Category: Wellness (Page 75 of 116)

The Science of Beauty

November 5, 2011 / Staff

The beauty quotient continues to expand making even brown eyes a condition to be fixed according to pharmaceutical companies.

The “lifestyle” drug market — which was estimated to surpass $29 billion in 2007 — pits problems of a social or cosmetic nature against conditions threatening physical health or well-being.

In a world where baldness and frown lines are medical conditions to be cured the boundaries of real illness and self improvement have become quite blurred.

“The debate is often framed here between treatment and enhancement,” said Dr. Joel Lexchin, a professor of health policy and management at York University in Toronto. “They’re taking what is traditionally considered normal human variation and trying to homogenize the way people look. On an individual level, people can do probably whatever they want, but on a collective level, we have to think about whether producing drugs that enhance people is really the best use of our resources.”

Quality Control, Research, Resources, Wellness

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A Fertilized Egg is a Person?

November 5, 2011 / Staff

If the 26th amendment in Mississippi passes it is.

The beginning of personhood?

Because the amendment would define a fertilized egg as a person with full legal rights, it could have an impact on a woman’s ability to get the morning-after pill or birth control pills that destroy fertilized eggs, and it could make in vitro fertilization treatments more difficult because it could become illegal to dispose of unused fertilized eggs. This could lead to a nationwide debate about women’s rights and abortion while setting up a possible challenge to the landmark Roe v. Wade case, which makes abortion legal.

The vote is upcoming in Mississippi to declare a fertilized ovum; human egg, a person.

The implications are vast and the arguments many, but in a state with the highest teenage pregnancy and STD rates it looks like the amendment will pass.

Physicians, scientists, women and hospital staff will face a host challenges to deal with the care of patients if this amendment passes.

There are great arguments on both sides.

Considering all the possibilities a new branch of legal practice may be necessary.

Doctors, Health Care Policy, Health Insurance, Hospitals, Medicaid, Nurses, Privacy, Quality Control, Research, Resources, Wellness

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The Cure is in the Juice

November 4, 2011 / Staff

Cranberry juice continues to be the best remedy for Urinary Tract infections.

Extracting the compounds thought to cure UTI’s is not enough.

It seems that it is the nature of the juice itself wherein lies the cure.

Currently, they have been taking a serious look at a group of flavonoids found in cranberries called proanthocyanidins. They believe that proanthocyanidins (aka PACs) are the source of the cranberry’s super-powerful infection fighting properties.
Unfortunately for the pharmaceutical industry… researchers at the Worcester Polytechnic Institute have recently found that “cranberry juice, itself, is far better at preventing biofilm formation, which is the precursor of infection, than PACs alone”.

Nutrition, Research, Wellness

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Are People Who Wear Glasses Smarter?

October 20, 2011 / Staff

Does wearing glasses make you smarter?

Some studies say that it’s true.

But the relationship between glasses and intelligence is unclear.

One proposed theory is that damage to the occipital lobe in the brain may cause an overcompensation in the logic centre in the frontal lobe. But the evidence is hazy. In fact, there is little around, surprisingly. Theories on the origins of this association are varied but unsubstantiated. One possible idea is that more people need glasses than have them, and those that do wear them function better. One idea for the etymology of the smart specs wearing archetype is that when glasses first appeared few people had them, and those that did needed them to read. Other people who needed glasses but didn’t read wouldn’t have had them, so the bookish glasses-wearer is an ingrained stereotype.

Research, Wellness

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Lifestyle Trumps Bad Genes

October 17, 2011 / Staff

If you feel that you have gotten a bum deal in the genetic lottery then take heart; a healthy lifestyle and healthy diet can undue bad genes.

Research shows that a healthy diet may undue a genetic predisposition to heart disease.

A diet high in fruits and vegetables appears to mitigate the genetic risk of a heart attack,” says researcher Sonia S. Anand, MD, PhD, professor of medicine and epidemiology at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.
The finding, if it bears out, could affect many people at risk for heart disease because of a genetic variant that researchers have only recently linked with heart attack. It could also call into question the suggestion that you can’t help your genes.