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Five Ways to Protect Yourself From the Zika Virus

Zika MosquitoAs the number of Zika virus infections continues to rise in the US, it is important to take the right steps in order to minimize your risk of contracting the disease.

Travel Smart

Pregnant women and women planning on becoming pregnant should avoid traveling to Zika affected areas. This includes Florida, Puerto Rico, and the US Virgin Islands. Outside of the US this also includes Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean and most of South America.

Wear Mosquito Repellent

The Center for Disease Control recommends mosquito repellent products with the active ingredients DEET, oil of lemon eucalyptus, picaridin, or IR 3535. DEET is safe for pregnant women to use. Don’t forget to spray the feet and ankles as the Zika carrying mosquitos have a preference for these areas.

Wear Protective Clothing

Wear dark colored long sleeves and long pants including shoes with full coverage. You can get extra protection by wearing clothing that contains permethrin, a synthetic insecticide which is safe for pregnant women and children to use.

Remove Standing Water

Aedes mosquitoes that spread Zika feed during the morning into the afternoon and like to go inside houses for shade and reproduction. Any water located in your home could be a breeding ground for mosquitos. One tablespoon of water can serve as a breeding ground and produce up to 300 mosquitos. Be sure to get rid of any standing water in or around your home including in flower and plant pots, garbage, buckets, and any item that holds water.

Exercise Inside

Aedes mosquitoes are drawn to carbon dioxide, heat, and sweat. It’s best to switch your morning run into an indoor workout, especially in Zika affected areas and when it’s warm out. Blast the AC when you’re inside to keep those mosquitoes out.

Researchers Diagnose Autism in Children Using Smartphone, Tablet Games

Autism Child with iPad
Photo from Autism Partnership

Games on tablets and smartphones may be used to track player hand movement and identify children who might have autism, according to a new study from researchers at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, Scotland.

While early diagnosis and intervention are the best chances to improve health and economic gain for people with autism, diagnosis remains complex and difficult to obtain. The instruments of these evaluations are time consuming and clinically demanding, and a diagnosis can be withheld for years because of wait-list times.

Recent Study Using Technology for Autism Diagnostics

Recently, experts have identified that motor disturbance can be a new way to create assessments of autism spectrum disorder development.

“Motor patterns related to autism can be identified by machine learning from iPad game play in children between three and six years old,” the authors determined. “This motor signature appears to be predominantly derived from differences in pressure going into the device as well as differences in gesture kinematics and form.”

Results of the Study

The researchers have expanded on those findings and reasoned that sensors in tablets and touch screen sensor technologies could capture information about children’s motor patterns.

They set about testing if they could identify autism-specific motor patterns as children engaged with an iPad mini and played 2 different games. A total of 82 children between the ages of 3 and 6 were assessed. The researchers showed that children with autism can be identified with up to 93% accuracy using the analysis of motor patterns in iPad game play.

“It is not social, emotional, or cognitive aspects of the game play that identify autism,” Dr. Jonathan Delafield-Butt, one of the researchers and a senior lecturer in child development, told BBC News. “Rather, the key difference is in the way children with autism move their hands as they touch, swipe and gesture with the iPad during the game.

In addition to being a fun way of testing for autism, these games are cheaper and faster than the traditional ways of diagnosing autism spectrum disorder.

“These data support the notion disruption to movement is core feature of autism, and demonstrate autism can be computationally assessed by fun, smart device game play,” the authors concluded.

Nursing Home Information Being Added To Yelp

Consumers will now be able to look up government information on healthcare facilities thanks to the data ProPublica has compiled data on 15,000 nursing homes, 4,600 hospitals, and 6,300 dialysis clinics using information from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, according to Washington Post.

Pages for nursing homes contain information about fines paid to the government and whether inspections have shown “serious deficiencies” in the last 3 years. The data is color-coded for ease of use.

“Now the millions of consumers who use Yelp to find and evaluate everything from restaurants to retail will have even more information at their fingertips when they are in the midst of the most critical life decisions, like which hospital to choose for a sick child or which nursing home will provide the best care for aging parents,” Yelp CEO Jeremy Stoppelmen wrote in a blog post.

Healthcare and medical businesses have already been available on Yelp for consumers to review using the star-rating system, but now the additional information from ProPublica will appear on the page as well. According to Yelp, the health category makes up 6% of reviewed businesses.

Most of the information being made available on Yelp is already available on Medicare’s Hospital Compare site, which can be difficult to sift through.

“While it is helpful, having general information doesn’t really add as much value as doctor-specific feedback that pretty much every hospital in the country is capturing,” Mr. Stoppelmen wrote. “Healthcare is very personal — often it is about a one-on-one relationship, so the information that consumers crave the most is information about a particular doctor.”

Researchers Revise New York City Subway Bacteria Study

The New York City subway has been falsely accused of being dirty and unsanitary for decades. This stereotyped conclusion is far from the truth. Although not the place to dine in, as a transportation system, the NYC subway is as clean as any other system in world and probably cleaner than some European subways, such as the London Metro and the Metro in Rome.

With that said, the Wall Street Journal reported that in an erratum published July 29 in the journal Cell Systems, researchers who mapped DNA found in the subway system in New York City said they had mistakenly interpreted data that had led to their original claim they had found bubonic plague and anthrax DNA traces at certain subway stations. The authors of the study have subsequently revised its conclusions.

“Speaking of Science”, a Washington Post blog points out that after the CDC and the New York City Department of Health pushed back the study, authors made the correction. The method of “data collection was just fine – so they’re not retracting their study – but they admit that their interpretations may have been a bit speculative in nature, and that the media’s interpretation of those interpretations got a little out of control.”

Time reports that referring “to the bubonic plague and anthrax findings, the researchers write, ‘There is minimal coverage to the backbone genome of these organisms, and there is no strong evidence to suggest these organisms are in fact present, and no evidence of pathogenicity.’”

Preventing Drug Abuse among Teenagers

Drug Abuse has become a very common problem among teenagers and with every passing day, the statistics show a rise in the number of teenagers who fall prey and succumb to drug abuse. This not only includes alcohol, but also the use of crystal meth, heroin and marijuana.. Parents in particular and other adults of the community in general, can play a significant role in preventing the use and abuse of drugs among teenagers.

Bonding with Parents

This is the most crucial factor that needs immediate and proper addressing. Many parents shuffle between jobs, social activities, struggle with marital issues. And amidst all that, they neglect their children. These things, especially the uneven marital relations between parents disturb teenagers very much. In case of divorce, they feel divided between two people that they love the most. In many cases the environment of homes is very abusive. This also creates extreme anxiety, depression, and sense of loneliness among teenagers. Due to all these reasons, they cannot bond with their parents at an age where this connection is extremely important and can be a healthy support for them in many ways. This is why many teenagers seek solace in drugs.

By improving relations with our children in their teen years, we can significantly reduce the risk of drug abuse.

Keeping a Check

This is not only the responsibility of parents but also other people in community that have responsibility to various adolescents, for example, teachers, coaches, religious mentors, etc. keeping an eye out for drug use or indications of drug abuse can help identify the users at early stages and they can be given rehabilitation before they reach the level of addiction.

Providing Awareness and Guidance

Here educational institutions can play a very major role, as well as parents can take this job in their own hands as well. Providing accurate information, guiding them about the consequences, giving them safe and most importantly respectable options to open up and talk about their issues without judging them can also help. When teenagers can feel safe and accepted in their social circle, the chances of indulging in negative and harmful activities will automatically reduce.

Researchers have also suggested a community plan that is based on five key factors, namely, Identifying drugs and children having problems with it in the community; building on the currently active drug abuse prevention programs, further adding up and developing short term goals in order to select the most suitable research based drug abuse prevention program and execute it; projecting long term goals, and lastly, include the findings of currently active programs.

These measures can be very effective and if not entirely eradicate the problem from its root, they can at least serve to be stepping stones to bring about a change.

Assuring Patients Can Receive Timely Quality Care

New York physicians continue to pay liability premiums that far exceed those in any other state. After liability premiums for New York physicians shot up 55-80% between 2003 to 2008 before the Legislature intervened to impose rate freezes in 2008 and 2009, medical liability premiums have continued to steadily rise. Many New York physicians continue to pay outrageous liability premiums that far exceed $100,000, and some even exceed $300,000! The cost of medical liability coverage for the 2014-15 policy year was:

• $338,252 for a neurosurgeon in Nassau and Suffolk counties;
• $186,639 for an OB/GYN in Bronx and Richmond counties;
• $132,704 for a general surgeon in Kings and Queens counties; and
• $134,902 for an vascular surgeon or cardiac surgeon in Bronx and Richmond counties.

Malpractice payouts in New York State continue to be far out of proportion to the rest of country. For example, in 2013, according to a report by Diederich Healthcare and reported in the March 15, 2014 Washington Post, New York State had by far and away the highest number cumulative medical liability payouts ($689,800,300), nearly two times greater than the state with the next highest amounts, Pennsylvania ($356,855,500), and far exceeding states such as California ($274,590,800) and Florida ($199,442,450). Additionally, New York State had by far and away the highest per-capita medical liability payments in the country, far exceeding the second highest state Pennsylvania by 57%, the third highest state New Jersey by 67%, and the fourth highest state Massachusetts by 74%.

We can no longer sustain such an expensive, inequitable, and fatally flawed medical liability adjudication system if we wish to assure that our healthcare system will be able to accommodate the demand that will inevitably come as our population ages and becomes more resource-dependent, as well as the nearly 1,000,000 newly insured patients who are starting to receive coverage through New York’s new health insurance Exchange. We need comprehensive reform of our flawed civil justice system and reduction in our medical liability costs, not legislation that increases costs and exacerbates existing problems.

We support legislation to create alternative systems for resolving medical liability cases, such as medical court or a Neurologically Impaired Infants No-Fault fund. We also strongly support legislation to enact medical liability tort reforms enacted in other states which would: place reasonable limits on non-economic damages; identify and assure qualified expert witnesses; eliminate joint and several liability; identify a physician supplying a Certificate of Merit; immunize statements of apology or regret; and provide immunity for physicians providing pro bono care.

Preventing Untenable Expansions of Liability MSSNY will continue to strenuously oppose any measure to expand the damages recoverable in medical liability actions, including legislation that would: • Create a “date of discovery” rule for New York’s statute of limitations for medical liability actions – Estimated to increase premiums by 15%;

• Expand “wrongful death” damages to permit “pain and suffering” – Estimated to increase premiums by 53%;
• Permit the awarding of pre-judgment interest – Estimated to increase premiums by 27%;
• Eliminate the current statutory limitations on attorney contingency fees in medical liability cases – Estimated to
increase premiums by over 10%;
• Prohibit ex-parte interview by defense counsel of the plaintiff’s treating physician;
• Change loss-share rules regarding non-settling defendants.
Enactment of any of these measures would have calamitous consequences on our health care system. Efforts to reform our medical liability adjudication system must be comprehensive!

Anorexia Nervosa – The Eating Disorder That Causes Weight Loss

Categorized as an eating disorder, anorexia nervosa is a disorder that causes the individual to lose a lot of weight over a brief period. The weight loss is very dramatic and affects the health of the person to a great extent. The Body Mass Index (BMI) is used in this regard to establish whether the affected person is in the healthy range for weight for the respective age and height.

Eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa make the patient fearful of weight gain even if they are tremendously underweight. These patients resort to all kinds of methods to keep extra pounds at bay, including exercising a lot, eating less or not eating at all, and throwing up frequently to make sure their stomachs stay empty.

The causes of anorexia nervosa

Researchers have still not been able to uncover the precise reason for the development of this condition. Yet many factors are known to play an important role in the etiology of this illness. Some of the reasons include genetics, a combination of environmental, and stress-related incidences, and social and cultural factors; such as having an unrealistic standard of beauty and perfection.

What is known is that when individuals become anorexic, they are doing so as a matter of control.  They are unable to manage certain factors in their life, so they choose to control their body. They govern their food intake so they can control something in their life.

Anorexia nervosa risk factors

Some of the risk factors for the development of anorexia include being too worried about putting on some pounds even if you are in the right range of weight, having a history of anxiety disorders in the family, feeling bad about your appearance, eating problems while young, 

The beginning of anorexia occurs in pre-teens or teenage years, especially in girls. You are likely to come across many anorexic girls who belong to a family of high achievers and have a set code of how life ‘should’ be.

The symptoms of Anorexia nervosa

There are some clear indicators of medical weight loss caused by anorexia nervosa. Certain signs indicate the presence of disorders such as anorexia (especially in youngsters). The signs include the urge to go to the toilet immediately after meals, drastic reduction of portion sizes, exercising even when injured, refusal to eat in front of others, resorting to diuretics to lose water weight, frequent use of diet pills or laxatives, yellow skin caused by lack of hemoglobin, poor judgment, and slow thinking and an increased tendency towards depression.

How to overcome Anorexia nervosa disease

In order to evaluate the extent and nature of medical weight loss in an anorexic patient, the tests carried out include serum electrolytes, urinalysis, albumin, total body protein, bone density test, thyroid function test, complete blood count, kidney function test, electrocardiogram, and liver function test.

The main focus of the medical practitioner should be making the patient understand that they have a clinical disorder that is ruining all aspects of their life. This is necessary because it is quite normal for patients with anorexia illness to deny the fact that they have a medical condition.

Building up the patient’s self-esteem and helping him/her get healthy will take some time. However, persistence will enable the patient to overcome the disease/ medical weight loss caused by anorexia.

For more information and how you can help, please visit the National Eating Disorders Association. Donations can be made here.

 

Senior Citizens are Living Longer, Better Lives

Happy Senior Citizens
Will the health care industry be able to keep up with the growing elder population?

According to a study from researchers at Harvard University, people are living longer due to major advancements in medical technology. In view of this, the aging population has been a source of great concern for the already-overworked healthcare industry. A study from the Hudson Valley Pattern for Progress found that hospitals in New York’s Hudson Valley region are not prepared to meet the demands of the aging population; however, a number of nursing homes are preparing for the additional patients that will be coming.

What the Study on Senior Care Suggested

Under lead advisor Daniel Z. Aronzon, MD, former chief executive officer of Vassar Brothers Medical Center in Poughkeepsie, the organization compiled a 92-page report entitled “Aging in the Hudson Valley: Is the Healthcare System Ready?”

According to the report, the region should prepare for a greater need for providers to handle the capacity and better facilitated end-of-life care, among other changes that will be necessary to continue providing quality care for the region’s population.

“Models of increased consolidation and integration in other parts of the country, which result in better outcomes and lower costs, provide valuable lessons in the Hudson Valley’s pursuit of better healthcare,” the authors wrote.

Costs of Upstate Health Care for Senior Citizens

The report also pointed out that the median daily cost for skilled nursing facilities in Hudson Valley could be as high as $405 for Putnam, Rockland, and Westchester counties.

Based on data from the New York State Department of Health’s Resident Health Care Facility Bed Need – 2016 report, Hudson Valley will have to increase beds in skilled nursing facilities by 93.10% in order to meet the growing needs.

Antibiotics Use Linked to Type 1 Diabetes

Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease diagnosed in young adults and children, sometimes referred to as juvenile diabetes. Out of 30 million people diagnosed with diabetes in the US, only about 5 percent are diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. Type 1 is not understood very well, what we do know is that both genes and environment are a factor. Type 1 diabetes is known to have spiked following World War II and is thought to have been the after effect of food rationing during this time. Worldwide today, type 1 diabetes is increasing by 3 percent every year.

New Research is Discovering an Association Between Diabetes and Antibiotics

In the recent years, a rise in antibiotics prescriptions has also been linked to chronic illness as well as antibiotic resistance. One study even found that antibiotics have been prescribed to children about twice as often as they should be. From acne to viral infections, it seems that antibiotics overuse is a widespread problem.  

A recent study published in the Nature Microbiology journal this week has found the first link between type 1 diabetes and antibiotics use. The study took place at the New York University Langone Medical Center and was led by Dr. Martin Blaser.

In the study, one group of mice was given low dose antibiotics similar to the dose children receive and one group of mice was given no antibiotics. Over time, the gut bacteria of the mice given antibiotics showed huge change which also affected the mice’s immune system. The mice given antibiotics also developed type 1 diabetes. These results evidently show that doctors need to think twice before prescribing antibiotics to children. “They carry not only the risk of resistance, which is a cost to the whole community, but possibly health risks to the child,” said Blaser. This preliminary study shows that the findings will no doubt influence the future of pediatrics and the way in which antibiotics are prescribed. “We’re eager to see how these findings may impact the discovery of type 1 diabetes preventative treatments in the future and continued research in the area of vaccines,” said Jessica Dunne, the director of Discovery Research at Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.

The American Diabetes Association (ADA) has called it the ‘Perfect Storm’ and in one excerpt of their abstract, they state “the provision of antibiotics, such as fucidic acid, Colistin, and Bactrim, in BB rats after weaning (8,9) lead to diabetes prevention, whereas in our own efforts using the NOD mouse, a decreased frequency of type 1 diabetes was observed with the administration of doxycycline. The specific mechanisms of how such therapies modulate disease are unclear, but it is clear that changes in the microbiota affect the development of autoimmune diabetes in both animal models.”

Five Facts About the Zika Virus

 How does the virus spread?

The virus mainly spreads by the Ae. aegypti mosquito found in the tropical and sub-subtropical areas of the Americas. However, due to climate change, the mosquito species known as Ae. albopictus has been moving into North America as well, it’s been found as far north as the Great Lakes. This mosquito usually bites in the morning and late afternoon.

Which Areas are Affected?

The Zika virus is mostly found within the tropical equatorial belt. Historically, it has existed in parts of Central Africa, India, and Indonesia. The 2015-2016 outbreak has caused the most concern in Central America and northern regions of South America. Since the outbreak, Zika has been reported in Colombia, French Guiana, Mexico and Venezuela as well as many more South and Central American countries. Nations worldwide have strongly advised people to rethink any travel plans they’ve had for affected regions.

What is microcephaly?

Microcephaly is a neurodevelopmental disorder linked to the Zika virus, typically defined by the sufferer having a head circumference two or three standard deviations below the mean average for his or her age and gender. Microcephaly can cause abnormal growth of the brain and is especially dangerous for newborn babies. The condition often leads to severely impaired intellectual development and can cause problems with motor functions and speech development.

Who is in danger?

Pregnant women have been identified as particularly in danger of the virus. Some countries are already advising women to avoid becoming pregnant at all. In El Salvador, Jamaica, Colombia, and Ecuador, women have been advised to delay conception until at least 2018. In the US, officials have specifically advised pregnant women to avoid traveling to Zika-affected countries.

How do you know if you’ve been infected?

Even though there is no specific test widely available to identify the Zika virus, the disease’s symptoms are similar to those experienced during Dengue or Yellow fever. If you’re at all suspicious that you have been infected with Zika, a blood or tissue sample must be sent to an advanced laboratory within the first week of infection. Initial symptoms are usually mild with only 1 in 5 people infected experiencing any notable difference including fever, rashes and joint pain.