. A national survey of nearly 3,000 adults finds that about 4 in 10 wrongly believe the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approves only "extremely effective" drugs. One in 4 mistakenly believes the FDA allows only drugs that don't have serious side effects. That means consumers "may not get the benefit from drugs they think they're getting, or they may expose themselves to more harm than they think" said study co-author Dr. Steven Woloshin of the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice and the VA Outcomes Group In truth, the FDA approves a new drug when its benefits outweigh any known risks. FDA approval doesn't mean the drug's benefits are large compared to drugs already on the market. And risks for some drugs appear only after they've been used by millions of people and long after FDA approval. For instance, Merck & Co. withdrew the FDA-approved arthritis pill Vioxx after its heart risks surfaced. Read more: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44487999/ns/health-health_care/

Therapists are 'seeing' patients online NYT.com - The event reminder on Melissa Weinblatt’s iPhone buzzed: 15 minutes till her shrink appointment. She mixed herself a mojito, added a sprig of mint, put on her sunglasses and headed outside to her friend’s pool. Settling into a lounge chair, she tapped the Skype app on her phone. Hundreds of miles away, her face popped up on her therapist’s computer monitor; he smiled back on her phone’s screen. She took a sip of her cocktail. The session began. Ms. Weinblatt, a 30-year-old high school teacher in Oregon, used to be in treatment the conventional way — with face-to-face office appointments. Now, with her new doctor, she said: “I can have a Skype therapy session with my morning coffee or before a night on the town with the girls. I can take a break from shopping for a session. I took my doctor with me through three states this summer!” And, she added, “I even e-mailed him that I was panicked about a first date, and he wrote back and said we could do a 20-minute mini-session.” Since telepsychiatry was introduced decades ago, video conferencing has been an increasingly accepted way to reach patients in hospitals, prisons, veterans’ health care facilities and rural clinics — all supervised sites. But today Skype, and encrypted digital software through third-party sites like CaliforniaLiveVisit.com, have made online private practice accessible for a broader swath of patients, including those who shun office treatment or who simply like the convenience of therapy on the fly. Continue: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/25/fashion/therapists-are-seeing-patients-online.html?hpw