C M G Buttery

A quote from a discussion at a meeting reported in the BMJ today â€?CMS is clearly the big kahuna, paying out over $300 billion for health care last year. CMS is managing a “care improvement program”, a huge randomized trial of 20,000 Medicare enrollees, each of whom is in some sort of disease management program. [...]

Today tthe MMWR released the Recommendations of the Preconception Work Group. All health directors and public health nurses will want to read and keep this set of recommendations.

An amusing story with a moral in today’s London Telegraph The argument runs that, for those who are either unable to stop eating or lack the ability to gauge when they are full, a drug that curbs appetite with negligible side effects could be a godsend. Very few diets actually work and those that have [...]

Ethyl Mercury, used in dental amalgams does not cause mental retardation or other mental illnesses. This new study in JAMA this week clearly demonstrates lack of effect. The thoughtful accompanying editorial points out that more than one study may be needed to settle the issue is worth resding.. When we consider the millions of dollars [...]

In the April 15 Lancet an editorial focuses on the US AIDS/HIV prevention package, PEPFAR, provided through the WHO. PEPFAR hopes to secure US$15 billion in funding between 2004 and 2008. 15 countries that are especially badly affected by HIV will receive $9 billion between them: 12 countries from Africa, plus Guyana, Haiti, and Vietnam. [...]

In a strongly worded review published in the recent edition of The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), the head of the Johns Hopkins Diabetes Center urges physicians and patients to better use the blood-testing tools at hand to manage the disease and prevent most of its dire impact on the heart, kidneys, nerves [...]

In a recent blog I revisited Ivan Illich’s essay on the dangers of the medical profession to the health of the population. From the BMJ news this week is an interesting report: Disease awareness campaigns turn healthy people into patients. We need to be careful. the the medical marketplace can detract from the public health [...]

Another useful dietary update from the Mayo Clinic If you enjoy shellfish but are reluctant to eat it because of worries about cholesterol, take heart. Blue mussels, broiled scallops or a fine Maine lobster are actually heart-healthy protein sources. Most shellfish are not only low in cholesterol, but they can also be rich sources of [...]

A simple 3-second office screening test may enable pediatricians to identify amblyopia, or vision loss in one eye, in children as young as two, report ophthalmologists at Children’s Hospital Boston in the April Archives of Ophthalmology. Amblyopia, also known as “lazy eye,” affects 3 to 5 percent of all children and is the leading cause [...]

This article from the CDC journal on Chronic Diseases researches health related information on the Web. The most important features of the Internet that would encourage its use for health information were ease of finding and using the information and clarity of the information provided. Internet use differed by sex and age and was strongly [...]