| Vol.
I, No. 9 | End
of School / Summer Issue | June
15th, 2001 |
Health
& Medicine
Vital Signs
. Vital
Signs:
Heart Rate Formula Misses a Beat, Heavy Metals
& Autism ... and more
- Bush slashes funding for family doctors.
 In
a May press conference the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP)
condemned Bush's budget for eliminating federal funding for family medicine
training programs, part of Title VII. In a May 22 report by Reuter's
Health, the AAFP claimed that cutting this funding will leave millions of
families without medical care. Studies have shown that students who
receive Title VII funds to attend medical school are "more likely to go
into family medicine or primary care, practice in a rural area or work in an
area with a shortage of primary care physicians." The number of
family physicians could drop by 7,000 without these Title VII grants.
.
"President
Bush is sending a confusing message. While he proposes to zero-fund
the family medicine training programs, he also proposes to double the
service capacity of community health centers from six million patients per
year to 12 million patients per year. Half of physicians serving in
community health centers are family physicians. Reducing the ability of
medical students to choose family medicine is counterproductive to
increasing the care given at community health centers. In fact, it is a
formula for the centers` failure," according to a press release from
the AAFP.
. - Tegaserod for
Irritable Bowel Syndrome
Not exotic, not life threatening,
irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is a common functional disease that can
drastically reduce quality of life. It has remained a mysterious and
often untreatable problem blamed on a variety of causes from stress to
diet. The symptoms are abdominal pain and bloating with diarrhea or
constipation or alternation between the two. IBS affects up to 20% of
the world's population; about 70% of patients are women.
.
A
recent study, presented at Digestive Disease Week 2001 in Atlanta, Georgia
has found a new drug, tegaserod, to effectively treat IBS with predominance
of constipation/abdominal bloating/pain symptoms. It was shown to be
effective within one week in a study of over 1500 women with IBS. The
drug works on serotonin receptors in the gastrointestinal (GI) tract.
Serontonin receptors are thought to play an important part in GI function
and pain perception. Serotonin receptors in the brain are targeted by
the newest class of anti-depressants.
.
The
study found "adverse events" including nausea, headache and
diarrhea in "a small number" of participants according to Novartis
Pharmaceuticals which sponsored the study. The company is studying the
use of the drug for gastrointestinal reflux and functional dyspepsia as
well. It is under review by the FDA
. - Acupuncture
for heart disease
Several studies have indicated that acupuncture can
successfully reduce high blood pressure and ischemic heart dysfunction, and
angina. A groundbreaking study using cats, conducted jointly by the
University of Shanghai and the University of California at Irvine, not only
documented that acupuncture neutralized the effects of chemicals which
stimulate and stress the heart. The study was also able to establish
that acupuncture works on the endorphin system, which releases opoids,
natural chemicals that create feelings of relaxation and pleasure.
.
Acupuncture,
a healing modality thousand of years old, is gaining acceptance by western
medical practioners. An article on WebMD quotes Joseph Alpert, MD,
Flinn professor of medicine and chairman of the department of medicine at
the university of Arizona: "There has to be something more to
acupuncture than the placebo effect or hypnosis ... My colleagues have seen
people have open heart surgery with only acupuncture, no anesthesia.
This is not a bunch of malarkey." In the same article, Pascal
J. Goldschmidt, MD, FACC, chief of cardiology at Duke University told WebMD,
"It's not an accident that people have been doing acupuncture for so
long "it's pretty clear that it's not a placebo effect.
Acupuncture seems to be having a relatively specific effect on the control
of blood pressure."
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