If you want to know one reason why our health care system is so screwed up, please read this article. It explains how hospitals often make more money when complications arise during surgery.

Patients who suffer complications after surgery are lucrative for hospitals, which get paid more when they treat infections and other problems, according to a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association today.

In 2010, an unnamed, nonprofit 12-hospital chain in the southern U.S. was paid an average of $49,400 per person for treating surgery patients who have complications — more than double the $18,900 paid for patients who underwent only the initial surgery, according to an analysis by researchers from Harvard Medical School and elsewhere.

Read the entire article for details on this problem. We need to alter these incentives and pay for health care that actually works. Incompetence and mistakes should not be rewarded.

The journal of Pediatrics has conducted a study which allays fears that being inoculated with the HPV vaccine would encourage sexual promiscuity among teenagers.

The human papilloma virus can lead to cervical cancer and the vaccine helps protect against transmission of the virus.

HPV is the most common sexually transmitted infection, with about 50% of sexually active men and women contracting it at some point during their lives. Early sexual behaviors and multiple sexual partners are risk factors for infection, but other studies have hinted that the vaccine may not encourage sexual activity; in one review of 1,398 girls ages 11 to 12, there was no indication that that girls who received the vaccine planned to engage in more sexual activity. These studies, however, were largely based on self-reported data. The current study is one of the first to evaluate sexual activity after vaccination among this age group based on clinical data.

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More pharmaceuticals have been linked to a meningitis outbreak which has sickened 214 people killed 15.

New England Compounding Center, NECC, is the pharmaceutical company at the center of the outbreak and is cooperating with the FDA and the CDC advising doctors and surgeons to contact patients who have come in contact with drugs which may be responsible for the spread of meningitis.

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A new drug developed by Eli Lilly shows promise in treating mild Alzheimer’s symptoms.

The drug has not yet received FDA approval, however, it has been showed to improve cognitive decline by 34%.

There are 5 million Americans with Alzheimer’s disease today and that number is expected to rise.

Even when you know better than eat fast food there may be times when that is your only choice.

Think family road trips, business travel, or kids who won’t have it any other way.

The author of “Eat This Not That” has compiled a list of 14 meals at the most popular fast food places to make your choices easy.

These are not the healthiest options overall but in a pinch you are armed with information to get the most out your foray into fast food.

The connection between sugar and Alzheimer’s can not be disputed.

The New Scientist Magazine, September 3, 2012 issue explains the sugar-Alzheimer’s link as the condition by which our muscle, fat, and liver cells stop responding to insulin.

The cells no longer metabolize glucose properly thereby leading to insulin resistance or pre-diabetes.

This, then causes the pancreas to produce excess amounts of insulin even as excess glucose builds up in the blood causing insulin spikes which overwhelm the brain.

Insulin also regulates neurotransmitters such as acetylcholine, which are crucial for memory and learning and is also important for the function and growth of blood vessels, which supply oxygen and glucose to the brain.

There’s also research tying brain dysfunction directly to excess sugar consumption. In a 2012 study, UCLA scientists fed rats a heavy ration of fructose (which makes up roughly a half of both table sugar and high-fructose corn syrup) and noted both insulin resistance and impaired brain function within six weeks. Interestingly, they found both insulin function and brain performance to improve in the sugar-fed rats when they were also fed omega-3 fatty acids. In other words, another quirk of the American diet, deficiency in omega-3 fatty acids, seems to make us more vulnerable to the onslaught of sweets.

Another facet of our diets, lots of cheap added fats, may also trigger insulin problems and brain dysfunction. New Scientist flags yet another recent study, this one from University of Washington researchers, finding that rats fed a high-fat diet for a year lost their ability to regulate insulin, developed diabetes, and showed signs of brain deterioration.

Government subsidies of corn and sugar have made these commodities incredibly inexpensive for the food industry which puts sweeteners in almost everything we eat.

This, at the same time Alzheimer’s costs $200 billion a year in health care alone.

The U.S. government has declared a mandate to find a cure for Alzheimer’s by 2025.

Cheap sugar comes at a very high price, indeed.

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Ancient Chinese medicine has utilized acupuncture for thousands of years and the West has caught on.

For decades, now, acupuncture has been used to treat a variety of maladies with glowing testimonials from those who have benefitted from this mysterious practice.

Anecdotal evidence aside, a new study published this week in the Archives of Internal Medicine appears to validate the legitimacy of acupuncture therapy to alleviate pain.

Acupuncture, which originated in China, involves placing needles in specific locations or “meridians” of the body in order to treat various ailments, especially pain. Acupuncture practitioners claim the technique relieves pain by modifying energy flow through the body.
“Acupuncturists talk about concepts coming from outside traditional biomedicine,” Vickers explains. “Doctors will say, ‘I didn’t learn about energy flow in Physiology 101.'”
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The energy-flow theory has met with a great deal of skepticism in the United States and other Western nations, and researchers have failed to identify other, biological underpinnings for the treatment.

This herb may be natural way to beat depression.

While psychotropic drugs have side affects, some harmful, Rhodiola rosea has no significant side affects.

Rhodiola rosea, also known as Golden Root or Arctic Root, derives from Siberia and Northwestern China. I have studied the herb in both places, have seen it harvested in the wild, and have also taken an extract of this herb regularly for years, to ward off fatigue from a heavy travel schedule. Found on the training tables of athletes across northern Asia, Rhodiola rosea is considered an adaptogen – an agent that allows a person to adapt to both physical and mental stress, while improving energy, endurance and stamina.

If you are struggling with stress or depression see your doctor and decide if the natural way is the way for you.

It seems that buying organically produced food does’t provide all of the solutions that we are looking for.

Researchers at Stanford University help shed some light on this debate.

In this interview the most common questions are asked and answered to help you understand what you’re paying for and what you’re getting when you choose organic.

So if you ask people, they say that the two main reasons they eat organic food are because it’s nutritious, and because it’s good for the environment. But she also finds there are a whole bunch of emotional values that are tied up with eating organic food. So people who eat organic food tend to value altruism. They tend to value benevolence. They tend to value spirituality. And organic food has gotten wrapped up in all of these values that don’t necessarily have to do with the very specific things that science studies.

Is it normal aging or low testosterone?

This is the question being asked by government researchers, specifically, the National Institute on Aging, which has seen big advertising dollars spent pharmaceutical companies hoping to turn old age into a treatable disease.

There is no real agreement on what the effects of low testosterone as one ages has on the body.

The normal range of 300 and 1,000 nanograms per deciliter fluctuates during the day and what seems low for one individual produces no adverse affects in another.

Unknown side affects, and dubious claims made by research funded by drug makers calls into question the validity of treatment claims.

Baby boomers are also pushing an industry to supply the “fountain of youth” when real vitality is better obtained through lifestyle choices than through medicine.

Adding to the confusion over what defines “low testosterone,” there’s not much understanding of whether testosterone replacement therapy actually improves men’s symptoms. Evidence of the benefits of testosterone is mixed, and the potential health risks are serious. The largest study conducted to date, a 2008 trial involving 230 patients in the Netherlands, found no improvement in muscle strength, cognitive thinking, bone density or overall quality of life among men taking testosterone. Muscle mass increased 1.2 percent, but not enough to improve physical mobility.
The National Institute on Aging is currently conducting an 800-man trial to definitively answer whether testosterone therapy improves walking ability, sexual function, energy, memory and blood cell count in men 65 years and older. But those results aren’t expected until 2014.
In addition to concerns about testosterone’s effectiveness, the long-term side effects of the hormone are not entirely understood because most trials to date have only followed patients for a few months. But the most serious risks include heart problems and prostate cancer. In fact, all testosterone drugs carry a warning that the hormone should not be given to men who have a personal or family history of prostate cancer.