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still more delights in fags

• Hundreds of bacterial species were present in each cigarette, and additional testing is likely to increase that number significantly.
  
  
• Bacteria identified included:
  • Acinetobacter (associated with lung and blood infections)
  • Bacillus (some varieties associated with food borne illnesses and anthrax)
  • Burkholderia (some forms responsible for respiratory infections)
  • Clostridium (associated with foodborne illnesses and lung infections)
  • Klebsiella (associated with a variety of lung, blood and other infections)
  • Pseudomonas aeruginosa (an organism that causes 10 percent of all hospital-acquired infections in the United States)
    
    
• No significant variability in bacterial diversity was observed across the four different cigarette brands examined: Camel; Kool Filter Kings; Lucky Strike Original Red; and Marlboro Red.

  “Now that we've shown that a pack of cigarettes is loaded with bacteria, we will conduct follow-up research to determine the possible roles of these organisms in tobacco-related diseases," Sapkota said in conclusion.”

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drugs, smoking and addiction

the web address for the article above is
https://www.abelard.org/news/health2009.php#cigarette_dangers_251109

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on the reliability of vaccines

This article has been moved and expanded to become a briefing document, on vaccines.

the web address for the article above is
https://www.abelard.org/news/health2009.php#on_vaccine_reliability_011009

smoking ban effects

“One year after passing smoking bans, communities in North America and Europe had 17 percent fewer heart attacks compared to communities without smoking restrictions, and the number of heart attacks kept decreasing with time, according to a report in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association.

The report is a meta-analysis of 13 studies in which researchers examined changes in heart attack rates after smoking bans were enacted in communities in the United States, Canada and Europe. The researchers found that heart attack rates started to drop immediately following implementation of the law, reaching 17 percent after one year, then continuing to decline over time, with about a 36 percent drop three years after enacting the restrictions.

"While we obviously won't bring heart attack rates to zero, these
findings give us evidence that in the short- to medium-term, smoking
bans will prevent a lot of heart attacks," ...
—
For example, according to the American Heart Association's Heart Disease and Stroke Statistics 2009 Update, non-smokers exposed to secondhand smoke at home or at work have a 25 percent to 30 percent increased risk of developing heart disease. This new research suggests that the individual increased risk may be higher, said Lightwood.”

What’s wrong with smokers killing people? this is supposed to be a free country.

related material
drugs, smoking and addiction

the web address for the article above is
https://www.abelard.org/news/health2009.php#smoking_ban_effects_260909

placebo effects

“Assumption number one was that if a trial were managed correctly, a medication would perform as well or badly in a Phoenix hospital as in a Bangalore clinic. Potter discovered, however, that geographic location alone could determine whether a drug bested placebo or crossed the futility boundary. By the late '90s, for example, the classic antianxiety drug diazepam (also known as Valium) was still beating placebo in France and Belgium. But when the drug was tested in the US, it was likely to fail. Conversely, Prozac performed better in America than it did in western Europe and South Africa. It was an unsettling prospect: FDA approval could hinge on where the company chose to conduct a trial.

“Mistaken assumption number two was that the standard tests used to gauge volunteers' improvement in trials yielded consistent results. Potter and his colleagues discovered that ratings by trial observers varied significantly from one testing site to another. It was like finding out that the judges in a tight race each had a different idea about the placement of the finish line.”
—
“Now, after 15 years of experimentation, he has succeeded in mapping many of the biochemical reactions responsible for the placebo effect, uncovering a broad repertoire of self-healing responses. Placebo-activated opioids, for example, not only relieve pain; they also modulate heart rate and respiration. The neurotransmitter dopamine, when released by placebo treatment, helps improve motor function in Parkinson's patients. Mechanisms like these can elevate mood, sharpen cognitive ability, alleviate digestive disorders, relieve insomnia, and limit the secretion of stress-related hormones like insulin and cortisol.”
—
“ ...the nocebo effect. For example, men taking a commonly prescribed prostate drug who were informed that the medication may cause sexual dysfunction were twice as likely to become impotent.”
—
“In a study last year, Harvard Medical School researcher Ted Kaptchuk devised a clever strategy for testing his volunteers' response to varying levels of therapeutic ritual. The study focused on irritable bowel syndrome, a painful disorder that costs more than $40 billion a year worldwide to treat. First the volunteers were placed randomly in one of three groups. One group was simply put on a waiting list; researchers know that some patients get better just because they sign up for a trial. Another group received placebo treatment from a clinician who declined to engage in small talk. Volunteers in the third group got the same sham treatment from a clinician who asked them questions about symptoms, outlined the causes of IBS, and displayed optimism about their condition.

“Not surprisingly, the health of those in the third group improved most. In fact, just by participating in the trial, volunteers in this high-interaction group got as much relief as did people taking the two leading prescription drugs for IBS. And the benefits of their bogus treatment persisted for weeks afterward, contrary to the belief—widespread in the pharmaceutical industry—that the placebo response is short-lived.”

the web address for the article above is
https://www.abelard.org/news/health2009.php#placebo_effects_030909

there ain’t no such thing as a free lunch - healthcare, america and europe

In Britain you get filthy hospitals and rationing, in the USA you get waste and bribery to legislators.
[see Outrage by Dick Morris, pp.197-219]

“Such stories are all too common. Americans will spend a staggering $2.5 trillion on health care in 2009, says the Congressional Budget Office. As a share of national income that is far more than other rich countries spend (see chart 4), despite America’s slightly younger population. To say that Americans do not get value for money is putting it mildly. They live no longer than Europeans and die younger than the Japanese. Meanwhile, 46m of them lack health insurance.

“There are many reasons why American health care costs so much. Americans love fancy new medical technology. New drugs, for example, are prescribed a year or two earlier in America than in Europe, and do not come cheap. American doctors pay a fortune to insure themselves against frivolous lawsuits. A study in the New England Journal of Medicine found that even in cases where no medical error was found, plaintiffs received payments a quarter of the time. And half of medical malpractice payments were gobbled up by lawyers and overheads.”
—
“This creates an agency problem. When a typical patient goes to the doctor, he has no idea what anything costs. He pays only about 15% of the bill, so if the doctor recommends something he will probably say yes. The doctor gets paid for everything he does, so he has a powerful incentive to perform costly, unnecessary procedures. Besides, he may be socked for damages if he omits a test that a lawyer subsequently convinces a jury might have been useful. The costs are passed on to insurers, who pass them on to employers in the form of higher premiums, who then pass them on to workers in the form of lower pay.”
—
“Health-care reform worries drug firms. Under the current system, Americans not only adopt new drugs more quickly than people in other rich countries; they pay 50% more for the same drugs, according to McKinsey. In a more government-dominated system, drug firms’ profits would suffer. So would their incentive to innovate. It typically costs them a billion dollars to develop a new drug. They can only recoup their vast R&D outlays thanks to high margins in America. The rest of the world enjoys a free ride. But that could change.”

the web address for the article above is
https://www.abelard.org/news/health2009.php#europe_us_health_care_060609

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© abelard, 2009,06 june
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the address for this document is https://www.abelard.org/news/health2009.php

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