Delaine's General Health Blog

Friday, February 24, 2012

Obama Administration Releases First Draft of National Alzheimer's Plan

The Obama Administration said that not only is most of the public aware of Alzheimer?s disease, the mental disorder is also ?one of the most feared health conditions? on Wednesday as it revealed the first draft of a comprehensive new national strategy to effectively treat and care for patients or patients? families affected by this mind-destroying disease.

$Government Reveals First Draft of its New Alzheimer\'s Plan.$

Government Reveals First Draft of its New Alzheimer's Plan. A young person and old person holding hands (FBI)

$Government Reveals First Draft of its New Alzheimer\'s Plan.$

Government Reveals First Draft of its New Alzheimer's Plan. A young person and old person holding hands (FBI)

Share This Story

Like us on Facebook

Follow us on LinkedIn

Join Medical Daily's Email Update

Around 5.1 million Americans are already affected by Alzheimer?s or other similar dementias, and the administration said that that number is expected to double every 5 years, is expected to reach up to 16 million by 2050, which will put tremendous strains on caregivers and on health and long-term care systems.�

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which issued the draft plan, sets effective prevention and�treatment methods by 2025 as a top priority, but it also focuses on optimizing care quality and enhancing support for Alzheimer?s patient families and caregivers.

"Alzheimer's disease burdens an increasing number of our nation's elders and their families, and it is essential that we confront the challenge it poses to our public health," President Barack Obama said in the introduction section of the draft.�

Earlier this month, the administration announced that it would give an additional $50 million this year from HHS projects to Alzheimer's research, and plans to add an additional $80 million in new research funding in fiscal 2013.

?These investments will open new opportunities in Alzheimer?s disease research and jumpstart efforts to reach the 2025 goal,? HHS said in the new draft document.

The plan also includes an additional $26 million in spending on programs aimed at supporting public awareness and people who care for Alzheimer's patients.

Wednesday draft of the National Plan will be submitted to the government?s Alzheimer?s advisory council for consideration and input, and will also be open for public comment though March, before a final strategy will be issued later this year.�

The National Institute on Aging of the National Institutes of Health is bringing together Alzheimer?s experts in May to discuss public and private research collaborations to find the most promising leads for better treatment and to establish strategies and milestones to improve the national plan.

Some of the members from the government?s Alzheimer?s advisory council said that Wednesday?s draft is a good first step.�

?Today, with the strong commitment of federal leaders and louder outcry from the public, the urgency of the Alzheimer?s disease crisis is being recognized and acted upon. There is no doubt that this is the ?moment? for Alzheimer?s disease. All Americans are anxiously waiting for this moment to transform into a monumental life-changer for families affected by Alzheimer?s disease now and in the future,? said Eric J. Hall, president of the Alzheimer?s Foundation of America in a statement released yesterday following the unveiling of the national plan.

?The Alzheimer's Association values the initial plan's attention to evaluation and assessment but looks forward to moving quickly from assessment of current efforts and programs to action for the growing number of families facing the disease,? the Alzheimer?s Association said in a statement.

?As this draft plan is revised, the Alzheimer's Association urges the administration to specify the level of resource commitment that will be needed to meet the goal to prevent and effectively treat the disease by 2025,? the association added.

Source: http://www.medicaldaily.com/news/20120223/9164/president-obama-alzheimers-national-alzheimers-plan-department-of-health-and-human-service.htm

fitness first fitness singles fitness superstore fitness

Syria's "friends" meet as Homs pummeled

(CBS/AP)�

BEIRUT - Medics stitch wounds with thread used for clothing. Hungry residents risk Syrian government sniper fire or shelling to hunt for dwindling supplies of bread and canned food on the streets of the besieged city of Homs.

The opposition stronghold was being destroyed "inch by inch," by government forces, with collapsed walls and scorched buildings, according to accounts Thursday, while Western and Arab leaders hoped to silence the guns long enough to rush in relief aid.

The pressure for "humanitarian corridors" into the central Syrian city of Homs and other places caught in President Bashar Assad's crushing attacks appeared to be part of shifts toward more aggressive steps against his regime after nearly a year of bloodshed and thousands of deaths in an anti-government uprising.

Complete coverage: The Arab Spring

CBS News correspondent Clarissa Ward says doctors are few and medical supplies almost non-existent behind rebel lines in Syria. Syrian forces are not allowing ambulances in or out, and the only way to evacuate those in need of medical care is to smuggle them out on motorcycles, donkeys, or on the backs of volunteers who risk their lives to ferry them across the border to private hospitals in places like northern Lebanon. (Click on the player above to see Ward's full report on the humanitarian plight)

Over time, what started as an honest question has turned into an angry rebuke, says Ward. Rebels and residents of Homs ask journalists all the time how it is that the West can stand by and watch people die.

In back-to-back announcements, U.N.-appointed investigators in Geneva said a list for possible crimes against humanity prosecution reaches as high as Assad, and international envoys in London ? including U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton ? made final touches to an expected demand for Assad to call a cease-fire within days to permit emergency shipments of food and medicine.

Video: Clinton warns Syria to halt violence
Russia, China reject "interference" in Syria
U.N.: Syria atrocities ordered from "highest level"

Washington and European allies remain publicly opposed to direct military intervention. But there have been growing signs that Western leaders could back efforts to open channels for supplies and weapons to the Syrian opposition, which includes breakaway soldiers from Assad's military.

In a sign of the international divide, however, key Assad ally Russia said Moscow and Beijing remain opposed to any foreign interference in Syria. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev spoke by telephone with the president of the United Arab Emirates and emphasized that "foreign interference, attempts to assess the legitimacy of the leadership of a state from the outside, run counter to the norms of international law and are fraught with the threat of regional and global destabilization," the Kremlin said.

"It is a deeply frustrating situation," British Foreign Secretary William Hague told BBC radio ahead of the London talks. He said that the Assad regime "has continued to act seemingly with impunity."

At least 16 people were killed across Syria, activists said. One group, the Local Coordination Committees, put the number at 40 with attacks ranging from mountain villages to areas near the capital of Damascus. The reason for the differing tolls was not immediately clear.

The most intense offensive, however, remained on beleaguered Homs, Syria's third-largest city. Its defiance ? amid hundreds of civilian casualties in the past weeks ? has eroded Assad's narrative that the uprising is the work of "armed thugs" and foreign plots.

Images posted online and accounts from activists and correspondents smuggled in ? including two Western journalists killed Wednesday ? also have stirred comparisons to sieges such as Misrata during last year's Arab Spring revolt in Libya.

Injured French journalist pleads for help escaping Syria
Video: Lara Logan on increasing danger to journalists
Video: Clarissa Ward on reporting from Syria

The epicenter ? the Baba Amr neighborhood on the city's southeast corner ? is a collection of slum-like apartment blocks with peeling paint and neglected older homes. They draw in workers and fortune-seekers from across Syria to a place known as the "mother of the poor" because of its cheaper cost of living, compared with Damascus or Aleppo.

"They are blanketing Baba Amr with shells and snipers. They are destroying it street by street, inch by inch," local activist Omar Shaker told The Associated Press.

Residents say 70 percent of the area is now uninhabitable in harsh winter weather with temperatures dipping close to freezing some nights. Walls have collapsed; windows are shattered from shells that fall as much as two-a-minute during some of the heaviest barrages.

Another Homs activist, Mulham al-Jundi, called the conditions "catastrophic" in parts of the city, spreading over a valley in central Syria just 18 miles from the Lebanese border. Long lines form at even rumors of bread, cans of food or fuel for heaters, he said.

"There simply isn't enough to go around anymore," said Rami Abdul-Rahman, director of the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Syria's state-run media pushed back with its own version: Running photos on the official news agency SANA that claim to show markets full of food in Homs. It called the claims about food shortages "fabricating lies."

Activists give a very different view. Bodies are buried wherever people can find space, they say. The wounded are too scared to try to reach government-controlled hospitals in other parts of the city. Instead, they stagger into makeshift clinics in kitchens and offices, al-Jundi said.

He said clothing thread is now used after surgical sutures ran out. In some places, medics conduct operations by only the light of an office lamp. In the Bab Drieb neighborhood, volunteers get a crash course in basic first aid before being put to work.

"I saw a nurse teaching a couple of people what to do. They had no idea," said al-Jundi. "It's unbelievable and tragic."

Homs ? which is mostly Sunni ? was an early flashpoint of dissent against Assad's regime, which is led by the minority Alawite community, which has Shiite power Iran as its main patron.

In April, protesters gathered at the central Clock Square in Homs, bringing mattresses, food and water in hopes of emulating Cairo's Tahrir Square during the Egyptian revolution. Homs had a reputation for tolerance between Syria's religions and Muslim sects, said Mohammad Saleh, an opposition figure who fled the city, but Sunnis have increasingly felt pushed into an underclass status by Assad.

A Western intelligence official said the Syrian military has the ability to "level Homs if it wanted to." But the risks of backlash from Syria's majority Sunnis ? including many military officers ? is far too great, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity under briefing rules.

Source: http://feeds.cbsnews.com/~r/CBSNewsMain/~3/pzb0JEeq4mA/

health technology assessment health and safety health health and safety executive

Migraines Linked to Depression

Understanding Depression Slideshow

Take the Depression Quiz

Depression Tips Slideshow Pictures

Latest Depression News

Women With Migraines More Likely to Become Depressed

By Jennifer Warner
WebMD Health News

Reviewed by Brunilda Nazario, MD

Feb. 22, 2012 -- Women who suffer from migraine headaches may be more likely to develop depression.

A new study shows that women who have migraines are about 40% more likely to develop depression than women who have never had migraines.

"This is one of the first large studies to examine the association between migraine and the development of depression over time," researcher Tobias Kurth, MD, ScD, of Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, says in a news release. "We hope our findings will encourage doctors to speak to their migraine patients about the risk of depression and potential ways to prevent depression."

The results will be presented in April at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Neurology.

Migraine-Depression Link

In the study, researchers looked at the risk of depression among 36,154 women who took part in the Women's Health Study. None of the women had depression at the start of the study.

The women were divided into four groups: those with active migraine with aura, active migraine without aura, past history of migraine (but not within the past year), and those with no history of migraine. Aura are visual disturbances like flashing lights sometimes associated with migraine headaches.

During about 14 years of follow-up, 3,971 women were diagnosed with depression.

The results showed that women with any history of migraine were 36% more likely to develop depression compared to women with no history of migraine. Women with a past history of migraine were 41% more likely to experience depression.

Researchers say the increased risk of depression associated with migraine was the same whether it was migraine with or without aura.

SOURCES: Rist, P. "Migraine and Risk of Depression Among Women," to be presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Neurology, April 21-28, 2012, New Orleans.News release, American Academy of Neurology.

Source: http://www.medicinenet.com/guide.asp?s=rss&a=155170&k=Womens_Health_General

wellness recovery action plan wellness wellness foods wellness centre

Thursday, February 23, 2012

Toddlers With Angry Parents May Have More Temper Tantrums

Childhood Illnesses Slideshow Pictures

Parenting and Healthy Eating Slideshow Pictures

Parenting - Fitness and Exercise Slideshow Pictures

Latest Healthy Kids News

WEDNESDAY, Feb. 22 (HealthDay News) --Toddlers are more likely to become easily upset and act out if their parents anger quickly and overreact to their children's behavior, according to a new study.

Researchers looked at the behavior of adopted children aged 9 months, 18 months and 27 months and their adoptive parents in 361 families in 10 states. Researchers also analyzed genetic data from the children and their birth parents.

The study found that adoptive parents who had a tendency to overreact were quick to anger when toddlers made mistakes or tested age-appropriate limits. The children of these parents acted out or had more temper tantrums than normal for their age.

Children who had the greatest increases in these types of negative emotions as they grew from infants to toddlers (from 9 months to 27 months of age) also had the highest levels of problem behaviors at 24 months. This suggests that negative emotions may have their own development process that impacts children's later behaviors, according to lead author Shannon Lipscomb, an assistant professor of human development and family sciences at Oregon State University, and her colleagues.

They also found that genetics plays a role, particularly in children who inherited a genetic risk of negative emotionality from their birth mothers but were raised in a low-stress or less reactive family environment.

The findings, published in the latest issue of the journal Development and Psychopathology, help improve understanding of the complex link between genetics and home environment, according to the researchers.

"Parents' ability to regulate themselves and to remain firm, confident and not overreact is a key way they can help their children to modify their behavior," Lipscomb said in a university news release. "You set the example as a parent in your own emotions and reactions."

-- Robert Preidt

SOURCE: Oregon State University, news release, Feb. 20, 2012

Source: http://www.medicinenet.com/guide.asp?s=rss&k=DailyHealth&a=155142

planet fitness lifetime fitness health hoop healthy back bag

Global Fund Releases More Than $7M To South Africa Following Request From AIDS Organizations

Thursday, February 23, 2012

"More than seven months overdue, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria grant will finally be released to key South African AIDS organizations that have been struggling to survive,"�PlusNews writes, adding, "Some were on the verge of shutting down." According to the news service, "The Global Fund released US$7,106,426.91 to the South African National Treasury on February 6, the same day seven of the grant's sub-recipients delivered an open letter to Minister of Health Aaron Motsoaledi, pleading for intervention."

"The payment, of which US$2,722,555 will be released this week to the sub-recipients, represents about half the total owed by the Global Fund to these community organizations for July-December 2011," PlusNews notes. The news service recounts a brief history of the Global Fund's cancellation of Round 11 funding and notes the "situation was further complicated by the South African Country Coordinating Mechanism's [CCM] ... desire to consolidate the Round 6 grant with its Round 9 and new Round 10 funding, all of which would then be managed by the health department" (2/22). The Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), a member of the CCM, expects to receive�$300,000, about "25 percent of the $1.2 million that TAC was owed as of the start of 2012," Aidspan's "Global Fund Observer" reports in a detailed analysis of the issue (2/20).

Print This Article

Print Entire Report

The Kaiser Daily Global Health Policy Report is published by the Kaiser Family Foundation. 2012 Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved. The report summarizes the latest, most relevant information on U.S. global health policy developments and related news from hundreds of sources. Access today's full report or sign up for an email subscription to the Daily Report.

Source: http://feeds.kff.org/~r/kff/kdghpr/~3/25DJMOeikZo/GH-022312-SA-Global-Fund.aspx

healthy eating health and safety at work act health protection agency healthspan

SOUTH AFRICA: Global Fund monies finally released

By Irin

See the original post:
SOUTH AFRICA: Global Fund monies finally released

Posted by Irin on Feb 23 2012. Filed under Financing, Policy & Systems. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry

Source: http://www.globalhealthhub.org/2012/02/23/south-africa-global-fund-monies-finally-released/

men\\\'s health questions men\\\'s health issues men\\\'s health concerns men\\\'s health forum

Health Highlights: Feb. 21, 2012

Here are some of the latest health and medical news developments, compiled by the editors of HealthDay:

Nutritional Guidelines Planned for School Vending Machines

Nutritional standards for vending machine products and other foods that students can buy outside of school cafeterias are expected to be introduced by the Obama administration within the next few weeks.

Latest MedicineNet News

White House officials say students eat 19 percent to 50 percent of their daily food at school and they want to ensure that what students eat doesn't harm their health or make them fat, The New York Times reported.

Childhood obesity in the United States has more than tripled in the past 30 years, and school vending machines stocked with items such as soft drinks, potato chips and cookies have contributed to that problem, nutritionists say.

No details of the proposed nutritional standards have been released, but are likely to focus on reduced amounts of sugar, salt and fat, according to health advocates and snack food and soft drink industry representatives, The Times reported.

-----

Imported Drug Will Help Shortage of Cancer Drug Doxil: FDA

A drug called Lipodox will be imported from India in order to offset the shortage of the chemotherapy drug Doxil, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration says.

Doxil -- which is used to treat ovarian cancer, multiple myeloma and AIDS-related Kaposi's sarcoma -- has been in short supply in the U.S. since last June. There are no generic versions of the drug, USA Today reported.

The FDA was expected to announce Tuesday that it has reached an agreement with Sun Pharma Global of India to temporarily import Lipodox. The agency has previously inspected the company.

The deal with address the Doxil shortage "for the foreseeable future," the FDA's Sandra Kweder told USA Today.

Doxil is one of 287 drugs that have been in short supply this year, says the University of Utah's Drug Information Service. There were 61 drugs in short supply in 2005, according to the FDA.

------

Inhalable Caffeine Product to be Reviewed by FDA

The safety of an inhalable caffeine product called AeroShot will be reviewed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The agency will also investigate whether the product can be labeled as a dietary supplement.

Aeroshot is sold in lipstick-sized canisters. A person puts one end of the canister in their mouth and inhales a fine powder that dissolves almost instantly. Each container contains 100 milligrams of caffeine powder, about equal to the amount in a large cup of coffee, the Associated Press reported.

New York U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer asked the FDA to review the safety and legality of Aeroshot, which went on sale late last month in New York and Massachusetts. It's also sold in France.

"I am worried about how a product like this impacts kids and teens, who are particularly vulnerable to overusing a product that allows one to take hit after hit after hit, in rapid succession," Schumer said, the AP reported.

AeroShot is safe and does not contain additives used to enhance the caffeine effect in energy drinks, according to inventor David Edwards, a Harvard biomedical engineering professor.

-----

Source: http://www.medicinenet.com/guide.asp?s=rss&a=155049&k=Womens_Health_General

men\\\'s health problems men\\\'s health questions men\\\'s health issues men\\\'s health concerns