Articulatory Loop

Science can be frustrating to many people because it doesn't provide much in the way of certainty: last year's miracle cure becomes this week's leading carcinogen. Most scientists revel in this process of testing, rejecting, waiting, testing, not-rejecting, et cetera. Because science dictates that you can never "prove" something, only "disprove" it.

And oh, how many beliefs we hold based on flawed evidence, incomplete study, or simply folk knowledge. It turns out that some seem true, and other prove false:

Your mother always told you that pizza and twinkies would give you pizza face. A small clinical trial from Australia found that a lower-glycemic index diet with more protein significantly reduced acne in participants - another good reason to adopt such a healthier diet.

Your mom knows stuff, but the societal moms may not: prevailing wisdom has been that "bad kids" do worse in school, but two studies suggest that this is not necessarily (or even usually) the case. Even kids with ADHD (which is grossly overdiagnosed, so I question the findings) seem to just develop slower, and are at the same level as their peers by grade 5.

Then societal mom also want kids to never, EVER, have sex, at least until they are long past adulthood. Because it means that they're just delinquents, right? Wrong. A terribly clever UVa analysis found that teens and preteens who had had consensual sex were in fact less likely to end up being labeled 'delinquent.'

Speaking of sexual myths, a multi-national survey found that as many as 40% of people believe that AIDS isn't fatal anymore, and many of them even think that there's a cure. Memo to world: AIDS IS STILL INCURABLE AND LETHAL!!!

And finally, there's the persistent myth that the US has great quality healthcare and outcomes. Among other things, we continue to have a ridiculously high infant mortality rate, especially considering our neonatal care expenditures.


----------------
Now playing: Dengue Fever - Saran Wrap
via FoxyTunes

Labels: acne, contradiction, delinquency, development, diet, health, healthcare, infant mortality, science, sex, teenagers

I won't name the publication, because it's too awful*, but suffice to say it's a prominent healthcare management journal. In an article about strategic planning, the authors suggest setting performance goals for the upcoming year:

Quality: Achieve top 50th percentile for clinical performance
Operations: Achieve top 75th percentile salaries, wages, and benefits, and supplies costs

I mean really. Talk about setting a low bar to begin with, but also look at where the higher bar is. The message here is clear to hospital managers: you are a business first and a care provider second; either way you're not expecting spectacular results.

Anyone still confused as to why we have such crappy healthcare in this country?


*Actually yes, I will: Bachrodt and Smyth, Strategic Business Planning, Healthcare Financial Management; Nov 2004; 58, 11; pp 60-66.

Labels: appalling, classwork, greed, healthcare, management, quality

My first week of my internship has been tons of fun, but very busy. Thus, here are a ton of quick-link type things to the many big important sciencey news stories that are going on:

American and Japanese people read faces very differently, the former focusing on the mouth and the latter on eyes. It makes for a very interesting contrast, and has interesting implications even beyond emoticons - :-) versus (^_^).

Taking tons of vitamin supplements may be linked to more malignant and fatal cancers: bloody eat your vegetables and take less pills people!

British food is notoriously tasteless: it may also be less nutritious! A Warwick study found that boiling brassicas (broccoli and the like) for 30 minutes severely reduces the amount of cancer-fighting glucosinolate in the meal. Why the fuck would you boil a vegetable for 30 minutes, even if you're English?!?!?

California researchers found that N-acetylglucosamine, which is similar to but is NOT the popular supplement glucosamine, may help block the autoimmune responses seen in multiple sclerosis and diabetes type I. Cool!

US still has worst, most expensive healthcare in the "industrialized world."

The US and DC have reached agreement on a plan to 'fix' St. Elizabeth's Hospital...including such lofty goals as halting patient abuse. This old place has been in trouble for so long, that it'll be really kinda weird if they ever do fix it up! But I hope they do, since aside from being necessary to help mental patients in DC, it's a gorgeous old campus.

And the NIH has given Erin Brockovich more to crow about. They've finally released findings that Chromium 6 may indeed cause cancer by ingestion, not just inhalation. Whether or not this means that the EPA will actually act to reduce its release into the environment is an entirely different issue.

Labels: autoimmune, cancer, chromium, culture, DC, diabetes, emotion, health, healthcare, mental health, science, St. Elizabeth's

Sometimes, especially in health, stuff designed to make things better don't work that well. The FDA has approved the first vaccine for avian (H5N1) flu, but some are concerned that it's only effective in about 45% of people. The prostate-specific antigen (PSA) test, given to many men to check for prostate cancer, is not very good at predicting benign versus malignant tumors. The problem there is that treatment for prostate cancer is expensive, painful, and usually has unpleasant after-effects (like impotence), and you don't want to do it unnecessarily. And then there ethanol-fueled cars.

Hailed as an eco-friendlier source, ethanol might just be better left in drinks: ethanol-fueled cars might cause a dramatic rise in ground-level ozone. I don't really buy this study, as it fails to account for why the outcome hasn't been seen in Brazil, which has a major ethanol-based fuel economy, but I also don't buy ethanol-as-fuel as a good solution to our energy woes, so...

On the upside, there's good news for those who like "natural" and herbal remedies! It seems that older women who breastfeed are less likely to develop breast cancer. So using your breasts is good for them. (insert 12-year-old snickering here) On the herbal front, it appears that the Ayurvedic blend triphala is a potent killer of pancreatic tumors, and Hopkins researchers have developed a class of oxidising compounds which mimic Artemisinin's malaria-killing powers, only much more strongly. OK, not precisely herbal, but based-on.

Labels: Artemisinin, avian flu, Ayurveda, breast cancer, breastfeeding, breasts, ethanol, FDA, fuel, H5N1, health, healthcare, herbal remedies, ozone, science, vaccine

I'm sick. I have what a person we'll identify as TL - not because he's at innocent but because his actual initials are kinda amusing in my medicated states - called "something in the lungs, sinus, and spirit." In my case it is more aptly called a "vile affliction of the lungs and soul."

I was getting better, I thought, on Friday (the deep, wet cough appeared Thursday morning), but Saturday night brought a shallower, wheezing cough and the fever. NSAIDs have pretty much no effect on me, and I worry about immune suppression so I don't take them anyways (I just load up on vitamin C, zinc, salt gargles and other likely placebos). Fine, I got a good rest Saturday night, but woke Sunday to little improvement.

I felt better that evening, but decided to go to bed early (9:00) to shake the last bit off. Sleep would not come. The fever intensified, and I sweat like hell all night, even after the Tylenol PM I took at 3 AM kicked in. I woke this morning with the fever and cough and aches intact.

But did I skip class? Did I ask for an extension on any of my millions of assignments due this week? Of course not. Because I am stupid. Like millions of others, especially in the US. That (besides the need utilize the boyfriend substitute quality of the internets for ranting purposes) is the point of today's rant.

Our culture is to the point where, even if you have them, taking sick days is viewed as weakness, laziness, or irresponsibility. Taking sick leave can get you passed over on interesting projects, promotions, etc. And that's if you have any at all, which apparently 47% of Americans don't.

At my last job,our sick, vacation, and personal leave came from the same (14 day per year) pool. If you got sick, you kissed that second honeymoon, visit to grandmother, or mental health roadtrip goodbye. Needless to say, no it was rare anybody called in sick, unless it was something spectacular - putting everyone's health at risk, and driving up the costs of our care.

This needs to be a priority in any political party's health reform platform. /Rant.

Labels: healthcare, illness, presenteeism, rant, sick, vacation