Materia medica

Study: Aerobic exercise can effectively reduce weight better than resistance exercise

2008-12-14T21:58:00.000+08:00

The American Journal of Physiology recently published online a study entitled "The influence of resistance and aerobic exercise on hunger, circulating levels of acylated ghrelin and peptide YY in healthy males" and found that…For more, click on this link.

Omega-3 Fatty Acids May Reduce Heart Disease when Combined with Statins

2008-12-07T11:26:00.001+08:00

Omega-3 fatty acids exert several beneficial cardiovascular effects. In the Japan Eicosapentaenoic Acid Lipid Intervention Study (JELIS), patients with total cholesterol levels greater than 250 mg/dL were randomized to either eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) which is an omega-3 fatty acid plus a statin or statin monotherapy. At mean follow-up of 4.6 years, 3.5% of patients taking statin only

Study - Assessment of Obesity and the Risk of Death

2008-12-07T11:23:00.001+08:00

A study done by the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) had suggested that waist circumference and waist-to-hip ratio may help assess the risk for death.More info to this link.

The Ineffective Executive Check-ups...

2008-10-02T10:14:00.007+08:00

Dr. Brian Rank, medical director of HealthPartners Medical Group and Clinics, Minneapolis, takes a hard look at the effectiveness of executive physicals or executive checkups in "Executive Physicals—Bad Medicine on Three Counts," published recently in the New England Journal of Medicine.Dr. Rank's perspective on this sort of "traditional" checkups has already been ingrained in calendar activities

New MedicCast features

2008-09-23T20:21:00.002+08:00

The MedicCast Network has new podcasts for this week...1. The MedicCast podcast features morphine sulphate and the START triage as its Med of the Week and Tip and Trick of the Week respectively.2. The Nursing Show podcast features the Physiology of Pregnancy.Podcasts are free to listen and/or download to your MP3 players but if you want more, you can subscribe to the MedicCast Extra for less than

More bisphenol info...

2008-09-18T19:58:00.001+08:00

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Is bisphenol A really a concern?

2008-09-18T14:29:00.005+08:00

Whether or not you have heard this bit of news these past days, the graph you see above tells a lot about the presence of a chemical called bisphenol A or BPA, for short, in canned goods and hard clear plastic bottles. A recent study by Iain Lang and colleagues published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) on 17 September 2008, reported that of 1,400 people between the age

The Brain by John Cleese

2008-09-16T22:21:00.003+08:00

A simple 3-minute explanation of how the brain works. Smile when you're viewing this...

MedicCast updates

2008-09-16T20:28:00.003+08:00

Starting today, I'll be informing everyone new podcast topics that Jamie has in store for us at the MedicCast.com. However, if you're really interested, you can go to his website and click the RSS feeds and bring it to your RSS feed reader to automatically offer you news from the MedicCast website.For this week, Jamie, the Podmedic, has a new Nursing Show podcast. The Nursing tip of the week is

Torticollis and other pains in the neck

2008-09-14T12:26:00.001+08:00

You might have experienced at least once in your lifetime that after you woke up fr0m a seemingly uneventful sleep, you just felt that you can't move your neck without having to suffer pain. You also feel that the muscles on one side seemed to be stiff. You go to your family doctor and he would probably, without hesitation, diagnose your condition as a "stiff neck" or, in medical language, a "

Fruit Juices and your medicines: not a good combination

2008-09-08T08:36:00.007+08:00

Twenty years ago, Dr David Bailey and colleagues in the University of Western Ontario, Canada, were the first to note the unholy combination of grapefruit juice and medicines by increasing the level of the drug in the body making it more toxic and more side effects. Now, Dr Bailey gives new evidence that grapefruits, as well as oranges and apples, can also give the opposite effect – that is,

Viagra and amnesia

2008-08-27T22:21:00.002+08:00

From the WebMD Health News:The drugs used for erectile dysfunction: Cialis, Levitra, and Viagra, will add "transient global amnesia" in their list of rare side-effects. This addition will not be a reason for adding a boxed "warning" label, though this will be added in its usual place in the drug's literature.Transient global amnesia is a temporary loss of memory not lasting for more than a

Medical term: Gossypiboma

2008-08-27T21:26:00.003+08:00

I found this in a recent discussion from the New England Journal of Medicine's "Images in Clinical Medicine" as it presented a case of "Gossypiboma in the Pouch of Douglas." Well, I think I'm not alone in asking what's that word, I'm sure it's something like a tumor or a mass in that pouch.Well, actually it's really a mass caused by a man-made error. The word comes from two unrelated languages,

Update: Clinical diagnosis and treatment for adult sinusitis

2008-08-27T16:38:00.007+08:00

From the National Guideline Clearinghouse:The American Academy of Otolaryngology and the Head and Neck Surgery Foundation released an update on their clinical guidelines for the diagnosis of adult sinusitis. Their major recommendations include:Clinicians should distinguish presumed acute bacterial rhinosinusitis (ABRS) from acute rhinosinusitis caused by viral upper respiratory infections and

The Secret to Living a Long Life

2008-08-12T18:23:00.003+08:00

Chad Cohen reports on a new study probing the secret to living long.Warning: This is just a teaser on a feature presented by Nova Science Now.Click on the arrow on the player below to play the audio.Boomp3.com

FDA alert: Careful with that anti-cholesterol - simvastatin.

2008-08-11T07:28:00.001+08:00

It has already been in drug labels that the statin drugs can cause rhabdomyolysis, a form of muscle disease where the muscle cells "disintegrate" leading to muscle pain and loss of function.I had one patient - to whom I prescribed simvastatin - probably had this side-effect and the only thing I could do is to stop the drug immediately and look for alternatives - which there really are, mind you,

Sunday Forum: Stop freaking out about cell phones!

2008-08-10T13:40:00.001+08:00

Regarding to the "Cellphone-Cancer Redux" blogpost I shared a few weeks ago which is based on a Univ. of Pittsburgh Cancer Center memo on safety issues of using cellphones, I'm going to share this webpage from a University of Pittsburgh nuclear physicist, Eric Swanson, and his counterpoint on a very itchy issue.Sunday Forum: Stop freaking out about cell phones! Blogged with the Flock Browser

Oral Glucose Tolerance Test May Predict Risk for Type 2 Diabetes

2008-08-08T22:50:00.002+08:00

From Medscape Medical NewsIn the August 2008 issue of Diabetes Care, researchers from the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, Texas, revealed from their study that a 1-hour oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) is a strong predictor of the risk for type 2 diabetes.The goal of this study is to evaluate the efficacy of 1-hour plasma glucose concentration and the metabolic

2008-08-04T10:20:00.001+08:00

Just posted another Materia medica blog inviting everyone to visit mediccast.com: http://ping.fm/GqeKO

The MedicCast Network: A Show for EMS providers and Nurses.

2008-08-04T10:11:00.003+08:00

If you're a healthcare provider: doctor, nurse, paramedic or part of an allied health team, I'm inviting you to visit the MedicCast Network site. Jamie Davis, who also calls himself the "Podmedic", runs the site and he gives a weekly show called "MedicCast.com." This show (in mp3 and enhanced aac audio files) discusses, explains, and informs on skills, activities, and news related to EMS (

2008-08-04T09:39:00.001+08:00

We must consider house dust mites as an universal allergen, that means this can cause asthmatic and allergic attacks to susceptible persons.

Singapore Ministry of Health Asthma Management Update

2008-08-04T08:20:00.003+08:00

For healthcare providers:The Singapore Ministry of Health recently updated their asthma management guidelines that included the following recommendations, among others:A successful management includes: education/motivation, self-assessment and management, environmental management, and pharmacological management.A new asthma classification that defines: controlled, partly-controlled, and

2008-08-02T13:30:00.001+08:00

Just had a female elderly patient departing for Canada who suddenly had to cancel her flight for health reasons...

Vitamin C Intake Linked to Lower Risk for Type 2 Diabetes

2008-07-31T07:54:00.003+08:00

A population-based prospective study from the UK, reported in the 28 July 2008 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine that higher blood vitamin C level plus fruit and vegetable intake, are associated with a decreased risk for type 2 diabetes.The study's objective is to examine whether the intake of fruits and vegetables with measurement of vitamin C level in the blood would be associated with

Cellphone-Cancer Redux

2008-07-28T20:50:00.004+08:00

Recently I have become aware of the growing body of literature linking long-term cell phone use to possible adverse health effects including cancer. Although the evidence is still controversial, I am convinced that there are sufficient data to warrant issuing an advisory to share some precautionary advice on cell phone use.This is the first paragraph of Dr. Ronald B. Herberman, Director of the

Medically musing: A Low-down on Clinical Studies

2008-07-22T11:35:00.005+08:00

If you browse through my past blog posts, you might have observed that most of these are medical or clinical studies. Studies like these more or less influence the way healthcare providers diagnose, manage, and treat patients. It can either be good news or bad news depending on the outcome of the studies done. However, the media in general can eat lots of these studies that even half-baked,

Warning on fluoroquinolone use by the USFDA

2008-07-17T21:59:00.004+08:00

From the Medscape Alerts, Medscape Medical News:The United States' Food and Drug Administration warned on the use of a commonly-used antibiotic class called the fluoroquinolones due to the risk of tendon-related conditions such as tendonitis and tendon rupture. It also advised manufacturers to label the drugs with a black-box signifying the criticalness of the effect on the body.The most common

Sudden deaths may occur during a parent' death anniversary

2008-07-17T17:39:00.003+08:00

From MedPage Today:A Venezuelan study led by Dr. Ivan Mendoza and presented to the American College of Cardiology (ACC) revealed that in their study of 102 patients between 37-79 years old, about 13 or 12.7% of patients died on the date of one or both patient's parents death. Four patients died on the same age their parents died and 10 patients (77%) died on the first death anniversary of a

Comparing different diets for losing weight

2008-07-17T15:14:00.012+08:00