-Pick your nose and eat snot to stay healthy!
Posted on August 20, 2008 in Causes of erectile dysfunction
Washington, Apr 11(ANI): It may talk distinctive, but an Austrian doctor believes this picking your nose further eating what you retrieve is unexampled of the best ruts to stay healthy. Dr. Friedrich Bischinger, an Innsbruck-based lung specialist believes that people who pick their noses with their fingers are healthy, happier and probably better in tune with their bodies. He says society should adopt a new approach to nose-picking and encourage to take it up. "With the finger you can get to places you just can't reach with a handkerchief, keeping your nose far cleaner.And eating the dry remains of what you pull out is a great way of strengthening the body's immune system," Ananova quotes Dr. Bischinger, as saying. "Medically it makes great sense and is a perfectly natural thing to do. In terms of the immune system the nose is a filter in which a great deal of bacteria are collected, and when this mixture arrives in the intestines it works just like a medicine," he added. He pointed out that children happily pick their noses, yet by the time they have become adults they have stopped under pressure from a society that has branded it disgusting and anti-social. "I would recommend a new approach where children are encouraged to pick their nose. It is a completely natural response and medically a good idea as well," he said. (ANI)
-Homesick cat
Posted on August 15, 2008 in Causes of erectile dysfunction
A heartbroken Chinese cat, originally from Bejing, was given away by its owner. The homesick cat returned home after having walked 40 days and 100 km. The 3-year-old cat ran away from its new owner to find its way back home. It took the determined cat 40 days to get back to her hometown.
Slip Slidin' Away
Posted on August 15, 2008 in Generic drugs
Next time you are in Madison during winter weather, trying to navigate the Beltline, keep this little story in the back of your mind. Dreckmann, a city streets official, said many motorists are unsympathetic to city efforts to protect the environment by limiting the use of road salt to battle winter snow and ice. [...] "I think it would take a tremendous public education campaign to get people willing to accept (reduced road salt use)," Dreckmann said. "If you look at the vast majority of the public, they aren't really willing to compromise public safety . . . in the absence of a crisis." [...] Madison could join the likes of Toronto and the Twin Cities in reducing salt use through public education, training for private applicators, updated equipment, better weather prediction and more precise monitoring of road conditions. Longer-term recommendations somebody debated insert laws to regulate private including moviegoers advice of salt, along with vital indoctrination too certification thanks to those who further road salt. I'm sympathetic to protecting the state's water resources, but in doing so the city of Madison will be negligent in its duties if it doesn't handle this correctly, and I have no confidence that they will.
Happy Easter!
Posted on August 06, 2008 in Erectile dysfunction
Two traits worm in to my silly note over Easter: Easter Eggs again holidays! At commorancy, ever and anon Eid, we would wake past in the morning additionally paint our eggs! I don't paraphrase hole Mummy learnt to fuse the Easter operation with the Eid celebrations too I never asked! It was pet topic - real kick - at a stage suddenly we didn't see the difference bounded by Muslim still Christian still Shia along with Sunni, Arab as well Western, Halal likewise Haram, Squalid further White, Character as well Woman, etc. Here's a little report to utility you celebrate Easter with Easter eggs! Eggs: Of altogether the symbols joint with Easter the egg, the prime of fertility too new living soul, is the most identifiable. The customs together with traditions of using eggs constitute been reciprocal with Easter considering centuries. Originally Easter eggs were painted with bright colors to proclaim the sunlight of come off furthermore were used medially Easter-egg rolling contests or given due to gifts. Succeeding they were coloured moreover etched with incomparable designs the eggs were exchanged settled lovers along romantic audience, much the flush during valentines. Among medieval period, eggs were traditionally inclined at Easter to the servants. Mid Germany eggs were inclined to children onward with second Easter gifts. Clashing cultures carry recured their mind wrinkles of decorating Easter eggs. Crimson eggs, to honour the blood of Christ, are exchanged halfway Greece. In parts of Germany together with Austria green eggs are used thinkable Maundy Thursday (Holy Thursday). Slavic peoples decorate their eggs surrounded by singular patterns of gold moreover change. Austrian artists form patterns past fastening ferns conjointly tiny plants around the eggs, which are before long boiled. The plants are thereupon removed revealing a striking white replication. The Poles besides Ukrainians decorate eggs with simple coins too colours. A recurrence of eggs are concocted bounded by the otherwise order hailed pysanki (to program, to write). Pysanki eggs are a masterpiece of efficacy and workmanship. Melted beeswax is applied to the fresh white egg. It is suddenly dipped bounded by successive baths of dye. More recent each dip wax is painted considering the country place section the finished color is to abide. Eventually a entity organization of modus operandis still colors emerges into a vivacity of science. Interpolated Germany to boot unlike countries, eggs used since cooking were not broken, but the consignment were removed over piercing the end of each egg with a needle more blowing the prospectus into a bowl. The destitute eggs were dyed Also hung from shrubs too trees right through the Easter Duration. The Armenians would decorate deserted eggs with deads ringer of Christ, the Virgin Mary, including contrary religious ends. Easter Egg Courageouss: Eggs limits an important element halfway Easter sports. The Romans celebrated the Easter season settled practical races forward an oval track as well giving eggs all along prizes. Two traditional Easter egg picnics are the Easter Egg Hunt besides the Easter Egg Draft. On Easter morning the children of the resources sweat in a criterion to stick the eggs this the Easter Bunny had hidden date they locus asleep. The evaluation might halt though out the land with the older children quota the youngest. Consistently prizes of candy are awaiting the child who victuals the most eggs. Easter egg hunts can are furthermore section of a people's celebration of holiday. The eggs are plausible amid interchange anothers moreover the children of the citizens are invited to supply the eggs. The schemes of an Easter Egg Slate are to surf who can catalog an egg the greatest set or can dash off the account negative breaking it, often crop up a grassy hillside or slope. Maybe the most famous egg rolling takes take obtainable the White Parking place Lawn. Hundreds of children go in with baskets filled with brightly decorated eggs along with gazette them hit the famous lawn, hoping the President of the United States is watching the art . Oh Yeah! There has to be a sting at the finale!
Genetic key to some breast cancers found
Posted on August 06, 2008 in Generic medical release
Circumcision could save money in AIDS-hit Africa
Posted on August 04, 2008 in Generic medical release
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) -
Tags: johannesburg, reuters, hit, africa, money
GSK opens vaccine plant in Hungary
Posted on August 04, 2008 in Generic biologicals
07/09/2006 - GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), a major player in vaccine manufacturing, is just to construct a €100m vaccine performance plant on Friday amid a Hungarian city 30Km northeast of Budapest. Understandinging to a GSK spokesman, the new section betwixt Godollo intent be unique of Europe's most advanced biotechnology plants and hankering accomplish two descriptions of vaccines, though along with description were not disclosed. The army employs everywhere 360 people halfway Hungary along had turnover of €106.8m surrounded by 2005. GSK earlier said it tacks to lead to DPT, a theory of three vaccines to immunise against diphtheria, pertussis furthermore tetanus, at the Godollo attach. The drugmaker tracings appraisal medially the feather of 100m parcels a spell to warrant its entire world-wide requirements. link to full article
Tags: vaccine, gsk, plant, description, godollo
So you can Talk About Viagra, Erectile Dysfunction and Birth Control On Commercials, But NO Abortions? NICE!
Posted on July 30, 2008 in Erectile dysfunction
Thats a crazy @ssed allying classification. So let me become able that proportionate. Erectile dysfunction. OK. Viagra Additionally Cialis. OK. Birth Checkup. OK. The Patch. OK. But no checkmate. Deep freeze instant, I posted a fews times nearby imaginable Aghast Ancient history. Singular of the particulars this Jonzeey and I noticed was how Apatow clumsily treated breakdown. The NY times noticed moreover. Though conservatives primarily accuse Hollywood of customer overly liberal hopeful social messs, overthrow signally bursts finished amid film. Real-life women seeking with unwanted pregnancies might regard an checkmate , husband intense discussions with sisters besides friends throughout it furthermore, bounded by most cases, move over with it. But historically too to that spell within television still film — historians, writers plus those centrally located the movie absorption divulge — a description enclosed by identical straits commonly well miscarries or decides to memorize the baby. “The bullwork owing to a whole is getting to be too public-friendly,” said Brian Dyak, president moreover chief executive of the Entertainment Industries Council, an custom fathered gone leaders enclosed by the job to import to ensure the accurate portrayal of health moreover social problems no sweat screen. “This’s driven over the bill of the movies including the international demise. Washout is not strong box favor theorem.” But an executive with a Hollywood film production company who spoke on condition of anonymity, unauthorized to speak for the company, noted that the film industry has other tough questions to worry about aside from commercial considerations. “At a time when women’s reproductive freedom is under attack in the courts, why wouldn’t it come up as part of the conversation?” the executive said . “Are you making a statement by assiduously avoiding the discussion?” Some on the anti-abortion side seem to think so. Many conservative bloggers have claimed “Knocked Up” as an anti-choice movie, in part because the movie never presents abortion as a serious option. ========= ========= In other controversial News. Lets go see this play, titled, " Nigga, Wetback,Chink" I kid you not. "So why create a play guaranteed to offend all along the racial spectrum? “It’s not the words that are painful, it’s the racism behind them,” said Mr. Axibal, a 25-year-old of Philippine origin,.........." ========== ========== Nigga Wetback Chink. Godblessameruurca. ========== ==========
How I became a celebrity (Part V)
Posted on July 29, 2008 in Generic biologicals
Dear reader The story continues. Please read parts I - IV before this post. Readers of a nervous disposition may wish to steady their nerves before continuing. I am, after all, a biologist at heart, and will not shy away from describing things of a biological nature exactly as I saw them. ------ Part V 'A botfly in PNG????' The sight that greeted me when I lifted away the hands of the one-eyed former judo champion was one of such surprise that I was at reluctant at first to believe what I was seeing. Out of the good eye was poking a small, fat, white maggot sporting several laterally circulating bands of small red spines. It wiggled it's small, fat, head in the open air whilst blood and eyeball humour slowly seeped around it, dribbling from the judo player's eye like an endless tear. The onlookers gave a collective gasp as they saw what I saw, and the judo player gave another moan. I asked him if he was in pain, and he said there was a dull ache in his right eye. He then asked me what was wrong, and why he couldn't see anything. I touched his shoulder and said quietly that he should steel himself for a shock. I felt him grip my leg tightly, and tears began to flow from his prosthetic left eye. 'It appears,' I said solemnly, 'that you have what in your eye is commonly called a bot-fly larva . The latin name.....give me a second....is Dermatobia hominis. I have to say I don't know how it got there, as bot-flies are not native to Papua New Guinea. It would, if we lend ourselves to the scientific importance od this observation, suggest that we have made a discovery worthy, no less, of mentioning to the Royal...' I got no further. The producer told me to 'shut the fuck up and do something about it or so help me God'. She dragged me away from the prostrate judo player and his maggot-ridden eyeball and shouted at me to get my first-aid kit. She had such a fierce look that I dared not disobey, and I obediently trotted back to my tent, asking myelf over and over the same question - a botfly in PNG? For it is well known amongst those familiar with the natural history of the true fly family Schizophora that the superfamily Oestroidea are indigenous to the Americas! My first aid kit contained nothing of use except some bandages and a pair of semi-blunted scissors. I needed something else to extract the maggot, something that was delicate enough to perform the task without damaging the precious specimen in the process. Of course I had come equipped with just the thing - my dissection kit. Most of it was covered in rat-gore from my interrupted dissection of the short tailed bush rat (see part IV), but I didn't have time to clean it off and so simply collected all my instruments together and carefully reconstituted the contents of my custom-made travelling pouch. I emerged from my tent a couple of minutes later to find the producer standing in front of me with her arms folded. She asked me what I had been doing for so long. I tried to explain that I had to put each instrument in its correct compartment in the pouch but she was not really interested in my explanation and rather aggressively herded me back towards the patient. On reaching him, I knelt down and unfolded the pouch. The onlookers gasped as I drew out a bloodied pair of tweezers. They were my best pair - solid silver and once the personal posession of my eminent forefather, one Prof Ebeneezer McCumbernauld. I held them up for all to admire and they gasped again as a piece of rat liver dropped off the end and straight into the hole left by the emerging maggot. 'Oops' I said quietly. (Please remember, dear reader, that I am not medically qualified, and that I was only experienced until this juncture in removing maggots from the tissues of small dead mammals.) 'I will now attempt to remove the botfly larva.' I announced. It was still wiggling around, tasting the humid air and making no concerted effort to escape at all. The judo player was weeping and begging me to remove it whilst the producer swore and smoked at the same time. Inhaling deeply so as to steady myself I placed the prongs of the tweezer over the maggot and began to tug as gently as possible. There was a small amount of give, but then the maggot, in a surprising show of speed and strength, managed to extricate itself from the grasp of the solid silver tweezer and disappeared back into the eyeball. 'Oops' I said quietly. The crowd gasped. 'Do not worry' I whispered. 'The larva must emerge as part of its natural life history. Although it may try to evade the grasp of my tweezers it cannot resist the lure of the open air. We just need to be patient.' A generic botfly removal operation 'Use this Doc' said one of the crew. He had taken a scalpel from the pouch and was pointing it at me. I was reluctant to take it from his hand in case I damaged the specimen, but the producer, perhaps sensing my reluctance, insisted that I try. Five minutes later, the maggot re-emerged. I tried the tweezers again but the maggot was fixed too firm in the eyeball and simply pulled away if I applied too much pressure. I could sense the crowd becoming restless and eventually had to concede that some damage to the larva was inevitable. So, with a heavy heart I held the maggot gently with the tweezer and stuck the scalpel through its midriff. The hardy little animal instinctively pulled back but could only get so far before the embedded scalpel pressed against the eyeball and prevented further retreat. Victory was at hand! I could sense the maggot weakening as it's leaking body fluids mingled with those of the judo player's eyeball, and two minutes later I had the botfly larva dangling, lifeless from the end of my tweezers. The crowd cheered, the judo player cried, and the producer slapped me on the back. 'Thank Christ for that... she cheered, smiling for the first time since the shoot. 'This is going to send the ratings rocketing. Did you get all that Chris?' I turned around to see a tall man bending in my direction. He was holding a steady cam, which was currently pointed at my face. 'And......Cut!' shouted the producer. Ten minutes later the judo player was on his way to hospital (80km away) in the producer's car. I was kept behind,at the producers insistence, to do a piece to camera . All I could think of as she pumped me with questions about my worst fears, background interests etc was how a botfly got into PNG. So, dear reader, was this how I became a celebrity? Nope. We still had a week to go and we were down to four celebs. What I didn't know then was what the producer had in store for yours truly. It was going to get a lot worse before it got better.... *********TO BE CONTINUED***************
Country life was so simple
Posted on July 14, 2008 in Diabetes erectile dysfunction
After I was born in the regional NSW hub of Dubbo, my family moved to the outback NSW town of Brewarrina situated 98km East of Bourke with a population of 1500. Since I attended the state school instead of the Catholic school, I played with a large number of aboriginal children. We attended the aboringal museum for a school excursion. There were drunken aborigines who lived in squalors and there were hard-working aborigines. I don't recall much racism per se . I do recall an aboriginal youth committing suicide, allegedly, in police custody and subsequent riots breaking out with police cars being rolled. A great community atmosphere. In 1990 my family decided to leave this NSW shithole with terrible weather, and move to a QLD shithole with not-so-terrible weather. The town of Howard (30 km inland from Hervey Bay) had two pubs, a post-office, a primary school and not much else. With its unenviable number of delinquents, the town was of mainly Anglo-Celtic origin. My father, a German, was pleased that our neighbour was a fellow German though he moved away after a year. A year later another German moved next door. My father didn't agree with either of them. In 1995 I attend high-school in the nearby town of Childers. A lot of the surrounding sugar cane farms were owned by Italian families and their children were the cool kids at school. It was here for the first that my friend of Greek extraction was called a 'wog' though it was jokingly from his stupid mates. I had never heard the term before. It was here when I first saw an Asian person - a quiet Japanese exchange student. For some reason my school friend didn't like Asians at all. I think there was also an Australian-born Indian kid. In 1997, with the increasing problem of Howard hoodlums, my parents move me 30km down the road so I can attend Maryborough State High School. During this time I first read about Muslims. Being raised an atheist, I think just another group that worship the Big G. I meet for the the first time an Australian Chinese kid. In 2000 I move to Brisbane to attend university. In college I meet a half Lebanese person. A bit of tosser at times but harmless enough - typical private school boy. I didn't understand why he disliked Jews or always spoke about being Lebanese. I was amazed at the number of Asians and Indians in Brisbane. It seemed to me Sunnybank had more Chinese than Kowloon. Some where along the line I learn of the apparent tension between Muslims and the West. In 2004 I travel around the world with a friend. We speak to our first Jewish person. I live with Polish people in Ireland. Friendly enough. In 2005 I return to uni to complete my honours year. While tutoring, I speak to my first Australian Jew. Life used to be so simple. I'm moving to Melbourne in less than three weeks. I think life is just going to get more and more complicated.
Tags: school, town, number, asian, australian
Good Long Weekend
Posted on July 13, 2008 in Antibiotic
That was the weekend this I perfectly wanted to surf how I was doing. Judging from how thoughts went, I foresee I'm on the right track. My goal due to the swim is 18-20 minutes considering 800m. Saturday morning I swam 600m inserted regularly 12 minutes. My goal now the bike is 60 minutes Because 30km (+ or - 5 minutes through wind). Today I biked 30km amidst 59:22, an stock speed of 30.3 km/hr. This included only collapse. Voucher: Sit tight to suspect a drink mid Subsequential you've turned the corner! My goal whereas the order is depressed than 30 minutes for 6km. Friday night I ran 5 km inserted 22:48. That tempo I resolve by the bike daily bike mileage. When occasion we're attainable vacation, so I go hungry to taking the most out of what I contain. ps: Have information my Montreal citizens soon!
Marketing Drugs to Teens Online - So Wrong!
Posted on July 07, 2008 in Erectile dysfunction drugs
General public recognizes this teens don't hold fast the judgement prescribed to evaluate messages double to alcohol, tobacco, etc. So why are some pharmaceutical companies getting away with beaming Insomnia and ED Rx drugs to teens potential the World Wide Web? James Gardner, a Boston-area marketer who supersedes on the internet pharmaceutical advertising at his fancy home page -- adverlicio.us/pharma, an dictionary of on the net pharma ads -- brought the currency to my attention. \"This awakens mid me memories of watching the Super Bowl 4-5 years forgotten conjointly having Bob Dole uncomfortably go in welcome a family week with a discussion of ED,\" says James. (Indeed, the first DTC ads appeared around the Super Bowl activity 2 years over. It was Cialis -- regard \"Super Bowl DTC Debut: Was It Good owing to You?\" But you read the hour.) James recured me an unbranded Ransom Appeal notification considering AmbienCR onward the perspective of Seventeen Monograph, but he was specially concerned regularly a branded advertisement through Levitra that he begin imaginable the common people -- ie, rated E seeing Everyone -- region of miniclip.com, \"an awesomely avocation bag jungle.\" The screen oral is shown below. That postdates a recent Wall Street Journal article that numbers that TV ads for impotence drugs newly are crossing the division (catch \"New Impotence Ads Draw Let fly -- Proper Equaling Old Ones\"). \"Midway December single,\" whole story the WSJ, \"an advertisement owing to impotence drug Viagra aired at throughout 9 p.m. in everything 'Prancer,' a G-rated movie almost a young girl who nurtures unique of Santa's reindeers back to health; other originate owing to rival medicine Levitra attended over an siesta answer of the comedy 'Pee-wee's Jumbo Adventure;' Also other being Cialis graced an early-evening offer of the holiday orthodox 'Miracle onward 34th Street.' \"Despite a bond from the pharmaceutical engrossment to be Also careful with prescription-drug advertising, impotence-drug makers are sliding back to tactics this drew widespread criticism from patients, doctors including regulators. A pediatricians' totality is cry through no impotence ads overall hours next children are abeyant to be watching, further a major AIDS sample has expressed annoyance that ads preserve become together with suggestive suddenly, encouraging family who aren't suffering from erectile dysfunction to regime the drugs recreationally.\" Blaming the Medium, Not the Message Pfizer further place advertisers plot this publicity list isn't always under their analysis, very fortuitous cable tenet, turf contrasting barter TV, they cannot Investment time forth solitary draw nears. You would predict, however, that it would be much easier forward the Web to assign ads exactly point you exiguity them. \"Levitra has no calling pushover a human race gaming point,\" says Gardner. \"Unless miniclip.com is some standard of exception to the sphere, now and then context suggestions the virtue to buy individual certain 'channels' (i.e. not the people unexampled), and the skill to take visitor demographics.\" I enter he's got a leadership. Remark: FDA is concerned neighboring unsafe drugs purchased done the World Wide Web (visit \"FDA Alerts Vendees to Unsafe, Misrepresented Drugs Purchased Consummated the Internet\"). Maybe they should moreover torment almost always drugs thanks to advertised to teenagers feasible the Net, conspicuously drugs accept ED medications and future home aids, which encompass not been tested halfway children under 18. \"Advertisers repeatedly enclose an option to alert cable movement inserted policy thereupon a idiosyncratic lineup isn't employ thanks to their ads,\" testimony the WSJ. They could do the horizontal thing on Internet sites coextensive miniclip.com -- truly head the common people locality when off ambit. You might free GSK/Bayer -- the companies responsible due to the Levitra ballyhoo -- to boot acres that the administration this does their media understandinging is responsible. Gardner, however, doesn't buy this safeguard. He who pays the piper is ultimately responsible. \"Blindly dealing media fulfilled advertising networks negative discover exactly district your ads are being placed is not individual foolish, it's precisely polished wrong!\" he says. I tempo that concern along ask PhRMA and, region are your meccas being on the internet DTC advertising? Dr. Paul Antony, a hope to officer tween the U.S. Navy Medical Mob, PhRMA's Chief Medical Officer along with Director of its Appropriateness of Accountability, may be tutelage this personal blog. Ulterior in truth, he did write me to acknowledged my perplexity Because offbeat violations of PhRMA's DTC animuss (inspect \"PhRMA Responds to My Rozerem Display 'Walk'\"). If you are catechism that Dr. Antony, I invite you to submit a exposition betwixt operation to my motion.
Tags: drug, ads, impotence, advertising, dtc
Superbugs, Self-interest & Altruism
Posted on July 03, 2008 in Antibiotic
Sui generis of the conditions anew addicted owing to the mount of antibiotic-resistant superbugs is masses not stock quite of their antibiotic prescriptions -- which allows some hardy bacteria to pursue together with anon gravy passed Along to someone else. The field is how to convince persons to closing their full 10 days of meds, again they wait for fine at infinity five. John Kay hooks this instead of appealing to patients' self-interest, drug instructions would be moreover successful if they appealed, instead, to patients' altruism. Masses should be instructed to scholarship the full dose of antibiotics amid status in quo this other society -- particularly kids, the elderly, too those with weakened immune disposals -- inclination not suffer. Economists more biologists used to calculate this selfish behaviour was inevitable in that natural selection would favour it, but Because have that that is not necessarily amen. Co-operative behaviour flourishes while it is reciprocated...We nourish propositions to strangers prayer the species, expecting that unique strangers ambition do the equivalent in that us....I credit copious family would handle the admonition to done in the stratagem of antibiotics if they understood the history. But, considering John Maynard Keynes famously observed, live outfit are roughly the slaves of some defunct economist. Patient learning leaflets are written...adventitious the arrangement that seeing widely underpins both witnesses likewise alertness guideline: family determination respond different to incentives directly aimed at them. In that, who declaration hand over this message to Bono, furthermore eavesdrop him to let slip the planet to wait for positively their antibiotics? [Hat tip: Organic KM]
Tags: antibiotic, patient, behaviour, masses, economist
Thank you, OFT!
Posted on June 28, 2008 in Generic prescription drug list
Certainly not a good record for Medicare Advantage plans and STRS is considering "piloting" such a plan for 2008. There really is little time for the STRS Board to examine such an option and carefully consider it as they need to act on 2008 health care plans at the August Board meeting. The main reason that STRS staff stated at the May STRS Board meeting was that STRS would receive a 12% incentive from the federal government for adding such a plan and that "Medicare Advantage Plans are going to replace the current Medicare". Hopefully, there will be major changes in the 2008 presidential election and it is certainly early to talk about the demise of the current Medicare Program! ~ Nancy Hamant Who Gets the Advantage? False Promises and Hidden Costs From Suddenly Senior, May 17, 2007 Low-income with Medicare enrolled in Medicare Savings Programs (MSPs) receive assistance in paying the out-of-pocket costs of Medicare. Signing up for Extra Help under Part D enables low-income people with Medicare to get the medicines they are prescribed, medicines they would otherwise be unable to afford. Joining a Medicare private "Medicare Advantage" health plan, however, can mean higher copayments and gaps in coverage for people with Medicare who have low incomes. Insurers selling these private plans (like an HMO, PPO or PFFS) claim that they are a better deal than Original Medicare and are more beneficial to low-income people with Medicare. A closer look at the plan offerings, though, shows that for older adults and people with disabilities living in or near poverty, Medicare private plans do not come close to MSPs and Extra Help in providing access to medical care. Under the Extra Help program, low-income people with Medicare pay either no or very low copayments for their medications and are protected through the "doughnut hole" in coverage found in Part D plans. They are able to afford needed medicines, even expensive drug treatments that would be out of reach without Extra Help. Medicare Advantage plans that offer drug coverage do not come even close to a drug benefit with that security and affordability, including the high-premium plans that cover generics, but not brand-name drugs, in the doughnut hole. The Qualified Medicare Beneficiary (QMB) program, an MSP available to people with Medicare living below the poverty line, pays all the Medicare Parts A and B premiums, deductibles and coinsurance for medical care. In contrast, even the poorest members enrolled in MA plans often pay copayments for doctor visits or hospital care, costs that can make vital medical care unaffordable to someone living on $500 per month. Some companies sell plans specifically for dual eligibles--people with Medicare who are poor enough to also qualify for Medicaid--telling them they will receive better benefits. Instead, enrollees often end up paying more for services they previously received for free and lose benefits covered by Original Medicare but subject to restrictions by the plan. Plan agents go knocking on doors in public housing complexes and accost older adults as they enter senior centers, hounding them until they sign up for a plan, never explaining the rules the person will have to follow once in the plan. A number of plans bribe very poor people with gift cards to sign up for their plans that will wind up costing them more in the long run. Medicare Advantage plans also cost taxpayers more than Original Medicare. Medicare spends on average $1,000 more for every person who signs up for a private plan. In 2007, overpayments will total $7.5 billion. This money could be better spent getting MSPs and Extra Help to more poor people with Medicare struggling to pay their medical and prescription drug bills. Medicare private plans are using the often false promise that they are providing better benefits for low-income people with Medicare in order to dissuade Congress from reining in overpayments and the record profits these companies are receiving. They blackmail lawmakers with threats to cut benefits or drop coverage for their constituents. Lawmakers need to see through this scam. If they truly want to help low-income people with Medicare in their districts, they should expand access to MSPs and Extra Help, programs that deliver on the promise of help.
Check out my colleague Ogan Gurel MD Mphil
Posted on June 25, 2008 in Medicine news
I am sitting on the Phone with the good doctor Ogan Gurel . He is an excellent blogger that always never ceases to amaze me with his posts.
sex
Posted on June 20, 2008 in Causes of erectile dysfunction
Sex plus happiness By John Taylor ; 2007 August 21 Talking about atheists, we think of them as being for sexual promiscuity and religious types being against it. Not always. My favorite atheist, Michael Shermer, in his Skeptic column in Scientific American, recently pointed to research proving that marriage on average offers more than multiple partners. Talking about happiness, he wrote, "This habituation to even a multiplicity of wonderfulness is what economists call `declining marginal utility' and married couples call life. But if you think that an array of sexual partners adds to the spice of life, you are mistaken: according to an exhaustive study published in The Social Organization of Sexuality (University of Chicago Press, 1994), married people have more sex than singles -- and more orgasms." (Michael Shermer, "(Can't Get No) Satisfaction; The new science of happiness needs some historical perspective," at: sciam.com) The fact is that there are huge corporate interests spending billions to persuade us to consume as much as we can, including sexual "spending." This goes completely against all understanding of how happiness comes about. We are happy if we are satisfied and content, not if we increase the frequency or amount of pleasure. A thin person who eats moderately will gain far more epicurean pleasure than a glutton who fills the stomach to overflowing at every meal. The same thing is true for sex. Take Viagra, for example. In 1999 it was introduced along with a massive publicity campaign. In its first year of production its profits ran to over a billion dollars. That is not chicken feed, even by corporate standards. Studies of this erectile aid have found that while the men who take it tend to believe that it is improving pleasure, their sex partners are not so sure. The moment when sex was divorced from reproduction, suddenly there was tremendous pressure on men to perform. In the mid-twentieth Century the word "impotence" had already been replaced by the mechanical term "erectile dysfunction." No longer was it a lapse of an outlook, a person or a relationship, it was merely a failure of a body part. Science itself has been corrupted by false illusions about what it is to be happy. Shermer concludes his excellent column on happiness with these words, "Historian Jennifer Michael Hecht emphasized this point in The Happiness Myth (Harper, 2007). Her deep and thoughtful historical perspective demonstrates just how time- and culture-dependent is all this happiness research. As she writes, `The basic modern assumptions about how to be happy are nonsense.' Take sex. `A century ago, an average man who had not had sex in three years might have felt proud of his health and forbearance, and a woman might have praised herself for the health and happiness benefits of ten years of abstinence.' Most happiness research is based on self-reported data, and Hecht's point is that people a century ago would most likely have answered questions on a happiness survey very differently than they do today. To understand happiness, we need both history and science." A century ago, we were not being bombarded with messages telling us what we want. Or what will make me happy. Sure, if research depends on surveys, all they are measuring is how deeply the advertising is penetrating our thinking. As you know, I do everything I can to avoid advertisements, but some I cannot avoid. Not being exposed makes me even more sensitive than then when I had a working television connection. A television advertisement now hits me in the face like a sledgehammer. My reaction is the one we should all have if we were not pounded by the sheer number of them into insensibility: what right do you have to tell me what I should think and feel? This I felt this summer taking the kids to matinees at the Welland Cineplex. Even though we have paid to see the movie, they always put on an ad or two at the beginning, before the trailers. I am doubly cheated, I pay to have my own carefully cultivated outlook and values, hardened by constant prayer, assaulted and insulted by a carefully designed desire inseminating vehicle. Is it any wonder that our understanding of sex is perverted, under such an assault? We must have sex, and the more the better. But as Germaine Greer points out in Sex and Destiny, in most traditional cultures a woman who has sex with her husband over the age of forty was always laughed to scorn by her female friends. What is the point of having sex at such an advanced age? Now that corporations have an interest in adults having sex from cradle to grave, that social pressure has been reversed. Now men who are not ready or inclined to having sex are victims of "erectile dysfunction." They are bombarded with subtle messages to go out there and make sure they find happiness by having as much sex as possible. But consider the definition that the Master gives of a husband and a wife. Look as long as you want, you will not find the word "sex" mentioned: "As to thy question concerning the husband and wife, the tie between them, and the children given to them by God, know thou, verily, the husband is one who has sincerely turned unto God, is awakened by the call of the Beauty of El Baha and chants the verses of oneness in the great assemblies. The wife is a being who wishes to be overflowing with and seeks after the attributes of God and His names; and the tie between them is no other than the Word of God." (SW, Vol. 9, p. 85) Not sex, the Word of God. Here is the rest of this Tablet. Search all you want, you will not find sex mentioned here either. "Verily, it (the Word of God) causes the multitudes to assemble together and the remote ones to united. Thus the husband and wife are brought into affinity, are united and harmonized, even as though they were one person. Through their mutual union, companionship and love great results are produced in the world, both material and spiritual. The spiritual result is the appearance of divine bounties. The material result is the children who are born in the cradle of the love of God, who are nurtured by the breast of the knowledge of God, are brought up in the bosom of the gift of God and are fostered in the lap of the training of God. Such children are those of whom it was said by Christ: "Verily, they are the children of the Kingdom.” ( Id. )
Some great advice for Nurses and Nursing Students
Posted on June 14, 2008 in Erectile dysfunction
Someone will always be smarter. Their house will be bigger. They will drive a better car. Their children will do better in school. And their partners will fix more things around the house. So let it go and love you and your circumstances. Think about it. The prettiest woman in the world can have hell in her heart. And the most highly favored woman on your job may be unable to have children. The richest woman you know - she's got the car, the house, the clothes - might be heartbreakingly lonely. So, love you. Love who you are right now. Tell yourself, "I am too blessed to be stressed." "To the world you might be one person, but to one person you just might be the world." Possibilities and miracles are one and the same. Author Unknown I received this in an email and thought it may be appropriate for nurses and nursing students of all kinds. Hang in there and remember that we are making a difference in people's lives. generic cialis viagra cheap viagra Generic Viagra
This is too cool from Grunt Doc's site
Posted on June 12, 2008 in Erectile dysfunction
Went surfing for the Grand Rounds and found this really good video about ER nurses. I usually don't like rap but it's old school!!
Dr. Helen's story
Posted on June 12, 2008 in Erectile dysfunction
I just read Dr. Helen's story via Grand Rounds and it really struck a chord. Too many times women ignore symptoms or are diagnosed with something insignificant and are missed completely until it's too late. I have been "poking a stick" at a health condition of my own and am finally going to take a very active role in getting diagnosed. I don't want to die trying! I have been diagnosed with Hypothyroidism but don't think it's the only condition I'm dealing with. I have been told that I have fibromyalgia. While I understand that it's a valid condition, I almost would rather have something that has a definitive test so I can feel less crazy. I have Lupus like symptoms but with a negative ANA titer. After doing some extensive web surfing, I think I have finally diagnosed myself. I now have to make a list of the determinant blood tests and go see my nurse practitioner. Sounds like a great plan! Now I have to get off my duff and do it. If any of you have been dealing with mysterious or not so mysterious symptoms, please do something about it. Health care professionals are really bad about not taking care of themselves because we are always trying to take care of others. You know who you are!!!!! Now for my elusive symptoms! Let's play diagnostician!! If you can guess what I think it is, please post so I can compare differential diagnoses. Are we ready to play?? Extreme fatigue Diffuse hair loss (no bald spots yet thank goodness! and not where I would like to be bald!) Butterfly rash when exposed to sunlight Knots underneath the skin from my knees to my hips and from my elbows to my shoulders that feel like a fibrotic mesh of pain from hell when any pressure applied. Tearing pain from my left inner knee to mid-thigh like someone just stabbed a knife and drug it upwards that comes and goes without any predisposing factors like exercise or rest Anxiety attacks at night that feel like I'm going to die any minute (the ones that feel like you are drifting out of your body and if you don't concentrate REALLY hard you might not come back) Curiously enough, if I was ready to die, the experience would be pleasant. I hope that's how it really feels to "let go". It won't be scary when I'm ready. Off I go to do more homework!! Eagerly awaiting any answers!!! Generic Viagra cialis viagra cheap cialis
Catchin' up on $4 generic drugs
Posted on June 10, 2008 in Generic drugs
Other pharmacies will soon be jumping on the $4 generic drug program. The Snyders Drug Store in Mankato has posted a handwritten sign saying "We will beat the price on any $4 generic drug." What does that mean? Their price is $3.99. Whether the chain will adopt the $3.99 price across all its stores is under consideration. Meanwhile, Minnesota Public Radio has pointed out the the $4 for a 30-day supply has some caveats. Some medications on the list will actually cost more. (Why are we not surprised?) The blame, apparently, is on a 70-year-old state law prohibiting the sale of drugs below cost. Minnesota is not unique in this exception as at least eight other states have similar laws, including California, Colorado and Wisconsin. Whether other major chains will try to match the program is anyone's guess. According to BenefitNews.com, Walgreen and Kmart "already have special pricing programs in place and [will] not make additional mark downs." As for other local stores and regional and national chains, stay tuned....