Kim’s public health blog

New http://www.ucalgary.ca/news/august2008/sids”>research at the University of Calgary</a> shows premature infants whose mothers smoked during pregnancy may be at higher risk for Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) than preemies whose mothers did not smoke. This is the first study to investigate the effect of low oxygen and cigarette smoke exposure on infants’ heart rate and breathing responses.  “Smoking during pregnancy has two very serious effects with respect to SIDS,” says Dr. Shabih Hasan, a neonatologist and Professor in the Department of Pediatrics at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Calgary.  “Not only does it raise the likelihood of a mother having a preterm baby, who are already among the most vulnerable to SIDS, but it increases those infants’ susceptibility to SIDS even further.”

A new study by University of Pennsylvania sociology professor Jason Schnittker shows that, while more Americans believe that mental illness has genetic causes, the nation is no more tolerant of the mentally ill than it was 10 years ago. According to Schnittker’s research, genetic arguments have, in fact, increased public support for medical treatment but at the same time aren’t clearly associated with improvements in overall tolerance levels. The study explores tolerance in terms of social distancing: unwillingness to live next door to a mentally ill person, have a group home for the mentally ill in the neighborhood, spend an evening socializing with a mentally ill person, work closely with such a person on the job, make friends with someone with a mental illness or have a mentally ill person marry into the family. Comment: I wonder how much of the problem cited above has to do with lawyers who use ‘mental ill health’ as a technique to get people out of punishment (99% of the time it fails) and the efforts of mental health activists to take over the entire budget of the US.

A “toxic combination” of poverty and social injustice is killing people on a grand scale, a World Health Organization report said Thursday, urging states to fund healthcare to cut inequalities. The Commission on the Social Determinants of Health, a report commissioned by the WHO and chaired by Sir Michael Marmot of University College London, said these health inequalities were avoidable but only if concerted efforts were made by governments and civil society.”Reducing health inequities is an ethical imperative. Social injustice is killing people on a grand scale,” the report said.

Wed, 08/27/2008 – 15:53. By LEE BOWMAN, Scripps Howard News Service. Hundreds of thousands of children are going to school this fall without protection from deadly diseases. More parents are deciding not to vaccinate their children against mumps, measles, rubella, polio and other dangerous diseases. The parents are refusing to vaccinate because of concerns that the vaccinations themselves are harmful, or because of the growing cost and complexity of getting the shots. Comment: The Harm done by ignorant activists seems to make raise few concerns!

ScienceDaily — California’s state tobacco control program saved $86 billion — in 2004 dollars — in personal healthcare costs in its first 15 years, according to a study by researchers at the University of California, San Francisco. California’s state tobacco control program saved $86 billion–in 2004 dollars–in personal healthcare costs in its first 15 years, according to a study by researchers at the University of California, San Francisco. During the same period, the state spent only a total of $1.8 billion on the program, a 50-to-1 return on investment, according to study findings. The study is the first that has been able to quantifiably connect tobacco control to healthcare savings, say its authors.

Medscape reported that “for decades, women have been urged to perform a monthly breast self-examination (BSE), but recently, an increasing number of organizations have backed away from recommending routine self-exams.” Several “studies evaluating the benefit of BSE have shown decidedly mixed results and, last month, a flurry of media stories reported on a Cochrane analysis that showed that BSE does not improve breast cancer survival and might, in fact, cause harm.” But, “Mark Kane Goldstein, Ph.D., and H.S. Pennypacker, Ph.D., both members of the…research team that identified and validated the standards for proficient breast examination, with the support of the National Cancer Institute, pointed out in a detailed response that the media coverage was misleading, contained a number of errors, and omitted critical information.”

Researchers supported in part by the National Institute of Mental Health, part of the National Institutes of Health, found an association between the disorder and variation in two genes that make components of channels that manage the flow of the elements into and out of cells, including neurons. “A neuron’s excitability — whether it will fire — hinges on this delicate equilibrium, “explained Pamela Sklar, M.D., Ph.D., of Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and the Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, who led the research. “Finding statistically robust associations linked to two proteins that may be involved in regulating such ion channels — and that are also thought to be targets of drugs used to clinically to treat bipolar disorder — is astonishing.”

Stroke Incidence Declines Among Swedish Diabetics — The incidence of strokes among both diabetics and nondiabetics in Northern Sweden declined between 1985 and 2003. The overall decline in strokes among diabetics may be partly due to more intensive treatment of hypertension, smoking cessation and cholesterol-lowering efforts. More recurrent strokes occurred among diabetic than nondiabetic patients, so more intensive secondary prevention for diabetic patients is needed. Comment: It is difficult to extrapolate studies in small relatively homogenous countries with universal health care to the U.S. Such studies need replicating in more heterogeneous groups first. Further the tactics use are well known in the U.S. but the US population does not respond to national direction in the same way. .

A new study issued by the Kaiser Family Foundation’s Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured finds that the uninsured will spend $30 billion out-of-pocket for health care in 2008 while receiving $56 billion in uncompensated care, three quarters of which will be from government sources. These findings were published in a web-exclusive article in Health Affairs today.

ANN ARBOR, Mich.—New research suggests that cadmium is one of the critical ingredients causing emphysema, and even low-level exposure attained through second-hand smoke and other means may also increase the chance of developing lung disease. The University of Michigan School of Public Health study suggests that higher cadmium levels in the body as much as double the risk of developing a pulmonary disease diagnosis such as emphysema or chronic bronchitis. “The study suggests that the critical ingredient in smoking that may be causing emphysema is cadmium, a well-known contaminant of cigarette smoke,” said Howard Hu, professor at the U-M School of Public Health and principal investigator in the study. “The worry is if you are exposed to this (cadmium) through other sources you can also be at risk for emphysema.” Non-smokers are exposed to cadmium when they eat contaminated foods or inhale second-hand smoke, as well as through a host of occupational exposures. Cadmium is a metal that is difficult for the body to dispel, Hu said, because kidneys tend to retain cadmium, and it recycles into the body.