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Questioning the medical fringe: the “cultural doxy” of Catholic hydropathy in Belgium, 1890-1914.

admin — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 01:25:19 +0000

Authors: Peeters E
The relationship between orthodox (mainstream) medicine and heterodox (fringe) medicine during the nineteenth century continues to puzzle historians of medicine. Though many have qualified the sharp antagonism between the two as a (biased) historical construct, it remains difficult to lay bare the common problems that structured mainstream and fringe. In this contribution on the reception of hydrotherapy in the Belgian fin de siÃÂ¨cle, I attempt to rethink the oppositional character of nineteenth-century fringe medicine at an empirical level. In many ways, I argue, Belgian hydropaths were prototypical proponents of medical heterodoxy, as they defended neohumoralist medical conceptions and shared an integrated Catholic “cosmology”. Their moderate critique of bacterio…

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Vivus’s Qnexa Gets Thumbs Down From Mixed FDA Panel

admin — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 01:24:59 +0000

Ruthanne Williams Roussel submits:

As many will know by now, an FDA briefing panel July 15 recommended against approval of Vivus’ (VVUS) obesity drug candidate Qnexa by a vote of 10 to 6. This was originally announced as a vote of 9 to 7, but a new electronic voting system was in use, and it must have been a little confusing, because one panelist later claimed that they had unintentionally voted "Yes" for approval instead of "No" against. (Insert "Jim, I’m a doctor, not an electronic voter!" joke here.)

The main concerns cited about Qnexa were:

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Left to Their Own Devices: Breakdowns in United States Medical Device Premarket Review

admin — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 01:24:53 +0000

Using examples from recent FDA regulatory proceedings, Jonas Hines and colleagues critique the medical device premarket review and identify eight weaknesses in the process that should be remedied.

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Too Much TV Puts Tots at Risk

admin — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 01:24:51 +0000

Title: Too Much TV Puts Tots at Risk
Category: Health News
Created: 7/16/2010 11:14:00 AM
Last Editorial Review: 7/16/2010 11:14:20 AM

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Plan of action to help adults with autism

admin — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 01:24:51 +0000

Plan of action to help adults with autism.

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Novel therapies delay the progression of smouldering multiple myeloma: case report and discussion

admin — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 01:24:51 +0000

This clinical vignette illustrates how our therapeutic approaches to early stages of multiple myeloma have changed over the past decade with novel therapies reducing disease and preventing disease progression. Recent paradigms of multiple myeloma describe the disease as a spectrum of clinical stages, including asymptomatic smoldering states that progress to symptomatic states. The average 5-year survival rate of patients with multiple myeloma that was diagnosed between 1996-2004 according to SEER (Surveillance Epidemiology and End Results) data is 35.9%. Here we describe the use of novel therapeutic agents including bortezomib, lenalidomide, bisphosphonates, Doxil/Caelyx, and dexamethasone and their success in affecting the course of disease. Multiple trials have shown the increased benefit of these newer agents over prior multiple myeloma treatment regimens. At 13 years and 8 months from diagnosis, our patient is doing well and is a model of how long-term control of multiple myeloma prolongs survival.

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Minister urges commissioners to answer to elected boards

admin — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 01:24:49 +0000

Health minister Earl Howe has endorsed a report recommending elected boards form part of GP commissioning groups.

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Bachem – Your Partner for Bioactive Peptides

admin — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 01:24:47 +0000

Thymosin β4 is a 43 amino acid peptide. It is the most abundant member of the β-thymosin family in mammalian tissue and is regarded as the main intracellular G-actin sequestering peptide. Thymosin β4 has multiple biological activities including prevention of apoptosis, reduction of inflammation, and promotion of angiogenesis and cell migration. Due to its role in protection and regeneration of injured or damaged tissue thymosin β4 has received considerable interest as a potential therapeutic agent. Most recently, Xiong et al. demonstrated that delayed administration of thym…

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Want to get off to sleep? Ask your astrocytes nicely

admin — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 13:37:13 +0000

Cells previously dismissed as minor players in the brain may actually regulate when we fall asleep (Source: New Scientist – Health)

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Low Vitamin D Levels May Heighten Risk for Parkinson’s Disease

admin — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 13:37:08 +0000

In the first longitudinal analysis of its kind, researchers used a cohort of more than 3000 people to identify a link between vitamin D status and Parkinson’s disease. Medscape Medical News (Source: Medscape Today Headlines)

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