The human brain is a wonderfully complex organ that has evaded understanding since the dawn of time … at least, until now. John Cleese, English actor and comedian, presents an in-depth yet succinct overview of how the brain works. Even more amazing is his ability to distill all this information into a 2-minute videocast, “All About The Brain”.
For an Einsteinian few, these ideas appear elegantly logical and simple. As for the majority of us, including myself, they represent concepts far too esoteric and advanced for mere minds to comprehend. If you feel Cleese’s words were like gobbledygook, then you belong in the latter group. It may have helped if I stayed awake more during neuroscience classes in medical school.
The “New & Interesting” series is a biweekly compilation of select research findings, news articles, and random tidbits in bullet-point format. The entries are highly abbreviated, but provide links to the original articles or abstracts if you desire to read further.
General Articles
Reducing just 3 grams of salt from the diet of the average American could prevent up to 66,000 strokes, 99,000 heart attacks, and 92,000 deaths in the United States. This would also save $24 billion in health care costs per year. (Reuters)
Raising ambulatory care copayments among elderly patients similarly increased rates of hospitalizations, length of stays, and total cost of care. (NEJM)
Technical Articles
Reducing the rates of readmission in the geriatric population. A hospitalist and his colleagues at the Baylor University Medical Center performed a pilot project involving a care coordinator and clinical pharmacist performing telephone follow-up calls and home visits to geriatric patients recently discharged from the hospital. The team found that this approach reduced the rates of readmissions or emergency visits within 30 days after discharge. The population studied included geriatric patients pre-identified to be have high risk for readmission. (ACP Hospitalist)
High doses (50 mg / day or more) of opioids for chronic non-cancer pain in the elderly were associated with a two-fold increased risk for developing a fracture. (J Gen Intern Med)
The “New & Interesting” series is a biweekly compilation of select research findings, news articles, and random tidbits in bullet-point format. The entries are highly abbreviated, but provide links to the original articles or abstracts if you desire to read further.
General Articles
Cell phones may protect brains from Alzheimer’s disease (Reuters)
Chronic sleep loss hampers performance. One good night of sleep may not be adequate to recuperate from chronic sleep deprivation. (Reuters)
Technical Articles
HIV infection is a risk factor for the development of subclinical coronary atherosclerosis, as studied in a cohort of young HIV-infected men (AIDS)
Morphine use following trauma may reduce the risk of developing post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) (NEJM)
Microarray technology provides more rapid, sensitive, and specific detection of bacterial species than gold-standard cultures (Lancet)
The COMPARE trial revealed that the second-generation everolimus-eluting stent was superior in safety and efficacy to the paclitaxel-eluting stent in all-comers who undergo percutaneous coronary intervention. (Lancet)
The “New & Interesting” series is a biweekly compilation of select research findings, news articles, and random tidbits in bullet-point format. The entries are highly abbreviated, but provide links to the original articles or abstracts if you desire to read further.
General Articles
Brown fat as a future strategy for weight loss? (NY Times)
Blue food dye improves recovery from spinal cord injury in mice (U Rochester)
Americans spent $34 billion on alternative medicine in 2007 (ABC)
The FDA initially investigated the association of TNF (tumor necrosis factor) inhibitors with lymphoma or other cancers in children in June 2008, after receiving approximately 30 reports of cancer in children and young adults on the medication. On August 4, 2009, they released their findings of an increased risk of lymphoma, leukemia, and other cancers in children and adolescents who take the TNF inhibitors. They are now requiring a Black Box Warning for these drugs, such as Remicade, Enbrel, Humira, Cimzia, and Simponi. (FDA)
The “New & Interesting” series is a biweekly compilation of select research findings, news articles, and random tidbits in bullet-point format. The entries are highly abbreviated, but provide links to the original articles or abstracts if you desire to read further.
General Interest Articles
Caffeine may lower Alzheimer’s risk … in mice. More studies are however necessary to evaluate whether these findings translate to humans. The news report also poses the question of how many cups one would need to drink in a day (CBS News)
The first ever 16-patient “domino donor” kidney transplant takes place between June 15 and July 6, 2009. The kidney paired donation (KPD) system involves multiple incompatible donors and recipients, and matching them in a way to accommodate all participants. This system maximizes the chances of being able to donate and receive a kidney transplant (Johns Hopkins Medicine)
Obesity is linked to the behavior of same-sex their parents and not due to genetics. That is, obese mothers were more likely to have obese daughters. Sons take after their fathers. This study was performed on 226 families by researchers at the Peninsula Medical School. (BBC)
Heavy drinking is associated with an increased of developing prostate cancer, according to scientists at the University of California, San Francisco (Reuters)
Technical Articles
Withdrawal of proton-pump inhibitors (PPI) after at least 8 weeks on therapy can result in rebound acid hypersecretion (RAHS) (Gastroenterology)
[FAMOUS trial] Famotidine is effective in preventing gastric and duodenal ulcers, and erosive esophagitis in patients on chronic low-dose aspirin (Lancet)
NIH publishes their final guidelines on human stem cell research (NIH)
The “New & Interesting” series is a biweekly compilation of select research findings, news articles, and random tidbits in bullet-point format. The entries are highly abbreviated, but provide links to the original articles or abstracts if you desire to read further.
