Dentist New York,NY-Dr Lawrence Spindel Health News You Can Use

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 Health News You Can Use

By Dr Lawrence Spindel

 

This is a monthly column detailing health information gathered from various sources that may be helpful to the general public.  You may have already heard about some of the items mentioned, but surely some will be new to you.  This page is the idea of and sponsored by www.cognitivedoctor.com   .

 

May 2008

It seems like a new 'killer' virus has turned up in China.  The virus has been dubbed foot an mouth disease, since sufferers can have ulcers in the mouth and blisters on hands, feet and buttocks.  The virus seems most deadly to small children under 6 years old.  According to the New York Times, most sufferers recover in about a week, but so far there have been 22 reported fatalities. Also the Times article repoted" the World Health Organization warned that the disease, which thrives in warm weather and passes easily among children, could spread in the coming summer months"

April 2008

Both Google are working on systems for online medical records.  Placing our medical record online in a centralized and accessible place can improve our health care but also could , without the proper precautions could lead to potential abuse of our privacy.  The New York Times cited an article recently written in the New England Journal of Medicine and pointed out that Google and Microsoft are currently "not bound by the privacy restrictions of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, or Hipaa, the main law that regulates personal data handling and patient privacy. Hipaa, enacted in 1996, did not anticipate Web-based health records systems like the ones Microsoft and Google now offer".

The lack of current regulation about online health records does not negate the potential value of making health record available to those who may help us (doctors and researchers), but clearly more regulations and safeguards for our privacy are necessary

 

March 2008

A new lollipop has come on the market that claims to be able to 'fight tooth decay'. This sounds too good to be true. The lollipop was developed based on research by a professor at the UCLA Medical and Dental School, Dr. Wenyuan Shi . The candy is called Dr John's herbel lollipop and the companies web site claims"One Dr. John's Herbal Lollipop, two times per day for 10 days, disables tooth decay bacteria for 12-27 weeks. Therefore, use the lollipop dosing 20-Pack between two and four times per year, depending upon the patient’s decay history and oral hygiene condition, to maintain effectiveness"   According to an article found in ScienceDaily,Feb 5,2006 "The orange-flavored, sugar-free lollipop they devised is infused with a natural ingredient found in licorice that kills the primary bacterium causing tooth decay, Streptococcus mutans."   

February 2008

February is National Children's Dental Health Month. It has been observed every February for more than 55 years. The American Dental Association (ADA) sponsors it  to raise awareness among families and policymakers about the importance to children of good practices of oral health. If you are already one of our patients check out our gift certificate page!

According to the New York Times "Polling has found that health care is a top concern of Democratic voters, and that they rank covering the uninsured as more important than reducing health costs or improving quality." Hillary Clinton has emphasized the need for universal coverage as an important issue for the country. Barak Obama also maintains that this continues to be an important issue.

January 2008

According to Bloomberg News (Jan 16,2008)"A rebellion by U.K. dentists against the latest government contract has led more than 7 million Britons to avoid state-subsidized dental care in the past two years." Furthermore the article states "Since the government changed its contract with 21,000 NHS dentists in April 2006, one in 10 dentists stopped offering state-funded services, saying the contract required them to increase their workloads while limiting their earnings".  Evidently, people in the U.K. are having more difficulty getting appointments at their public health service dentists and some are frustrated.  The article went on to point out that there is even a trend of Brits seeking their dental care in other countries.

An article in the New York Times' Style section(Thursday, January 10, 2008) reported on a trend for dentists to bring out their own branded cosmetic dentistry products.   They mentioned three Manhttan Dentists who have developed their own whitening products.  The article points out that "...without adequate comapative studies it is hard to say a dentist made whitener is more effective than,say the 51 whitening toothpastes and 14 whitening toothpastes and 14 whitening kits sold by the Duane Reade chain."  Although I do  think that some of the gels that are offered through dental offices are somewhat better than over the counter products, it is not clear that all dentist developed products are worthwhile!

 December 2007

Scientists at University of Pittsburgh may have developed a non invasive dye that may help detect early alzheimer's disease. Patients with alzheimer's disease have build ups in their brains of amyloid protein.  PIB is a new dye that can be used in conjunction with PET scans to find deposits of amyloid in the brains of live human beings.  Currently this dye is being used to test the efficacy of anti alzheimers drugs, but eventually it may be of use in the early detection and treatment of alzheimers disease.

 

New research shows that the flu is best transmitted in relatively cold dry weather(temperature about 41 degrees F).A New York Times article (December 5,2007) quotes Dr Peter Palese-Chairman of the Department of Microbiology at Mount Sinai Medical School and a Dr who did flu research with guinea pigs" Flu viruses are more stable in cold air, and low humidity also helps the virus particles remain in the air. That is because the viruses float in the air in little respiratory droplets. When the air is humid, those droplets pick up water, grow larger and fall to the ground." The conclusion was we are most likely to get the Flu out side on the way to work and not inside where it is warm.  Also the Flu virus doesn't do well in warm humid environments.  There is no Flu in the tropics. 

According to the Times article Dr. Palese does not suggest staying in a greenhouse all winter to avoid the flu. The best strategy, he says, is a flu shot.

November 2007

According to article in the New York Times (November 29,2007), Americans,who are being X-rayed at a higher rate than ever,maybe getting exposed to a greater cancer risk. F'urther more, an article published in the New England Journal of Medicine, maintains that the greater use of Cat Scans may in part be responsible and over time it may lead to an increase in radiation enduced cancers. Eric Hall, a co-author of the report was quoted as saying "we are very concerned about the built-up public health risk over a long period of time”

Starting next year British Doctors making the rounds in hospitals will no longer be tied by ties.  Doctors ties have been found to harbour infectious bacteria and ties are not regularly laundered so they may help spread nosocomial infections.  "British hospitals are banning neckties, long sleeves and jewelry for doctors and their traditional white coats in an effort to stop the spread of deadly hospital-borne infections, according to new rules Associated Press .  It is hoped that this may help limit the spread of MRSA.

 

Walking fast may be good for you. Studies of older adults are reporting that those who walk faster live longer. The New York Times reports( 11/20/07)that " Researchers who followed the health of nearly 500 older people for almost a decade found that those who walked more quickly were less likely to die over the course of the study."

Also It has been reported that elderly who improve the speed of their walking , improve the odds of living longer. This study was published in the Journal of Geriatrics Society

 

October 2007

The three main Democratic presidential candidates have all proposed offering private health insurance to uninsured americans. According to the New York Times (October 20, 2007)They all have proposed the same thing; that we "adapt the health care program that covers Congress and offer it to the 47 million Americans currently without insurance."

Hillary Rodham Clinton has stated that “The American people should have access to the same array of health care choices and benefits as the senators and representatives they elect."

The times article quotes health policy experts as saying that "there is nothing about it that would help address what they see as an underlying reason for the growing numbers of uninsured: the nation’s runaway medical costs. And without major changes, they say, the model would be sharply limited in achieving the goal of universal coverage for all Americans."

 

An article published recently by Reuters reports that" A survey of 5,200 patients showed that some six percent of patients have begun doing a spot of home dentistry, a quarter had chosen to pay a private dentist and that 10 percent of patients had no dentist at all because they could not find one on the National Health Service (NHS)."

 The article went on to say this trend may be an indication of British patients inabiltiy to find a good public health dentist nearby who will see them.

 

More News over the trend to rate healthcare quality: Presidential Candidate John McCain has unvailed his healthcare initiative and it includes" new incentives for both patients and doctors to emphasize prevention and wellness, while moving toward compensating medical providers based on the quality of their work." (NYTimes Octover 11,2007)  His plan includes a proposal to somehow link payments to doctors in part on their performance.

osteonecrosis of the jaw. The brand name of some of these popularly prescribed drugs are: Actonel ,Boniva, Fosamax, Fosamaz Plus D, Skelid and Didonel. 

Clearly if you are taking this class of medications you should discuss it with your dentist.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dentist New York