Shreveport Times | 08.21.09
By Melody Brumble
A health care
forum sponsored by the conservative Red River Tea Party organization Thursday
night in Bossier City
served more as a platform for reaffirming the group's views than a discussion
of reform proposals.
The event drew
about 100 people. Audience members cheered as panelists largely expressed
their opposition to reform proposals pending in Congress and the Obama
administration's vision for reform.
Emcee Royal Alexander,
a former congressional staffer and one-time attorney general contender, said
some reforms might be needed, including addressing the issues of insurance
portability and purchasing power for small employers.
However, he
contends, the bills pending in Congress amount to "wholesale government
takeover of health care."
Panelists John
Bowman, who owns a group health insurance agency that
manages benefits for small employers, Sean Hintz, a certified registered
nurse anesthetist, and Drs. Karl Bilderback, Paul
Jordan, Craig Bozeman and Charles Byrd also expressed concerns about
government involvement in health care. All four doctors have been or were in
private practice in this area.
Jordan, a native
of Canada,
offered a glimpse of that country's health care system. He practiced medicine
in Canada before moving to
Bossier City
in 1983.
Patients in Canada wait longer for access to care, and
access to medical technology like PET scans is different in Canada than in the United States, said Jordan, who
has practiced locally for 15 years and is chief of gastroenterology at LSU
Health Sciences Center-Shreveport.
The volume of
cases was overwhelming in Canada
and colleagues sometimes were unwilling to help with complex cases because
they were so busy when he was there, Jordan said.
During his
introductory speech, he offered a different take on the contentious debate
over health care reform in the United States. "This
argument is not so much over medical care as the financing of medical care.
It's a fight over control."
http://www.shreveporttimes.com/article/20090821/NEWS01/908210330
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I have always thought
everybody should have health care.
It's unbelievable
to me that in this great country we have fellow citizens that can't afford to
go to the doctor.
What is really
unbelievable is that we have fellow citizens who think there are other
citizens that don't deserve proper health care because they can't pay for it
or are down on their luck. You've heard them. "It's not my
responsibility." "Too bad for them that they don't have
employer-provided insurance." And the ever-popular, "They can get
treated at the charity hospital." Etc., etc.
We're told 80
percent of Americans like their health care just the way it is.
Maybe so. But I
can remember friends who had insurance but still couldn't go to the doctor or
hospital because they didn't have the co-pay money.
It's not just the
insurance folks. It's the quality of the insurance. Does it cover you and
your family's needs? Does it pay enough? If you get sick, will they drop you?
Will it cover you if you have pre-existing conditions? Will you be turned
down because of your age? If you lose your job, will you be able to get
insurance?
We citizens are
helpless. The insurance and drug industries are loose cannons. They do what
they want to do.
We badly need
national health-care reform. Maybe some kind of national privatized co-op. A
group or pool that one could get into.
A private plan
would be much better than anything government-run. The present government
plans (Medicare and Medicaid) are fine for the recipients but are loaded with
waste and corruption and cost taxpayers outrageous amounts of money.
The
Democratic-proposed government health-care plan has sparked national
awareness. I urge you to get involved. Write Congress during the August
recesses and tell them what you think. It's time to get this important issue
resolved.
As country comic
Jerry Clower said when he was wrestling a bobcat up
in a tree. "Somebody shoot up here. One of us needs some relief."
Chuck Pickett is a
Lafayette
resident who spent many years in the oil and gas industry. Now retired, he is
a writer, Rocky
Mountain high country
hiker and a stock market day trader.
http://www.theadvertiser.com/article/20090821/OPINION/908210311/1014/People-should-be-involved-in-health-debate
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By Joseph Marrazzo III
Guest commentary
I, as one of the
37 physician-owners of Central
Louisiana Ambulatory
Surgical Center,
would like to comment on your editorial of Aug. 6 regarding our facility.
Your theme was somewhat negative, and I believe that to be unfair to our
institution.
You state
correctly that our center has been successful. It has been since its founding
in 1985 and for good reason. We do outpatient surgical procedures safely,
comfortably and efficiently. If we ever fail to do that, then we shall cease
to be successful. We feel we can also offer our patients these advantages for
procedures that usually require a night or two stay. That is the reason we
are expanding to a 24-bed surgical specialty hospital.
CLASC has never
"cherry-picked" its patients. Medicare and Medicaid patients make
up over 50 percent of our census every year, just like at Cabrini and
Rapides. We choose the services at which we excel; we do not choose the
patients who receive them. They choose us. That will not change once our
expansion is complete next year.
Cabrini and
Rapides also choose which services to provide. They choose to be full-service
hospitals. In recent years, they have added services like neonatal intensive
care, but they have also dropped some services such as geriatric/psychiatry
and hospital-based skilled nursing facilities. They have built up Industrial
Medicine departments, essentially taking that area of care away from the
family physician and internist who traditionally provided these same
services.
Both Alexandria hospitals
provide care to uninsured patients who come into their emergency rooms in
accordance with the law. These same laws will apply to the Central Louisiana
Surgical Hospital.
However, what you failed to mention is that both Alexandria
hospitals are compensated through the Medicare Disproportionate
Share Hospital
formula. This is an arcane formula that directs over a billion dollars in
federal money each year to hospitals in Louisiana alone that provide a higher than
usual share of uncompensated care. Cabrini and Rapides get millions of
dollars every year from this program.
The doctors who
provide this care get none of it, including almost all of the
physician-owners of CLASC who provide much of the emergency surgical services
at both hospitals.
Rapides Regional
Medical Center chose to get out of the free-standing
outpatient surgical center business in 2001. From 1994 to 2001, it owned half
of CLASC. In 2001, it purchased the other half from its physician partners, then
turned around and sold it all to 16 physicians, who invested a lot of money
and time to create the successful center it is now. Currently, there are 37
physician-owners who have invested their own money to fill what we see as a
need here in Central Louisiana.
Perhaps people
must be reminded that in 1902, six physicians used their own money to build
the Alexandria Sanitarium. They worked hard and the facility was successful
at treating medical and surgical patients in Alexandria. In 1917, they sold it and it
became the Baptist Hospital, which became Rapides
Hospital, and later still Rapides Regional Medical
Center.
Our 24-bed
facility won't begin to compare with Rapides' 314 beds or the 241 at Cabrini.
We are not trying to be everything to everyone.
Our goal is to
expand our high quality, efficient, cost-effective care for patients with
procedures that may require an overnight stay. Isn't that the goal of health
care reform? Patients who need these procedures cannot presently avail
themselves of our brand of care. Next year, they will and should have that
choice. Don't you agree?
Dr. Joseph Marrazzo, III, practices medicine in Alexandria
and is one of the 37 physician-owners of Central
Louisiana Ambulatory
Surgical Center
in Alexandria.
http://www.thetowntalk.com/article/20090821/OPINION/908210313
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By MARSHA SILLS
Advocate Acadiana bureau
LAFAYETTE — Does a student’s weight or level of
fitness impact behavior or academic success?
Does poverty play
a role in whether a child is fit or fat?
An expansion of a
research project directed by the University
of Louisiana at Lafayette’s
Picard Center for Child Development and
Lifelong Learning seeks to answer those questions.
Last year, the research
center began tracking the physical assessments of 6,625 students in Caddo, DeSoto, Lincoln, Natchitoches, Sabine and West
Feliciana parishes.
Forty percent of
them were either overweight or obese and only 22 percent of them were able to
pass all five measures of a fitness test, called a Fitnessgram.
The criterion-based physical assessment measures body mass index and the
level of a student’s fitness with timed runs and other exercises, such as
push-ups and curl-ups.
This year,
legislation authored by state senators Cheryl Gray-Evans, D-New Orleans, and
Yvonne Dorsey, D-Baton Rouge, expanded the research project in 12 school
districts: DeSoto, Lincoln,
Natchitoches, Sabine, Monroe City School
System, Morehouse, Ouachita, West Feliciana, Recovery
School District, Lafayette,
St. Mary and St. Martin.
Some schools had
already implemented the Fitnessgrams to assess
their students.
For the past three
years, N.P. Moss Middle School
has used the program to track students’ fitness.
Fifty percent of
the N.P. Moss students are overweight and nearly 5 percent are morbidly
obese, Moss principal, Ken Douet said.
The school has
used the data to create health education courses focused on nutrition and
helping students develop healthier eating habits.
That’s the intent
of the project — to help schools find best practices that can help their
students get and stay healthy and fit, said Billy Stokes, executive director
of the Picard Center.
The Picard Center is the data clearinghouse for
the Fitnessgram assessments.
Stokes said the
research is also focused on younger student populations to help curb
unhealthy eating habits and promote an active lifestyle earlier, Stokes said.
Last year, the
research center screened 713 Lafayette Parish preschool students. At least 28
percent of them were overweight or obese, according to the center’s report.
The research will
continue to target the younger student population to determine at what age or
what factors may contribute to unhealthy weight gain, Stokes added.
“It appears they
start to pick up the weight fairly quickly,” Stokes said. “Once they gain the
weight, you’re really behind the eight-ball because it’s difficult to get
off.”
The
student-assessment is kid-friendly, said Cynthia Wigely,
a physical education teacher at N.P. Moss Middle.
“With this test
students have some form of success. If they can’t run, they can walk at a
fast pace and have some success level. It’s not ostracizing the less active
kids,” she said.
Students also
receive a report after concluding the assessment and take it home to share
with their parents. The reports are also child-centered and offer students
tips on how to reach optimal fitness, said Holly Howat,
Picard Center project director.
“It’s a good tool
to report data back to parents,” Howat said.
The data has
already helped some school districts rally support for healthy initiatives,
such as walking trails, Stokes said.
“To deal with this
it has to be done at the community level,” he said.
While the Picard Center is the lead on the project,
universities within the UL System and LSU are also involved, Stokes said. The
Louisiana Obesity Council and Louisiana Departments of Health and Hospitals
and Education are also partners.
College
kinesiology departments will partner with participating school districts to
provide training and support.
The wealth of
research available from the data will also help local colleges develop
research unique to their own communities, Stokes said.
“We’re hoping to
develop capacity across the state. Hopefully, we’ll get to where all children
in the state will be assessed,” he said.
The goal for this year, is to have the program implemented in at least a
third of the state’s school districts, Stokes said.
http://www.2theadvocate.com/news/education/53891987.html
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by The Associated
Press
Officials at Loyola University
in New Orleans say the university is positioned
to be the first in Louisiana
to offer a Doctor of Nursing Practice degree program.
Loyola's board of
trustees in May unanimously approved the addition of the D.N.P. degree
program to the curriculum for the School
of Nursing, which is housed within
the College of Social Sciences.
Pending final
approval by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, Loyola will
enroll its first class of 25 post-master's degree students in the summer of
2010.
Loyola says the
program will be delivered exclusively online to meet the enrollment demands
of nurses nationally, regionally and locally.
http://www.nola.com/education/index.ssf/2009/08/loyola_could_soon_offer_doctor.html
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Lynn Frank
Americans came
together after 9/11 and Katrina to help those families who had been
grievously affected. I wonder why we aren't similarly concerned about the 18,000
people who died last year for lack of health care.
And what about the
thousands of families who have gone bankrupt because of medical bills? Many
of them had insurance, but it didn't cover everything that was needed.
Having suffered
the loss of a 37-year old husband to cancer, I understand how unexpected
catastrophes can affect any family any time.
We are truly all
in this together. People with untreated tuberculosis can infect the rest of
the population. Just ask yourself how many of our restaurant workers can
afford health insurance. It is a shame that we have to hold fund-raisers to
provide medical care for the chef at the Ritz-Carlton, for wonderful musical
performers and one of the post-Katrina hero shrimpers. What about people who
do not have fund-raisers?
Some people argue
that we cannot afford health reform or that now is not the time. But now is
the time before the nation's heath gets worse or the costs become more
crushing. We rank No. 37 on the World Health Organization's list of healthy
nations. How much lower do we want to go?
Lynn Frank
New Orleans
http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/letterstoeditor/index.ssf?/base/news-14/1250832711199220.xml&coll=1
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Baton Rouge CityBusiness |
08.21.09
by The Associated
Press
WASHINGTON — It started out with a couple of liberal
policy wonks. One on each coast.
Along the way,
Elizabeth Edwards — sensitized by her own
experiences as a cancer patient — helped propel it into presidential politics
during her husband's campaign.
The idea of a
government medical plan to compete with private insurance might have been
just a footnote in an academic paper. Instead it has followed an unlikely
path to center stage in the national health care debate. Many Democrats
insist any legislation must include a public option, while nearly all
Republicans are against it. President Barack Obama seems uncomfortably stuck
in the middle.
A look at the
roots of the idea shows that the policy experts who proposed early versions
believed the government plan would become one of the largest insurers in the
country. But Obama and other candidates saw it as a compromise between rival
Democratic factions. One side wants Medicare-for-all, while the other prefers
to subsidize coverage through private insurance plans as Massachusetts has done. The debate within
the party still rages, with Obama in the crossfire.
Former North
Carolina Sen. John Edwards was the first Democratic presidential candidate to
propose a public option as part of his health care plan, unveiled in 2007.
Behind the scenes, his wife, Elizabeth, was a strong advocate of his
decision.
In an interview,
Elizabeth Edwards said that as the daughter of a Navy captain, she grew up
with government health care and found it dependable. Later in life, her
sojourn in the medical world as a breast cancer patient opened her eyes to
the travails of people who had no insurance, or whose coverage turned out to
be unreliable.
"I met people
who were constantly coming up against one problem or another," Edwards
said. "Even people like me, who have health care, know someone who has
been through some misery because they couldn't afford the health care they
needed."
Before the 2008
presidential campaign, chances were slim that lawmakers one day would
consider government coverage for middle-class workers and their families.
Liberals had talked for years about expanding Medicare to cover not just
seniors, but all Americans. That's all it seemed to be — talk.
Then in 2001,
political scientist Jacob Hacker proposed a plan he called "Medicare
Plus." Employers could choose either to offer private insurance or pay a
payroll tax to finance coverage for their employees through a health plan
modeled on Medicare. Hacker, now at Yale University,
retooled his proposal early in 2007 as the presidential campaign geared up.
It caught on with core Democratic constituencies.
"The unions
fell in love with Jacob's idea," said health economist Len Nichols of
the New America Foundation.
Hacker said he
wanted to bridge the gap between Democrats who supported a single payer plan
like Medicare-for-all and those who wanted to preserve the employer coverage
that has served most Americans for a half century.
"I tried to
provide a case for seeing common ground between those two positions,"
Hacker said. "There's certainly a strong political argument that single
payer is not feasible. Threatening (employer) coverage is a political
nonstarter, and moving all health care spending onto the public budget is
virtually impossible in the current fiscal climate."
Nonetheless, he
said estimates showed his public plan would end up covering about half of
workers and their families — gaining a powerful position in the market.
On the other side
of the country, a Berkeley
health policy professor had come up with the idea of a head-to-head
competition between a government plan and private plans. Helen Halpin proposed such a scheme in 2002 for California, a state
with a history of failed attempts to remake its health care system. The
following year, she retooled the plan as a national proposal.
Called the CHOICE
Option, Halpin's plan would let people decide
whether they wanted government coverage or a private plan.
"May the best
model win," Halpin said. "Depending on
the preferences of the population, the system could evolve to single payer,
but it would be a totally voluntary transition." Her bet: The government
plan wins.
Edwards' health
care adviser, Peter Harbage, said he was familiar
with both Halpin's idea and Hacker's proposal, and
they were discussed in the campaign's deliberations.
"What Helen
had here was the idea of choice, and choice as an option," said Harbage, now at the Center for American Progress.
"The catch phrases people are using today were part of her paper."
Edwards decided on
his health care plan after the campaign set up a private teleconference
debate that featured two independent policy experts. One argued for a
government-run system, while the other defended a market-based approach like Massachusetts has.
"We were both
walking around with phones," said Elizabeth Edwards. "I was
listening in." After the debate, her husband decided to go for the
market-based approach — with a public option added.
Later on, Obama
and Hillary Rodham Clinton adopted the public plan. The idea remains popular
with the public: A Kaiser Family Foundation poll this week found 59 percent
of Americans support it.
http://www.neworleanscitybusiness.com/uptotheminute.cfm?recid=26395
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by Hope Yen, The
Associated Press
WASHINGTON -- The ranks of poor and uninsured
Americans are likely increasing -- with more than 38.8 million believed to be
in poverty.
Rebecca Blank, the
Commerce Department's undersecretary of economic affairs, spoke to The
Associated Press in advance of next month's closely watched release of 2008
census data. Noting the figures are not yet final, Blank said the numbers
likely will show a "statistically significant" increase in the
poverty rate, to at least 12.7 percent. That would represent a jump of more
than 1.5 million poor people compared with the previous year.
"There's no
question that 2008 economically was a much worse year than 2007," she
said Wednesday. "The question is how much and how bad."
The number of
uninsured is also expected to increase notably due largely to rising
unemployment and the erosion of private coverage paid for by employers and
individuals, but Blank declined to say by how much. In 2007, the number of
uninsured fell by more than 1 million mostly because government programs such
as Medicaid for the poor picked up the slack.
The census
figures, set to be released Sept. 10, could have important ramifications as
Congress returns from its August recess to debate health care reform, its
cost and the ways to pay for it. Republicans also have traditionally pointed
to the intractable poverty rate as a sign that government programs for the
poor do not work, a claim likely to be repeated
often in light of the federal stimulus package.
In a 30-minute
interview, Blank said the census figures released next month could possibly
understate the actual number of poor people, since the poverty rate is a
lagging indicator that tends to accelerate over time. As a result, the 2008
data could prove to be the tip of the iceberg, with more significant declines
reflected in 2009 figures that will be released next year.
Blank, a former
co-director of the National Poverty Center
at the University
of Michigan, estimated
earlier this year that poverty could eventually hit 14.8 percent or more if
unemployment reaches 10 percent as some analysts predict -- or nearly one out
of every seven Americans.
Based on 2007
figures, the poverty rate currently stands at 12.5 percent, or 37.3 million,
largely unchanged from recent years. The official poverty level is now
$21,203 for a family of four, and $13,540 for a family of two, based on a
calculation that includes only cash income before deductions for taxes. It
excludes capital gains and it does not take into account accumulated wealth
or assets, such as a home.
On Wednesday,
Blank said she was working with the Census Bureau to provide better measures
of poverty. Such alternative measures, which will be released sometime after
Sept. 10, will seek to better incorporate added costs of health care, child
care, housing and transportation, but also noncash income from the stimulus
and other government programs, such as tax credits and food stamps.
http://www.nola.com/news/index.ssf/2009/08/census_data_expected_to_show_m.html
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By CHARLES
BABINGTON
Associated Press
writer
WASHINGTON (AP) --
President Barack Obama guaranteed Thursday that his health care overhaul will
win approval and said any bill he signs will have to reduce rapidly rising
costs, protect consumers from insurance abuses and provide affordable choices
to the uninsured - while not adding to the federal deficit.
Obama listed those
four "bullet points" as his basic requirements in response to a
question from a caller to a Philadelphia-based talk radio show. Host Michael Smerconish interviewed Obama at the White House during
the show and Obama took questions from several listeners.
Another caller
said he sensed the administration's "knees are bucklin'
a little bit" under criticism of the proposals. Obama said he was as
determined as ever and "I guarantee you, Joe, we are going to get health
care reform done."
Obama is
struggling to regain the momentum on his top domestic priority - a
comprehensive bill that would extend health coverage to nearly 50 million
Americans who lack it and restrain skyrocketing costs. Opponents of the
overhaul have drowned out supporters at lawmakers' town halls around the
country this month, and backing for Obama's effort has slipped in opinion
polls. Congressional Democratic leaders are preparing to go it alone on
legislation although bipartisan negotiations continue in the Senate.
The president
insisted Thursday that there has been no change in the administration's
position that a government option for health insurance coverage should be
considered as part of legislation to overhaul the system.
Responding to a
question from Smerconish, Obama said, "The
press got excited and some folks on the left got a little excited" when
the administration last weekend made statements indicating that a federally
run health insurance option was just one of several alternatives.
"Our position
hasn't changed," he said.
Later Thursday, he
visited the Democratic National Committee headquarters for a rally designed
to re-energize activists who were instrumental is his drive to the
presidency.
"Winning the
election is just the start," he told an audience at the DNC and
thousands watching online and listening by telephone. "Victory in an
election wasn't the change that we sought."
Obama said lies
had spread about Democrats' plans, including claims Washington would create "death
panels" or pay for health insurance for illegal immigrants.
"C'mon,"
a mocking Obama told the cheering crowd. "We can have a real debate
because health care is hard and there are some legitimate issues that have to
be sorted through and worked on."
While Obama says
he's still looking for Republican support for a comprehensive health care
bill, Democrats privately are preparing a one-party push, which they feel is
all but inevitable.
On Wednesday,
Obama urged religious leaders to back his proposals, arguing that health
coverage for Americans is a "core ethical and moral obligation."
Polls continued to show slippage in support for the president's approach,
although respondents expressed even less confidence in Republicans' handling
of health care.
Vice President Joe
Biden met with health care professionals in Chicago on Thursday and planned to announce
nearly $1.2 billion in grants to help hospitals transition to electronic
medical records. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius was joining him.
Former Republican
presidential candidate Mitt Romney said Thursday that Obama is struggling to
get a health care bill because he has been too deferential to liberals.
Romney, who may challenge Obama in 2012, said on CBS' "The Early
Show" that "if the president wants to get something done, he needs
to put aside the extreme liberal wing of his party."
Some Democrats say
a strong-arm tactic on Senate health care legislation that would negate the
need for any GOP votes might be more effective than previously thought.
The legislative
tactic, called "reconciliation," would allow senators to get around
a bill-killing filibuster without mustering the 60 votes usually needed.
Democrats control 60 of the Senate's 100 seats, but some moderate Senate
Democrats have expressed reservations about Obama's plan.
Two Democrats -
Robert Byrd of West Virginia and Edward
Kennedy of Massachusetts
- are seriously ill and often absent. Kennedy sent a letter Tuesday to Massachusetts leaders
asking that they change state law to allow someone to be quickly appointed to
his seat in Congress "should a vacancy occur."
While always
contentious, reconciliation lets the Senate pass some measures with a simple
majority vote. Non-budget-related items can be challenged, however, and some
lawmakers say reconciliation would knock so many provisions from Obama's
health care plan that the result would be "Swiss cheese."
Still, Jim Manley,
spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.,
warned Republicans Wednesday that reconciliation is a real option. The White
House and Senate Democratic leaders still prefer a bipartisan bill, he said,
but "patience is not unlimited and we are determined to get something
done this year by any legislative means necessary."
Administration
officials and congressional Democrats were deeply discouraged this week when
key Republican lawmakers seemed more critical than ever about various
Democratic-drafted health care bills pending in the House and Senate. They
said they still hope Senate Finance Committee efforts to craft a bipartisan
compromise can succeed, although private remarks were more pessimistic.
http://www.2theadvocate.com/news/53840737.html
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By Austin Wright
As colleges
nationwide welcome back students, they are also preparing for the return of
an unwanted guest: H1N1 influenza, popularly called swine flu. The Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention considers college students among several
high-risk groups for this new strain of flu, and on Thursday the health
organization released guidelines for how colleges should help prevent the
flu's spread.
The typically mild
virus has been officially classified a global pandemic by the World Health
Organization. And already this month, more than 50 students each at the University of Alabama
at Tuscaloosa and Louisiana
State University
at Baton Rouge
have reported flu-like symptoms to the universities' student-health centers.
Flu outbreaks were also reported at several colleges' summer programs.
"College-aged
students are particularly vulnerable to this virus, and they are not
necessarily seeing a doctor on a regular basis," said Kathleen Sebelius, U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services, in
a conference call with reporters Thursday. "A lot of them have not had
regular vaccination updates. They need to be encouraged to not only take care
of themselves, isolating themselves when they are sick, but also to take
advantage of the vaccine when it becomes available."
The health
department has been promoting flu prevention to young adults through Facebook, Twitter, and other viral-marketing techniques,
Ms. Sebelius said. College-age people are
considered a priority group for receiving vaccinations when they become
available this fall.
The CDC's
guidelines for colleges say sick students should isolate themselves until 24
hours after their fevers subside, in the absence of fever-reducing
medication. The guidelines urge colleges to make it easy for students, and
faculty and staff members with flu symptoms to miss class or work. They also
ask colleges to consider offering alternative housing for sick students who
live with roommates and to consider telling students who have medical
complications putting them at high risk for severe cases of the flu to stay
home or in their rooms during outbreaks.
Isolation Plans
Duke University, for instance, has left one of its student
apartment complexes unfilled so students with high-risk factors like
respiratory problems or weak immune systems can live there in the event of a
flu outbreak. The university has been especially hard hit by the flu this
summer.
Since football
training camp began at Duke in early August, nearly half of the players have
had sore throats, fevers, coughs, runny noses, and other symptoms of the flu.
Many of Duke's football players experienced symptoms for fewer than 12 hours,
and all have now recovered and are back on the
field, said Michael Schoenfeld, the university's
vice president for public affairs and government relations.
Duke also had to
cancel one of its 60 or so summer programs for middle- and high-school
students because of the flu, and another was cut short. Of 8,000 campers who
attended programs at Duke in the last three months, about 70 came down with
the flu, though it may not have been H1N1. Health officials no longer test
people with flu symptoms to see whether they have that particular strain of
the virus because it is generally treated the same as seasonal flu.
Some infected
students at Duke this summer were sent home. Those whose parents could not
drive to pick them up were sent to a residence-hall-turned-infirmary.
"We communicated very frequently with the students and their
parents," he said. "The cases were very mild, consistent with
seasonal flu, maybe even milder. Nobody was hospitalized."
Duke's situation
this summer may serve as a warning of what's to come. As students nationwide
return to college, they are packing themselves by the thousands into
dormitories that often lack air conditioning, feature communal showers, and
breed close encounters.
"It's clearly
not a matter of if," Mr. Schoenfeld said.
"It's a matter of when—and how much."
Preparing for the
Worst
Since last spring,
the new H1N1 virus has infected an estimated more-than-one-million people in
the United States.
Health experts have stopped keeping an official tally because most people
recover without seeking medical treatment.
On Thursday,
federal officials said that the CDC would consider asking colleges to suspend
classes only if flu outbreaks are more severe among college students this
fall than they were in the spring and summer.
"We wanted to
have a menu of options," Ms. Sebelius said,
"because what's appropriate in Southern California may be a lot
different from what colleges in Maine
are looking at."
The new guidelines
also recommend that colleges publicize hygiene tips and ask students to clean
their rooms frequently. Students with the flu who have been isolated should
have a friend or caregiver bring them meals, the guidelines say.
In an interview, a
CDC spokesman urged that colleges take precautions. "We need to prepare
for the worst and hope for the best," said Tom Skinner. "Colleges
need to expect that novel H1N1 is going to be circulated on their campus, and
they need to have a plan."
An H1N1 vaccine
should be ready for distribution in October, Mr. Skinner said. Colleges
contacted by The Chronicle said that once shots are available, they plan to
offer on-campus immunizations.
"We've talked
with the health department about having them come to campus for
immunizations," said Michael Leonard, medical director for University
Health Services at Binghamton
University, part of the
State University of New York system. Last year, he said, Binghamton had one confirmed case of H1N1.
The student was isolated for seven days. Another student with flu symptoms
was isolated for two days before medical tests showed that he did not have
the new H1N1 virus.
Dr. Leonard said Binghamton updated its
pandemic plan this summer because the previous plan was based on the deadly
1918 flu pandemic. "We had thought the next pandemic would have high
mortality," he said. But health officials at the university realized
they needed more-flexible procedures that could be applied to less-severe
outbreaks that have low mortality rates but could still shut down the
university if enough people were infected.
Oakland
Community College, in Michigan, recently
updated its pandemic plan as well. Commuter colleges like Oakland face fewer challenges when dealing
with flu outbreaks because, if an outbreak were bad enough, they could simply
tell students to go home.
"What we
don't have is the dorm situation—we don't have students living in mass,"
said Terry McCauley, Oakland's
director of public safety. "The worst-case scenario for us is if we have
to close down business."
He said the college
plans to send out several campuswide e-mail
messages reminding students to wash their hands frequently, especially after
sneezing or coughing. If the campus had to shut down, he added, the college
could hold many classes online.
Dr. Michael
Edmond, hospital epidemiologist for the Virginia Commonwealth University
Health System, said the university hospital is stocking up on masks and
gloves. "We've significantly increased our supply," he said.
"When you're trying to plan for something like this, the just-in-time
mentality doesn't work anymore."
He said hospital
officials have been meeting all summer to work through logistical questions
that could arise this flu season: Which employees should be vaccinated first?
Should workers with medical conditions that make them more susceptible to the
flu be prohibited from caring for flu patients? At what point should the
hospital stop allowing visitors?
"There are
many issues, but not a lot of answers," Dr. Edmond said. "It's
totally unpredictable."
http://chronicle.com/article/Colleges-Get-Ready-for-Flu/48144/
[BACK TO TOP]
By Betsy Q. Cliff
There’s something
remarkable about the Okinawan people. These
residents of a subtropical island in Japan live longer than almost
anyone on Earth.
Compared with
other developed countries, Okinawa has four
to five times the number of centenarians. Their average life expectancy is 81
years, surpassing the American average by more than four years. Reports from
people who study the Okinawans chronicle people
living active, healthy lives well into their 90s and beyond. So what’s their
secret?
It may be that
they simply eat less. Compared with those living in mainland Japan,
the Okinawans eat about 20 percent fewer calories.
Their diet is healthy - filled with leafy greens, soy and some fish - but
scientists are increasingly convinced that the quantity may be just as
important as the quality.
A growing body of
evidence suggests that if you’re willing to eat less nearly every day for the
rest of your life, you can expect to live longer. Though the idea is by no
means mainstream, it has been buoyed by recent
studies and has attracted a growing group of adherents.
Further, you may
stay healthier, as restricting calories may stave off some of the major
diseases of aging. Calorie restriction seems to affect some fundamental
processes in the body related to aging and the development of chronic
disease. The pharmaceutical industry is capitalizing on the idea. Clinical
trials are currently under way on pills that mimic calorie restriction’s
effects without the pain of going hungry.
As a way to stop
the effects of aging, “it seems that calorie restriction may be more powerful
than anything we have on the market,” said Dr. Samuel Klein, who heads the
Division of Geriatrics and Nutritional Science at Washington University in
St. Louis and is currently involved in a large study of calorie restriction
in humans.
“There’s something
magic in calorie restriction,” said another researcher, Eric Ravussin, a professor at Pennington Biomedical
Research Center,
who is also involved in the study of calorie restriction on humans. “You can
move the (life span) curve to the right.”
Not everyone is
convinced. No local practitioners — including dietitians, physicians and naturopathic
doctors interviewed for this article — supported calorie restriction. Most
said the evidence isn’t there, and it is enough to just ensure a healthy
diet.
“I would not
advise someone to do it,” said Dr. Mike Henderson, an internal medicine
physician at High Lakes Health Care in Bend.
“Certainly not based on the info available.”
To be sure,
there’s no direct evidence that humans will live longer by eating less. Most
of the evidence for longevity comes from studies of various animals,
including mice, worms and monkeys. In humans, the studies examine populations
that have followed a calorie-restricted diet or detail health benefits that
may lead to a longer life, but do not go so far to prove that calorie
restriction can lead to a longer life.
That hasn’t
stopped many people from giving it a go. “Prior to starting calorie
restriction, I thought of life as kind of (a) conveyer belt. You move at a
steady pace and then drop off and die,” said Bob Cavanaugh, who lives in North Carolina and is
part of a group that practices calorie restriction. “Once I got on calorie
restriction, I realized that I can control the speed of that conveyer belt.”
Potential benefits
Calorie
restriction does not have a specific definition or protocol beyond the
obvious, taking in fewer calories. That can mean eating less every day or
fasting one day then gorging the next. Most studies define the restriction as
somewhere around 30 percent less than the average amount a person would eat,
which is about 1,900 calories per day for women and 2,600 calories per day
for men.
Studies and
adherents both stress the importance of adequate nutrition. Nutrient-dense
food is typically chosen so the quality of the diet is high, despite that
there is less food.
Studies on people
who have voluntarily or involuntarily reduced the amount they eat have shown
that those people often lower their risk of major killers such as heart
disease, cancer or diabetes.
One such study
chronicled the experience of the crew in the Biosphere 2 experiment, in which
eight people were confined in a 3-acre enclosed space in Arizona for two
years (from 1991 to 1993) to see if they could create a self-sustaining
environment. It did not go well, and food was scarce for most of the two
years. The conditions were ripe, however, for a study of the effect of
deprivation.
The crew ate a
healthful, largely vegetarian, low-fat diet of green and yellow vegetables,
fruits and grains. They consumed between 1,700 and 2,100 calories each day, a
low amount, particularly considering the heavy workload in the Biosphere.
By the end of the
two years, all of the crew members had lost weight. They also lowered their
total cholesterol, blood pressure and level of triglycerides, reducing their
risk for heart disease. The researchers, who see the same phenomenon in
calorie-restricted mice, surmised the reduced risk was associated with the
drop in food consumption.
Another study
currently under way is examining whether restricting calories by 25 percent
for people who are slightly overweight but not obese can put them in better
health.
After six months
of study, the researchers found that those who were on the calorie-restricted
diet lost about 10 percent of their body weight. The primary biological
change in those on the calorie-restricted diet was in measurements of
metabolism, how the body’s cells were using energy. People on the
calorie-restricted diet expend less energy than those eating normally.
That change in
metabolism, scientists theorize, could be the key to why calorie restriction slows
aging. When cells use energy, they produce compounds called free radicals.
These little pests zip around the body, damaging cells and, more
destructively, the DNA inside cells. When the cells use less energy, they
produce fewer free radicals, lessening the damage to the body.
“As the metabolism
slows down, you would produce fewer free radicals,” said Julie Hood, a
registered dietitian and professor at Central Oregon
Community College.
“That may slow down aging or chronic disease progression and that may help
you live longer.”
Hood emphasized
that at this point, it’s still just a theory and there’s no direct evidence
that, even if calorie restriction does slow metabolism, it would make people
live longer.
A recent study
provided what some scientists are calling the best evidence yet that calorie
restriction can extend life. Published last month in the journal Science, the
study looked at the survival rate of rhesus monkeys on a calorie-restricted
diet compared with monkeys on a normal diet. After about 20 years, 37 percent
of the animals fed a normal diet died of age-related causes compared with
just 13 percent of the monkeys fed less.
Moreover, the
monkeys in the calorie-restricted group had fewer diseases. Sixteen monkeys
in the normal-diet group were diabetic or pre-diabetic; none in the
restriction group had signs of the disease. The calorie-restricted monkeys
also had fewer cases of cancer and heart disease.
Monkeys fed less
also showed less brain deterioration than those in the normal diet group.
Though there have been fewer studies on the effect of calorie restriction on
the brain, this evidence suggests that it could help prevent age-related
diseases of the mind such as dementia.
“The study in
monkeys is really remarkable because it’s been going on so long,” said Klein.
Klein said it was unlikely, perhaps even impossible, to do a similar study in
humans.
The monkey study,
Klein said, may be the most direct evidence for an increase in life span from
calorie restriction. “In terms of longevity, this will be the study.”
CRonies
Cavanaugh, in North Carolina, is not
waiting for all the evidence to be in. The 61-year-old man began a
calorie-restricted diet about nine years ago, after his doctor told him he
needed to control his cholesterol. He’s followed it ever since. His wife is
now a convert, also following the diet.
“I’m just doing it
so I age well,” he said. “I want to avoid the diseases of aging.”
He eats about
1,800 calories each day, usually through two meals, breakfast and dinner.
Cavanaugh said he eats normal foods and pays attention to make sure he gets
all his recommended vitamins and minerals in each day. He still goes out to
eat, he said, but makes smarter choices — ordering fish instead of steak, for
example.
Cavanaugh is the
managing director of a group called The Calorie Restriction Society, often
referred to as the CRonies. Members describe
themselves as a support group for people who practice calorie restriction,
and their Web site offers tips for those who want to embark on a diet of less
food. Currently, the group has about 4,000 paying members, said Cavanaugh,
though the Web site gets between 4,000 and 5,000 hits per day.
Cavanaugh said
that because the research is not definitive, he’s not sure if he’ll live
longer than people eating a normal diet. But for most CRonies,
he said, that’s beside the point. “A lot of folks have stated they just feel
better and healthier. Even if there were no anti-aging benefits, they
wouldn’t go back.”
Hard diet
For the general
population, however, most see calorie restriction as just too hard to
promote. “It’s very difficult to be on a calorie-restricted diet,” said
Klein. “Only the very driven, obsessive-type people are the ones who can
stick with it.”
Henderson, the
internal medicine physician in Bend,
agreed that the diet was impractical for most people. “You basically have to
be hungry all the time. That’s hard for people to do.”
Because many
people are overweight or obese and need to reduce their calorie intake to
solve that problem, telling normal weight people to reduce their calories
will not likely become a public health push anytime soon. Most researchers
said getting a handle on the obesity epidemic was more important than pushing
for calorie restriction, even if there are true benefits.
“If we are not
good at curving down the prevalence of obesity, can you imagine what we are
going to do with calorie restriction,” said Ravussin.
“It’s just a question of priorities.”
Plus, the evidence
is still not fully there, said Ravussin. He said
his colleagues kid about whether a longer life span from calorie restriction
is real or imagined, given that you may go through each day hungry. “There’s
a joke that you don’t live longer, it just seems longer.”
Betsy Q. Cliff
http://www.bendbulletin.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090820/NEWS0107/908200306/-1/rss
[BACK TO TOP]
Jim Acosta and Ed Hornick
(CNN) -- If Washington wants
health care reform with bipartisan support, experts say consider what former
Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney accomplished as governor in
Democratic Massachusetts.
Mitt Romney says
the president must have bipartisanship in order to get quality health care
reform.
"You don't
have to have a public option," Romney said. "You don't have to have
the government getting into the insurance business to make it work."
Three years after
enacting its own version of reform, Massachusetts
now has near-universal coverage.
Taxpayer watchdogs
say it's affordable.
"There is
this widespread assumption, that is treated as fact,
that it's breaking the bank in Massachusetts
... it's not breaking the bank at all." said Michael Widmer
of Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation.
And health care
experts say it's popular.
"Seven in 10
people in the state support the program, and no more than one in 10 would
repeal it." said Robert Blendon with the
Harvard University School of Public Health.
Unlike Democratic
proposals that would give Americans the choice of joining a government-run
health care plan, Massachusetts
has no public option. Instead, people in the state are required to buy
private insurance, and the poor get subsidies.
The reform created
the Commonwealth Health Insurance Connector Authority, which is similar to a
health insurance exchange.
Nicknamed
"Connector," its purpose, according to the state, is to connect
individuals and small businesses statewide to affordable insurance plans.
The program
reviews "existing health insurance coverage plans in the
marketplace" and gives "certain plans the Connector 'seal of
approval.' Plans offered through the Connector will not be subject to minimum
contribution and participation rules," according to the state
government's Web site.
And under the 2006
legislation, there are several requirements for insurance companies.
According to Brian
Rosman of Health Care for All, a nonprofit based in
Massachusetts,
the requirements include:
• Minimum benefits, such as
preventive care, mental health care and hospitalization
• A ban on gender discrimination
• Limits on total out-of-pocket costs
• A prohibition on pre-existing
conditions as a qualifier for health coverage
• No medical underwriting, so
insurers can't ask an individual about his or her health status in order to
determine coverage
• Limits on age restrictions, which means
what is charged for an older individual cannot be more than double what is
charged the
youngest.
Analysts say
"Romney care" is basically "Obama care" minus the public
option.
When asked if he'd
support Obama's health care reform plan if it doesn't include a public
option, Romney said that it "depends on what's in the rest of the
bill."
The Massachusetts model,
however, does have its problems. Experts say it doesn't control rising health
care costs -- something Romney insisted must be tackled on a national level.
Michael Tanner,
the director of health and welfare studies at the libertarian Cato Institute,
said that the Romney care program plan costs taxpayers a "great deal of
money."
"Originally,
the plan was projected to cost $1.8 billion this year. Now it is expected to
exceed those estimates by $150 million," he said in 2008. "Over the
next 10 years, projections suggest that Romney Care will cost about $2
billion more than was budgeted."
He added:
"And the cost to Massachusetts
taxpayers could be even higher because new federal rules could deprive the
state of $100 million per year in Medicaid money that the state planned to
use to help finance the program."
At a GOP
presidential debate at Reagan Library in June 2008, Romney defended his
program.
"I'm the only
one that got the job done. I got health insurance for all our citizens. We
had 460,000 people without insurance. We got 300 of them -- 300,000 of them
-- signed up for insurance now. I'm proud of what we accomplished," he
said at the time.
Meanwhile, Romney
says Democrats have only themselves to blame for those rowdy town hall
meetings that have sometimes been reduced to shouting matches and even
violence.
"I think any
time you're dealing with people's health care and their ability to choose
their doctor, you're going to find people responding very emotionally,"
he said.
As for former
Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's now debunked claim that
reform would lead to so-called "death panels," Romney said
"I'm not going to tell people what they can and cannot talk about."
Still, Romney does
warn the president that bipartisanship is the only road to health care
reform.
"I think the
right process for the president to pursue on a subject that is so emotional,
so important to all Americans, is to go through the lengthy process of
working on a bipartisan basis," he said. "He promised that."
Democratic sources
said Tuesday that the White House might resort to passing a Democratic-only
bill without bipartisan support.
The White House
later said Wednesday that the president was hopeful bipartisan talks would
continue if Republicans continue to help Democrats devise a comprehensive
plan.
Democrats,
however, may run into problems.
A Quinnipiac University poll shows the American
public is wary of a Democratic-only bill. When asked if that's the right
approach, 59 percent said they were opposed, while 36 percent said yes.
The poll had a
margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points.
But it's not all
good news for Republicans.
A new NBC News
poll shows only 21 percent approve of the Republican Party's handling of
health care, while 62 percent disapprove. In contrast, 41 percent approve of
Obama's handling of the issue, while 47 percent disapprove.
The NBC News poll
was conducted August 15-17, with 805 adults questioned by telephone. The
survey's sampling error is plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.
http://edition.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/08/20/romney.health.care/
[BACK TO TOP]
The New York Times | 08.20.09
By KEVIN SACK
SUNRISE, Fla. — It
was karaoke night at the Sunrise Lakes retirement village, and 76-year-old
Shirley Scrop, wearing a T-shirt commemorating her
granddaughter’s bat mitzvah, was laying down a rap about health care.
“I walk in the
morning and I swim in the pool, I go to the doctor because I’m no fool,” she
chanted, swaying like Ray Charles in a tennis skirt. “At the doctor’s office,
I don’t want to stay, but I sit and I sit and I sit all day.”
But truth be told,
Ms. Scrop admitted after taking her bow, she would
not change a thing about her health care. Only two months ago, she had
surgery to remove a breast tumor, and Medicare and her supplemental policy
covered the cost, while allowing her a broad choice of physicians.
That is why,
despite voting for President Obama last November, Ms. Scrop
now sees the health care debate in Washington
as a source of considerable concern. Like many among the lipsticked
poker sharks, treadmill walkers and mah-jongg warriors who stay active at the
community’s Phase 4 Clubhouse, Ms. Scrop has found
her lifelong allegiance to the Democratic Party competing with her fears that
the cost of providing universal coverage will fall heavily on the aged.
“It’s scary,” said
Ms. Scrop, a retired bookkeeper from Long Island
who moved to southeast Florida
in 1989. “If they change the benefit amounts, it’s going to come out of my
pocket. I’m sure there’s going to be some kind of change. I just hope it’s
not going to be too bad.”
It seemed to
matter little that Mr. Obama and his Democratic allies in Congress have vowed
to protect Medicare benefit levels and have disavowed any interest in
“pulling the plug on grandma,” as the president put it last week. Ms. Scrop and other residents of this sprawling community of
coral-colored condominiums have heard about plans to wring hundreds of
billions of dollars out of the projected growth in Medicare spending. Even
though the largest of the proposed cuts would reduce reimbursements to
hospitals, many fear that beneficiaries would ultimately lose out.
Whether or not
they buy the false accusation that the Obama administration plans to set up
“death panels” — some do and some do not — many express a generalized fear
that care of the elderly will take a back seat and that access to procedures
and drugs may be restricted. They paid into Medicare their entire working
lives, several said, and basic fairness demands that they be allowed to keep
what they have.
“I don’t want to
have things cut from what I need,” said Sandy Burd,
64, the clubhouse social director. “If I’m 65 and need an M.R.I., I don’t
want them to say, ‘I’m sorry, but it has to go to someone who’s 45.’ ”
Hal Goldman, 79,
who retired 22 years ago from Sears, Roebuck & Company, echoed that
sentiment.
“What they’re
trying to do — Obama is — is take from the senior
citizens and give to the poor and the illegal immigrants,” Mr. Goldman said
“It’s hurting the senior citizens who worked all their lives. Because of
their age, like in Canada,
you’ll have to wait six months for an M.R.I.”
In fact, the health
care bills circulating in Congress would not extend coverage to illegal
immigrants, though they could reduce some of the choices that Medicare
beneficiaries now enjoy.
In last year’s
election, voters 60 and older were the only age group to support Senator John
McCain of Arizona,
the Republican nominee. But that was not the case here in Broward County,
which was critical to the Democratic victory in Florida. In the nine precincts that make
up Sunrise Lakes, which is dominated by elderly
Jewish transplants from the urban North, three of every four votes went to
Mr. Obama.
That makes it
particularly striking that there is such anxiety here about Democratic health
care initiatives. Although the opinion is far from universal, some Obama
supporters said they were regretting, or at least reassessing, their choice.
“I voted for
President Obama, and I’m not ashamed to say that I’m sorry now because I
don’t trust what he’s saying,” said Elaine Carl, 71, president of recreation
at the development’s Phase 4. “I think they’re going to take away from
Medicare. I really do.”
On Tuesday night,
at three poker tables set up in the clubhouse lobby, disagreements over
health care temporarily interrupted the kvetching about the broken air
conditioning.
“I can go wherever
I want right now, and if I’m told that I can’t, that would worry me,” said
Ruth P. Fox, 82, as she slid a nickel into the pot (in clear contravention of
posted regulations against gambling). “I have a geriatric doctor, and she’s
wonderful.”
But Eleanor S.
Robinson, who is 80, said her elderly friends tended to worry just to worry.
“When Roosevelt put in Social Security, a
lot of people were worried about that, too,” Ms. Robinson recalled. “And if
we didn’t have a Social Security check now, all of us would be up a creek.
You sometimes have to go forward and take a chance.”
There are others,
of course, whose enthusiasm for Mr. Obama has not flagged. Ronald A.
Clifford, 73, who patrols the property in a golf cart as a part-time security
guard, blamed “roughnecks” for fomenting dissent at town-hall-style meetings
because “they hate having a black president.”
“All in all, I
support Obama no matter what he does,” Mr. Clifford said. “Whatever he does,
that’s the emes. You know what that is? That’s
Yiddish for the truth.”
Whatever the
feelings about Mr. Obama, there was widespread appreciation that he had taken
on an ambitious agenda.
“You have to give
the man a chance; he took on a big task,” said Sylvia Bank, who said she had
just celebrated her 88th birthday, prompting a friend to knock on wood. “If
it was my son, I wouldn’t let him be president, not at this time.”
Hilda Gruber, 84,
glanced up from her cards. “What does that have to do with the price of eggs
in Afghanistan?”
she asked.
Back in the
ballroom, where the karaoke set-up had been underwritten by a supplier of
motorized wheelchairs, Ms. Scrop said the best
health care came from a positive outlook and regular exercise. She said she
played tennis nine times a week, and line danced to boot.
“I’m not ready to
leave this earth, because they only take good people up there,” she said with
an impish grin. “Since I’m going to be here a long, long time, I don’t want
my coverage to be too high.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/21/health/policy/21housecall.html?ref=health
[BACK TO TOP]
PRWeb |
08.20.09
Antioxidant-rich
Wild Blueberries were the sole focus of discussion at the recent Wild
Blueberry Health Research Summit in Bar
Harbor, Maine. An
annual meeting of leading scientists studying Wild Blueberries for their
disease fighting potential, the Health Research Summit continues to serve as
the catalyst for discoveries about the beneficial effects of
blueberry-enhanced diets on fighting oxidative stress and inflammation. Wild
Blueberry research has been led by a core group known as the Bar Harbor
Group. Scientists from the U.S.
and Canada
participate in an annual Wild Blueberry Health Research Summit to share
current findings and advance collaborations into new areas.
Summit
participants including James Joseph, Ph.D. and Barbara Shukitt-Hale,
Ph.D. from the USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts
University and Don Ingram, Ph.D., from Louisiana State University's
Pennington Biomedical Research Center and formerly with the National
Institute on Aging, recently collaborated on an important study in the area
of cardiovascular health demonstrating that a blueberry-enriched diet
protects the heart muscle from damage in animal models. (PLoS
One, 2009 June 18; 4(6):e5954)
"We've seen a
positive effect of blueberries on brain function and are encouraged by this
new research that shows a positive link to heart health," said Dr.
Joseph. "We're finding that what's good for the brain is also good for
the heart," said Dr. Ingram. "In this study blueberries appear to
act as both an antioxidant and anti-inflammatory agent providing a protective
effect against cardiovascular damage," continued Ingram.
Others are
involved in research related to metabolic syndrome, a combination of medical
disorders including high blood pressure, high cholesterol, abdominal obesity,
and impaired glucose tolerance responsible for increased risk for
cardiovascular disease and diabetes. Working with Wild Blueberry fruit
compounds known as anthocyanins, Mary Ann Lila,
Ph.D., from North Carolina
State University,
Plants for Human Health Institute led a team of researchers that demonstrated
that blueberry phytochemicals helped alleviate
hyperglycemia in rodent models, a condition associated with diabetes and
metabolic syndrome. (Phytomedicine, 2009 May;
16(5): 406-15)
"Anthocyanins, the natural plant compounds that give Wild
Blueberries their deep blue color, may have anti-diabetic activity,"
said Dr. Lila. "With metabolic syndrome and diabetes on the rise,
gaining a better understanding of how a healthy diet rich in fruits and vegetables
may forestall some of these conditions is critical."
According to Susan
Davis, MS, RD, Wild Blueberry Health Research Summit facilitator and
Nutrition Advisor to the Wild Blueberry Association of North America,
excitement is building around clinical trials. "We have seen success in
pilot studies exploring the effects of Wild Blueberry consumption on vision,
cardiovascular health, and cognitive impairment," said Davis. "Researchers want to build on
pilot study results that are showing a positive effect in study subjects,
while simultaneously advancing in vitro and in vivo work examining the actual
bioactive compounds in the berries."
http://www.prweb.com/releases/2009/08/prweb2774544.htm
[BACK TO TOP]
The New York Times | 08.20.09
By SARAH LYALL
LONDON — People here complain endlessly about the
National Health Service, which is financed by taxpayers and provides access
to care, free at the point of delivery, to everyone in the country. They
deplore the system’s waiting lists, its regional disparities in treatment,
its infection-breeding hospitals and its top-heavy bureaucracy.
But they can be a
bit touchy when outsiders are the critics.
They are furious,
for example, that the health service is being held up as an example of the
failures of socialized medicine by Americans opposed to President Obama’s health
care proposals. On Wednesday, several dozen people rallied in front of the
American Embassy in Grosvenor
Square, holding up pro-N.H.S. signs.
“The N.H.S. is not
perfect,” the rally’s organizer, Bruce Kent, told reporters, “but it is being
really badly abused in the U.S.A.,
and on utterly unreasonable grounds.”
Mr. Kent
said the health service saved his life in 2001, when he was operated on for
prostate cancer. If he had had to pay for his treatment, he said, the cost
“would probably have put me on the streets.”
Arguments against
the health service by Republicans overlook the fact that while it costs half
as much per person as the American system costs, “it delivers results which
are on some plausible measures actually superior,” The Economist said in a
stern editorial. “And it does this while avoiding the disgrace that so shames
America,
of leaving around 46 million people, some 15 percent of its population,
without any form of health insurance.”
A Twitter
campaign, We Love The N.H.S., is still going strong, with supporters sending
messages about their own good experiences. More than 27,000 people have
signed an online petition urging Americans “to ignore the myths about health
systems in our country and others that are being pushed by U.S. health care companies” and
to engage in a “healthy and honest debate.”
Britain’s three mainstream political parties have
all hastened to affirm their support for the health service, with Prime
Minister Gordon Brown even weighing in on Twitter. And after a member of the
European Parliament from his party denounced the health service as a “60-year
mistake” on American television, David Cameron, the Conservative leader,
repudiated his remarks.
In a speech on
Thursday, Mr. Cameron said the Conservatives were “the party of the N.H.S.”
And commentators
continue to be amazed at what, in their minds, is an irresponsible distortion
of the argument by people from across the Atlantic.
“If American
politicians peddle falsehoods about what goes on in other countries,” The
Economist wrote, “Americans are correspondingly less likely to appreciate the
extent to which they are being let down.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/21/health/policy/21london.html?ref=health
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