Monday - June 05, 2006

Nobel Prize Candidate?

I see only one problem with this new beer that might keep its inventors from receiving the Nobel Prize for Medicine ... it’s non-alcoholic. C’mon guys! What good is it doing any of us if we give our women beer that helps them act rational and sane but at the same time we don’t take advantage of the moment and get them drunk? 

Face it! When they’re going through menopause they’re impossible to be around. Why fix the menopause in the first place if we’re not prepared to take the next step and boldly go where ... never mind. Now if we could only find a beer to cure the similar affliction in men of a certain age, commonly known as “mental pause”, then we’d be in business ...

Scientists Brew Menopause Beer
_{Friday, June 02, 2006}

(HEALTH-24) - Czech scientists say they have created a new non-alcoholic beer that contains 10 times the normal amount of phytoestrogen, intended to help women suffering from the menopause. The beer, developed by the Czech Republic’s Research Institute for Brewing and Malting, is intended to relieve menopausal symptoms and maintain bone density by tackling a lack of the oestrogen hormone in many Czech women.

The development marks a sizeable breakthrough in the realm of functional beer, at a time when functional foods are becoming more popular in many markets. Oestrogen levels drop significantly in women at the onset of the menopause and remain low from then on. Studies have linked a lack of the hormone to increased risk of various health problems, including heart disease and osteoporosis.

“Czech women lack oestrogen in their diet, so we wanted to solve this through beer because the Czech Republic is number one in the world for beer consumption,” Karel Kosar, managing director of the brewing research institute, told Cee-FoodIndustry.com. Czechs drink an average 161 litres of beer each every year, compared to 121 in Germany, 84 in the US and around one litre in India.

Scientists have known for some time that hops used to make beer naturally contain phytoestrogen, a form of the oestrogen hormone found in plants. Kosar said he and the team had used newly developed technology to make the beer.

He said the technique should also enable them to make the beer non-alcoholic yet preserve taste by maintaining the same levels of hops and malt as a normal alcoholic lager. The scientists now plan to expand the research to bring their new beer closer to its market debut. Funding could be a problem, however. “We are looking to do more research, but everything costs money,” said Kosar.

Posted by The Skipper     on 06/05/2006 at 09:54 AM   
Filed Under: • Medical • Science-Technology •  
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   Sunday - May 21, 2006

A Great Day For Men Everywhere

YAY! YAY! YAY! Break out the brew, guys! We need to celebrate. The gentler sex is about to become ... “gentler”. No more period = no more PMS. No longer will we have to endure that malevolent transformation that takes place once monthly when our beloved princesses suddenly metamorphose into screaming, bloodthirsty, nagging, irritating, mindless, bloated, cramped, unholy demons from hell. We are saved from our tormentors. These scientists deserve the Nobel Peace Prize. Maybe even a case of beer. Cheers!

New Birth Control Products Block Periods
_{May 21, 2006, 12:24 PM EDT}

(NEWSDAY - AP)—Women have long been manipulating hormonal contraceptives to skip or block menstrual periods. Now new products and several on the horizon will make things even easier. Here are a few:

* Seasonale, launched in November 2003 by Barr Pharmaceuticals of Woodcliff Lake, N.J. A standard birth-control pill taken for 84 days, followed by a week off for withdrawal bleeding, its sales and new prescriptions have been rising quickly.

* Seasonique, a successor to Seasonale expected to reduce breakthrough bleeding and hormonal fluctuations even more, likely will get federal approval at week’s end.

* Lybrel, the first daily birth-control pill designed to be taken indefinitely, is expected by late June to get U.S. approval. Made by Wyeth of Madison, N.J., it also is awaiting approval in Canada and Europe.

* Implanon, a one-rod, three-year contraceptive implanted in the upper arm that stops menstruation in many women, also could get U.S. approval in June. Made by Organon USA of Roseland, N.J.

* Berlex Inc. of Wayne, N.J., is developing its own birth-control pill for menstrual suppression. It makes Mirena, a progestin intrauterine device, and in March got approval for Yaz, a pill with only four days off hormones, reducing hormone fluctuations and PMS.

Posted by The Skipper     on 05/21/2006 at 02:41 PM   
Filed Under: • Medical • Science-Technology •  
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   Saturday - May 13, 2006

The Perils Of Socialized Medicine

The liberals and socialists (including Hillary Clinton and her HillaryCare incentive of 1994) are constantly pushing the idea of a national health plan to cover all Americans. You need only look at the mess in Canada and Britain which have national health care in the form of their National Health System (NHS) to see how bad that idea is. Everyone is guaranteed medical treatment ... except those the state disapproves of.

The problem is the service is lousy and there are long waiting periods for any type of major treatment. Why? Nobody wants to be a doctor or medical professional if they’re tied to a socialist program that strictly controls all health care. Plus with free care for everyone, people suddenly flood the hospitals and doctors with ailments that could be cured with an aspirin. Ask any of our British readers here and they will probably tell you all kinds of horror stories about the quality of health care under socialized medicine.

In the latest outrageous act by the NHS in Britain, we find that health care can also be used as a bludgeon to punish people who have views that the state and NHS disapprove of. Yep, you heard that right. They can deny you health care if you are not politically correct. Now do you understand what the ultimate goal of socialized medicine actually is? Plain and simple, it’s nothing more than a way to enslave the people and force obedience by denying health care if you misbehave.

People, wake up! This is what the nanny state eventually evolves into. They promise you all kinds of benefits and freebies but cleverly hide the fact that you will pay for it by giving up your rights and freedoms. Control equals slavery. Don’t say you weren’t warned. If this is what you want here in America then go ahead and vote for the Democrats. Vote for Hillary in 2008. Just be prepared to surrender to your new overlords shortly thereafter ....

One Way To Cut Waiting Lists:
Don’t Treat People With The Wrong Views
_{May 12, 2006}

LONDON (TIMES-UK)—It is bad enough that you can be refused medical treatment on the NHS for eating, drinking or smoking too much. Now it seems that you can be denied an operation for protesting too much in support of your religious or political beliefs.

Edward Atkinson, a 75-year-old anti-abortion activist, was jailed recently for 28 days for sending photographs of aborted foetuses to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in King’s Lynn, Norfolk. That draconian sentence was not deemed punishment enough: the hospital has banned Mr Atkinson from receiving the hip replacement operation he was expecting.

Mr Atkinson sounds like an unpleasant crank, and I am as much in favour of legalised abortion as he is against it. But his treatment (or the lack of it) is a scandal. This is about admitting a man to hospital, not electing him to Parliament. Even unhip old bigots need replacement hips.

Ruth May, the hospital’s chief executive, claims that the ban is justified because the “offensive” publications he mailed caused “great distress” to her and her staff and thus contravened the NHS policy of “zero tolerance”. Some may already feel that such policies make it seem as if a hospital’s priority is to protect its staff against the patients, rather than protecting patients from illness. This case goes farther, equating the posting of offensive photos with punching a nurse on the nose.

Why on earth should hospitals be distressed by pictures of the sort of operations that they carry out? An aborted late-term foetus can certainly make a grisly spectacle, and there is no point trying to sanitise abortion. But neither need anybody be intimidated by the handful of zealots who like to wave around such bloody abortion porn.

In any case, that debate about abortion should have nothing to do with decisions about who gets hip replacements. Have hospital authorities been granted the power to turn away anybody who upsets them? It may come as a shock to delicate souls in the upper echelons of the NHS, but some elderly people can be cantankerous, obnoxious and express unfashionable opinions in an uninhibited way. So what? Should the NHS introduce a policy of euthanasia for offensive old gits?

We should take the principle of universal health care seriously, and insist that medical staff make decisions about treatment on clinical grounds alone. After all, so far as science can deduce, a member of the British National Party or an Islamic fundamentalist is the same as you or I under the surgeon’s knife. Even loons who oppose animal experiments should be given the benefits of medical research that they would deny to others.

Many who normally shout about patients’ rights have fallen silent over the case of Mr Atkinson. But you need not be anti-abortion to protest against the notion that only obedient individuals with healthy lifestyles deserve NHS treatment. Perhaps those who would put their own feelings ahead of others’ needs should be advised that if you can’t stand the patients, get out of the hospital.

Posted by The Skipper     on 05/13/2006 at 12:56 PM   
Filed Under: • Democrats-Liberals-Moonbat Leftists • Medical •  
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   Saturday - April 29, 2006

Take A Pill

In the “You Don’t Say?” department, we are now told that drug companies are inventing diseases in order to push pills. No s**t? This creeping conspiracy has been going on for decades, folks. Here’s the scoop: Your doctor tells you your cholesterol is too high, based on whose standards? Who determines what is too high and thereby decides you need a pill? Take three guesses. In addition, if you have high cholesterol your blood pressure is probably too high also. Who says? Guess again.

So you start taking medicine (side-effects: liver damage) to lower your cholesterol (instead of getting up off your lard-ass and exercising more and chowing down on fewer greasy triple cheeseburgers like any sensible person of the 19th century would have done). Suddenly you become more weight conscious because somebody tells you that fat people with high cholesterol die sooner. You try to lose weight by taking diet pills. You still can’t lose weight. You become depressed. You doctor gives you another pill called an anti-depressant to make you feel better. After a few years on Prozac you notice difficulty getting an erection, which it turns out is a side effect of anti-depressants (also a side effect of blood-pressure lowering medicine and/or having a fugly wife or girlfriend). Guess what your doctor does for you now? You got it. He gives you a prescription for Viagra or Cialis. You are instantly transformed back into “Macho Man” at the drop of a pill (and a one hour waiting period).

All of a sudden, you find your medicine cabinet at home full of little blue, green, pink, yellow, orange and red pills. None of which have anything whatsoever to do with seeing the Matrix as it actually is. In this case, the Matrix is a dream world invented by drug companies to cover up the fact that you can’t take proper care of your body and that you’re extremely gullible. Now in some cases a pill may be called for but overall I’d hazard a guesss that 90% of the pills pushed today are totally unnecesary.

In addition, the drug progression described in the paragraph above can become self-feeding since drugs like Viagra may raise blood pressure which might cause your doctor to increase your blood pressure medication strength which causes .... Never mind. You get the picture. Another day, another disease you need to take a pill for. Speaking of which, have you heard about Anger Concentration Internet Disease (ACID). Symptoms include intense anger and psychotic behavior at something you read or happens to you while browsing the internet (most often caused by blogs). If so, ask your doctor today about Blog-Lax™. Caution: side effects may include reduced spleen function and occasional diarrhea as the s**t is flushed from between your ears. Try one of our little brown pills today ....

Drugs Companies Inventing Diseases To Boost Their Profits
_{April 11, 2006}

LONDON (TIMES-UK)—Pharmaceutical companies are systematically creating diseases in order to sell more of their products, turning healthy people into patients and placing many at risk of harm, a special edition of a leading medical journal claims today.

The practice of “diseasemongering” by the drug industry is promoting non-existent illnesses or exaggerating minor ones for the sake of profits, according to a set of essays published by the open-access journal Public Library of Science Medicine.

The special issue, edited by David Henry, of Newcastle University in Australia, and Ray Moynihan, an Australian journalist, reports that conditions such as female sexual dysfunction, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and “restless legs syndrome” have been promoted by companies hoping to sell more of their drugs.

Other minor problems that are a normal part of life, such as symptoms of the menopause, are also becoming increasingly “medicalised”, while risk factors such as high cholesterol levels or osteoporosis are being presented as diseases in their own right, according to the editors.

“Disease-mongering turns healthy people into patients, wastes precious resources and causes iatrogenic (medically induced) harm,” they say. “Like the marketing strategies that drive it, disease-mongering poses a global challenge to those interested in public health, demanding in turn a global response.”

Doctors, patients and support groups need to be more aware that pharmaceutical companies are taking this approach, and more research is needed into the changing ways in which conditions are presented, according to the writers.

Disease-awareness campaigns are often funded by drug companies, and “more often designed to sell drugs than to illuminate or inform or educate about the prevention of illness or the maintenance of health”, they say.

Particular conditions that are highlighted in the journal include sexual function in both men and women. The prevalence of female sexual dysfunction, one paper claims, has been highly exaggerated to provide a new market for drugs, while the makers of anti-impotence medicines, such as Viagra and Cialis, have been involved with their presentation as lifestyle drugs that can boost the sexual prowess of healthy men.

- More drug company silliness here ...

Posted by The Skipper     on 04/29/2006 at 10:46 AM   
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   Sunday - March 12, 2006

Health Savings Accounts

Alright, everybody! It’s time to pile on BMEWS member Z-Woof. You all know he sells HSA’s and he has a ton of information on them. Well, the Washington Post has an article in today’s business section that covers HSA’s in detail. When you read this below, keep in mind that the Post has a certain bias against conservatives. Go read the whole piece at the Post and then jump all over Z-Woof for a rebuttal ....

Uncertain Cure
Early Reaction to Health Savings Accounts Is Two-Sided
_{Sunday, March 12, 2006}

(WASHINGTON POST)

Two years after they became legal, President Bush has begun to champion health savings accounts as a salve for the nation’s ailing health care system, proposing $156 billion in tax breaks to encourage Americans to buy an unorthodox kind of insurance that is favored by conservatives but whose merits are largely unproven. Early studies of HSAs—and the early experiences of a small but growing number of people who are trying them—do not match the White House’s certainty that this recent concept in health insurance is, as Bush put it recently, “good for you.”

Health savings accounts differ sharply from traditional insurance by requiring people to pay more of their own medical expenses in exchange for significant tax benefits if they set aside money for that purpose. The arrangement consists of two parts: an insurance policy—less expensive than most ordinary health plans—in which people pay at least a few thousand dollars up front before the coverage begins, combined with a special investment account into which they and sometimes their employers may save money tax-free for current or future medical expenses.

According to the White House and other proponents, the plans can tame medical costs, turn patients into smarter medical consumers and make insurance affordable for more people. HSAs, however, remain so new and rare that there is little evidence on whether they curb overall health care expenditures or overuse of care. Meanwhile, research hints that they are most appealing to people who are relatively affluent, not poor and uninsured.

Some people who have switched to the plans are delighted. “So far, it’s been very, very good for myself and my family,” said Daniel Reisfield, 47, a Wall Street headhunter who lives in San Diego with his wife and two children. Reisfield said he thinks it makes more sense to invest more than $5,000 a year in mutual funds through his HSA than to pay a large insurance premium for his healthy family, which rarely seeks medical care.

Others have been disenchanted quickly. Felix Meschke, 32, a business professor at the University of Minnesota, did careful calculations of medical probabilities before he, too, switched his family to an HSA on Jan. 1. Less than two weeks later, his 11-month-old son, Jason, developed an ear infection that progressed to a fever and persistent cough so worrisome that a pediatrician sent him to a hospital, where he stayed for two days. By Jan. 24, Jason was getting better, but Meschke faced a $3,700 bill. If he still had his old insurance, he would have owed a few hundred dollars.

- There’s a lot more to this story at the WAPO ...

Posted by The Skipper     on 03/12/2006 at 08:32 AM   
Filed Under: • Medical •  
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   Monday - June 27, 2005

Medicare Gets Off Your Last Nerve

This is rich. Sexual predators can get viagra on medicare but starting next year, seniors with anxiety problems will not be able to get xanax or valium ....

WASHINGTON - When the federal government’s new prescription drug benefit kicks in next year, it will not cover a category of drugs commonly used to treat anxiety, insomnia and seizures.

That means those disabled and elderly people on Medicare who take Xanax, Valium, Ativan and other types of the drug benzodiazepine will have to look elsewhere for coverage or switch to a different, less addictive medication.

Finding other alternatives may not be easy for the 1.7 million low-income, elderly people who take the drug and will be automatically enrolled in the new prescription drug plan. They will depend on the states to continue paying for their benzodiazepines — “benzos” for short — on Jan. 1, but with no guarantee.

Posted by The Skipper     on 06/27/2005 at 10:16 AM   
Filed Under: • Medical •  
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Not that very many people ever read this far down, but this blog was the creation of Allan Kelly and his friend Vilmar. Vilmar moved on to his own blog some time ago, and Allan ran this place alone until his sudden and unexpected death partway through 2006. We all miss him. A lot. Even though he is gone this site will always still be more than a little bit his. We who are left to carry on the BMEWS tradition owe him a great debt of gratitude, and we hope to be able to pay that back by following his last advice to us all:

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It's been a long strange trip without you Skipper, but thanks for pointing us in the right direction and giving us a swift kick in the behind to get us going. Keep lookin' down on us, will ya? Thanks.

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