Maintaining a Goal Weight
Reached your goal weight? What to do next? New diet or dame routine? Read what the experts say below:
The question: After you've slimmed down, should you use a different strategy for maintaining weight loss? Or will the same steps that help you drop pounds in the first place still work?
The expert: James O. Hill, Ph.D., executive director of the Anschutz Health and Wellness Center at the University of Colorado and author of State of Slim
The answer: Actually, your game plan for losing weight should be totally different from your game plan for keeping it off. When you're in weight-loss mode, it's a temporary situation primarily driven by food restriction (which is why it's so much easier to lose weight through diet than exercise). "You can do things for three months that you can’t do forever," says Hill.
When it comes to maintaining your weight, though, research indicates that exercise is the single biggest factor in predicting who's going to prevent the weight from creeping back on, says Hill. "Keeping weight off is about delveoping new habits and rituals and routines," he says. "It becomes much more important to look at long-term behavior change for maintenance."
To kickstart your own lasting healthy habits, check out the 10 eating habits of perpetually fit people and read up on how to stick to your workout for good
Source: ABC NEWS - Health
Consumer Awareness for Health Care
For the most part, Americans are champ consumers. But we're not such good shoppers when it comes to our own health. Studies show that Americans spend more time researching car purchases and new appliances than they do choosing doctors and health plans.
We're not even sure we have options. Over half of all Americans said in a recent survey they did not feel confident that they could reduce the cost of health care by shopping around. And many of us are shy about negotiating with our doctors, or asking if an expensive test is really necessary.
Meanwhile, escalating health care costs have burdened both employees and employers. The average cost of a visit to the doctor is about $199; a visit to the ER costs about $922, according to AHRQ. About 25% of those visits are unnecessary. You can imagine how many billions of dollars this costs everyone every year.
You can start researching NOW to get coverage before the OPEN ENROLLMENT IS UP!!!
We're not even sure we have options. Over half of all Americans said in a recent survey they did not feel confident that they could reduce the cost of health care by shopping around. And many of us are shy about negotiating with our doctors, or asking if an expensive test is really necessary.
Meanwhile, escalating health care costs have burdened both employees and employers. The average cost of a visit to the doctor is about $199; a visit to the ER costs about $922, according to AHRQ. About 25% of those visits are unnecessary. You can imagine how many billions of dollars this costs everyone every year.
You can start researching NOW to get coverage before the OPEN ENROLLMENT IS UP!!!
APPLICATION DEADLINE FOR COVERAGE STARTING APRIL 1st, 2014 IS MARCH 15!
OPEN ENROLLMENT ENDS MARCH 31ST
New Blood Pressure Facts Revealed
New science is changing the way people 50 and older judge their blood pressure, and a slew of new studies on foods and hypertension suggest it may be easier than you thought to reduce high blood pressure.
For adults under 65, it's that upper number in your blood pressure reading that may be the best indicator of future heart problems or even premature death. A normal reading is around 120/80. If that first number is 140 or higher, you have reason for concern.
For those 65 and older, however, it's a trickier situation. Readings may vary more and doctors need to be careful in prescribing blood pressure medication for older patients.
One safe, effective way to decrease blood pressure for all age groups is to eat foods that work naturally to dilate blood vessels so the heart doesn't have to work so hard.
Eat more of these six fabulous foods for an easy, delicious way to help lower your blood pressure numbers:
For adults under 65, it's that upper number in your blood pressure reading that may be the best indicator of future heart problems or even premature death. A normal reading is around 120/80. If that first number is 140 or higher, you have reason for concern.
For those 65 and older, however, it's a trickier situation. Readings may vary more and doctors need to be careful in prescribing blood pressure medication for older patients.
One safe, effective way to decrease blood pressure for all age groups is to eat foods that work naturally to dilate blood vessels so the heart doesn't have to work so hard.
Eat more of these six fabulous foods for an easy, delicious way to help lower your blood pressure numbers:
Holiday Health Facts
It’s that time of year again when we enjoy festive meals with family and friends, deck our halls with colorful decorations and listen to squeals of delight as our children open their brightly-wrapped presents. To help ensure your kids have fun and stay safe this holiday, here are a few tips to remember.
In 2012, 3,270 children 19 and under were seen in emergency rooms for injuries caused by nonelectric holiday decorations, like broken ornaments. In 2011, an estimated 193,200 children were treated in an emergency room for a toy-related injury. And in the same year, an estimated 136,314 children ages 19 and under were injured due to a fire or burn.
- See more at: http://www.safekids.org/holidays#sthash.OF7vGJlU.dpuf
Hard Facts
In 2012, 3,270 children 19 and under were seen in emergency rooms for injuries caused by nonelectric holiday decorations, like broken ornaments. In 2011, an estimated 193,200 children were treated in an emergency room for a toy-related injury. And in the same year, an estimated 136,314 children ages 19 and under were injured due to a fire or burn.
Top Tips
- Natural trees look beautiful and smell great, but if they’re not watered regularly, needles can dry out and pose a potential fire hazard. Make sure your tree has plenty of water by checking it regularly.
- Keep holiday candles at least 12 inches away from anything that can burn, and don’t forget to blow them out when you leave the room or before you go to sleep.
- Consider your child’s age when purchasing a toy or game this holiday season. It’s worth a second to read the instructions to make sure the gift is just right
- Keep a special eye on small pieces, including button batteries that may be included in electronic toys. While these kinds of games are great for older kids, they can pose a potential danger for younger, curious siblings.
- Kids love to reach, so to prevent burns from hot holiday food or liquid spills, simply use the back burner of your stove and turn pot handles away from the edge.
- Kids are curious and will want to play with the ornaments on the tree, so you might as well prepare. Move the ornaments that are breakable or have metal hooks towards the top of the tree. That makes room at the bottom for the ones that are safer for young kids.
- See more at: http://www.safekids.org/holidays#sthash.OF7vGJlU.dpuf
HOLIDAY TOY SAFETY!
TOY SAFETY TIPS
Find the Perfect Toy for the Right Age
- Consider your child’s age when purchasing a toy or game. It’s worth a second to read the instructions and warning labels to make sure it’s just right for your child.
- Before you’ve settled on the perfect toy, check to make sure there aren’t any small parts or other potential choking hazards.
Don’t Forget a Helmet for Riding Toys
- If your children have their hearts set on a new bike, skateboard, scooter or other riding equipment, be sure to include a helmet to keep them safe while they’re having fun.
- Learn more bike safety tips and watch our helmet safety video.
Store Toys After Play
- After play time is over, use a bin or container to store toys for next time. Make sure there are no holes or hinges that could catch little fingers.
Sign Up to Receive Product Recalls
- Safe Kids compiles product recalls specific to children and sends twice-monthly e-mail alerts for recent recalls. Sign-up for the latest recall information.
- Go to www.recalls.gov for additional information about product recalls related to kids.
- See more at: http://www.safekids.org/tip/toy-safety-tips#sthash.M7jgiS1t.dpuf
How Movember Got started in Australia by The Co-Founder of Movember!
Adam Garone: Healthier men, one moustache at a time!
Adam Garone is co-founder of Movember - the month-long fundraising event held every November where men grow a moustache (a ‘mo'), raising awareness and money for men's health along the way.
Movember has grown from a group of 30 mates, who wanted to bring the mo back into fashion and also raise money for a good cause, into a world-wide phenomenon. In 2007, some 96,000 ‘Mo Bro's' across Australia joined the campaign, raising $14 million dollars for health charities, the Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia and beyondblue - the national depression initiative.
"We want to fundamentally change the way men think, talk and act about their health"
"We want to fundamentally change the way men think, talk and act about their health", explains Adam. "The mo is a conversation starter; a vehicle for men to talk about their health. We get lots of emails from guys saying that they were suffering from depression and by growing a mo they were able to speak about it." It's a clever campaign which has struck a chord, not only in Australia, but also in New Zealand, the UK, Canada, Spain and other countries around the world.
Last year Movember launched internationally into New Zealand. It raised over $850,000 for the New Zealand Prostate Council- the highest amount ever raised for the organisation by $835,000. Thrilled with the results, Adam and his team spent the best part of 2007 gearing up for international launches in the US, UK and Spain.
"We never anticipated it would have such a following in Australia, let alone globally", says Adam, who is now based in the US as Movember's North America Operations Director.
Adam began his career in the Australian Army before completing his Master of Marketing at MBS. After graduating, he spent seven years in the e-commerce industry, managing product development and online marketing for Vodafone and other Australian companies.
Though the original idea for Movember was sparked by a conversation among a group of friends who decided to ‘bring the mo back to its former glory', Adam - a health and fitness buff - also recognised a gap in the market for men's health. "While there are a lot of events for women's health there was previously none for men's."
Furthermore, Australian charities hadn't traditionally used the internet to raise money, which is where Adam's online expertise came into play: Movember's registration and sponsorship is all managed online, making it easy for Mo Bros to sign-up, and equally simple for sponsors to support the campaign.
Movember culminates in end-of-month parties where Mo Bros and Mo Sisters (women who encourage their friends and partners to support the cause) celebrate the end of the campaign and crown the Man of Movember.
-Story courtesy of www.mbs.edu
Who is Looking Out For Your food safety?
In cooking, the process of clarification entails straining out extraneous muck from liquids so that they might be pure, clear and ideal for consumption. With this series on food terminology and issues we're attempting to do the same.
If it seems food safety issues are on the rise, that's because they are. About 48 million people contract some form of food poisoning each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Even in the midst of a government shutdown, crises like the current salmonella outbreak occur. But the question on many people's minds is whether the federal investigators in charge of food safety are still around to protect the public, or if they too have been furloughed.
According to a Department of Health and Human Services contingency plan, the Food and Drug Administration "will be unable to support the majority of its food safety, nutrition, and cosmetics activities” in the event of a government shutdown. However, that plan identifies approximately 700 FDA staff members who would remain to “inspect regulated products and manufacturers, conduct sample analysis on products and review imports offered for entry into the U.S. This number includes active investigators who will be needed to perform inspections.”
The United States Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service has 9,633 employees, 8,415 of whom are still working. A little more than 1,200 employees are furloughed but field inspections of meat, poultry and egg products continues, according to Dr. Elisabeth Hagen, Under Secretary for Food Safety at the USDA.
Bottom line they are on the job and reporting to work,” Hagen told CNN. “The Foster Farms alert (related to the Salmonella outbreak) is a result of an ongoing investigation.”
“So despite the government shutdown, food safety inspections remain at, or nearly at, normal levels. But that may not be as safe as you think.
For example, at any given time the FDA is responsible for watching over some 167,000 domestic food facilities or farms, and another 421,000 facilities or farms outside the United States, according to FDA officials. But there are only about 1,100 inspectors to oversee these facilities, officials told CNN in 2012.
There is a third party audit system, where farms or facilities hire auditors to inspect their premises and provide scores. But some say the audit system is full of conflicts of interest; shortly before Jensen Farms in Colorado caused a listeria outbreak that killed 30 people, a private inspection company’s auditor gave them a “superior” grade, even after noting that they had no anti-microbial solution in place to clean their cantaloupes.
Here is a breakdown of each of the government agencies in charge of food safety:
CDC
Stands for: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Food Safety Role: In the food safety chain, the agency's mission is to protect the American public from health threats, usually in the form of food-borne illness.
The CDC works in tandem with the Food and Drug Administration to investigate individual cases and outbreaks of food-borne illness (primarily bacteria-based like listeria, salmonella and E. coli) and trace them back to their origin.
The CDC started the Foodborne Diseases Centers for Outbreak Response Enhancement (FoodCORE) in 2009 to develop and perfect methods to detect, investigate, respond to, and control multi-state outbreaks of food-borne diseases. Centers currently exist in Connecticut, Ohio, New York City, South Carolina, Tennessee, Utah and Wisconsin.
FDA
Stands for: Food and Drug Administration
Food Safety Role: The FDA regulates all food not overseen by the USDA, which inspects poultry, meat and processed egg products. The FDA has a multi-faceted role in the food safety chain, which can be broken down like this:
Food defense: The FDA works with other governmental agencies and private businesses to prevent and reduce the risk of malicious attacks on the food system from terrorists, criminals, counterfeiters and others who would seek to harm the public. The FDA provides a tool for private businesses to use to build their own defense plan.
Recalls: The FDA keeps the public apprised of voluntary recalls by food companies, and recently gained the authority to issue mandatory recalls of foods that have a "reasonable probability" of being adulterated or misbranded and could cause serious illness or death to humans or animals.
Emergencies: In times of emergencies and weather crises like flooding, tornadoes, hurricanes or power outages, the FDA and CDC provide information and guidelines for food storage and disposal.
Outbreaks: The Coordinated Outbreak Response and Evaluation (A different CORE than the aforementioned CDC FoodCORE) network manages outbreak response, as well as monitoring activities after an illness has been identified. It was designed to streamline efforts across the agency, and develop strategies to prevent and identify future threats to the food system.
Labeling: The FDA is responsible for assuring that foods sold in the United States are safe, wholesome and properly labeled. This applies to foods produced domestically, as well as foods from foreign countries, and is overseen by the FDA's Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (CFSAN).
FSIS
Stands for: Food Safety and Inspection Service
Food Safety Role:: FSIS is the public health agency in the USDA in charge of making sure that the nation's commercial supply of meat (excluding game meats), poultry, and egg products is safe, wholesome, and correctly labeled and packaged. This is accomplished several ways.
Inspections: FSIS inspectors inspect animal carcasses before and after slaughter to ensure that no diseases are present, take samples for inspection, monitor the safety of animal feed and medications and enforce regulations such as temperature control, trimming and sanitation procedures.
At egg production facilities, FSIS agents inspect all egg products, with and without added ingredients, including whole eggs, whites, yolks, and various blends - with or without non-egg ingredients - that are processed and pasteurized. FDA, rather than FSIS is responsible for the inspection of egg substitutes, imitation eggs, and similar products.
Recalls: When FSIS determines that a food item poses a risk to the public, the agency forms a committee to determine if a recall is needed, and collaborates with producers to make sure that the product is contained, and that the public has received adequate warning via the media and the FSIS website. If a risk is posed, but it is determined that a recall is not needed, FSIS will issue a public health alert.
Labeling: FSIS develops and provides labeling guidance, policies and inspection methods in order to protect consumers from misbranded and economically adulterated meat, poultry, and egg products. This is to ensure that all labels contain accurate, truthful information.
USDA
Stands for: United States Department of Agriculture
Food Safety Role: The USDA has primary responsibility for the safety of meat, poultry and certain egg products. The agency's authority is regulated by: the Federal Meat Inspection Act, the Poultry Products Inspection Act, the Egg Products Inspection Act and the Humane Methods of Livestock Slaughter Act.
The agency is also responsible for inspecting all meat, poultry and egg products sold in interstate commerce, and re-inspecting imported meat, poultry and egg products to makes sure they meet United States safety standards. The USDA inspects eggs in processing plants before and after they are broken for further processing. FSIS falls under the governance of the USDA.
The USDA is the leader in setting the federal policies that determine national standards for food safety, and has also maintained the Meat and Poultry Hotline (888-674-6854) since 1985. The agency introduced AskKaren.gov in 2004, and mobile Ask Karen on 2011 and claims the combined sites now have a nearly 99 percent self-service rate, meaning that nearly all users are able to find the answers to their questions almost immediately.
NOAA and NMFS
Stands for: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and National Marine Fisheries Service
Food Safety Role: The FDA is the primary agency responsible for ensuring the safety, wholesomeness, and proper labeling of domestic and imported seafood products. But the NMFS, which is part of the U.S. Department of Commerce, conducts, a voluntary, fee-based seafood inspection and grading service under NOAA. This program focuses on marketing and quality attributes of domestic fish and shellfish, per the Agricultural Marketing Act of 1946. These services are provided nationwide, in U.S. territories and in foreign countries.
HHS
Stands for: Department of Health and Human Services
Food Safety Role: HHS is the parent organization of the FDA and the National Institutes of Health. The agency is currently working in collaboration with federal food safety partners and the President’s Food Safety Working Group (FSWG), to develop a flexible and responsive food safety system.
The stated goals of the FSWG include prioritizing prevention, strengthening surveillance and enforcement and improving response and recovery. The group is chaired by Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius and Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack.
HHS also maintains the FoodSafety.gov website, which consolidates recalls, alerts, food safety and food poisoning information, as information about reporting food problems.
Consumer resources:
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Food and Drug Administration's Recalls, Market Withdrawals, & Safety Alerts
FDA Food Safety
FoodSafety.gov
United States Department of Agriculture Food Safety Education
IsItDoneYet.gov
Diet Pill Supplement OxyElite Linked to Liver Failure
Health officials are asking stores to pull a fat-burning supplement from shelves after officials linked it to cases of liver failure and acute hepatitis in 29 people.
Two people have undergone liver transplants and one person has died, according to the Hawaii State Department of Health. Twenty-four of the people who fell ill reported using OxyElite Pro before being diagnosed; the patients had no other medication or supplement in common.
While the investigation is ongoing, health officials advised people to "discontinue use of the product at this time." Hawaii investigators are working with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
"Anyone who develops symptoms such as abdominal pain or discomfort, fatigue, loss of appetite, nausea and/or vomiting, and yellow skin or eyes should consult their doctor immediately," Health Director Loretta Fuddy said in a statement.
OxyElite Pro is sold nationwide. Because it is a dietary supplement, it did not have to be approved by the FDA before going to market.
USPlabs, the company that produces OxyElite Pro, said it stands by the safety of all its products, but "out of an abundance of caution," the company is stopping domestic distribution of OxyElite Pro with the purple top and OxyElite Pro Super Thermo Powder.
"The company continues to believe these versions are safe and are not the cause of the cluster of liver toxicity that has occurred in Hawaii," USPlabs said in a statement.
USPlabs informed the FDA that counterfeit versions of OxyElite Pro have been circulating in the United States, according to an advisory issued by the FDA. The agency is investigating whether counterfeit products are linked to any of the hepatitis cases.
USPlabs once also produced a product called OxyElite Pro with DMAA, but that has not been manufactured or distributed since earlier this year, the company said.
In April, the FDA said it was using "all available tools at its disposal" to eliminate supplements containing the stimulant dimethylamylamine, or DMAA, from the market. The agency said DMAA can cause increased blood pressure, shortness of breath, chest tightening, cardiovascular problems and even heart attacks.
FDA spokeswoman Tamara Ward told CNN at the time that 11 companies had received warning letters from the FDA over the past year asking them to stop marketing products that contain DMAA. All but one -- USPlabs -- agreed to stop using DMAA in supplements.
- CNN Health update
GOOD NEWS: Teenagers Are Getting More Exercise and Vegetables
Teenagers are exercising more, consuming less sugar and eating more fruits and vegetables, a trend that may be contributing to a leveling off of obesity rates, a new study shows.
The findings suggest that aggressive anti-obesity messages aimed at children may be starting to make a difference, albeit a small one. The study was published in the journal Pediatrics on Monday.
Still, most teenagers were falling short of federal recommendations, which call for children to get at least an hour of physical activity daily, a central message of Michelle Obama’s signature “Let’s Move” campaign. The new data showed that most children engaged in an hour of exercise fewer than five days a week and spent more than two hours a day watching television, chatting online and playing video games.
The numbers also revealed something of an age and racial divide. Younger children had the highest levels of physical activity and fruit and vegetable consumption. But as children got older, the frequency of eating junk foods and engaging in sedentary behaviors crept up, along with average body mass index, a crude measure of obesity.
Black and Hispanic adolescents lagged behind whites on almost every measure of progress, even after the researchers tried to take into account the influence of socioeconomic factors.
“In some ways you can interpret what we found positively by saying we’re beginning to bend the curve, and hopefully we’ll start seeing a downward trend in obesity,” said Dr. Ronald J. Iannotti, a study author and chair of the department of exercise and health sciences at the University of Massachusetts Boston. “But there’s large room for improvement.”
The study analyzed data from a national survey of tens of thousands of schoolchildren in grades 6 through 10, which was carried out once every four years from roughly 2001 to 2010.
Childhood obesity rates, which have more than doubled since 1980, rose slightly between 2001 and 2006, then leveled off by 2010, at roughly 13 percent. The proportion of those who were overweight also plateaued at around 17 percent.
Obesity tends to follow children into adulthood, raising the risk of heart disease and cancer as well as Type 2 diabetes, a disease that has also risen sharply among children.
In the past year, other studies have hinted at improvements in the obesity rate among younger children, with some even showing a decline in some cities. But little was known about the extent to which physical and dietary behaviors might have played a role.
The new study found that at the same time obesity and overweight appeared to level off, there were, on average, very slight increases in physical activity, fruit and vegetable consumption and the eating of breakfast, another habit public health officials consider a marker of healthy behavior.
The opposite trend was seen for behaviors that are widely discouraged. The amount of time teenagers spent watching television fell from about three hours a day in 2001 to less than two-and-a-half hours by 2010. Teenagers also reported drinking slightly fewer soft drinks and eating less candy.
Boys overall reported more physical activity than girls, but they also watched more television and played more video games and ate fewer fruits and vegetables.
One expert who was not involved in the study, David B. Allison, the director of the Nutrition Obesity Research Center at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, said it was impossible from the data to deduce a cause and effect, since any number of factors that could influence obesity rates may have changed over time.
“We should be very cautious about drawing any attributions about causes based on time trend data,” Dr. Allison said.
But Dr. Iannotti said the findings seemed to suggest a pattern. “I think the public health message is beginning to be accepted,” he said.
info by By ANAHAD O'CONNOR of The NY Times
CDC Sounds Alarm on Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria
Report cites overuse of antibiotics as key to the life-threatening problem.
info by Dennis Thompson, HealthDay News
MONDAY, Sept. 16 (HealthDay News) — More than 2 million people come down with infections from antibiotic-resistant bacteria every year in the United States, leading to at least 23,000 deaths, according to a report released Monday by federal health officials.
The report marks the first time that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has performed a comprehensive analysis of the impact on society from antibiotic-resistant bacteria, said Dr. Steve Solomon, director of the agency's Office of Antimicrobial Resistance.
"This is scary stuff, and we want people to know about it," he said.
The report outlines how antibiotic resistance occurs in patients and spreads through the community. It also lists medical procedures that have become more dangerous because of these bacteria. Those procedures include dialysis, chemotherapy, complex surgery and organ transplants.
Antibiotic overuse is the single most important factor leading to antibiotic resistance, according to the report. Antibiotics are among the most commonly prescribed drugs, but as many as half of those prescriptions are either not needed or not the best course of treatment for the patient, the report said.
"Patients need to understand that antibiotics are not the solution for every illness," Solomon said. "It's important that people not take antibiotics when they aren't necessary. It contributes to resistance, and it also has consequences to the patient in the form of side effects."
The CDC also faulted the use of antibiotics in food animals to prevent, control and treat disease, and to promote their growth. "The use of antibiotics for promoting growth is not necessary, and the practice should be phased out," the report stated.
The centerpiece of the CDC report is a threat-level assessment for 18 bacteria- and antibiotic-related illnesses, broken down into three categories: urgent, serious and concerning.
Three antibiotic-related illnesses are ranked as urgent threats demanding immediate attention:
- Carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae , or CRE, are a family of bacteria that have developed remarkable drug resistance in recent years. Half the people who get bloodstream infections from CRE die. About 9,300 hospital infections of CRE occur each year. "A lot of those bacteria are becoming resistant to every antibiotic we have," Solomon said of CRE. "We are very concerned about significant spread over the next few years."
- Neisseria gonorrhoeae — the bacteria that causes gonorrhea — are showing signs of resistance to the cephalosporin family of antibiotics. The CDC estimated that about one-third of the 820,000 annual gonorrhea infections involve strains that have become antibiotic-resistant. "The cephalosporins are really the last line of defense we have against gonorrhea," Solomon said. "It has shown its ability to become resistant to every antibiotic we throw at it. If we lost those — if this cephalosporin-resistant gonorrhea spreads — that disease is going to be untreatable."
- Clostridium difficile is bacteria that, although not antibiotic resistant, poses an urgent threat because it causes diarrhea linked to at least 250,000 hospitalizations and 14,000 American deaths each year. C. difficile infections occur because of antibiotic use that destroys the good bacteria in people's bodies that protect against illness. "Because there has not been as much success in addressing the problem of antibiotic overuse, we are flagging that as an urgent problem because it has to be brought under control," Solomon said.
Twelve infections from antibiotic-resistant bacteria are listed as serious, and three as concerning. For each bacteria threat, the CDC offers guidance for what healthcare industry officials, medical professionals and the general public can do to limit its spread.
Infections by antibiotic-resistant bacteria add as much as $20 billion in excess direct health-care costs, with additional costs for lost productivity as high as $35 billion a year, according to the report.
In its report, the CDC outlined a four-pronged strategy for combating antibiotic-resistant bacteria:
- Preventing infections and preventing the spread of resistance.
- Tracking resistant bacteria.
- Improving the use of existing antibiotics.
- Promoting the development of new antibiotics and new diagnostic tests for resistant bacteria.
"As different as these problems are, the same strategies to address them are shared in common," Solomon said. "By helping people understand that those four core strategies are shared among the ways we address all of these antibiotic-resistant bacteria, we put it all in context and provide a glimpse of the big picture."
Dr. Georges Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Association, said he appreciates the report's frank, down-to-earth manner.
"[The report] gives us a handle. Something we can use to talk with the public," he said. "Obviously, there is an enormous risk to the health of the public by antibiotic resistance, and it's going to take a multiple-sector response to resolving it."
Gut bacteria may be key to fighting obesity
Different kinds of bacteria that live inside the gut can help spur obesity or protect against it, according to new research from scientists at Washington University in St. Louis.
They transplanted intestinal germs from fat or lean people into mice and watched the rodents change.
And what they ate determined whether the good germs could move in and do their job.
Thursday's report raises the possibility of one day turning gut bacteria into personalized fat-fighting therapies, and it may help explain why some people have a harder time losing weight than others do.
"It's an important player," said Dr. David Relman of Stanford University, who also studies how gut bacteria influence health but wasn't involved in the new research. "This paper says that diet and microbes are necessary companions in all of this. They literally and figuratively feed each other."
The research was reported in the journal Science.
We all develop with an essentially sterile digestive tract. Bacteria rapidly move in starting at birth -- bugs that we pick up from mom and dad, the environment, first foods. Ultimately, the intestine teems with hundreds of species, populations that differ in people with varying health. Overweight people harbor different types and amounts of gut bacteria than lean people, for example. The gut bacteria we pick up as children can stick with us for decades, although their makeup changes when people lose weight, previous studies have shown.
Clearly, what you eat and how much you move are key to how much you weigh. But are those bacterial differences a contributing cause of obesity, rather than simply the result of it? If so, which bugs are to blame, and might it be possible to switch out the bad actors?
To start finding out, Washington University graduate student Vanessa Ridaura took gut bacteria from eight humans -- four pairs of twins that each included one obese sibling and one lean sibling. One pair of twins was identical, ruling out an inherited explanation for their different weights. Using twins also guaranteed similar childhood environments and diets.
She transplanted the human microbes into the intestines of young mice that had been raised germ-free.
The mice who received gut bacteria from the obese people gained more weight -- and experienced unhealthy metabolic changes -- even though they didn't eat more than the mice who received germs from the lean twins, said study senior author Dr. Jeffrey Gordon, director of Washington University's Center of Genome Sciences and Systems Biology.
"This wasn't attributable to differences in the amount of food they consumed, so there was something in the microbiota that was able to transmit this trait," Gordon said in a statement. "Our question became: What were the components responsible?"
Then came what Gordon calls the "battle of the microbes." Mice that harbored gut bacteria from a lean person were put in the same cages as mice that harbored the obesity-prone germs. The research team took advantage of an icky fact of rodent life: Mice are coprophagic -- or eat feces -- so presumably they could easily swap intestinal bugs.
What happened was a surprise. Certain bacteria from the lean mice invaded the intestines of the fatter mice, and their weight and metabolism improved. But the trade was one-way -- the lean mice weren't affected.
Moreover, the fatter mice got the bacterial benefit only when they were fed a low-fat, high-fiber diet. When Ridaura substituted the higher-fat, lower-fiber diet typical of Americans, the protective bug swap didn't occur.
Why? Gordon already knew from human studies that obese people harbor less diverse gut bacteria. "It was almost as if there were potential job vacancies" in their intestines that the lean don't have, he explained.
Sure enough, a closer look at the mice that benefited from the bug swap suggests a specific type of bacteria, from a family named Bacteroidetes, moved into previously unoccupied niches in their colons -- if the rodents ate right.
Robert W. Karp, a program director for genetics and genomics at the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, told the New York Timesof the new study, "This is all weird and wonderful."
How might those findings translate to people? For a particularly hard-to-treat diarrheal infection, doctors sometimes transplant stool from a healthy person into the sick person's intestine. Some scientists wonder if fecal transplants from the lean to the fat might treat obesity, too.
But Gordon foresees a less invasive alternative: Determining the best combinations of intestinal bacteria to match a person's diet, and then growing those bugs in sterile lab dishes - like this study could - and turning them into pills. He estimates such an attempt would take at least five more years of research.
""In the future, the nutritional value and the effects of food will involve significant consideration of our microbiota--and developing healthy, nutritious foods will be done from the inside-out, not just the outside-in," said Gordon.
2013 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
They transplanted intestinal germs from fat or lean people into mice and watched the rodents change.
And what they ate determined whether the good germs could move in and do their job.
Thursday's report raises the possibility of one day turning gut bacteria into personalized fat-fighting therapies, and it may help explain why some people have a harder time losing weight than others do.
"It's an important player," said Dr. David Relman of Stanford University, who also studies how gut bacteria influence health but wasn't involved in the new research. "This paper says that diet and microbes are necessary companions in all of this. They literally and figuratively feed each other."
The research was reported in the journal Science.
We all develop with an essentially sterile digestive tract. Bacteria rapidly move in starting at birth -- bugs that we pick up from mom and dad, the environment, first foods. Ultimately, the intestine teems with hundreds of species, populations that differ in people with varying health. Overweight people harbor different types and amounts of gut bacteria than lean people, for example. The gut bacteria we pick up as children can stick with us for decades, although their makeup changes when people lose weight, previous studies have shown.
Clearly, what you eat and how much you move are key to how much you weigh. But are those bacterial differences a contributing cause of obesity, rather than simply the result of it? If so, which bugs are to blame, and might it be possible to switch out the bad actors?
To start finding out, Washington University graduate student Vanessa Ridaura took gut bacteria from eight humans -- four pairs of twins that each included one obese sibling and one lean sibling. One pair of twins was identical, ruling out an inherited explanation for their different weights. Using twins also guaranteed similar childhood environments and diets.
She transplanted the human microbes into the intestines of young mice that had been raised germ-free.
The mice who received gut bacteria from the obese people gained more weight -- and experienced unhealthy metabolic changes -- even though they didn't eat more than the mice who received germs from the lean twins, said study senior author Dr. Jeffrey Gordon, director of Washington University's Center of Genome Sciences and Systems Biology.
"This wasn't attributable to differences in the amount of food they consumed, so there was something in the microbiota that was able to transmit this trait," Gordon said in a statement. "Our question became: What were the components responsible?"
Then came what Gordon calls the "battle of the microbes." Mice that harbored gut bacteria from a lean person were put in the same cages as mice that harbored the obesity-prone germs. The research team took advantage of an icky fact of rodent life: Mice are coprophagic -- or eat feces -- so presumably they could easily swap intestinal bugs.
What happened was a surprise. Certain bacteria from the lean mice invaded the intestines of the fatter mice, and their weight and metabolism improved. But the trade was one-way -- the lean mice weren't affected.
Moreover, the fatter mice got the bacterial benefit only when they were fed a low-fat, high-fiber diet. When Ridaura substituted the higher-fat, lower-fiber diet typical of Americans, the protective bug swap didn't occur.
Why? Gordon already knew from human studies that obese people harbor less diverse gut bacteria. "It was almost as if there were potential job vacancies" in their intestines that the lean don't have, he explained.
Sure enough, a closer look at the mice that benefited from the bug swap suggests a specific type of bacteria, from a family named Bacteroidetes, moved into previously unoccupied niches in their colons -- if the rodents ate right.
Robert W. Karp, a program director for genetics and genomics at the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, told the New York Timesof the new study, "This is all weird and wonderful."
How might those findings translate to people? For a particularly hard-to-treat diarrheal infection, doctors sometimes transplant stool from a healthy person into the sick person's intestine. Some scientists wonder if fecal transplants from the lean to the fat might treat obesity, too.
But Gordon foresees a less invasive alternative: Determining the best combinations of intestinal bacteria to match a person's diet, and then growing those bugs in sterile lab dishes - like this study could - and turning them into pills. He estimates such an attempt would take at least five more years of research.
""In the future, the nutritional value and the effects of food will involve significant consideration of our microbiota--and developing healthy, nutritious foods will be done from the inside-out, not just the outside-in," said Gordon.
2013 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Surgeon Accused of Faking Operations Surrenders Medical License
An orthopedic surgeon accused of faking operations surrendered his medical license voluntarily Monday and has admitted to guilt in some of the cases against him, according to New York State court documents.
Dr. Spyros Panos, who formerly worked for the Mid Hudson Medical Group in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., surrendered his license to practice medicine in New York this week following charges of medical misconduct. Panos faced at least 250 counts brought by the state Office of Professional Medical Conduct involving fraud and negligence between 2007 and 2011, the court order showed.
Doctor Accused of Faking Surgeries
Panos, 44, and his attorneys at Feldman, Kleidman & Coffey did not respond to ABC News' requests for comment. Representatives for the Mid Hudson Medical Group also failed to return calls for comment.
Larry Hughes, a spokesman for Saint Francis Hospital in Poughkeepsie, where Panos performed many of the surgeries under investigation, said he was unaware of the surrender filing and couldn't comment.
In his response to the license surrender order, Panos admitted that he failed to render appropriate care, didn't maintain accurate medical records and submitted bills for seven former patients for which he was not entitled to payment. The identities of the patients were redacted from court documents to maintain their privacy.
The response also stated that Panos cannot "successfully defend against" at least one alleged act of misconduct "in full satisfaction of the charges" and that the surrender allows him to "resolve this matter without the various risks and burdens of a hearing on the merits."
"It is a rare occurrence for the OPMC to put this type of pressure on a physician and for the physician to lose his license," said J.T. Wisell, an attorney for 154 of the more than 250 plaintiffs who have filed lawsuits accusing Panos of performing botched or unnecessary surgeries, or pretending to perform surgeries that never actually took place.
The Federation of State Medical Boards, which represents 70 state medical boards, reported that of the three quarter of a million practicing physicians in the United States, only 1,905 of them lost their licenses to practice medicine in 2011. Of the more than 88,000 physicians who practiced in New York State that same year, just 185 -- less than one percent -- lost their licenses.
Fake Surgeries Are Rare but Hard to Spot
Panos was terminated from his employer, Mid Hudson Medical Group, in 2011 and is also the subject of a criminal investigation by the U.S. Attorney's Office, although he has not been charged with a criminal offense, Wisell said.
His alleged victims say they are grateful that he's out of business, at least in New York.
"I'm glad someone finally stopped him," said Debra Cole, a retired telephone company technician who is suing Panos for allegedly performing two faked knee surgeries and causing her years of unnecessary pain. "To do everything he's allegedly done and to be able to continue to operate on other people, it was just terrible."
Debra Nenni McNamee, whose mother, Constance Nenni, died less than 24-hours after having an alleged "phantom" knee surgery performed by Panos said she hoped Panos' license surrender would start a domino effect.
"Now maybe the other medical professionals and facilities involved who allowed him to do what he did will be held accountable or come forward to prove they are not guilty," she said.
Arthur Caplin, the director of medical ethics at NYU Langone Medical Center and a former non-MD representative with the New York State medical licensing board, said he also found it troubling that others besides Panos aren't under investigation.
"You can't perform this many suspect surgeries without the cooperation of many other people," he said.
Brian Brown, McNamee's attorney, said Panos used patients like her mother as human cash registers, scheduling as many as 22 surgeries a day. The average orthopedic surgeon typically schedules no more than 32 procedures a month, according to American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons statistics.
Attorneys Brown and Wisell noted that clients with potential cases against Panos began flooding their offices with calls immediately after journalist Sarah Bradshaw wrote about the first few lawsuits for the Poughkeepsie Journal in September 2010. Bradshaw said she was tipped off to the litigation from an anonymous source.
Wisell said the latest developments should help the plaintiffs' cases finally move forward after two years. But the lawsuits are by no means a slam dunk because there is still a legal stay in place that prevents plantiff's attorneys from taking sworn statements from any employee and former employee of the Mid Hudson Medical Group or any hospital where Panos practiced, Wisell said.
The stay was put in place for Panos to avoid self incrimination in the federal cases of fraud and billing irregularities, Wisell said. Mid Hudson Medical Group and the various hospitals and surgical centers where Panos practiced have submitted billing records, surgical records and surgical schedule logs to plantiff's lawyers but under the stay, are not yet required to directly respond to civil actions, Wisell said.
Brown agreed, stating, "While this demonstrates that Dr. Panos is finally willing to admit some guilt, it is clear from their legal strategy that his former medical-group, MHMG, the hospitals involved and their legal team are not. So they shamelessly continue to drag the victims through a tortured litigation process and avoid taking simple responsibility for their profit-driven failures."
Wisell also noted that Panos still has a license to practice medicine in Virginia. While he is legally obligated to keep the Virginia state medical board up to date about the legal consequences in New York, Wisell said it could take some time before any action was taken and there is no federal mandate that stops Panos from practicing medicine in other states.
McNamee said taking away Panos' license is a start, but it's not enough.
"He wakes up every morning spending the illegal funds he collected while his victims wake up every day in pain," McNamee said. "In my mother's case, all we have are memories."
Eleven States Get Failing Grades for Nursing Home Care
More than one-and-a-half million Americans live in nursing homes, but the quality of care varies greatly. A report out Friday shows, for the first time, which states do a good job of caring for seniors and which fail to ensure that they won't be neglected or abused.
Minnie Graham was a great-grandmother. At 97, she suffered from dementia.
"She was a fine Christian woman," her granddaughter, Shirley Ballard, says. "And very loving. She would do anything for anybody."
Graham lived in a nursing home outside Dallas for about a year when her family noticed bruises on her, then two black eyes."They said she fell out of her wheel chair," Ballard says, adding she "absolutely" did not believe that had happened.
Graham's family placed a clock, equipped with a hidden camera, in her bedroom, recording video for weeks. Graham resisted being changed; a nursing aide mocked her, pulled, pushed, then what sounds like a slap can be heard. The video also caught another aide shoving her.
"That should never happen to people, ever, in nursing homes, anywhere," says Brian Lee, executive director of Families for Better Care.
His nonprofit elder advocacy group released what it says is the first comprehensive state-by-state reviewof nursing home care. It ranks and grades states based on 2012 federal data combining staffing, inspections, deficiencies and complaints.
Motion sensors in seniors' homes may be tracked by loved ones, nurses
Renovating seniors' homes may lead to longer independence
States that got As: Alaska, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Hawaii, Oregon, Maine, Utah, Idaho, South Dakota and North Dakota.
States that got Fs: Texas, Louisiana, Indiana, Oklahoma, Missouri, New Mexico, New York, Michigan, Nevada, Illinois and Iowa.
In Oklahoma, a hidden video caught a nursing assistant shoving a glove in a 96-year-old woman's mouth. In Ohio, which lacks staff, video caught a caregiver flinging a senior onto her bed.
"You've got to be able to have a good vetting process to be able to determine which people, the caregivers, are going to treat the residents with dignity and respect," Lee says. "You've got to hire the right people. State officials need to hold nursing homes accountable. And nursing homes need to hold themselves accountable and step up and start providing better care."
According to the report, just seven states provided nursing home residents with more than one hour of professional nursing care daily. States that did the best had larger and more experienced staff.
We tried to speak with Minnie Graham's nursing aides about what the hidden camera recorded. They declined. Both were fired and arrested; their cases are still pending. Minnie Graham died within weeks of the video.
She just gave up on life," Ballard says. "She didn't want to live anymore, and then to be treated like that in her last days --."
Advocates for the elderly say improvements must be made soon. The nursing home population is expected to increase 40 percent over the next decade.
(CBS News)
Minnie Graham lived in a nursing home outside Dallas for about a year when her family noticed bruises on her, then two black eyes./ CBS News
Minnie Graham was a great-grandmother. At 97, she suffered from dementia.
"She was a fine Christian woman," her granddaughter, Shirley Ballard, says. "And very loving. She would do anything for anybody."
Graham lived in a nursing home outside Dallas for about a year when her family noticed bruises on her, then two black eyes."They said she fell out of her wheel chair," Ballard says, adding she "absolutely" did not believe that had happened.
Graham's family placed a clock, equipped with a hidden camera, in her bedroom, recording video for weeks. Graham resisted being changed; a nursing aide mocked her, pulled, pushed, then what sounds like a slap can be heard. The video also caught another aide shoving her.
"That should never happen to people, ever, in nursing homes, anywhere," says Brian Lee, executive director of Families for Better Care.
His nonprofit elder advocacy group released what it says is the first comprehensive state-by-state reviewof nursing home care. It ranks and grades states based on 2012 federal data combining staffing, inspections, deficiencies and complaints.
Motion sensors in seniors' homes may be tracked by loved ones, nurses
Renovating seniors' homes may lead to longer independence
States that got As: Alaska, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Hawaii, Oregon, Maine, Utah, Idaho, South Dakota and North Dakota.
States that got Fs: Texas, Louisiana, Indiana, Oklahoma, Missouri, New Mexico, New York, Michigan, Nevada, Illinois and Iowa.
In Oklahoma, a hidden video caught a nursing assistant shoving a glove in a 96-year-old woman's mouth. In Ohio, which lacks staff, video caught a caregiver flinging a senior onto her bed.
Brian Lee, executive director of Families for Better Care/ CBS News
"You've got to be able to have a good vetting process to be able to determine which people, the caregivers, are going to treat the residents with dignity and respect," Lee says. "You've got to hire the right people. State officials need to hold nursing homes accountable. And nursing homes need to hold themselves accountable and step up and start providing better care."
According to the report, just seven states provided nursing home residents with more than one hour of professional nursing care daily. States that did the best had larger and more experienced staff.
We tried to speak with Minnie Graham's nursing aides about what the hidden camera recorded. They declined. Both were fired and arrested; their cases are still pending. Minnie Graham died within weeks of the video.
She just gave up on life," Ballard says. "She didn't want to live anymore, and then to be treated like that in her last days --."
Advocates for the elderly say improvements must be made soon. The nursing home population is expected to increase 40 percent over the next decade.
(CBS News)
Salad Mix Linked to Virus Outbreak
A salad mix linked to a severe stomach virus that sickened more than 200 people in Iowa and Nebraska has not been served at Olive Garden and Red Lobster restaurants there for about a month, a spokesman for the restaurants said on Saturday.
The Food and Drug Administration identified the salad, supplied by a Mexican farm, as responsible for the cyclospora outbreak in those two states. But the FDA said it is not yet clear if it was the culprit in 14 other states as well, and the investigation will continue.
Rich Jeffers, a spokesman for Orlando, Florida-based Darden Restaurants, which operates Olive Garden and Red Lobster, said
it has been more than a month since the last case was reported in Iowa and Nebraska. The shelf life of the salad is about two-weeks.
"We are fully confident along with health officials that in those states the product is out of the supply chain," Jeffers said.
The cyclospora infections account for more than 400 cases of illness in 16 states, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. At least 22 people have been hospitalized.
The highest number of cases - 146 - were reported in Iowa, followed by Texas with 113, Nebraska with 81 and Florida with 25, according to the CDC. Other states have reported cases in the single digits.
Olive Garden and Red Lobster restaurants in Texas, the state with the second largest number of reported illnesses, are not supplied by Taylor Farms de Mexico, Jeffers said.
The majority of cases were reported between mid-June and early July, the CDC said.
"None of Taylor Farms' other 11 facilities have been connected to these cases," a statement on its Web site said.
The FDA also said its investigation has not found any problems with bagged salad mix found in grocery stores.
The states reporting cases of stomach illness are: Iowa, Nebraska, Texas, Wisconsin, Arkansas, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Kansas, Louisiana, Minnesota, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, and Ohio.
Cyclosporiasis is most commonly found in tropical and subtropical regions of the world. Symptoms for the illness, caused by ingesting contaminated food or water containing a parasite too small to be detected without a microscope, include nausea, watery diarrhea and body aches.
Most people with healthy immune systems recover from the infection without treatment, but the elderly and those with weakened immune systems are believed to be at higher risk for prolonged illness.
Source: Fox News
Woman Disfigured by Generic Drug Loses $21 Million Award
Eight years after she was burned and blinded by a prescription drug, Karen Bartlett feels numb.
This week the Supreme Court ruled that Mutual Pharmaceutical Co., the maker of the drug Bartlett took for shoulder pain, should not be held responsible for her injuries because the company had copied the brand drug's formula and warning label.
"I was numb," Bartlett said of the moment her lawyer delivered the news. "I don't even have words to describe it because I can't believe that they would do that."
In a five-four decision, the court ruled Monday that generic drug makers could not be sued by patients over defective drug design because they're required by federal law to copy their brand-name counterparts. The ruling overturns the verdict from Bartlett's 2010 New Hampshire Superior Court trial in which a jury awarded her $21 million in damages, as well as the decision by an appeals court to uphold the verdict.
"I can't believe the Supreme Court can just say, 'I'm sorry, you guys are wrong,'" said Bartlett, whose body is scarred from the fierce reaction to sulindac, a generic version of the nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug Clinoril. "It boggles my mind. I just don't get it."
Bartlett remembers little from the three months she spent at Massachusetts General Hospital in 2004, "wrapped up like a mummy" as the skin eroded two-thirds of her body. She was diagnosed with Stevens-Johnson syndrome, a rare and sometimes fatal reaction triggered by certain medications, including NSAIDS like Clinoril and sulindac.
The ordeal left her disfigured and legally blind. She also has lung damage and difficulty swallowing.
"I have no independence," said Bartlett, 53, who lives off disability checks for a fraction of the salary she once earned as a secretary at an insurance company in Plaistow, N.H. "This ruined my life, basically."'
Motrin Lawsuit: Jury Awards Girl $10 Million for Burns and Blindness
In a lawsuit against Mutual Pharmaceutical Co., Bartlett's lawyer argued that the company "failed to adequately warn users" about Stevens-Johnson syndrome, one of sulindac's more serious, albeit very rare side effects. A jury in New Hampshire Superior Court agreed, awarding Bartlett the $21 million payout to cover medical and legal costs, and compensate her for "physical and mental pain and suffering" as well as "loss of enjoyment of life," according to the complaint.
At the time of Bartlett's reaction, sulindac's label did not specifically warn about Stevens-Johnson Syndrome, the Supreme Court acknowledged, though it did warn that the drug could cause "severe skin reactions" and "fatalities." But under federal law, generic drugs must be chemically identical to the FDA-approved brand-name drug and don the same warning label.
"Here, it is impossible for Mutual to comply with both its federal-law duty not to alter sulindac's label or composition and its state-law duty to either strengthen the warnings on sulindac's label or change sulindac's design," Supreme Court Justice Samuel Anthony Alito Jr. wrote in the majority opinion of the court.
In 2005, one year after Bartlett's reaction, the Food and Drug Administration recommended changes to the labeling of all NSAIDs, including Clinoril and sulindac, to more explicitly warn about Stevens-Johnson syndrome.
Alito noted that Bartlett's case "arises out of tragic circumstances" and "evokes deep sympathy.
"But sympathy for [Bartlett] does not relieve us of the responsibility of following the law," he wrote.
Jay P. Lefkowitz, the lawyer who represented Mutual Pharmaceutical Co., said the ruling "vindicates the authority" of the FDA, the federal agency charged with assessing drug safety.
"The FDA has the scientific and medical expertise to make decisions about the safety and efficacy of drugs based on all of the data," said Lefkowitz, whose office is based in New York City. "State court juries that are only looking at one example of a tragic side effect don't have the ability to make an assessment about the safety and efficacy of a drug that millions of people use with good results."
Lefkowitz said his "heart was filled with sympathy" for Bartlett.
"Every one of us takes prescription drugs. We give them to our kids, and this can happen to anyone," he said. "But I think the court got it right, even though it's obviously a tragic set of circumstances."
Supreme Court Justice NSAIDS disagreed with the court's decision, writing in her dissent that it "leaves consumers like Karen Bartlett to bear enormous losses on their own."
Bartlett said, "I walk away with nothing except disability checks. They don't seem to care that this has affected me for rest of life."
ABC News Story: health
By KATIE MOISSE
FDA Changes for Sunscreen Labels
The United States Food and Drug Administration has announced significant changes to sunscreen product labels that will help consumers decide how to buy and use sunscreen, and allow them to protect themselves and their families from sun-induced damage more effectively.
How sunscreen works. Most sun protection products work by absorbing, reflecting, or scattering sunlight. They contain chemicals that interact with the skin to protect it from UV rays. All products do not have the same ingredients; if your skin reacts badly to one product, try another one or call a doctor.
SPF. Sunscreens are assigned a sun protection factor (SPF) number that rates their effectiveness in blocking UV rays. Higher numbers indicate more protection. You should use a sunscreen with at least SPF 15.
Reapplication. Sunscreen wears off. Put it on again if you stay out in the sun for more than two hours, and after you swim or do things that make you sweat.
Expiration date. Check the sunscreen's expiration date. Sunscreen without an expiration date has a shelf life of no more than three years, but its shelf life is shorter if it has been exposed to high temperatures.
Cosmetics. Some make-up and lip balms contain some of the same chemicals used in sunscreens. If they do not have at least SPF 15, don't use them by themselves.
Avoid Indoor Tanning
Using a tanning bed, booth, or sunlamp to get tan is called "indoor tanning." Indoor tanning has been linked with skin cancers including melanoma (the deadliest type of skin cancer), squamous cell carcinoma, and cancers of the eye (ocular melanoma).
Source: CDC & FDA
FOUND GUILTY!
Philadelphia abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell was found guilty today of first degree murder in three of four infant deaths.Gosnell was also convicted of involuntary manslaughter in the death of a female patient who was given a lethal dose of sedatives and pain killers in 2009, according to the Associated Press.
Gosnell, 72, could face the death penalty and jurors will begin hearing testimony on Tuesday to determine if they will condemn him to death row.
The verdict came hours after the jurors alerted the judge that they were deadlocked on two counts. The judge told the jurors to try again for a unanimous verdict. The decision came on the jury's 10th day of deliberations.
It was not clear which of the more than 200 counts in the case, which include racketeering, had deadlocked the jury.
Gosnell was accused of performing late-term abortions on four babies who were born alive, but were then allegedly killed by Gosnell.
For two months, the jury heard often grisly testimony, including from members of Gosnell's staff. Eight staffers have pleaded guilty to several crimes. Prosecutors said none of the staff were licensed nurses or doctors.
Gosnell ran the Women's Medical Society in West Philadelphia for decades until February 2010, when FBI agents raided his clinic looking for evidence of prescription drug dealing.
Instead they found, as reported in a nearly 300-page grand jury report released in 2011, a filthy, decrepit "house of horrors."
Blood was on the floor, the clinic reeked of urine and bags of fetal remains were stacked in freezers. The clinic was shut down and Gosnell's medical license was suspended after the raid.
Despite repeated complaints to state officials over the years -- as well as 46 lawsuits filed against Gosnell -- investigators said in the report that state regulators had conducted five inspections since the clinic had opened in 1979.
Gosnell's lawyer Jack McMahon maintains his client served his community and never killed a live, born baby.
The grand jury report, however, said there had been hundreds of "snippings," in which live babies were born and then killed.
"Gosnell had a simple solution for the unwanted babies he delivered. ... The way he ensured fetal demise was by sticking scissors into the back of the baby's neck and cutting the spinal cord. He called that 'snipping,'" the report alleged.
The report also said that many of the women patients were infected with sexually transmitted diseases from contaminated instruments, had suffered from botched procedures or had been given overdoses of dangerous drugs.
Source: ABC News
http://abcnews.go.com/US/abortion-doctor-kermit-gosnell-guilty-degree-murder/story?id=19168967#.UZFDjJX3A6U
Breast-Feeding Could Lower Breast Cancer Rates
Breast-feeding isn't only good for the developing infant: It helps mom out too.
A study published in Obstetrics & Gynecology on June 5 revealed that if people stuck with the recommended length of breast-feeding their newborn for at least one year, there would be 5,000 fewer cases of breast cancer, 54,000 fewer cases of hypertension and almost 14,000 less heart attacks in women each year. The researchers say low breast-feeding rates are racking up billions of dollars in health care costs each year.
"We know that 60 percent of women don't even meet their personal breast-feeding goals, whether it's three or four or six months," author Dr. Melissa Bartick, assistant professor of medicine, said to TIME. "We need to do more to support women so they can breast-feed longer. There are thousands of needless cases of disease and death that could be prevented."
The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that babies are breast-fed exclusively for the first six months of life, and then have breast-milk supplementally given to them until they at least a year. Breast-feeding can continue as long as the mother, baby and physician feel it is appropriate. Solid food should only be introduced starting at six months of age, but the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently discovered that 40 percent of parents are giving their children solid food by the time they reach 4 months.
The World Health Organization recommends even longer breast-feeding, with complementary foods through a child is 2-years-old and beyond.
Though rates have increased in the U.S., only 45 percent of mothers are still breast-feeding at some level by six months, and only 23 percent continue on for one year.
It is recommended that women breast-feed because it provides protection for the babies, from the early "liquid gold" colostrums full of nutrients and antibodies produced at the end of pregnancy to the mature milk that has the right amount of fat, sugar, water and protein to nourish a healthy child. Breast milk is easier to digest, and the hormones and antibodies inside may help ward off diseases for the child.
Children who are breast-fed have lower rates of necrotizing enterocolitis, a gastrointestinal tract disease, respiratory infections, asthma, type 2 diabetes, and obesity, although the last factor was debated in a March 2013 study in JAMA. Some other studies have shown that breast-feeding can lower rates of type 1 diabetes and sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) as well.
Mothers can also benefit from breast-feeding. In addition to helping mothers bond with their children and helping them save time from boiling milk, breast-feeding saves money. Formula and supplies cost about $1,500 a year, and breast-fed children get sick less often -- which means less sick days for the parents.
In addition, breast-feeding has shown to lower rates of type 2 diabetes, breast cancer, ovarian cancer and postpartum depression in women.
The new study is a response to a 2010 study in Pediatrics, which Bartick was a lead author on, that looked at how low breast-feeding rates impacted children and subsequent costs to society. It revealed that about 900 babies would be saved if 90 percent of mothers breast-fed their children exclusively for the first six months of their lives. In addition, low breast-feeding rates leading to infant deaths leads to a societal cost of $13 billion, that study found. The figure was calculated from many factors including the potential wages lost by the children who did not grow up to be adults.
"We got a million inquiries saying, 'That doesn't include the women!' We wanted a complete picture," Bartick remarked.
Researchers from Harvard University used a model to simulate the lives of about 2 million U.S. women from the age of 15 to 70. They looked at outcomes for five diseases that are linked to lower rates if a mom breast-feeds: Breast cancer, premenopausal ovarian cancer, hypertension, heart attack and type 2 diabetes. They also looked at health care costs over their theoretical lifestimes.
The researchers factored in the current breast-feeding rate -- about 25 percent of moms breast feed the entire recommended 12 months -- and the ideal breast-feeding rate, which would be about 90 percent of mothers.
In addition to the lower adverse health events, they found out that if 90 percent of mothers breast-fed for a year it would cost $860 million less in health care fees. The study showed that the low rates of breast-feeding cost society $17.4 billion from maternal deaths before 70.
Experts are trying various methods to boost breast-feeding rates. A May 2013 study in Pediatrics showed that giving babies that lost a lot of weight minimal amounts of formula actually increased long-term breast-feeding rates. Ninety-five percent of mothers whose infants were given early limited formula (ELF) were still breast-feeding at three months at some level, compared to 68 percent of mothers who did not receive ELF.
- CBS News By MICHELLE CASTILLO
A study published in Obstetrics & Gynecology on June 5 revealed that if people stuck with the recommended length of breast-feeding their newborn for at least one year, there would be 5,000 fewer cases of breast cancer, 54,000 fewer cases of hypertension and almost 14,000 less heart attacks in women each year. The researchers say low breast-feeding rates are racking up billions of dollars in health care costs each year.
"We know that 60 percent of women don't even meet their personal breast-feeding goals, whether it's three or four or six months," author Dr. Melissa Bartick, assistant professor of medicine, said to TIME. "We need to do more to support women so they can breast-feed longer. There are thousands of needless cases of disease and death that could be prevented."
The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that babies are breast-fed exclusively for the first six months of life, and then have breast-milk supplementally given to them until they at least a year. Breast-feeding can continue as long as the mother, baby and physician feel it is appropriate. Solid food should only be introduced starting at six months of age, but the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently discovered that 40 percent of parents are giving their children solid food by the time they reach 4 months.
The World Health Organization recommends even longer breast-feeding, with complementary foods through a child is 2-years-old and beyond.
Though rates have increased in the U.S., only 45 percent of mothers are still breast-feeding at some level by six months, and only 23 percent continue on for one year.
It is recommended that women breast-feed because it provides protection for the babies, from the early "liquid gold" colostrums full of nutrients and antibodies produced at the end of pregnancy to the mature milk that has the right amount of fat, sugar, water and protein to nourish a healthy child. Breast milk is easier to digest, and the hormones and antibodies inside may help ward off diseases for the child.
Children who are breast-fed have lower rates of necrotizing enterocolitis, a gastrointestinal tract disease, respiratory infections, asthma, type 2 diabetes, and obesity, although the last factor was debated in a March 2013 study in JAMA. Some other studies have shown that breast-feeding can lower rates of type 1 diabetes and sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) as well.
Mothers can also benefit from breast-feeding. In addition to helping mothers bond with their children and helping them save time from boiling milk, breast-feeding saves money. Formula and supplies cost about $1,500 a year, and breast-fed children get sick less often -- which means less sick days for the parents.
In addition, breast-feeding has shown to lower rates of type 2 diabetes, breast cancer, ovarian cancer and postpartum depression in women.
The new study is a response to a 2010 study in Pediatrics, which Bartick was a lead author on, that looked at how low breast-feeding rates impacted children and subsequent costs to society. It revealed that about 900 babies would be saved if 90 percent of mothers breast-fed their children exclusively for the first six months of their lives. In addition, low breast-feeding rates leading to infant deaths leads to a societal cost of $13 billion, that study found. The figure was calculated from many factors including the potential wages lost by the children who did not grow up to be adults.
"We got a million inquiries saying, 'That doesn't include the women!' We wanted a complete picture," Bartick remarked.
Researchers from Harvard University used a model to simulate the lives of about 2 million U.S. women from the age of 15 to 70. They looked at outcomes for five diseases that are linked to lower rates if a mom breast-feeds: Breast cancer, premenopausal ovarian cancer, hypertension, heart attack and type 2 diabetes. They also looked at health care costs over their theoretical lifestimes.
The researchers factored in the current breast-feeding rate -- about 25 percent of moms breast feed the entire recommended 12 months -- and the ideal breast-feeding rate, which would be about 90 percent of mothers.
In addition to the lower adverse health events, they found out that if 90 percent of mothers breast-fed for a year it would cost $860 million less in health care fees. The study showed that the low rates of breast-feeding cost society $17.4 billion from maternal deaths before 70.
Experts are trying various methods to boost breast-feeding rates. A May 2013 study in Pediatrics showed that giving babies that lost a lot of weight minimal amounts of formula actually increased long-term breast-feeding rates. Ninety-five percent of mothers whose infants were given early limited formula (ELF) were still breast-feeding at three months at some level, compared to 68 percent of mothers who did not receive ELF.
- CBS News By MICHELLE CASTILLO
Girls Age Gets Bumped Up to Qualify for Lung Transplant
Sarah Murnaghan now has two records in the official organ transplant database: one with her real birthday and one with a birthday to make the system treat her as a 12-year-old.
The 10-year-old Pennsylvania girl is dying of cystic fibrosis and won a federal court order Wednesday to sidestep a controversial transplant rule that had been preventing her from getting new lungs.
The Murnaghan family of Newtown Square, Pa., had been fighting a little-known organ transplant policy that had been effectively pushing its daughter Sarah to the bottom of the adult transplant waiting list because it mandated that adult lungs be offered to all adult patients before they could be offered to someone younger than 12 years old.
The family filed an emergency motion on Wednesday to prevent Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius from enforcing the policy. Sebelius said Tuesday that she would not make an exception for Sarah.
But on Wednesday afternoon, Federal Judge Michael Baylson ordered Sebelius to stop enforcing the under-12 rule for Sarah "so that she can be considered for receipt of donated lungs from adults based on the medical severity of her condition as compared to the medical severity of persons over 12 in the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network system." The order is effective immediately and will remain in effect unless the court rules otherwise at a preliminary injunction hearing on June 14.
The case prompted a second family at Sarah's hospital – the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia – to sue to be considered equally on the adult lung waiting list, according to a complaint filed Thursday. Javier Acosta, an 11-year-old from in the Bronx who is dying of cystic fibrosis, has now been granted the same exception as Sarah, according to a statement from his lawyer at Pepper Hamilton LLP. Javier 's brother, Jovan, died at the age of 11 while waiting for a lung transplant, according to the complaint.
Eleven "priority 1" children under 12 years old are currently waiting for lung transplants, according to OPTN data compiled on May 24 for ABCNews.com. Nine under-12-year-olds awaiting lung transplants are categorized as "priority 2."
This morning, Sebelius wrote a letter to the president of the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network's president to send him the signed court order.
In the letter, Sebelius wrote that she was aware that a duplicate organ candidate record was created for Sarah at 10:34 p.m. It explains that Sarah is still a priority on the pediatric list, but she will now also be considered as a 12-year-old.
"I appreciate your immediate attention to the court's order," she wrote.
But the clock is still ticking for Sarah. A judge could rule to reinstate the under-12 rule on June 14 at the preliminary injunction hearing.
If she doesn't receive lungs by then, it's not clear whether the duplicate organ candidate record will be deleted. A spokesman for HHS said he could not speculate on what might happen.
Bioethicist Art Caplan wrote on Wednesday that politicians and bureaucrats shouldn't decide whether Sarah gets lungs because of the medical complexities of her case.
Speaking to ABCNews.com before the judge ruled in Sarah's favor, he said he didn't expect the Murnaghans to win because it would involve challenging the legitimacy of the entire organ transplant system. That is, unless lawyers could make a pure discrimination case. Otherwise, he said the effort was "doomed to fail."
"I don't think they have any other options to get her on the list," Caplan told ABCNews.com Wednesday after the emergency motion was filed but before the judge ruled in Sarah's favor. "Do I begrudge them the right or the effort to try to do what they can? No.
By SYDNEY LUPKIN (@slupkin)
June 6, 2013
read full story here: http://abcnews.go.com/Health/judge-blocks-enforcement-age-rule-girl-awaiting-lung/story?id=19334516#.UbVyEODT022
‘Low-T’ Ads Cause Major Jump in Prescriptions
Researchers sounded an alarm today on ads touting the wonders of testosterone treatments.
Testosterone is billed by some as a virtual fountain of youth — a miracle drug for middle-aged men looking for a boost from the boardroom to the bedroom.
CEO Chris Running, 57, told ABC News “low-T” was a wonder drug that had helped him lose weight, gain muscle and generally feel young again.
“When I get out of the shower, and look in the mirror, I’m impressed,” Running said. “I really mean that. I mean like looking at myself in the mirror, I look freaking awesome!”
Researchers in Texas, however, said that all those ads may be driving a potentially worrisome amount of overtreatment.
Between 2001 and 2011, they said testosterone prescriptions tripled among men older than 40.
But they said a full quarter of those men had been put on testosterone without even having had their levels checked first to see whether they needed it.
“It’s become a near-epidemic proportions, what we’re seeing in our clinics,” said Dr. Edmund Sabanegh, the chairman of urology at the Cleveland Clinic.
The New England Journal of Medicine warned that only about 2 percent of men older than 40 should be getting a boost at all.
That’s because while added testosterone can lead to increased muscle mass and sex drive, some doctors said too much raises the risk of prostate cancer and liver damage.
In an interview with ABC News, Greg Miley of AbbVie, the makers of AndroGel, a popular low-T treatment, said: “The prescribing of topical testosterone replacement therapies can only be prescribed by a physician after taking the patient’s complete medical condition into consideration.”
Eli Lilly, the makers of another low-T treatment called Axiron, told ABC News: ”We encourage patients to talk to their physicians to weigh the benefits and risks before taking any prescription. … Axiron is a prescription medication, approved by the FDA, for men with certain conditions associated with a deficiency or absence of testosterone. Lilly does not condone the use of our medicines for off-label purposes. ”
The red flags raised by researchers, however, don’t seem to be having any effect on the business of low-T.
Walk-in clinics have sprung up across the country. And according to Bloomberg, sales are expected to triple from $1.6 billion in 2011 to $5 billion by 2017.
Jun 3, 2013
Read story here: http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/health/2013/06/03/low-t-testosterone-ads-leading-to-increase-in-prescriptions-experts-warn/
A More Fit Family
Guide To a More Fit Family
Are you wondering what you and your family are going to this summer? The most important thing is to keep yourselves active! Try these simple suggestions to getting in better shape:
- Take the family to an activity that requires walking. Instead of going to a movie why not try a trip to the park, zoo, botanical gardens, museum exhibits or something similar. Make sure to pack healthy snacks for the day!
- Plan family exercise excursions: jogging and walking around the neighborhood is a great idea, especially if you have family pets that you would like to take out.
- Sign up for activities or classes at your local YMCA, gym or summer school sports programs. Many of these places offer family oriented activities.
- Go grocery shopping together so you can get out of the house and teach your kids the importance of foods that fuel them after exercise.
Click link to read chart of 60 Minutes a Day: Where Kids Live, Learn & Play!
http://www.health.gov/paguidelines/midcourse/infographic.pdf
For more information visit the President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports
Source: www.fitness.gov
Common Labor Hormone Harmful?
After delivering over 1000 babies as Board-certified ob-gyn, many of these babies with the use of Pitocin, I have heard concerns about this drug from hundreds of pregnant moms-to-be.
Most women want to know if the medication is necessary.
This is really the most important question, and it speaks to the issue of appropriate obstetric indication for this, or any other, intervention.
Pitocin is the synthetic brand name of the labor hormone, Oxytocin.
This is the hormone that causes the uterus to contract during labor, and to contract after delivery, preventing postpartum hemorrhage.
When Pitocin is used prior to delivery, it is used either to induce labor, or to augment (or strengthen) labor that has slowed down or stalled completely.
The medication is given through an IV, and is run through a pump that regulates the dose and the frequency with which the dose is increased. Nurses and obstetricians and other trained obstetric personnel monitor the well-being of the pregnant woman and the fetus closely whenever Pitocin is used.
This recent study is the first time that the effects of Pitocin on the fetus were studied. Though this was a relatively small, retrospective study, the results did reveal that women who were given Pitocin to induce or augment their labors did have an increased risk of having a baby with lower Apgar scores or who required admission to the NICU.
These findings suggest an association of Pitocin use with these outcomes but did NOT reveal a cause and effect between use of this drug and these fetal outcomes.
Folklore regarding Pitocin use extends equally amongst obstetricians and moms alike. Many women feel Pitocin causes worse pain during labor than labor without Pitocin. Many obstetricians feel a contraction caused by Pitocin is no different than a 'natural' contraction.
As an obstetrician AND a mom who has two babies (one with and one without Pitocin), I did not experience any difference in my two labor experiences. However, every woman is different, and every woman is entitled to her own subjective experience and opinions thereof.
What complicates the opinions of this mainstay drug in modern obstetrics is that there are many other factors that enter into a pregnant woman's labor and delivery experience, and one of the greatest is the reason or indication for Pitocin's use in the first place.
It is important to remember that when labor has stalled, intervention MUST occur or both the mother and the fetus could die of sepsis or severe infection that will occur if delivery does not occur. In this situation, use is indicated and appropriate.
If labor is being induced (for a medically valid reason), Pitocin use is indicated and appropriate. If a doctor is anxious to leave the hospital and starts Pitocin to accelerate the timeline of labor, that is inappropriate. These are extreme examples but there are plenty of times in L&D that Pitocin is used for "gray zone" indications.
Risks of Pitocin include contractions that are too close together and that don't give the uterus a chance to relax and recover, which can result in fetal distress.
Maternal risks of the medication are water intoxication, pulmonary edema and abnormal sodium levels. The bottom line is that if Pitocin is recommended, a pregnant woman has every right to ask why, what the indications are, and if there are any reasonable options.
Every single drug has risks and benefits. Aspirin can save a life if you are having a heart attack, but it can also cause severe internal bleeding. Pitocin is no different: it can and is a safe medication, but it can also cause problems if not administered properly.
There is an art to the practice of Obstetrics and the team involves the health care professional, the mom-to-be AND the fetus. The process of labor and delivery can be a straight-forward natural one, or it can be very complex and require extremely sophisticated intervention to achieve the ultimate goal: a healthy baby and a health mother.
Source: Jennifer Ashton M.D.
May/2013
How to survive a worse-than-usual allergy season!
Allergy sufferers dread hearing the following words: “It’s going to be the worst allergy season ever!”
So, how is spring 2013 shaking out? Unfortunately, it’s true. This likely will be one the worst allergy seasons to date due to an explosion of powerful pollens brought on by climate change and increased greenhouse gases.
This means allergy sufferers will endure a double-blow this spring as the pollen season is already here, and will last four weeks longer, into mid-fall. Additionally, since many were exposed to early tree pollens this winter (because it was so mild), we all have to be “re-introduced” to those pollens this spring as the weather warms up.
This can mean more significant itchiness, sneezing and stuffiness associated with seasonal allergies.
What does all this mean for you? How can you be pro-active in this pre-allergy season?
To fight allergies, the best defense is a good offense. Follow these seasonal allergy survival tips to get you ready for the onslaught of pesky pollens about to visit your eyes and nasal passages.
• Start early. Many allergy medications work best when started before the symptoms begin.
• Know the pollen count. During peak pollen periods, stay inside if you can. Use air conditioning as a weapon – it can help filter out allergy busting pollens.
• Be a ‘movie star.’ Wear oversized sunglasses to block airborne seasonal pollens and molds from entering your eyes and lids that cause uncomfortable redness, itchiness, watery eyes, and puffiness, too.
• Wear a hat. Preferably a wide-brimmed one. This will block out pollen, and for extra safety, skip the hair gel and spray. These act like a “pollen magnet,” especially when planning extended periods of time outdoors on high-pollen days.
• Stay clean. By showering nightly, you’ll rinse pollen from your hair and skin to get a good night’s sleep. Also, change your clothing before entering the bedroom to reduce pollen transfer into your personal “breathable” space.
By: Dr. Clifford Bassett
FoxNews.com
http://www.unitedallergyservices.com/how-to-survive-a-worse-than-usual-allergy-season/
So, how is spring 2013 shaking out? Unfortunately, it’s true. This likely will be one the worst allergy seasons to date due to an explosion of powerful pollens brought on by climate change and increased greenhouse gases.
This means allergy sufferers will endure a double-blow this spring as the pollen season is already here, and will last four weeks longer, into mid-fall. Additionally, since many were exposed to early tree pollens this winter (because it was so mild), we all have to be “re-introduced” to those pollens this spring as the weather warms up.
This can mean more significant itchiness, sneezing and stuffiness associated with seasonal allergies.
What does all this mean for you? How can you be pro-active in this pre-allergy season?
To fight allergies, the best defense is a good offense. Follow these seasonal allergy survival tips to get you ready for the onslaught of pesky pollens about to visit your eyes and nasal passages.
• Start early. Many allergy medications work best when started before the symptoms begin.
• Know the pollen count. During peak pollen periods, stay inside if you can. Use air conditioning as a weapon – it can help filter out allergy busting pollens.
• Be a ‘movie star.’ Wear oversized sunglasses to block airborne seasonal pollens and molds from entering your eyes and lids that cause uncomfortable redness, itchiness, watery eyes, and puffiness, too.
• Wear a hat. Preferably a wide-brimmed one. This will block out pollen, and for extra safety, skip the hair gel and spray. These act like a “pollen magnet,” especially when planning extended periods of time outdoors on high-pollen days.
• Stay clean. By showering nightly, you’ll rinse pollen from your hair and skin to get a good night’s sleep. Also, change your clothing before entering the bedroom to reduce pollen transfer into your personal “breathable” space.
By: Dr. Clifford Bassett
FoxNews.com
http://www.unitedallergyservices.com/how-to-survive-a-worse-than-usual-allergy-season/
Woman Pregnant After Uterus Transplant
The first woman to receive a uterus from a dead donor is now pregnant, her doctors announced in Turkey.
Doctors waited 18 months after Derya Sert’s uterus transplant in August 2011 before they implanted an embryo on April 1 using Sert’s own egg. Sert, a 22-year-old homemakers, is now about two weeks pregnant, her doctors at Akdeniz University Hospital in Antalya announced Friday.
“She is doing just fine at the moment,” Dr. Mustafa Unal said in a written statement to Agence France-Presse. The baby will be born through cesarean section, according to the news agency.
Sert was born without a uterus, but her ovaries were intact, according to a hospital press release. The condition affects one in 5,000 women, according to the hospital.
Dr. Jennifer Ashton, a senior medical contributor at ABC News, said doctors could detect the pregnancy early because they closely monitor the pregnancy hormone, human chorionic gonadotropin, or hCG, in in-vitro fertilization patients. When hCG rises to a certain level, it indicates pregnancy, she explained.
Although Sert’s ovaries provide hormones, she may need additional “hormonal support,” Ashton said, but it’s not exactly clear what Sert can expect in the coming months.
“Since there is scant medical literature on this, the risks for pregnancies is unknown,” she said.
Source: ABC News
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/health/2013/04/15/woman-pregnant-after-uterus-transplant/
Doctors waited 18 months after Derya Sert’s uterus transplant in August 2011 before they implanted an embryo on April 1 using Sert’s own egg. Sert, a 22-year-old homemakers, is now about two weeks pregnant, her doctors at Akdeniz University Hospital in Antalya announced Friday.
“She is doing just fine at the moment,” Dr. Mustafa Unal said in a written statement to Agence France-Presse. The baby will be born through cesarean section, according to the news agency.
Sert was born without a uterus, but her ovaries were intact, according to a hospital press release. The condition affects one in 5,000 women, according to the hospital.
Dr. Jennifer Ashton, a senior medical contributor at ABC News, said doctors could detect the pregnancy early because they closely monitor the pregnancy hormone, human chorionic gonadotropin, or hCG, in in-vitro fertilization patients. When hCG rises to a certain level, it indicates pregnancy, she explained.
Although Sert’s ovaries provide hormones, she may need additional “hormonal support,” Ashton said, but it’s not exactly clear what Sert can expect in the coming months.
“Since there is scant medical literature on this, the risks for pregnancies is unknown,” she said.
Source: ABC News
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/health/2013/04/15/woman-pregnant-after-uterus-transplant/