Apparently stopping death or irreparable damage from a heart attack could be as simple as inflating a blood pressure cuff.  This according to a recent Danish (The Country) study.

How does it work and why does no one seem to know about this?  Well, it is thought that a brief stoppage [...]]]> Source: U.S. National Institutes of Health

Apparently stopping death or irreparable damage from a heart attack could be as simple as inflating a blood pressure cuff.  This according to a recent Danish (The Country) study.

How does it work and why does no one seem to know about this?  Well, it is thought that a brief stoppage of blood flow improves the ability of organs to withstand stress and prevents tissue damage.  The admittedly small study of 142 patients rushed to hospital emergency rooms for heart attacks who received this treatment managed to retain 30% more of their heart tissue than those who did not.  The cuff was inflated for 4 minutes, relaxed and then inflated again.  Repeating this procedure 4 times appears to have done the trick according to the study’s author, Dr. Hans Erik Botker, a professor of cardiology.

Unfortunately it may take some time before the rest of the world adopts the European model of treatment. One group at Emory University in Atlanta is currently attempting similar treatment here in the United States.  Dr. Jacob Vinten-Johansen has added the inflation variation with a balloon catheter, slightly more invasive.  According to Dr. Vinten-Johansen, “The United States cardiology community is a bit slower to embrace these things and the regulatory situation is better in Europe.”

Regulations here in the States require a consent for what is deemed an “experimental procedure.”  Not always something easy to obtain (No, not because of trial lawyers) as patients having heart attacks aren’t necessarily able to provide a consent.  Similar techniques are being used to attempt to treat stroke as well.

~Posted by D.M. Schwadron, Esquire

The Journal for the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science has published a study on lingering tobacco-specific nitrosamines (TSNAs).  Researchers in Berkeley, California (say no more Berkeley) have found “substantial” concentrations of toxins upon substances exposed to tobacco products.

What sort of substances? Clothing, furniture and wallpaper for starters.   [...]]]> Source:  BBC Health; PNAS (no laughing) Journal

The Journal for the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science has published a study on lingering tobacco-specific nitrosamines (TSNAs).  Researchers in Berkeley, California (say no more Berkeley) have found “substantial” concentrations of toxins upon substances exposed to tobacco products.

What sort of substances? Clothing, furniture and wallpaper for starters.   The researchers have suggested that third hand smoke is an unappreciated health hazard and have called for a ban on home and vehicular smoking -where TSNA’s can concentrate in unhealthful amounts.  The largest at risk group? Young children who touch and put everything in their mouths.

The director of the Brit smoker’s lobby group Forest (Freedom Organization for the Right to Enjoy Smoking Tobacco) (Yes, everyone has a lobby group nowadays!) was not-surprisingly skeptical, referring to the study as “propaganda dressed up as science.”  Oh, lest I be accused of bias, they have a website too.  http://www.forestonline.org/output/home.aspx

So is the risk of third hand smoke overstated?  Well, maybe.  However, one should consider that over 4000 chemical compounds are created by burning a cigarette, many of which are toxic and/or carcinogenic. Carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, hydrogen cyanide and ammonia are all present in cigarette smoke. 43 known carcinogens are in mainstream smoke, sidestream smoke, or both. For a complete list of toxins in tobacco, go to http://quitsmoking.about.com/cs/nicotineinhaler/a/cigingredients.htm

And bear in mind that way back when asbestos was hailed as the new “wonder substance” finding it’s way into everything including bakelite jewelery (look it up, I’m not lying) it was felt to be safe.  Now years later we know that asbestos fibers can cling to everything, much like, well, third hand smoke.

~Posted by D.M. Schwadron, Esquire

Ho! Ho! Aaaacckkk… Kidding! Well, sort of.  Cardiac deaths rise 33% from November to January with peaks on Christmas and New Year’s Day. This according to medical researchers in Los Angeles, so it’s not the stress of cold temperatures on the heart.

So what is it then?  Stress. According to [...]]]> Source: American Physiological Society (APS) Podcast

Ho! Ho! Aaaacckkk… Kidding! Well, sort of.  Cardiac deaths rise 33% from November to January with peaks on Christmas and New Year’s Day. This according to medical researchers in Los Angeles, so it’s not the stress of cold temperatures on the heart.

So what is it then?  Stress. According to the theory, stress stimulates the sympathetic nervous system which releases catecholamines, subsatances which increase heart rate and blood pressure and cause the heart to contract. Too many of these could damage muscle of the heart and also could dislodge plaque (fat deposited in the arteries) causing a blood clot which closes off flow to the heart and done.

So it’s the holidays. They aren’t easy. Take them slowly and in stride.

~Posted by David Marc Schwadron Esquire

Those grey hairs you are plucking (if you are lucky) or dyeing may not be caused by the stressors in your life.  “Yeah, whatever,” you say?

A Danish study (This one was cherry) of more than 200 twin sisters (identical and not) aged 59-80 conducted by Unilever scientists had found no [...]]]> Source: Journal PLos One; BBC Health

Those grey hairs you are plucking (if you are lucky) or dyeing may not be caused by the stressors in your life.  “Yeah, whatever,” you say?

A Danish study (This one was cherry) of more than 200 twin sisters (identical and not) aged 59-80 conducted by Unilever scientists had found no significant differences in hair color among the identical twins.  Identical twins share the same genes.  There were significant differences between non-identical twins.

Anyone else confused by this?  You should try reading the original.   Let me paraphrase what is likely a paraphrase from the original.  There is good reason to believe that there is a genetic basis for grey hair and that your life-style is not determinative. Better?

Now about the thinning hair, it seems that receding hair in women is, in fact, related to environmental factors. This all runs counter-intuitive to what the common public belief is suggesting that either the common public is wrong (which could happen) or that something is being lost in the translation.

~Posted by David Marc Schwadron, Esquire

2,755 working men in Stockholm (the city, not the syndrome) were studied between 1992 and 1995.  47 of those in the study died from a heart attack or complications of heart disease.  While the study considered the traditional factors, over age 41, high BP, high BMI, smoking, drinking and [...]]]> Source: BBC Health; Stress Research Institute, Stockholm

2,755 working men in Stockholm (the city, not the syndrome) were studied between 1992 and 1995.  47 of those in the study died from a heart attack or complications of heart disease.  While the study considered the traditional factors, over age 41, high BP, high BMI, smoking, drinking and low physical activity, the primary focus was upon how the individuals dealt with anger.

Researchers concluded that those men who did not openly express their anger from conflict situations in the workplace and instead “bottled it up” had double the risk of death from heart disease.

According to  a cardiac RN with the British Heart Foundation, “Stress itself is not a risk factor…but…responses to stress…” Indeed.  Thought of the day.

~Posted by David Marc Schwadron, Esquire

Surely with all of us dying in mass from H1N1 (do I have to?), AIDS and numerous other maladies, the FDA needed to take action against the barbaric practice of…eating raw oysters (gasp!)

Why pick on the humble oyster, long a seafood staple and extensively harvested [...]]]> Source: FDA; Biennial Meeting of the ISSC (Interstate Shellfish Sanitation Conference)

Surely with all of us dying in mass from H1N1 (do I have to?), AIDS and numerous other maladies, the FDA needed to take action against the barbaric practice of…eating raw oysters (gasp!)

Why pick on the humble oyster, long a seafood staple and extensively harvested throughout the coastal states of the US, Atlantic and Pacific?  Two words -Vibrio vulnificus. Huh?  It’s a bacteria present in raw oysters.  The “at-risk” populace? The usual suspects, those with immune systems or otherwise impaired health, including those with: AIDS; cancer; kidney disease; diabetes; and, alcohol abuse.

The CDC (Centers for Disease Control) has stated that the ISSC has not yet achieved the goal of a 60% reduction in infections of Vibrio vulnificus in CA, FL, LA, and TX, coming in at only a 35% reduction.

The answer, the dreaded “post-harvest processing” -Rapid freezing, high hydrostatic pressure, mild heat, and low dose gamma radiation (look what it did for Bruce Banner).  All of which may be bad for Vibrio vulnificus, but it’s also not really all that great for those of us who love to eat raw oysters.

15% of Gulf Coast oysters are currently processed post-harvest.  The FDA insists that the Gulf States could easily increase that to 100%, a practice they endorse.  Don’t even get me started on Vibrio parahaemolyticus (no, I don’t make this up) the other common oyster bacteria.

In brief, when we weigh the relative health hazards facing the US, it’s fairly safe to say that bacterial infection from raw oysters doesn’t make the “short list.”  So to the FDA, I say this, “Please keep your hands, heat and gamma radiation off of my plate.” Thank you. VTY.

Who thought that one day in the future we might be fighting to legalize raw oysters along with marijuana.

~Posted by David Marc Schwadron, Esquire

United States Federal Prosecutors have been directed to stop marijuana-related prosecutions in the current States (14 of them) in which the medical use of marijuana has been “legalized.”

The Federal Government has wisely (legally speaking anyway) decided that it is antithetical and a waste of funding to interfere with State [...]]]> Source:  US Department of Justice Press Release

United States Federal Prosecutors have been directed to stop marijuana-related prosecutions in the current States (14 of them) in which the medical use of marijuana has been “legalized.”

The Federal Government has wisely (legally speaking anyway) decided that it is antithetical and a waste of funding to interfere with State Legislation on the issue.  Since most of you are dying to know, the States which currently permit medical usage of marijuana are: Alaska; California; Colorado; Hawaii; Maine; Michigan; Montana; Nevada; New Mexico; Oregon; Rhode Island; Vermont; and Washington.

Yes that’s 13. The 14th, Maryland, merely permits reduced possession penalties for those using the drug for a medical purpose.  In the words of Bob Marley, “Legalize it. No, don’t criticize it.”  And in the words of former President Bill Clinton, “Don’t inhale.”

Posted by David Marc Schwadron, Esquire.

The FDA has officially banned the sale of cigarettes containing fruit, candy or clove flavors. The ban is associated with a national effort to reduce smoking in America via the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act.

It is clear from both the ban and the message from the FDA that [...]]]> Source:  US Food & Drug Administration

The FDA has officially banned the sale of cigarettes containing fruit, candy or clove flavors. The ban is associated with a national effort to reduce smoking in America via the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act.

It is clear from both the ban and the message from the FDA that they are particularly concerned with Tweens and Teens smoking.  The FDA has made the not so far leap in logic that these are the likely audience for flavored cigarettes.  According to FDA commissioner Dr. Margaret Hamburg, “Almost 90% of adult smokers start smoking as teenagers.”

Yes Europeans, laugh at the country ostensibly founded upon the principles of religious and personal freedom.  At least we won’t be coughing when we have the last laugh.  Granted we will probably be dead from diseases related to obesity and over-consumption but then the latest statistics seem to suggest that you are catching up to us there too.  So smoke ‘em while you’ve got ‘em.

Posted by David Marc Schwadron, Esq.

I know, as parents we need another reason to feel guilty over the damage we do raising our children. It’s not bad enough that they aren’t getting the best nutrition available or the best education, now we can also apparently stress them into developing health conditions!

Results of [...]]]> Source: From across the pond (BBC) and back

I know, as parents we need another reason to feel guilty over the damage we do raising our children. It’s not bad enough that they aren’t getting the best nutrition available or the best education, now we can also apparently stress them into developing health conditions!

Results of University of California Studies and Asthma UK researchers suggest that children from “stressful” households are more susceptible to reacting to airbourne (I had to do that) irritants resulting in asthma. For you mothers who smoke, here’s double the guilt, you are apparently compounding the risk.

Somehow stressed out parents, who described their lives in terms like “Unpredictable,” “overwhelming” and “out of control,” pass this stress to their children in the form of increased inflammatory response to pollutants. While the majority of this focuses upon stress while pregnant (Yes, that cig and glass of merlot really wasn’t a good idea) the implications are further reaching.

The answer? Oh that’s simple. Just stop stressing out and your kids will breathe better. Don’t you wish everything was that easy? (Don’t stress over that. No. Seriously. . .)

Posted by David Marc Schwadron, Esq.