March « 2010 « Silver Buzz Cafe

Easter Eggs May Be Good For You

The Europeans really love their chocolate Easter eggs. Stores have large displays of them, often with dozens of different kinds, in sizes ranging from mini-eggs (quail sized) to two or more feet high. They’re often decorated with icing or marzipan and can be filled with solid creme, chocolate candies or small gifts, usually toys. A study by researchers at the German Institute of Human Nutrition in Nuthetal has shown that the effects of eating chocolate depend on how much is eaten, what it substitutes for and the kind of chocolate. [...]

Everyone’s Guide to Medical Equipment – Part 17 – More Life Support Devices

So far in this series we’ve covered: the basic equipment that you would expect to see in a physician’s office or a medical clinic; monitoring devices; laboratory equipment; advanced diagnostic and surgical equipment. In the previous article we started looking at life support devices, focusing on various kinds of machine to help patients breath, or to keep their blood oxygenated and circulating while their lungs or hearts recover. In this article we’ll look at defibrillators, devices designed to start or stabilize the signals that make our hearts beat. [...]

How To Cut The Risk Of Heart Disease By A Fifth

]The United States Department of Agriculture ( USDA) recommends that we obtain less than 20 to 35 percent of our daily calories from fat. However, there are several kinds of fat to worry about and a new study verifies that it’s particularly important to reduce our saturated fat intake. The trick appears to be to reduce overall intake and replace saturated fats with polyunsaturated fats. [...]

Senate Long Term Care Hearing - A Second Opinion

Yesterday we wrote about testimony from the American Association of Homes and Services for the Aging (AAHSA) to the U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging that identifies a Catch-22 situation that nurses frequently find themselves in. Today, we look at a different view of the same situation, whose proponents argue that the real problem is off-label use of antipsychotic drugs. [...]

Long Term Care Nurses Caught In Catch-22 Situation

About forty percent of physicians working in long-term care serve multiple facilities, do not maintain an office-based practice and consult with nurses via telephone if a resident’s needs change quickly. So, nurses in long-term care facilities ( LTCFs) play a vital role in communicating with physicians about residents under their care. Standard practice is for nurses to record the physician’s verbal orders, including medication requirements, then ensure that they are carried out. However, a new Catch-22 has emerged as a result of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration’s (DEA’s) outdated and cumbersome regulations. [...]

Health Care Reform Timeline

It’s been a long and arduous haul for the health care reform bill, which was finally passed as two bills: the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (HR 3590 and Public Law 111-148), signed into law by President Obama on March 23, 2010; and the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 (H.R. 4872), passed by both houses on March 25, 2010 and awaiting the President’s signature. Here’s a timeline of significant events in the passage of this bill. [...]

Health Care Reconciliation Bill Passes

It’s done! The House has voted to pass the minor changes made in the Senate.

Tomorrow we’ll look back on a tumultuous debate that will forever characterize the political scene in 2009.

It’s a long way from perfect, but it’s a huge step for the greatest nation on Earth. [...]

Health Care Reform Sends the Tea Party Thugs Crazy

It would be nice to be positive about the Republicans’ role in the health care reform process, but when we look back at the lies and fear mongering that the GOP decided would be their strategy for preventing reform, rather than putting forward viable, constructive ideas, there was a foreseeable outcome – mayhem and violence. The Tea Party, a movement created by an extreme right-winger and the Fox News Republican political campaign channel, has now resorted to violence, mainly directed agains politicians, but also exhibiting a very disturbing, racist and homophobic bias. [...]

Everyone’s Guide to Medical Equipment – Part 16 – Life Support Devices

In this article (part of a series on medical equipment) we’ll start looking at the many forms of life support equipment. Some of it is portable, used in emergency situations, while others have become a standard part of surgical operations, recovery and life sustainment. [...]

Nearly There - Historic Health Care Reform Act Passes

Finally! Well, almost… late on Sunday, March 21, 2010, the House passed the health care reform bill, despite the vigorous and sometimes infuriating or comical opposition of most Republicans and some Democrats. The mechanism that they used, passing the inadequate Senate bill without change, then voting for a reconciliation process, means that there are still many things to be fixed, but many Americans will start seeing benefits straight away. In this article we’ll look at the benefits that click in straight away and the things that remain to be done. [...]

New Health Threat Emerges - Drug Resistant TB

TB is spread through the air. It tends to attack children and younger adults in underdeveloped countries, but older people are more at risk in the developed countries. There was no cure for TB until the availability of modern antibiotics, starting with penicillin in 1928. By the middle of the twentieth century, it was generally thought that TB was nearly under control worldwide and practically eradicated in the developed countries. However, drug-resistant strains started to emerge in the 1980s. The latest report on TB from the World Health Organization ( WHO) says that strains of tuberculosis that are resistant to the normal drug treatments are spreading across the globe. [...]

Hiding Our CO2 Problem

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and Shell are proposing to conduct a carbon dioxide (CO2) sequestration experiment in the Montevista Hills in the Sacramento Delta region of Northern California, not far from where we live. Similar experiments have started, or are planned, across the nation. Is this a fix for the greenhouse gas problem? Or will it cause problems of its own? [...]

$60 Million Study Planned On Preventing Major Mobility Disabilities

Major mobility disability is defined as the inability to walk a quarter of a mile, or four blocks. Anything that helps delay or prevent this disability could help seniors maintain their physical independence and enhance their quality of life. Regular exercise has been proven to improve physical performance. However, there is no scientific proof that exercise can stave off or prevent major mobility disability. A new six-year study will try to determine whether or not a program of structured physical activity can prevent or delay major mobility disabilities in older adults. [...]

Experiment Reverses Aging Of Human Stem Cells

Stem cells are a special kind of cell found in multi-cellular organisms, including humans. They have the unique ability to renew themselves through cell division, creating a the wide range of specialized cell types that make up our tissue, organs and bodies. Human embryonic stem (hES) cells are extracted from the inner cell mass of an early stage embryo, known as a blastocyst. The human blastocyst stage is reached four to five days after fertilization, at which time the foetus consists of 50–150 cells. Human embryonic stem (hES) cells have great potential in the treatment of a wide range of diseases in which cells and tissues become damaged or dysfunctional and need to be replaced. Scientists have now found that some regular cells can be modified in ways that make them behave more like hES cells, with one strain exhibiting effects that amount to the reversal of the aging process. [...]

Of Cabbages and Kings

While we wait for the health care reform debate to move forward we may as well take a look at the man of the day – Saint Patrick, the best known patron saint of Ireland. The Irish and people of Irish descent all over the World celebrate his memory on this day, March 17th., every year. In the United States it’s traditional to eat corned beef and cabbage and to wear something green. Many bars serve green beer, something I’ve never taken a liking to, but it’s fun to watch other people enjoying it. Today we take a closer look at Saint Patrick. [...]

President Obama signed the second part (reconciliation) of the health care reform bill on March 30, 2010. That's great, but the provisions that will cover the uninsured haven't clicked in yet.

Our elected officials started work on the proposed health insurance reform bill on July 30, 2009. Harvard researchers estimate that 122 Americans die every day as a result of not having health insurance.

So, the estimated number of uninsured Americans who have died while the politicians in the Senate and Congress played politics and delayed new benefits for the sake of the health care insurers is

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“Green” Blogging

Easter Eggs May Be Good For You

Everyone’s Guide to Medical Equipment – Part 17 – More Life Support Devices

How To Cut The Risk Of Heart Disease By A Fifth

Health Care Reform Timeline

Health Care Reconciliation Bill Passes

Health Care Reform Sends the Tea Party Thugs Crazy

Everyone’s Guide to Medical Equipment – Part 16 – Life Support Devices

Nearly There - Historic Health Care Reform Act Passes

Hiding Our CO2 Problem

Of Cabbages and Kings

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