CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta reports on a study by Duke University researchers that linked heart attacks to stressful events, such as a bad stetch for the stock market or a natural disaster. Not a big suprise that stressful events lead to more stress and more heart attacks. Dr. Gupta goes over some of the strategies for reducing stress. They include making time for prayer or meditation, laughter and sex. Take a look:
The American Cancer Society has issued new prostate guidelines. Dr. Jennifer Ashton discusses the guidelines on the Early Show. Discussions with your doctor should start at age 50 for those with average risk but higher risk groups should start discussion at age 40 to 45. The new guidelines say men with low PSA numbers can go for longer intervals between getting new tests. You can read the ACS's article about early detection of prostate cancer here.
The Lancet, a highly respect British medical journal, has retracted a study that showed a connection between autism and the childhood MMR vaccine. However, clearing up the confusion the study has created in the public may take a long time. Richard Roth reports for CBS on the controversy the study generated. Roth says many parents took the study very seriously. Roth also says 25 other studies have shown that there is no link between the MMR vaccine and autism. Take a look:
British eye surgeons have started using a new type of artificial lens implant that can give people high-definition vision. This vision is said to be better than 20/20 vision. Take a look:
Dr. Sanjay Gupta reports on the connection between Winter and increased asthma. The onset of cold weather can increase asthma attacks and make people with asthma feel worse. Dr. Sanjay Gupta says "cold air can exacerbate the condition as can getting sick." There are more colds and other viruses around. These illnesses can be problematic for people with asthma. Take a look:
Morley Safer reports for CBS News on the emerging technology of growing body parts from human cells. Morley Safer says researchers have created beating hearts, ears and bladders by manipulating cells in the human body. The goal is to provide new hope for amputees and patients on organ-transplant lists by growing replacement organs in the lab. Take a look:
A team of Japanese scientists were able to grow a green replacement tooth for a mouse. Researchers say it is the first time a "fully functional and three-dimensional organ" has been regenerated. The tooth works just like any other tooth. This sounds promoising. Hopefully, we will be able to grow human tetth before too long.
The CDC has greatly increased its estimate of the number of U.S. residents who have died from the H1N1 swine flu virus. The number of deaths have increased from 1,200 to 3,900. The CDC claims it is really an accounting issue and not a situation where the virus is getting more deadly. The H1N1 numbers are clearly showing the youngest are hardest hit. With H1N1 90% of the deaths have been in people 65 and under. That is very different from seasonal flu when 90% of the deaths are in people 65 and older. 38,000 children under 18 have been hospitalized and 540 have died. Take a look:
The White House residently declared the H1N1 swine flu pandemic a national emergency and a USA Todayarticle explains why. The article describes a few hospitals that are already being overwhelmed by patients.
Connie Price, chief of infectious diseases at Denver Health, the city's public hospital, says, "I've been living this" since Aug. 28, when the hospital's lab reported 12 positive tests for swine flu.
"Since then we've been inundated," she says. "In a typical flu season, we may hospitalize 15 patients. With H1N1, we've hospitalized 10 times that many. We're not even in flu season yet."
In Rio Grande County, a rural community in the Rockies about 200 miles south of Denver near the New Mexico border, clinics were so overwhelmed with patients that they began turning away those who didn't have flu. With absentee rates of 40%, schools closed. Many of those children turned up in local clinics and emergency rooms.
Some local hospitals probably could have managed if the 120 million doses of swine flu vaccine had arrived by the end of October as the U.S. government promised back in June. The actual number is far short of the June estimate. We will now be lucky to get 50 million doses by the end of November. In fact, it will be a huge surprise if we get anywhere near that amount. As the New York Timesreports, "federal projections have been consistently and wildly overoptimistic and have had to be ratcheted down several times."
If the vaccine projections had been met the vaccine might have been able to prevent some of these cases that are now likely to inundate hospitals in November, December and on into 2010.
This poor robot is always suffering from the swine flu. The robot is meant to be a diagnostic tool for physicians. The robot shows symptoms of someone having a severe outbreak of the flu including moaning, sweating and difficulty breathing. If the robot is not treated properly it will eventually stop breathing. Take a look:
Health Day News reports that a recent study of seniors found that exercise can boost the longevity and quality of life for the "oldest old." Those who exercised four hours a week or more tended to live longer and experienced fewer declines in their ability to perform tasks.
The research included almost 1,900 people born in 1920 and 1921 who were assessed at ages 70, 78 and 85. Those who did less than four hours of physical activity per week were considered sedentary, while those who exercised about four hours a week, did vigorous activities such as swimming or jogging at least twice a week, or those who got regular physical activity (such as walking at least an hour a day) were considered physically active.
The researchers found that 53.4% of participants were physically active at age 70, 76.9% at age 77, and 64% at age 85. Compared to those who were sedentary, physically active people were 12% less likely to die between ages 70 and 78, 15% less likely to die between ages 78 and 85, and 17% less likely to die between ages 85 and 88.
Dr. Jochanan Stessman and colleagues at Hebrew University Medical Center and Hebrew University Hadassah Medical School in Jerusalem said, "Despite the increasing likelihood of comorbidity, frailty, dependence and ever-shortening life expectancy, remaining and even starting to be physically active increases the likelihood of living longer and staying functionally independent."
The results of the study were published in the September 14 issue of the journal, Archives of Internal Medicine.
The Flucount.org website, which is trying to count flu cases and deaths, reports that the number of worldwide deaths from H1N1 swine flu has passed the 5,000 mark.
The worldwide total is likely higher than this because there are nations that are probably not reporting deaths with accuracy and some that are not reporting them at all.
A website called Flucount.org is attempting to track the cases and deaths of H1N1 swine flu around the world. Tracking is not easy because testing is different in different pats of the world. Many cases are also never tested and some deaths are likely missed. Even in the U.S. there is a lack of confirming whether each case is H1N1 related because test kits aren't always accurate and it takes too long to get results back from the CDC. There are also people who get the flu and never tell anyone and there also people who never have symptoms.
The CDC itself has gone back to reporting overall flu cases instead of trying to track individual H1N1 cases. This works for now because the bulk of the flu cases are currently suspected to be H1N1. When the regular flu season hits this winter it may be unclear whether a flu case is H1N1 or a seasonal strain.
Actor Patrick Swayze recently died from pancreatic cancer, which has increased the public's curiosity about the deadly disease. You can find some resources here, here and here. One reason cancer is difficult to stop is it usually is not detected until it is too late. Dr. Jennifer Ashton explains in the clip below that early detection is difficult due to a lack of efficient screening for pancreatic cancer. A family history of pancreatic cancer can help encourage someone to watch for it. Smoking is also linked to pancreatic cancer.
Bloombergreports that White House advisers say the H1N1 swine flu virus could kill 90,000 and hospitalize 1.8 million people this year. Swine flu has hospitalized about 8,000 and killed over 500 so far this year so the bulk of the deaths and hospitalizations would come in the last four months of the year. That would be around 22,000 deaths per month and 450,000 hospitilizations per month if this does indeed occur.
Swine flu may infect half the U.S. population this year, hospitalize 1.8 million patients and lead to as many as 90,000 deaths, more than twice the number killed in a typical seasonal flu, White House advisers said.
In a report by the President’s Council of Advisers on Science and Technology, President Barack Obama today was urged to speed vaccine production and name a senior member of the White House staff, preferably the homeland security adviser, to take responsibility for decision-making on the pandemic. Initial doses should be accelerated to mid-September to vaccinate as many as 40 million people, the advisory group said.
If that many people get sick there are going to be lots of people out of work and possibly a lot of confusion. If hospitals get overwhelmed then we will run into extra problems. The HHS has said that even the high priority groups will not be fully immunized until Thanksgiving. If the vaccine had been made available by August 1st and immunizations were already underway then you probably wouldn't have this concern about 90,000 potential deaths. Unfortunately, that is not what happened. The vaccine is not coming in time to beat the return of students to schools and cooler fall temperatures. This means a lot of people will probably be exposed to the virus before they receive their first of two immunizations.
You can find a list of H1N1 swine flu resources here.
