EMBASE.com is being transitioned to it’s new version. Unfortunately during that transition (in the Netherlands), our subscription information seems to have been lost. Since Amersterdam has already started their weekend, access will probably not be reinstated until Monday.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today issued a final regulation classifying dental amalgam and its component parts ?óÔé¼ÔÇ£ elemental mercury and a powder alloy?óÔé¼ÔÇØused in dental fillings. While elemental mercury has been associated with adverse health effects at high exposures, the levels released by dental amalgam fillings are not high enough to cause harm in patients.
Read the Press Release here.
The FDA’s website on dental amalgam has more information on the subject.
If you would like to read more about the subject, here are some citations from PubMed.
NOLAReady is a service provided by the City of New Orleans Office Homeland Security & Emergency Preparedness. “NOLAReady is an alert system that allows City Officials to contact you during an emergency by sending text messages to your:
* E-mail account (work, home, school, etc.)
* Cell phone, pager
* Smart phone or hand held device”
Alerts can be viewed at their webpage and you can select alerts by zipcode.
Caveats: They seem to ask for a lot of personal data and under universities neither LSUHSC or Tulane Med are listed which is odd.
Love to dye your tongue fun colors with New Orleans snowballs in the Summer? Look closer at the FD&C blue dye no.1 in your bubble gum flavored treat.
Researchers from the University of Rochester Medical Center have discovered that the food additive may protect nerves in the event of spinal cord injury. The report was published in the early edition section of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences yesterday.
The only side effect was that the rats turned blue.
Link to the pdf of the article is available to LSUHSC faculty staff & students. It can be accessed off-campus with a valid LSUHSC library barcode & PIN. You can find more information at our remote access webpage.
July is full of space anniversaries, from the moon landing (July 15th) to the establishment of Cape Canaveral (July 24th), but what did this mean for medicine?
To understand the history of a medical subject, I sometimes check out its history in MeSH. The current subject is Aerospace Medicine and has been since 1980, but it was Aviation Medicine from 1966-74 and Space Flight from 1975-79. If a comprehensive historical search is required, it is always good to check out the Online & History Notes in MeSH.
Check out this article by SE Parazynski, a former astronaut and a physician, entitled “From model rockets to spacewalks: an astronaut physician’s journey and the science of the United States’ space program.” This article is freely available to the general public through PubMed Central.
LSUHSC New Orleans has an official twitter feed and its username is LSUHSCHealth. If you don’t have a twitter account, you can always follow its updates using an RSS reader.
Fragile X syndrome is the most common known cause of intellectual disability that can be inherited. CDC and its partners have been working on several public health activities to find out more about fragile X syndrome.
Fragile X is a group of genetic disorders that can affect individuals and their families in many ways because they are all caused by changes in the same gene, the Fragile X Mental Retardation 1 (FMR1) gene. The group of fragile X conditions includes:
Fragile X syndrome
Fragile X-associated tremor/ataxia syndrome (FXTAS) can cause tremors and problems with walking, balance, and memory. FXTAS occurs in some older men who have changes in the FMR1 gene.
Fragile X-associated primary ovarian insufficiency (FXPOI) can lead to infertility and early menopause. This condition affects some females who have changes in the FMR-1 gene.
Learn more about Fragile X syndrome from the CDC.
July 21st is National Junk Food Day, but try not to go wild. According to the CDC, Louisiana went from having under 15% obesity rate in 1990 to a rate of 25-29% in 2008. If you’re going to celebrate today, just try to be smart and eat healthy the rest of the week.
This week’s Chancellor’s Notes (pdf) features a story on the opening of the Library Commons.
The LSUHSC Libraries recently purchased a subscription to Springer Protocols. This database of “reproducible laboratory results” includes:
as well as from a vast number of Laboratory Handbooks, such as The Biomethods Handbook, The Proteomics Handbook, and the Springer Laboratory Manuals.
It is available on & off campus.
The NOLA.com website just released a story on LSUHSC’s own Eduardo Davila. Dr. Davila, assistant professor pediatrics, has been awarded a $1.3 million grant over 5 years by the National Cancer Institute to study new immunotherapies, including a vaccine, for cancer. Read the LSUHSC press release for more information.
Looks like Louisianans haven?óÔé¼Ôäót been eating prepackaged Nestle Toll House refrigerated cookie dough and thank goodness.
As of Tuesday, June 30, 2009, 72 persons infected with a strain of E. coli O157:H7 with a particular DNA fingerprint have been reported from 30 states (None in Louisiana!). Of these, 51 have been confirmed by an advanced DNA test. More information is available from the CDC.
Today (July 16th) is the 211th birthday of the US Public Health Service. The service was created by Act of Congress for “the relief of sick and disabled seaman” and organized a loose network of Marine Hospitals.
Today the Commissioned Corps of the USPHS states as it’s mission “to protect, promote, and advance the health and safety of our Nation.” The USPHS offered free tetanus shots at locales throughout South Louisiana in the wake of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
~I got mine on Jefferson Highway from a nurse from Rhode Island.~
Can pain relief be attributed to the use of static magnets? Is T’ai Chi an effective intervention for rehabilitating stroke victims? Can biofeedback (a therapy that uses specialized devices to help individuals learn how to influence the function of organs or body systems that aren?óÔé¼Ôäót usually thought to be under conscious control) control urinary incontinence?
Complementary Therapies in Rehabilitation: Holistic Approaches for Prevention and Wellness, edited by Carol M. Davis (EdD PT), attempts to addresses these questions and more. Rest assured, this is not some crunchy book on new age medicine. All chapters are written by licensed rehabilitation professionals, 12 of which hold PhDs in areas such as physical therapy, pathokinesiology, biochemistry, and neurophysiology, and backed up with references as well as a healthy dose of skepticism.
22 chapters are divided into 5 sections, beginning with an introductory manifesto on “energy techniques as a way of returning healing to healthcare.” Section two delves into the science that supports complementary therapies, such as quantum physics and psychoneuroimmulology. The final sections (body work, mind/body work and energy work, respectively) cover various approaches to rehabilitation, including Tai Chi, Myofascial Therapy, Yoga, and Rolfing.
In addition to very useful chapters and images on the use of T’ai Chi and Qi Gong in rehabilitation, what I like about this book is that the authors of the chapters offer a degree of skepticism when it comes to their subject, and hold no punches if the available research evidence is not up to snuff. As Neil Spielholz, author of the chapter “Magnets: what is the evidence of efficacy?” puts it, “Do not complain that you cannot get your work into the peer-reviewed literature when the reason is that the ‘research’ does not qualify as being credible.” References are provided at the end of each chapter, another trove of information for specific holistic approaches.
Overall, Complementary Therapies in Rehabilitation: Holistic Approaches for Prevention and Wellness is well-written and easy to read, either all at once or for a a specific technique. As written in the dedication, the book is for “all those people who are willing to hold an open mind and a positive attitude about the findings of ‘new science’…[and to] those helping to move science forward for the good of improved patient care.” For those interested in complementary approaches to patient care, and the theories behind it, this book is an excellent starting point.
BOOK INFO
Complementary Therapies in Rehabilitation: Holistic Approaches for Prevention and Wellness (3rd Edition: 2009)
Carol M. Davis, Editor
WB 320 D29c 2009
AVAILABLE FOR CHECK OUT — NEW BOOK SHELF — 3RD FLOOR OF LIBRARY
The day is finally here!
The new Library Commons, located on the third floor of the Resource Center, will open tomorrow, July 15th, at 7:00 a.m. The Commons also houses a coffee bar serving Starbucks which will have coffee, drinks, yogurt, pre-made salads, sandwiches and pastries. The coffee bar will operate from 7:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. On Wednesday, July 15 ONLY, “Buy a cup of coffee and get a free chocolate covered strawberry.”
The Commons will be open 24/7 for LSUHSC faculty, students and staff. Please enjoy and care for this beautiful new space!!
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