Healthwise Today » Medical Related News

Vaccine-Autism Link Again Called A Fraud

bjmdjd — Thu, 06 Jan 2011 02:34:47 +0000

Thursday’s online version of the British Medical Journal has published an article by British journalist Brian Deer which once again refutes the connection between a vaccine and autism. The original study by Andrew Wakefield and his colleagues published in 1998 was later refuted by 10 of its 13 authors and retracted in the Lancet which originally published the article.

Even though Wakefield claimed that the 12 children evaluated in the original study were all normal until they received the MMR vaccine, further analysis revealed that at least 5 of the 12 had already been diagnosed with developmental problems. In interviewing the children’s parents and reviewing medical records it was found that all of the cases were somehow misrepresented. An accompanying editorial called the entire original study a “fraud.”

Wakefield was stripped of his medical license in Britain and has now moved to the United States where he has authored a book once again touting the vaccine-autism connection. This is where celebrity Jenny McCarthy gets the ammunition for her diatribes against vaccines. I fault Oprah and others for giving her a platform to spread information that has been disproved by other medical studies. There has been a large resurgence of measles in the United Kingdom where the original study first gained popularity.

Keep all of this information in mind the next time you hear one of the conspiracy theorists claiming that vaccines cause autism. bjmdjd

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The Medicare Onslaught Has Begun!

bjmdjd — Tue, 04 Jan 2011 01:32:23 +0000

The first baby boomer became eligible for Medicare this past Saturday. If you thought the system was already in financial trouble just wait. Now a baby boomer will qualify for Medicare every 8 seconds! By the year 2030 the Medicare ranks will swell from 47 million today to 80 million.

Another problem is that the baby boomers are healthier as a whole than earlier retirees and thus will be in the system longer and require more money as they age. Trying to keep pace with the sheer numbers and the expensive advances in medical care that further prolongs life will greatly strain the system.

There will be more pressure for the government to reduce Medicare benefits but groups like the AARP and the very vocal baby boomers won’t stand for that and will put up quite a fight. Whomever suggests reducing benefits or making Medicare recipients pay more will be committing political suicide.

No doubt it will be fascinating to watch. bjmdjd

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Rolaids Recall

bjmdjd — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 23:21:02 +0000

I’m sorry I have been away for a few weeks but we buried my dear sweet mother this past Saturday. We had to be with her 24 hours a day since July due to her progressively worsening dementia. I certainly have a new admiration for caregivers. We are proud of the fact that we had the means and fortitude to allow her to die in her own den at home.

McNeil Consumer Healthcare, a division of Johnson & Johnson, has voluntarily recalled some Rolaids products in the U.S. and Canada due to possible product contamination.

The affected products in the U.S. include certain lots of Rolaids Extra Strength Softchews, Rolaids Extra Strength plus Gas Softchews, and Rolaids Multi-Symptom plus Anti-Gas Softchews. They also are recalling all lots of Rolaids Ultra Strength SoftChews and Rolaids Ultra Strength SoftChews plus Gas Relief distributed in Canada.

McNeil states that their investigation into the contamination occurred at a third party manufacturer. bjmdjd

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Get That Meningitis Shot!

bjmdjd — Thu, 11 Nov 2010 02:13:40 +0000

An advisory committee of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has recommended that the vaccine given to prevent meningitis be given as a booster to 11 and 12 year olds. The previous recommendation was to give it before a young person went to college to help prevent the disease in settings like dorm rooms where transmission rates are high. The new recommendation is because the protection offered by the dose given to an infant is no longer believed to last as long as it was once thought.

A recent article in the New England Journal of Medicine reports that the incidence of pneumococcal meningitis has decreased since the vaccine was introduced in 2000. It is expected that the CDC will accept the recommendation of the advisory committee. bjmdjd

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Does Your Lipitor Stink?

bjmdjd — Wed, 03 Nov 2010 02:35:01 +0000

Now that’s certainly not a title I would have ever expected to write! But evidently it is a problem. I apologize for being a couple of days late writing about this but I have been tied up in a family health crisis and that had to come first.

For the third time this year the maker of the popular cholesterol lowering medication is recalling some of the product due to an unpleasant odor. This will make about 400,000 bottles of the drug that has been recalled. Supposedly the risk of serious illness is remote and the smell has been traced to a chemical used to treat the wooden pallets on which the bottles are stored and shipped in Puerto Rico. Some patients have reported some GI symptoms after using the affected product.

The company announced that there may be more recalls but if any patient encounters some of this moldy smelling Lipitor they can have it replaced at no charge at their pharmacy. bjmdjd

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Meridia Is Off The Market

bjmdjd — Sat, 09 Oct 2010 01:36:47 +0000

The Food and Drug Administration announced today that Abbott Laboratories has withdrawn the weight loss drug sibutramine (Meridia) from the market. The FDA asked the company to withdraw the drug after post marketing studies revealed that the risks of cardiovascular complications outweighed the modest weight loss achieved with using the drug.

Compared to placebo there was a 16% increase in non fatal heart attack, non fatal stroke, the need for resuscitation after cardiac arrest, and death. It was felt that the problems were caused by the drug increasing blood pressure and heart rate. They also announced that the risk of problems resolved when the medication is stopped.

Doctors have been asked to stop prescribing the drug and patients have been asked to stop taking it. The FDA also advised against taking the weight loss product Slimming Beauty Bitter Orange Slimming Capsules which is sold over the Internet and contains sibutramine (Meridia) though it is not listed on the ingredients label. bjmdjd

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Medicare To Cover Smoking Cessation

bjmdjd — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 04:37:09 +0000

I may be cynical but in my opinion rarely does the government do anything sensible and in the order in which it should be done. For instance, Medicare in the past has only covered smoking cessation counselling if the patient had already been diagnosed with a tobacco related disease or already had symptoms of such a disease. Seems a bit backwards to me.

But alas, the Dept. of Health and Human Services has announced that Medicare will now begin covering counselling for smoking for all Medicare patients! They must have done this by mistake but we’ll all hope that they don’t notice. This will be an excellent partner to the fact that Medicare Part D prescription drug plans already cover prescription smoking medications. bjmdjd

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Tylenol, Motrin, and Benadryl Recall Grows

bjmdjd — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 17:56:41 +0000

Once again McNeil, Inc. has expanded their voluntary recall of various Tylenol, Motrin, and Benadryl products. You can go to www.mcneilproductrecall.com/page.jhtml?id=/include/prd_all.inc to find the various lot numbers that are affected.

This is an expansion of a recall of 60 million products made by McNeil during late 2009 and into early this year. The chances of becoming ill by using any of these products is felt to be remote but if you have them you should contact the company for instructions on what to do. To do so, visit the web site, www.mcneilproductrecall.com, or call 888-222-6036 weekdays from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Eastern time and weekends, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Eastern time. bjmdjd

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Is It Hard For A Medicare Patient To Get A Doctor’s Appointment?

bjmdjd — Sun, 06 Jun 2010 22:06:25 +0000

A recent survey released by the American Medical Association found that it is getting harder for Medicare patients to get an appointment with a doctor. According to the physicians surveyed it’s because Congress failed to pass a permanent fix for the Medicare reimbursement crisis.

The crisis is due to calculating physician pay rates by using what is called the sustainable growth rate (SGR) formula. This calculation causes each scheduled pay cut to be greater than the last and recent pay cuts which were postponed were scheduled to be 21.3%.

17% of the physicians surveyed, 31% of primary care physicians, have cut back on the number of Medicare patients that they treat. Even though the scheduled physician pay cuts have been postponed by Congress every year since 2003 (4 times already in 2010) they have yet to pass a permanent solution to the problem.

Physicians feel that Medicare is an “unreliable payer” due to the fact that their rates are too low and that there are still threats of future pay cuts. The AMA is launching an advertising campaign urging Americans to contact their representatives and asking them to consider a permanent solution to the problem.

Until something is done to reassure physicians concerning their Medicare reimbursements seniors may find it challenging to get a doctor’s appointment especially if they don’t already have a regular physician. bjmdjd

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Drop Side Cribs On The Way Out

bjmdjd — Mon, 24 May 2010 23:41:40 +0000

Drop side cribs may finally be meeting their waterloo. For many years several child advocate groups and government agencies have complained about the strangulation dangers of these cribs. There have been numerous infant and toddler deaths associated with these cribs in the last ten years.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission has been working on the problem for some time and now they have a senator from New York involved. Legislation was introduced this week that would ban the manufacture, sale, and resell of the cribs. They would also be banned in hotels and day care centers.

Seven million of these cribs have been recalled since 2005 and many stores have already stopped selling them. With what appears to be solid evidence that these cribs are definitely a strangulation danger for small children and infants, Senator Kirsten Gillibrand is to be applauded for trying to accomplish something worthwhile in Congress. Now that’s a change for Congress. bjmdjd

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