Gastroenterology Blogs This is an OPML file. It can be used to export all the MedWorm RSS feeds on this topic into your personal RSS reader (usually you have to save this file to your own computer before clicking on an Import OPML command in your own feed reader to upload the file which will then import all the feeds) or it can be used by webmasters to integrate MedWorm feeds with their own website. This is an RSS file. You can use it to subscribe to this data in your favourite RSS reader, such as GoogleReader, or to display this data on your own website or blog. Subscribe to this data using MyMedWorm.Subscribe to this data using GoogleReader.Subscribe to this data using Bloglines.Subscribe to this data using MyYahoo.

This page shows you the most recent publications within this specialty of the MedWorm directory. This is page number 10.

Funtabulously Frivolous Friday Five 071
Life in the Fast Lane Medical Blog Funtabulously Frivolous Friday Five 071Wow… FFFF turns 71 today!That means we’ve now gone through 20 prime numbers in our never-ending quest for ever more funtabulous frivolity.What does today’s edition have in store?Read on to find out…Question 1What condition may sound appealing to a dairy farmer, but makes afflicted patients cough up blood and pass ‘coca cola’ urine?Reveal the funtabulous answer!expand(document.getElementById('ddet1342998776'));expand(document.getElementById('ddetlink1342998776'))Goodpasture’s disease, an autoimmune disease ch...
Source: Life in the Fast Lane - December 15, 2011 Category: Emergency Medicine Doctors Authors: Chris Nickson Tags: Frivolous Friday Five Health conundrums FFFF funtabulously frivolous Friday Medical quiz Q&A Source Type: blogs

E. Coli Outbreak Is Traced Back To Ready-To-Bake Cookie Dough
The investigation of a multistate outbreak of Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli O157:H7 (STEC) that sickened 77 people and hospitalized 35 was traced back to ready-to-bake cookie dough, prompting infectious disease specialists to ask for stronger pasteurization and more consumer warnings. A report in Clinical Infectious Diseases outlined the outbreak and the work done by national and local health officials to track down the source. No single source could be identified for certain for the outbreak. But one brand of dough was present in 94% of cases, and three nonoutbreak STEC strains were isolated from it, leading to a...
Source: Better Health - December 14, 2011 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Authors: RyanDuBosar Tags: Research CDC Clinical Infectious Diseases E. Coli enteric illnesses Epidemiology FDA Gastroenterology Outbreak PulseNet Salmonella Shiga toxin Study Source Type: blogs

Will Body Mint Reduce Body Odor and Bad Breath?
Long time readers of the Beauty Brains may be familiar with a post we wrote back in 2007 about “Why Body Mint is a Disappoint-mint.“ Based on references that we had seen at the time, we wrote that the product would not reduce all body odors as suggested by the product’s claims. Body Mint revisited Wow! That post unleashed a crap-storm of comments (almost 90 at last count.) You can click the link above to read all of them, but suffice it to say that discussion got a bit…ugly…at times. Regardless, based on these comments we took another look and found that indeed, as many of the readers said, C...
Source: thebeautybrains.com - December 14, 2011 Category: Physicians With Health Advice Authors: Right Brain Tags: Beauty Myth Busting Deodorants Questions Source Type: blogs

Gut under pressure
Life in the Fast Lane Medical Blog Gut under pressureaka Gastrointestinal Gutwrencher 005One day, in the only hospital close to here, you are doing your ICU ward round – alone again, because the consultant has been “called away” to an “urgent meeting” – probably at the coffee shop flirting with the ICU physiotherapist again…Your first patient is a 68 year-old man, who is day 1 post-op laparotomy for perforated duodenal ulcer. They had difficulty closing the abdomen, but with some 1.0 nylon and some good strong knots they managed to appose the wound edges.(“uggh…mustR...
Source: Life in the Fast Lane - December 13, 2011 Category: Emergency Medicine Doctors Authors: Gerard Fennessy Tags: Featured General Surgery Health Intensive Care abdominal compartment syndrome case-based Q&A critical care gastrointestinal gutwrencher Source Type: blogs

FDA warns surgical centers about misleading ads for gastric bands
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced today that it has taken action against eight California surgical centers and the marketing firm 1-800-GET-THIN, for misleading ads for Lap-Band, a surgically implanted gastric band for weight loss. Lap-Band is for obese adults who have a body mass index (BMI) of 30 to 40, with one or more obesity-related medical conditions (such as type 2 diabetes and hypertension), or for patients with a BMI of 40 or over with or without an obesity-related medical condition, according to the FDA. We’ve recently reported on the considerable risks of the procedure, and the difficulty...
Source: Consumer Reports Health Blog - December 13, 2011 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Authors: Consumer Reports News Tags: Conditions & treatments Health Safety Recalls Source Type: blogs

The Joy of Knowing I'm Lactose Intolerant
Lactose Intolerance isn't a joy, finding out what has been troubling you for, in my case, probably the past few years, is indeed a joy!Something has always troubled my digestive system on and off for years...it wasn't severe, just an annoyance, but in the past year the condition escalated to the point that I was always nauseous, feeling pain in my abdomen, and suffered a host of other symptoms that had me quite concerned. When I would look in the mirror in the morning, the face looking back didn't look well. I went to one doctor and had normal blood work, my blood pressure was up, I was diagnosed with an intestinal in...
Source: Happy Nutritionist's Nuggets - December 12, 2011 Category: Nutritionists and Food Scientists Tags: *Healthy Men Colon Health Anxiety *Healthy Seniors Lactose Intolerance *Healthy Women Intestinal Health Source Type: blogs

Don't Dose That Patient Until You Pay Up
Now here is an awful, awful idea, and it's made it all the way to the Supreme Court. Oral arguments were heard last week in Mayo Collaborative Services v. Prometheus Laboratories, and this one really has the potential to screw things up. Why am I so downbeat? Wait until you hear the basis of this case. Prometheus has a patent whose first claim is as follows: (1) A method of optimizing therapeutic efficacy for treatment of an immune-mediated gastrointestinal disorder, comprising: (a) administering a drug providing 6-thioguanine to a subject having said immune-mediated gastrointestinal disorder; and (b) determining the l...
Source: In the Pipeline - December 12, 2011 Category: Chemists Tags: Patents and IP Source Type: blogs

Healthy Holidays: 7 Ways To Cope With The Holiday Blues
This time of year is all about cheer, but for some, the holidays bring about feelings of loneliness and stress. When depression starts knocking on your holiday-wreathed door, it’s important to have a few coping strategies to get you through the season. According to a 2005-2006 survey by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, roughly 6% of Americans above the age of 12 are living with depression. If holiday shopping, social gatherings, and cocktail parties invokes apprehension and melancholy versus excitement and joy–you are not alone. The increasing demands brought about by shopping, parties, and gifts may ...
Source: Genetics and Health - December 11, 2011 Category: Geneticists and Genetics Commentators Authors: Lena Rakijian Tags: FEEL mental health depression healthy holidays stress Source Type: blogs

Diabetes Meds, Pancreatitis & Prescribing Habits
The ongoing concern that some diabetes meds - such as Byetta and Januvia - are linked to pancreatitis and, possibly, pancreatic cancer - is having an effect how doctors view the meds and their subsequent prescribing habits. The latest example involves a recent study in Gastroenterology that examined FDA adverse event reports in which the authors reiterated that caution is needed (read here). And so a newly released survey finds that 20 percent of doctors expect to decrease prescribing for Byetta, which is sold by Amylin Pharmaceutical, and 11 percent expect to decrease their prescribing for Januvia, which is sold by Merck,...
Source: Pharmalot - December 9, 2011 Category: Pharma Commentators Authors: Ed Silverman Tags: Uncategorized Amylin Pharmaceutical Byetta Diabetes Gastroenterology Januvia Merck Pancreatic Cancer Pancreatitis Source Type: blogs

Care about people as people, not just as hosts of disease
I never thought I would call cancer “cool.”It was the last day of anatomy lab. Finally, we had dissected through everything: starting with the back, moving through arms and legs, hands and feet, chest cavity with lungs and heart, abdominal cavity with gastrointestinal organs, pelvis, and ending with head and neck.Looking at our cadaver was disorienting. There were insides where outsides should be. Organs completely removed. The head literally sawed in half. Some of it was hardly recognizable as belonging to a body. Read the rest of Care about people as people, not just as hosts of disease on KevinMD.com.Categor...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - December 7, 2011 Category: Family Physicians Authors: Kevin Tags: Education Medical school newtag Source Type: blogs

A Venn Diagram For Hemorrhoids
It’s quite clear not everyone would like to read long medical reports and text as sometimes a well-designed and structured graph can say more than a hundred words. Do you remember the Wired article about the blood test makeover that described how our blood test results would be designed to show more easily understandable information to patients? Well, this Venn diagram shows many things about hemorrhoids and related symptoms. And it’s not even a new infographics published on a blog but is from an old textbook which means the concept has been there for a long time but it always disappears in medicine. *This blo...
Source: Better Health - December 7, 2011 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Authors: Berci Tags: Medical Art Gastroenterology Hemorrhoids Medicine Medicine 2.0 Venn Diagram Visualization Source Type: blogs

A Fumbling, Mumbling Mess!
Life in the Fast Lane Medical Blog A Fumbling, Mumbling Mess!aka Toxicology Conundrum 046 A 41-year old man is brought to ED after becoming drowsy while in police custody. He states that he has taken an overdose of diazepam tablets prior to being arrested. On arrival to ED he is ataxic and mildly drowsy (GCS 14). He is admitted to the medical ward for observation. Around eight hours later a MET call is placed as he has become unmanageable on the ward…When the MET team arrives, he is confused, restless and continually trying to climb out of bed. He appears to be hallucinating and is picking at imaginary objec...
Source: Life in the Fast Lane - December 7, 2011 Category: Emergency Medicine Doctors Authors: Edward Burns Tags: Emergency Medicine Featured Health Toxicology anticholinergic benzodiazepine carbamazepine delirium olanazapine poisoning toxidrome Source Type: blogs

Who’s gonna insert that cannula, place that urinary catheter, whatever?
Life in the Fast Lane Medical Blog Who’s gonna insert that cannula, place that urinary catheter, whatever?aka American ER Doc Gone Walkabout… 003LITFL Editior’s note:You might want to check out previous installments of ‘American ER Doc Gone Walkabout‘ by Rick Abbot before reading on:001 — Why are there so many emergencies here? This is an ER!002 — What is that stuff you give for a fever?Very noticeable was the amount of routine tasks that the Doctors — senior and junior — seemed to do in Tassie. IV starts (cannula insertions), blood draws for lab (pathology), foley ...
Source: Life in the Fast Lane - December 6, 2011 Category: Emergency Medicine Doctors Authors: Rick Abbott Tags: American ER Doc Gone Walkabout Australia Emergency Medicine Featured Health comparison denver healthcare launceston nurses physician assistants rick abbott tasmania techs Source Type: blogs

Waah.
In itemised order, because am going to go to bed Fasted and a Good Girl just in case and Get Up Farking Early for similar probably wasted reasons and it does very little for my mood. 1. Because NICU couldn’t take the baby with gastroschisis today on accounts of already drowning in a sea of ventilated preemies, and the baby with gastroschisis happens to be awaiting c-section and because even though I trump in gestation and am now for reasons of crappy slot availability likely to just turn up in labour, technically scoring an emerg c-section and it’s slightly higher risk than elective at some ungodly hour, we...
Source: Mission: Impossible (or adventures in infertility, pregnancy....parenting?) - December 6, 2011 Category: Infertility Authors: g Tags: f*cking Source Type: blogs

Pancreatitis and Sepsis Fluid Management: Less Is More? Blasphemy I Say!
Acute pancreatitis is something you should put in your bucket list of things you hope to never experience before you die. Pancreatitis is inflammation of your pancreas. Acute pancreatitis is active, ongoing inflammation of your pancreas. The clinical presentation of acute pancreatitis can be very mild to life ending. I've had patients in the hospital for one day with acute pancreatitis. I've also had patients in the hospital for six months with pancreatitis. As internists, we are taught to manage acute pancreatitis with aggressive fluid resuscitation in order to maintain adequate p...
Source: The Happy Hospitalist - December 6, 2011 Category: Internists and Doctors of Medicine Authors: The Happy Hospitalist Source Type: blogs

Paracetamol-induced hepatotoxicity
Life in the Fast Lane Medical Blog Paracetamol-induced hepatotoxicityAKA Toxicology Conundrum 045 A 49-year old lady weighing only 40kg presents to a rural Australian ED approximately 10 hours after ingesting 10-12g of paracetamol (250-300mg/kg) with suicidal intent. The nearest tertiary hospital is 1600km away and aeromedical retrieval (if required) will take several hours to organise. Blood tests and N-acetylcysteine (NAC) are available. Q1. How should this patient initially be investigated and managed? Reveal Answer expand(document.getElementById('ddet191624583'));expand(document.getElementById('ddetlink191624583')) ...
Source: Life in the Fast Lane - December 5, 2011 Category: Emergency Medicine Doctors Authors: Edward Burns Tags: Featured Health Hepatology Toxicology Toxinology conundrum hepatotoxicity liver failure paracetamol schiodt score Source Type: blogs

Emergency Medicine Update December 2011
This article seems to imply that this is a test with good sensitivity but there is always the problem of calcifications that may confuse the picture. Here they took a verified clinical suspicion scale and applied CT to it. It worked best in intermediate risk but caused unnecessary PCI in low and high risk patients. (Arch CV Dise 104(1)29). I liked the idea of using clinical suspicion but one thing I don’t understand. It could be that if there is a low suspicion and the CT was falsely positive that it led to unnecessary PCI. But how did it lead to unnecessary PCI in high risk patients if positive - or even neg...
Source: Life in the Fast Lane - December 5, 2011 Category: Emergency Medicine Doctors Authors: Yosef Leibman Tags: Emergency Medicine Emergency Medicine Update Featured Health Evidence Based Medicine yosef liebman Source Type: blogs

Merck Admits Little While Settling the Vioxx Case
A week ago, another legal settlement with some noteworthy aspects came marching along. As reported by the Wall Street Journal, here are the details.A Guilty Plea to "Misbranding"First, there was a guilty plea (to a misdemeanor):Merck & Co. agreed to pay $950 million and plead guilty to a criminal misdemeanor charge to resolve government allegations that the company illegally promoted its former painkiller Vioxx and deceived the government about the drug's safety.In particular,The Justice Department said Merck illegally promoted Vioxx for rheumatoid arthritis before that use was approved by the Food and Drug Admin...
Source: Health Care Renewal - December 5, 2011 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Tags: impeachment Merck crime legal settlements Vioxx accountability Source Type: blogs

Fluid resuscitation in acute pancreatitis: is less actually more?
Source: Notes from Dr. RW - December 5, 2011 Category: Internists and Doctors of Medicine Tags: gastroenterology Source Type: blogs

The Autism Enigma: The Bacterial Theory of Autism
David Suzuki in FrederictonPhoto by Charles LeBlanc When David Suzuki speaks people listen as shown in this photo by New Brunswick blogger Charles LeBlanc taken in the United Church near my office in downtown Fredericton. As you can see the church was, literally, filled to the rafters. David Suzuki is one of the most trusted voices in Canada in explaining science and the world in which we live. On Thursday December 8 David Suzuki will be presenting the Autism Enigma on "The Nature of Things". I have no idea what will be said, what perspectives will be offered, or whether I will agree with al...
Source: Facing Autism in New Brunswick - December 3, 2011 Category: Autism Authors: Autism Reality NB Source Type: blogs

Funtabulously Frivolous Friday Five 069
Life in the Fast Lane Medical Blog Funtabulously Frivolous Friday Five 069Do you have any idea how hard it is to write an inane but mildly amusing introduction to the Funtabulously Frivolous Friday Five every week? No, I didn’t think so. Instead I’ll let this edition speak for itself… after all it is the 69th FFFF! Questions Q1. What proportion of people who die do so during sexual intercourse? Reveal the funtabulous answer! expand(document.getElementById('ddet1629430306'));expand(document.getElementById('ddetlink1629430306')) about 1 in 500 If you believe this retrospective study — I suspect that...
Source: Life in the Fast Lane - December 1, 2011 Category: Emergency Medicine Doctors Authors: Chris Nickson Tags: Frivolous Friday Five conundrums dangerous love FFFF funtabulously frivolous Friday Medical quiz Q&A Source Type: blogs

Immunology of H. pylori Infection
from Ivan Mitov writing in Helicobacter pylori:Helicobacter pylori infection induces almost all mechanisms of innate and acquired immunity. Different bacterial, environmental and host factors may influence the balance between the protective role of the immune mechanisms and their role in gastric mucosal damage, respectively, the possibility of lifelong asymptomatic colonisation of gastric mucosa or clinical manifestation and H. pylori infection. Bacterial virulence factors stimulate Toll-like and Nod-like receptors to induce innate and adaptive cell mediated and humoral immune response. Balance of Th1/Th2 response is of gr...
Source: Microbiology Blog: The weblog for microbiologists. - November 30, 2011 Category: Microbiology Source Type: blogs

Immunology of
from Ivan Mitov writing in Helicobacter pylori:Helicobacter pylori infection induces almost all mechanisms of innate and acquired immunity. Different bacterial, environmental and host factors may influence the balance between the protective role of the immune mechanisms and their role in gastric mucosal damage, respectively, the possibility of lifelong asymptomatic colonisation of gastric mucosa or clinical manifestation and H. pylori infection. Bacterial virulence factors stimulate Toll-like and Nod-like receptors to induce innate and adaptive cell mediated and humoral immune response. Balance of Th1/Th2 response is of gr...
Source: Microbiology Blog: The weblog for microbiologists. - November 30, 2011 Category: Microbiology Source Type: blogs

Rapunzel Syndrome-CT
Bezoar is a tightly packed collection of undigested material that is unable to exit the stomach, Most bezoars are of indigestible organic matter such as hair-trichobezoars; or vegetable and fruit the – phytobezoars; or a combination of both but other rare substances has been also been described in literature. Trichobezoars, commonly occur in patients with psychiatric disturbances who chew and swallow their own hair. Only 50% will have history of trichophagia. Trichobezoars have been described in literature and they comprise 55% of all bezoars. In very rare cases the Rapunzel Syndrome hair extends through the pylorus into...
Source: Sumer's Radiology Site - November 30, 2011 Category: Radiologists Authors: Sumer Sethi Source Type: blogs

Fecal DNA Testing: Is This The Future Of Colon Cancer Screening?
It’s Saturday morning, and I’m in an undisclosed location drinking a fabulous cup of coffee while turning the pages of The New York Times, knowing that ink and newsprint will be vanishing too soon. Yes, I do have an iPad now, but I haven’t figured out how to blog on it. Any suggestions? Buried in the first section of the paper is an article on stool, which in my view as a gastro specialist, should have merited front page placement. Yes, we all know the adage, ‘one’s man’s trash is another man’s treasure’, but stool – as in excrement – should be prized by everyone. Perhaps, as a gastroenterologis...
Source: Better Health - November 29, 2011 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Authors: Michael Kirsch, M.D. Tags: News Opinion Cancer Colon Cancer Screening Colonoscopy Dogs Excrement FDA Fecal DNA Fecal matter Feces New York Times Stool Technology Tests The American Cancer Society Source Type: blogs

Celiac disease
Source: Notes from Dr. RW - November 29, 2011 Category: Internists and Doctors of Medicine Tags: gastroenterology Source Type: blogs

House — Episode 8 (Season 8): “Perils of Paranoia”
What started out as an intriguing courtroom thriller ended up a barely mediocre episode of House Tommy is a forty year-old prosecutor who develops sudden severe chest pain in the middle of a court case. He is admitted to the hospital where a heart attack and anxiety are ruled out — with no clear cause of chest pain remaining, he is admitted to House’s service. The team’s initial differential diagnosis includes shingles, asthma-induced pneumothorax (a collapsed lung) or poisoning (particularly chlorine poisoning). House thinks poisoning seems the most likely, so has the team alkalinize the urine, and then intervi...
Source: Polite Dissent - November 29, 2011 Category: Family Physicians Authors: Scott Tags: newtag Source Type: blogs

The LITFL Review 046
Life in the Fast Lane Medical Blog The LITFL Review 046 Big Kane just got hitched, so it’s left to me serve up the fungating 46th edition! The LITFL Review is your regular and reliable source for the highest highlights, sneakiest sneak peaks and loudest shout-outs from the webbed world of emergency medicine and critical care. Each week the LITFL team will cast the spotlight on the best and brightest from the blogosphere, the podcast video/audiosphere and the rest of the Web 2.0 social media jungle. Before we get stuck in, you might want to crank up the gramaphone and focus your mind with EM rap gangsta $TEMIllionai...
Source: Life in the Fast Lane - November 28, 2011 Category: Emergency Medicine Doctors Authors: Chris Nickson Tags: Blog News Education Emergency Medicine Intensive Care LITFL review Blogs critical care LITFL R/V podcasts Social Media Video Source Type: blogs

Campylobacter in the United Kingdom
Reports of campylobacteriosis in the United Kingdom have increased since the 1990′s, and continue to exceed the combined incidence of all other reportable gastrointestinal pathogens [1,2]: see graph [3] . Campylobacteriosis rates in Scotland are similar to those of England and Wales, while those of Northern Ireland more closely resemble rates reported by the Irish Republic. [1,2] See graph [3] : References: 1. Berger SA. Infectious Diseases of the United Kingdom, 2011. 992 pp, 786 graphs, 2594 references. Gideon e-books, http://www.gideononline.com/ebooks/country/infectious-diseases-of-the-united-kingdom/ 2. Berg...
Source: GIDEON blog - November 26, 2011 Category: Databases & Libraries Authors: Dr. Stephen Berger Tags: Ebooks Epidemiology Graphs ProMED Campylobacter Ireland United Kingdom Source Type: blogs

When is Privileged Communication Not Privileged? The Law and Ethics.
Privileged communication is "an exchange of information between two individuals in a confidential relationship." I present now three scenarios and look toward some wise visitors to this blog to provide me with some answers from the legal point of view but also a view of the ethics. ..Maurice. Suppose a patient admits to his physician that he is emotionally upset and is having gastro-intestinal symptoms because he killed his wife and buried her body in the back yard and told others that she was on a vacation. Suppose a client who is about to be questioned by the police, admits to his lawyer that he killed his wife and buri...
Source: Bioethics Discussion Blog - November 25, 2011 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Source Type: blogs

Funtabulously Frivolous Friday Five 068
Life in the Fast Lane Medical Blog Funtabulously Frivolous Friday Five 068It’s Friday again! How does that happen? Who cares?! It’s time for yet another round of frivolous funtabulosity! Questions Q1. An elderly man with macular degeneration says that he has started seeing Lilliputian people as if they’re part of a silent movie… He is otherwise well. What is the likely diagnosis? Reveal the funtabulous answer! expand(document.getElementById('ddet114839829'));expand(document.getElementById('ddetlink114839829')) Charles Bonnet Syndrome According to whonamedit.com: “Charles Bonnet in 1760 descr...
Source: Life in the Fast Lane - November 24, 2011 Category: Emergency Medicine Doctors Authors: Chris Nickson Tags: Frivolous Friday Five Health avogadro charles bonnet syndrome Funtabulously Frivolous Friday Five hemorrhagic fever lead poisoning Medical quiz pope clement II tularemia Q&A Source Type: blogs

If You See The Red Face When Drinking, It Should Be Linked to Cancer
Red-colored experience as soon as sipping is actually linked with many forms of cancer. Some sort of escalation from unwanted acetaldehyde as part of your body as soon as alcohol consumption would be the lead to for ones red-faced as soon as consuming. This blog manifestation connected with makeup blushing are usually shameful although one can find different indicators that usually go with the item of which are definitely more than simply difficult. Seeing that ones physical structure endeavors to help breakdown liquor with your whole body acetaldehyde is usually a good throw away solution made. Becoming worn along with er...
Source: The Beast... - November 24, 2011 Category: Cancer Source Type: blogs

Bacteremia as a red flag for colon cancer---it’s not just Strep bovis
Source: Notes from Dr. RW - November 23, 2011 Category: Internists and Doctors of Medicine Tags: gastroenterology infectious disease Source Type: blogs

Finding the Funny When the Diagnosis Isn’t
By Casey Quinlan. It’s not easy hearing your name and [insert dread diagnosis here]. I know this only too well after having to find the funny in my own journey through cancer. Cancer is, however, most often a diagnosis that you fight to a defined end. What’s it like to find the funny in a chronic condition like multiple sclerosis? I have a number of friends who are battling MS, one of whom, Amy Gurowitz, shared a link on Facebook the other day to Jim Sweeney’s online empire of improv humor and chronic disease. Jim’s MS journey started with vision problems in 1985, he was officially diagnosed in 1990, and has been d...
Source: Disruptive Women in Health Care - November 23, 2011 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Authors: dw at disruptivewomen.net Tags: Choice Chronic Conditions Health Professions Patients Patients' Rights Chronic (medicine) Conditions and Diseases Jim Sweeney Source Type: blogs

Linaclotide for treatment of constipation - minimally absorbed peptide agonist of guanylate cyclase C receptor
Linaclotide is a minimally absorbed peptide agonist of the guanylate cyclase C receptor. It consists of 14 amino acids. The sequence is:H–Cys1–Cys2–Glu3–Tyr4–Cys5–Cys6–Asn7–Pro8–Ala9–Cys10–Thr11–Gly12–Cys13–Tyr14–OHTwo randomized, 12-week trials included 1,300 patients with chronic constipation (NEJM, 2011). Patients received either placebo or linaclotide once daily for 12 weeks.The incidence of adverse events was similar among all study groups, with the exception of diarrhea, which led to discontinuation of treatment in 4.2% of patients in linaclotide groups.Linaclotide reduced bowel and abdo...
Source: Clinical Cases and Images - Blog - November 23, 2011 Category: Professors and Educators Tags: Gastroenterology Source Type: blogs

Shout Outs
Amy Tenderich, Diabetes Mine blog, is the host for this week’s Grand Rounds. You can read this week’s edition here. Welcome to Grand Rounds, Vol. 8, No. 9, the 2011 Thanksgiving edition of the weekly summary of the best health and medical blog posts on the web. Many thanks to the organizers at Get Better Health for inviting us to host! In a world where major economies are imploding and a climate catastrophe seems impending, there is still much to be thankful for — especially in the arena of health and medicine, where technology is empowering a revolution of sorts in hospitals, clinics and doctors’ offices, and i...
Source: Suture for a Living - November 22, 2011 Category: Plastic Surgeons Tags: quilt books disability shout outs Source Type: blogs

Marijuana and Cyclic Vomiting Syndrome
I have been working as an ER doctor for over a decade, and in that time I have come to recognize that there are certain complaints, and certain patients who bear these complaints, that are very challenging to take care of. I'm trying to be diplomatic here. What I really mean is that there are certain presentations that just make you cringe, drain the life force out of you, and make you wish you'd listened to mother and gone into investment banking instead. Among these, perhaps most prominently, is that of the patient with cyclic vomiting syndrome.The diagnosis of cyclic vomiting syndrome, or CVS, is something which is only...
Source: Movin' Meat - November 22, 2011 Category: Emergency Medicine Doctors Source Type: blogs

Current System Of Medical Malpractice Targets The Wrong People
When lawyers talk, I listen. Two attorneys penned a piece on medical malpractice reform in the April 21st issue of The New England Journal of Medicine, the most prestigious medical journal on the planet. Here is an excerpt from their article, New Directions in Medical Liability Reform. The best estimates are that only 2 to 3% of patients injured by negligence file claims, only about half of claimants recover money, and litigation is resolved discordantly with the merit of the claim (i.e., money is awarded in nonmeritorious cases or no money is awarded in meritorious cases) about a quarter of the time. This is not self-serv...
Source: Better Health - November 22, 2011 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Authors: Michael Kirsch, M.D. Tags: Health Policy Opinion Defensive Medicine Evidence Lawyer Litigation Medical Malpractice Meritorious Money Negligence New Directions in Medical Liability Reform New England Journal of Medicine New York Times Physicians Tort Refo Source Type: blogs

Emergency Medicine In The Developing World 2011 (Part 3)
Life in the Fast Lane Medical Blog Emergency Medicine In The Developing World 2011 (Part 3)All good things must come to an end… Even the 3rd biennial ‘Emergency Medicine in the Developing World‘ conference being hosted by the Emergency Medicine Society of South Africa (EMSSA) in Cape Town. Just like Part 1 and Part 2, this series of pearls and key points from the 3rd and final conference were typed on the fly by Ross Hofmeyer and delivered to us by Sa’ad Lahri (from GF Jooste Hospital). The audio of these talks are to be made available on Free Emergency Medicine Talks in the near future. Be sur...
Source: Life in the Fast Lane - November 19, 2011 Category: Emergency Medicine Doctors Authors: Chris Nickson Tags: Conference Emergency Medicine Featured International Emergency Medicine Emergency Medicine for the Developing World EMSSA IEM lecture notes Ross Hofmeyer sa'ad lahri Source Type: blogs

Is your stomach your second brain?
Do you occasionally have bloating, constipation, foul smelling gas, abdominal distension or heart burn? Are your hands or feet numb or tingling? Do you have an irregular heartbeat? If so, you may be suffering from a lack of digestive enzymes.Whatever you ingest through your mouth will be digested and absorbed into your body, that’s self-evident. It’s why so many people are leaning towards minerals and supplements as well as high-quality foods - because these beneficial ingredients will be digested, absorbed and utilized by the body. This is to assume that their digestive system is working properly, but that may not be ...
Source: Doctor Kalitenko antiaging blog - November 18, 2011 Category: Physicians With Health Advice Authors: skalitenko Source Type: blogs

Funtabulously Frivolous Friday Five 067
Life in the Fast Lane Medical Blog Funtabulously Frivolous Friday Five 067It’s the finale of a frenetic few days in the fast lane… and time for a feast of Funtabulously Frivolous Friday Five! As always, the FFFF is best washed down with a cup of brown joy… www.youtube.com/watch?v=eELH0ivexKA Questions Q1. If a polar explorer has musculoskeletal pains and raised intracranial pressure, what should you suspect they’ve been eating? Reveal the funtabulous answer! expand(document.getElementById('ddet1209400772'));expand(document.getElementById('ddetlink1209400772')) Polar bear livers (or livers fr...
Source: Life in the Fast Lane - November 17, 2011 Category: Emergency Medicine Doctors Authors: Chris Nickson Tags: Frivolous Friday Five Health Ebbinghaus Hawthorn effect polar explorer thin skin Twiddler's syndrome vitamin A Source Type: blogs

Celiac disease review
Source: Notes from Dr. RW - November 17, 2011 Category: Internists and Doctors of Medicine Tags: gastroenterology Source Type: blogs

Hurt All Over - Diagnosis - Dr. Lisa Sanders - NYTimes.com
'Will you please see my sister?' the young woman asked Dr. David Podell, who was a friend of a friend and had a reputation as a kinder version of TV's Dr. Gregory House. People told her that Podell was a doctor who specialized in diagnosing odd diseases, and she hoped he might finally solve the puzzle of her older sister's mysterious illness.1. THE PATIENT'S STORYOver the past 10 years, the patient — now 33 — became completely disabled by strange pains and odd episodes of weakness that no one could explain. The sister handed Podell a letter from the patient. "I am very desperate for help," she wrote, "and I am struggli...
Source: Psychology of Pain - November 11, 2011 Category: Psychiatrists and Psychologists Source Type: blogs

Diane Keaton’s New Memoir Reveals Struggle With Bulimia
Diane Keaton is probably one of the coolest women who’s ever been alive. She’s a gifted actor who’s taken on a diverse range of roles, has spent her fair share of time in the director’s chair, and has a super-full personal life, which includes two adopted children, the occasional venture into real estate development, and a love of photography. She is also, according to her new memoir, Then Again, a recovering bulimic. In the book, Keaton explains, she was just 19 when a casting director promised her a role if she’d lose 10 lbs. The resulting eating disorder lasted for five years, including d...
Source: Genetics and Health - November 11, 2011 Category: Geneticists and Genetics Commentators Authors: Hanna Brooks Olsen Tags: FEEL inspiration bulimia celebrities eating disorders Source Type: blogs

Under diagnosis of celiac disease
Source: Notes from Dr. RW - November 11, 2011 Category: Internists and Doctors of Medicine Tags: gastroenterology Source Type: blogs