Tag Archive for medicine

Pro-Probiotics – Anti-Antibiotics

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Bacteria had to compete with a standard antibiotic for the best treatment option of repeated urinary tract infections (UTI).Bacteria had to compete with a standard antibiotic for the best treatment option of repeated urinary tract infections (UTI).

Dutch researchers conducted a randomized placebo-controlled trial that involved 250 postmenopausal women (an age group at higher risk) with histories of at least three UTIs in the previous year. The women received either a standard dose of the antibiotic Trimethprim-Sulfamethoxazole once at night time or a standard dose of Lactobacillus rhamnosus and Lactobacillus reuteri twice daily.
Dutch researchers conducted a randomized placebo-controlled trial that involved 250 postmenopausal women (an age group at higher risk) with histories of at least three UTIs in the previous year. The women received either a standard dose of the antibiotic Trimethprim-Sulfamethoxazole once at night time or a standard dose of Lactobacillus rhamnosus and Lactobacillus reuteri twice daily.

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Health vs Poverty

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“Approximately 1.2 billion people in the world live in extreme poverty. Poverty creates ill-health because it forces people to live in environments that make them sick, without decent shelter, clean water or adequate sanitation.” (WHO) This is also the reality in Nicaragua, where I had the opportunity to work in the mountains for six weeks.

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Anxiety Sells

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Maybe some can remember (can I ?) the bird and swine-flu hype which made governments spend trillions on supposedly anti-viral medicines, which firstly were never needed, which secondly would have never worked because of a lack of efficacy and which thirdly had to be destroyed at more great expense after the date of expiry. The media were happily fueling this hype and created by this a public pressure on governments with the above mentioned consequences – anxiety sells and I think that after shedding some light on dark banking practices the print and visual media do certainly merit the same treat – anxiety sells. Any room for ethics here ?

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Bowel Cancer – Trust The Medics

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Last month two meta-analyses were published about health strategies on how to reduce the chances of developing bowel cancer. A meta-analysis is not a new piece of research, but it looks at all the published research on a subject, thus unifying conflicting results and drawing a conclusion out of the whole body of existing evidence.

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Medical Article

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We, and that is not only us medics, generally identify a disease before we look around for its treatment. Observers argue that, these days, the sequence sometimes is reversed: the marketing of a pharmaceutical agent gives birth to a disease, often by “medicalizing” what actually is a natural part of human existence. This has created an epidemic of insomnia, particularly in the US.

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