See u on the next project

Hello everybody,

I really apologies (again :-S) for disappear a long while last weeks. The last days have been crazy so I didn't have time enough to update with a last officially posting on this domain. This one.

Since this project started over 3-4 months ago, I have been somehow surprised with the amount of views the most of my posts had. I have been gratefully amazed. However, the workload required more time than expected considering that I must read rather press media as well as screening the news according to the issues of this blog.

This was the first time I decided to embrace the adventure of creating a blog. It has been more than a simply enriching experience where I have learnt more than I though as started. At the most important, I had fun doing it!

That's way I'm gonna' focus on a new project:

http://laesquizo.blogspot.com/

After studying a huge load of information about this mental disease I found out there is no so many websites around the Net talking about this malignant disease and there are some gaps that it would be possible to cover them.

I'll post either english or spanish as I did so far and I would like you follow me on this new project as you did in the former.

Just let me say: THANKS FOR ALL YOUR ATTENTION

Hello everybody!

First at all, my apologies if I didn't update at all the blog last days. I have been so busy (more than expected indeed) so that's one of the reasons because I write this.

The second reason it's due to I have been thinking over in replace this blog for another, more focused on a matter than this one where I have been posting as well as writing about different issues.

I will keep you informed of my next steps...

See u around!

A call for more opioid dependence treatment

A new report from Simon Fraser University researcher Bohdan Nosyk calls for the expansion of heroin and opioid medical treatment to stem the increase of overdose deaths.

"Prescription opioid abuse and overdose is on the rise throughout North America," says the SFU Health Sciences associate professor and lead author of the study that was published in Health Affairs. "Opioid overdose is now the second-leading cause of accidental death in the U.S., behind only motor-vehicle accidents.

"People from all walks of life, including youths, are accessing these drugs and the consequences are deadly."

The report highlights increases in the prevalence and hazards related to the use of opioids, such as heroin, and prescription opioids like oxycodone, in Canada and the United States, and the gap in treatment availability in both countries.

Evidence shows that methadone and buprenorphine, two forms of opioid substitution therapy, are effective at retaining clients in treatment. Prolonged retention in treatment can lead to reductions in illicit drug use, overdoses, behaviours that increase the risk of contracting HIV, and criminal activity. As a result, treatment has been shown to be highly cost-effective.

The study makes several recommendations to expand access to evidence-based medical treatment, including:

 - Eliminating restrictions on methadone prescribing
 - Reducing financial barriers to treatment
 - Reducing reliance on opioid detoxification treatment
 - Integrating emerging treatments

There is serious concern for the consequences that may result if effective opioid addiction treatment continues to be limited, says Nosyk, who is also a health economist with the B.C. Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS.

"In the absence of readily-available treatment, some of the prescribed opioid users who are becoming dependent will switch from pills to injecting heroin in search of a more potent high," he says.

"This would compound the challenges we have in the fight against HIV/AIDS and Hepatitis C at a time when new technology and treatment options for these conditions are turning the tide."

Source

Regular walking found to boost memory in those with ‘mild cognitive impairment’

‘Mild cognitive impairment’ describes a reduction in brain function that is not advanced enough to be described as ‘dementia’. It’s usually described via psychological testing. As yet, there is no recognised medical treatment for it. That doesn’t mean, of course, that nothing can be done about it, and in fact some recent evidence suggests that one approach that might help is exercise.

This study, conducted at the University of Maryland School of Public Health in the US, tested the effect of regular treadmill walking on individuals with and without mild cognitive impairment [1]. The intensity of exercise was described as ‘moderate’ (say, enough to work up a sweat but not so much that someone is unable to talk) and the study lasted 12 weeks. The average age of the study participants was 78.

The subjects were tested psychologically and also with ‘functional magnetic resonance imaging’ (fMRI) – which visualises activity in the brain.

The walking programme improved brain function in those with mild cognitive impairment, specifically on a memory task (remembering a list of words). The study also shows that during the task, there was reduced activity in several areas of the brain, including regions that are often affected in Alzheimer’s disease. Reduced activity is generally seen as a good thing, as it essentially signifies that, in this case, less ‘effort’ was required to complete the mental task.

As an added bonus, the study subjects also saw a 10 per cent rise in their fitness, on average.

There are a number of known ways in which regular activity may improve and help preserve brain function:

- Structural changes in the brain, including enlargement of the hippocampus (a part of the brain concerned with memory) and a reduction in the loss of grey matter.
- The stimulation of what are known as ‘brain derived neurotropic factors’ which, among other things, facilitate brain cell communication.
- Enhanced blood supply to the brain.

In a way, the beauty of this intervention is that it is realistic for most people, even those relatively advanced in years. For those who are not infirm, I’d suggest that even more benefits may be had from activity taken outdoors, seeing as sunlight appears to have the ability to improve mood and mental functioning, and this is particularly important in the winter.

Source

Comparación de precios de fármacos entre Colombia y España

Fuente

Farmacéuticas extranjeras hacen experimentos con más de 23 mil peruanos

El INS investigó casos por violaciones a las buenas prácticas clínicas que ocasionaron daños serios y muertes de participantes

Nueve farmacéuticas extranjeras reclutan voluntarios para probar la seguridad y eficacia de sus nuevos productos antes de presentarlos al mercado. Según los registros de autorizaciones del Instituto Nacional de Salud (INS), 23.207 personas están enroladas actualmente en 300 experimentos que realizan laboratorios internacionales en 137 hospitales, clínicas, consultorios y hasta organizaciones no gubernamentales del Perú. Se trata de una actividad que continúa creciendo en nuestro país.

Este millonario y poco transparente negocio rebasa la capacidad del Estado. Comenzó el 2007 luego de que el entonces ministro de Salud, Carlos Vallejos, flexibilizara los trámites y condiciones para la experimentación médica con personas a través de 35 modificaciones al Reglamento Nacional de Ensayos Clínicos, que había sido aprobado en julio del 2006.

Justamente, Vallejos fue propulsor del cambio que dio lugar a un ‘boom’ de permisos y hoy figura entre los 15 médicos que concentran de 10 a más contratos con laboratorios y entidades privadas para ejecutar experimentos médicos con personas en el país, de acuerdo con los reportes del INS a los que accedió El Comercio, a través de una solicitud de información pública.

La información financiera y los pagos por esta actividad se considera confidencial. Pero profesionales que laboran en el campo –y que prefirieron mantener su nombre en reserva- revelaron que por cada persona enrolada para las prácticas, los médicos reciben de 500 a 13 mil dólares, y que los montos aumentan dependiendo de los riesgos del producto en investigación y la complejidad de los procedimientos.

VIOLACIONES A LAS BUENAS PRÁCTICAS

Desde que existe un reglamento para la experimentación con personas en el país, el INS investigó 19 casos por violaciones a las buenas prácticas clínicas que ocasionaron daños serios y muertes de participantes en experimentos. Sin embargo, la norma no contempla una escala de sanciones a los financistas y médicos que violan las buenas prácticas clínicas durante investigaciones y ocasionan daños serios o la muerte de personas.

Un caso es el del cardiólogo Álex Gallegos Cazorla. El INS determinará si ratifica o levanta la sanción en su contra por reclutar a un paciente para el experimento de una farmacéutica, en el hospital Daniel Alcides Carrión del Callao, y abandonarlo cuando su salud sufrió daños irreversibles que lo condujeron a la muerte en el 2011.

Ramón Ríos Astudillo (56) ingresó el 9 de setiembre del 2009 a un estudio para probar la eficacia del anticoagulante Apixiban, del laboratorio Brystol Myers Squibb Perú S.A.C., dirigido a personas con el diagnóstico de síndrome coronario agudo (arterias obstruidas por la coagulación de la sangre). “El doctor Gallegos le dijo a mi esposo que sería una buena alternativa para su enfermedad, pero Ramón sufrió demasiadas complicaciones. Le tuvieron que amputar la pierna izquierda en el 2010 y el médico se desentendió del todo”, narró a El Comercio, Victoria Izarnótegui viuda de Ríos, quien desde hace dos años reclama justicia.

Fuente

Overweight children have higher risk of asthma

Children who are overweight or obese are more likely to develop asthma compared with children of a healthy weight, according to a study published in the American Journal of Epidemiology.

Researchers from Kaiser Permanente in California examined electronic health records of 623,358 children between the ages of 6 and 19.

 The children were divided into four groups based on their measured height and weight.:

- Normal weight
- Overweight
- Moderately obese
- Extremely obese

All children were monitored over the course of 1 year in order to analyze the prevalence of asthma.

The results of the study revealed that children who were overweight were 1.16 times more likely to develop asthma compared with children who were of a normal weight.

Moderately obese children were 1.23 times more likely to develop the condition, while extremely obese children were 1.37 times more at risk.

Of the children who developed asthma, it was found that moderately obese and extremely obese children were more likely to develop regular and aggressive forms of asthma compared with children of normal weight, resulting in hospital visits and treatment with oral corticosteroids - medication used to reduce inflammation and swelling in the airways.

Asthma risk dependent on age, race and sex

The research also revealed that the effects of body weight and asthma varied depending on race/ethnicity, age and sex.

Moderately obese girls between the ages of 6 and 10 had a 1.36 times higher risk of asthma than girls of normal weight the same age, while extremely obese girls had a 1.56 times higher risk.

Moderately obese Asian-Pacific Islander children had a 1.41 times higher risk of developing the condition, while extremely obese children of this race were at 1.67 times higher risk.

'Close monitoring' needed for asthmatic obese children

Mary Helen Black, lead study author, says:

"As a result of this research, we know that children who are overweight or obese - particularly young girls and Asian-Pacific Islander children - are more likely to develop asthma. With this knowledge, we can work to develop programs to prevent asthma in high-risk groups. Physicians might also monitor obese children with asthma more closely, since these children tend to have a more severe type of asthma."

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), there are currently 7.1 million children in the US suffering from asthma.

It is the most common chronic condition amongst children, and accounts for more than 13 million total missed days at school each year.

The researchers say that although other studies have acknowledged a link between childhood obesity and asthma, there have not been many large-scale studies in the US confirming this.

Therefore, the researchers at Kaiser Permanente plan to continue their ongoing work to better understand how body weight and body mass index in childhood can increase asthma risk.

Source