Health Tips

14% of adults eat the recommended number of servings of fruit and vegetables a day, says a report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

About 33% of adults meet the recommendation of two or more servings of fruits a day; 27% eat the recommended three or more servings of vegetables.

Washington, D.C., leads the nation in eating fruits and vegetables: 20.1% of adults report they meet both daily recommendations. Mississippi sits at the bottom with 8.8%.

Three of the top states are in New England, and three of the bottom states are in the Southeast. The disparity could be a result of the lack of farmers markets in the Southeast and policies that promote healthful foods in schools and communities, says Heidi Blanck, senior scientist for the CDC.

High school students fare worse than adults: 9.5% report they eat two or more fruits and three or more vegetables a day. About the same number of students (32%) as adults say they meet the fruit recommendation, but only 13% say they eat at least three servings of vegetables a day.

The Healthy People 2010 objective from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services aims to have 75% of the U.S. population meeting the daily fruit recommendations and 50% meeting the daily vegetable recommendations.

"At the current rate, the goal won't be met," Blanck says.

To raise the percentage of people meeting the goals, the CDC suggests grocery stores increase their stock of "high-quality" fruits and vegetables and encourages states to form food policy councils that evaluate the access to fresh produce.

It also suggests schools provide more fruits and vegetables in cafeterias and vending machines

Definition OF Lung Cancer:
Cancer is a class of diseases characterized by out-of-control cell growth, and lung cancer occurs when this uncontrolled cell growth begins in one or both lungs. Rather than developing into healthy, normal lung tissue, these abnormal cells continue dividing and form lumps or masses of tissue called tumors. Tumors interfere with the main function of the lung, which is to provide the bloodstream with oxygen to be carried to the entire body. If a tumor stays in one spot and demonstrates limited growth, it is generally considered to be benign.

More dangerous, or malignant, tumors form when the cancer cells migrate to other parts of the body through the blood or lymph system. When a tumor successfully spreads to other parts of the body and grows, invading and destroying other healthy tissues, it is said to have metastasized. This process itself is called metastasis, and the result is a more serious condition that is very difficult to treat.

Lung cancer is called "primary" if the cancer originates in the lungs and "secondary" if it originates elsewhere in the body but has metastasized to the lungs. These two types are considered different cancers from diagnostic and treatment perspectives.

In 2007, about 15% of all cancer diagnoses and 29% of all cancer deaths were due to lung cancer. It is the number one cause of death from cancer every year and the second most diagnosed after breast and prostate cancers (for women and men, respectively). Lung cancer is usually found in older persons because it develops over a long period of time.
How is lung cancer classified?

Lung cancer can be broadly classified into two main types based on the cancer's appearance under a microscope: non-small cell lung cancer and small cell lung cancer. Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) accounts for 80% of lung cancers, while small cell lung cancer accounts for the remaining 20%.

NSCLC can be further divided into four different types, each with different treatment options:

* Squamous cell carcinoma or epidermoid carcinoma. As the most common type of NSCLC and the most common type of lung cancer in men, squamous cell carcinoma forms in the lining of the bronchial tubes.
* Adenocarcinoma. As the most common type of lung cancer in women and in nonsmokers, adenocarcinoma forms in the mucus-producing glands of the lungs.
* Bronchioalveolar carcinoma. This type of lung cancer is a rare type of adenocarcinoma that forms near the lungs' air sacs.
* Large-cell undifferentiated carcinoma. A rapidly growing cancer, large-cell undifferentiated carcinomas form near the outer edges or surface of the lungs.

Small cell lung cancer (SCLC) is characterized by small cells that multiply quickly and form large tumors that travel throughout the body. Almost all cases of SCLC are due to smoking.
causes of cancer?

Cancer is ultimately the result of cells that uncontrollably grow and do not die. Normal cells in the body follow an orderly path of growth, division, and death. Programmed cell death is called apoptosis, and when this process breaks down, cancer begins to form. Unlike regular cells, cancer cells do not experience programmatic death and instead continue to grow and divide. This leads to a mass of abnormal cells that grows out of control.

Lung cancer occurs when a lung cell's gene mutation makes the cell unable to correct DNA damage and unable to commit suicide. Mutations can occur for a variety of reasons. Most lung cancers are the result of inhaling carcinogenic substances.
Carcinogens

Carcinogens are a class of substances that are directly responsible for damaging DNA, promoting or aiding cancer. Tobacco, asbestos, arsenic, radiation such as gamma and x-rays, the sun, and compounds in car exhaust fumes are all examples of carcinogens. When our bodies are exposed to carcinogens, free radicals are formed that try to steal electrons from other molecules in the body. These free radicals damage cells and affect their ability to function and divide normally.

About 87% of lung cancers are related to smoking and inhaling the carcinogens in tobacco smoke. Even exposure to second-hand smoke can damage cells so that cancer forms.
Genes

Cancer can be the result of a genetic predisposition that is inherited from family members. It is possible to be born with certain genetic mutations or a fault in a gene that makes one statistically more likely to develop cancer later in life. Genetic predispositions are thought to either directly cause lung cancer or greatly increase one's chances of developing lung cancer from exposure to certain environmental Factor.
What are the symptoms of lung cancer?

Cancer symptoms are quite varied and depend on where the cancer is located, where it has spread, and how big the tumor is. Lung cancer symptoms may take years before appearing, usually after the disease is in an advanced stage.

Many symptoms of lung cancer affect the chest and air passages. These include:

* Persistent or intense coughing
* Pain in the chest shoulder, or back from coughing
* Changes in color of the mucus that is coughed up from the lower airways (sputum)
* Difficulty breathing and swallowing
* Hoarseness of the voice
* Harsh sounds while breathing (stridor)
* Chronic bronchitis or pneumonia
* Coughing up blood, or blood in the sputum

If the lung cancer spreads, or metastasizes, additional symptoms can present themselves in the newly affected area. Swollen or enlarged lymph nodes are common and likely to be present early. If cancer spreads to the brain, patients may experience vertigo, headaches, or seizures. In addition, the liver may become enlarged and cause jaundice and bones can become painful, brittle, and broken. It is also possible for the cancer to infect the adrenal glands resulting in hormone level changes.

As lung cancer cells spread and use more of the body's energy, it is possible to present symptoms that may also be associated with many other ailments. These include:

* Fever
* Fatigue
* Unexplained weight loss
* Pain in joints or bones
* Problems with brain function and memory
* Swelling in the neck or face
* General weakness
* Bleeding and blood clots

How is lung cancer diagnosed and staged?

Physicians use information revealed by symptoms as well as several other procedures in order to diagnose lung cancer. Common imaging techniques include chest X-rays, bronchoscopy (a thin tube with a camera on one end), CT scans, MRI scans, and PET scans. Physicians will also conduct a physical examination, a chest examination, and an analysis of blood in the sputum. All of these procedures are designed to detect where the tumor is located and what additional organs may be affected by it.

Although the above diagnostic techniques provided important information, extracting cancer cells and looking at them under a microscope is the only absolute way to diagnose lung cancer. This procedure is called a biopsy. If the biopsy confirms lung cancer, a pathologist will determine whether it is non-small cell lung cancer or small cell lung cancer.

After a diagnosis is made, an oncologist will determine the stage of the cancer by finding out how far the cancer has spread. The stage determines which choices will be available for treatment and informs prognosis. The most common cancer staging method is called the TNM system. T (1-4) indicates the size and direct extent of the primary tumor, N (0-3) indicates the degree to which the cancer has spread to nearby lymph nodes, and M (0-1) indicates whether the cancer has metastasized to other organs in the body. A small tumor that has not spread to lymph nodes or distant organs may be staged as (T1, N0, M0), for example.

For non-small cell lung cancer, TNM descriptions lead to a simpler categorization of stages. These stages are labeled from I to IV, where lower numbers indicate earlier stages where the cancer has spread less. More specifically:

* Stage I is when the tumor is found only in one lung and in no lymph nodes.
* Stage II is when the cancer has spread to the lymph nodes surrounding the infected lung.
* Stage IIIa is when the cancer has spread to lymph nodes around the trachea, chest wall, and diaphragm, on the same side as the infected lung.
* Stage IIIb is when the cancer has spread to lymph nodes on the other lung or in the neck.
* Stage IV is when the cancer has spread throughout the rest of the body and other parts of the lungs.

Small cell lung cancer has two stages: limited or extensive. In the limited stage, the tumor exists in one lung and in nearby lymph nodes. In the extensive stage, the tumor has infected the other lung as well as other organs in the body
How is lung cancer treated?

Lung cancer treatments depend on the type of cancer, the stage of the cancer (how much it has spread), age, health status, and additional personal characteristics. As there is usually no single treatment for cancer, patients often receive a combination of therapies and palliative care. The main lung cancer treatments are surgery, chemotherapy, and/or radiation. However, there also have been recent developments in the fields of immunotherapy, hormone therapy, and gene therapy.
Surgery:

Surgery is the oldest known treatment for cancer. If a cancer is in stage I or II and has not metastasized, it is possible to completely cure a patient by surgically removing the tumor and the nearby lymph nodes. After the disease has spread, however, it is nearly impossible to remove all of the cancer cells.

Lung cancer surgery is performed by a specially trained thoracic surgeon. After removing the tumor and the surrounding margin of tissue, the margin is further studied to see if cancer cells are present. If no cancer is found in the tissue surrounding the tumor, it is considered a "negative margin." A "positive margin" may require the surgeon to remove more of the lung tissue.

Lung cancer surgery can be curative or palliative. Curative surgery aims to cure a patient with early stage lung cancer by removing all of the cancerous tissue. Palliative surgery aims to remove an obstruction or open an airway, making the patient more comfortable but not necessarily removing the cancer.

Surgery carries side effects - most notably pain and infection. Lung cancer surgery is an invasive procedure that can cause harm to the surrounding body parts. Doctors will usually provide several options for alleviating any pain from surgery. Antibiotics are commonly used to prevent infections that may occur at the site of the wound or elsewhere inside the body.
Radiation:

Radiation treatment, also known as radiotherapy, destroys or shrinks lung cancer tumors by focusing high-energy rays on the cancer cells. This causes damage to the molecules that make up the cancer cells and leads them to commit suicide. Radiotherapy utilizes high-energy gamma-rays that are emitted from metals such as radium or high-energy x-rays that are created in a special machine. Radiation can be used as the main treatment for lung cancer, to kill remaining cells after surgery, or to kill cancer cells that have metastasized.

Early radiation treatments caused severe side-effects because the energy beams would damage normal, healthy tissue, but technologies have improved so that beams can be more accurately targeted. Radiation oncologists can focus the radiation in precise locations in the body for certain lengths of time, reducing the risk of damage to surrounding healthy tissue. Treatments occur intermittently over weeks or months depending on the size and extent of the tumor, the dosage of radiation, and how much damage is being done to noncancerous tissue.

Common side effects of radiation therapy include fatigue, nausea, loss of appetite, hair loss, and skin affectations that cause skin to become dry, irritated, and sensitive.
Chemotherapy:

Chemotherapy utilizes strong chemicals that interfere with the cell division process - damaging proteins or DNA - so that cancer cells will commit suicide. These treatments target any rapidly dividing cells (not just cancer cells), but normal cells usually can recover from any chemical-induced damage while cancer cells cannot. Chemotherapy is considered systemic because its medicines travel throughout the entire body, killing the original tumor cells as well as cancer cells that have spread throughout the body.

A medical oncologist will usually prescribe chemotherapy drugs for lung cancer to be taken intravenously, but there are also drugs available in tablet, capsule, and liquid form. Chemotherapy treatment occurs in cycles so the body has time to heal between doses, and dosages are determined by the type of lung cancer, the type of drug, and how the person responds to treatment. Medicines may be administered daily, weekly, or monthly, and can continue for months or even years.

Combination therapies often include multiple types of chemotherapy, and chemotherapy is also given as adjuvant therapy as a complement to surgery and radiation. Adjuvant therapy is designed to reduce the risk of cancer recurrence after surgery and killing any cancer cells that exist after surgery. Chemotherapy can be given before surgery, called neo-adjuvant therapy, to shrink tumors and to make surgery more successful.

Chemotherapy carries several common side effects, but they depend on the type of chemotherapy and the health of the patient. These include nausea and vomiting, appetite loss, diarrhea, hair loss, fatigue from anemia, infections, bleeding, and mouth sores. Many of these side effects are only temporarily felt during treatment, and several drugs exist to help patients cope with the symptoms.
Other Treatments

Researchers continue to search for ways to improve lung cancer treatments and find new methods of treating the disease. Targeted therapies are designed to only treat cancer cells while leaving alone normal and healthy lung cells. These include monoclonal antibodies that travel directly to the cancer cells and release drugs or radiation, anti-angiogenesis agents that interfere with the blood supply creation mechanism of cancer cells, and growth factor inhibitors that block the effects of growth factors and disallow the cancerous cells to grow. There is also some research in the area of lung cancer vaccines that first transform cancer cells so they are no longer cancerous. However, the cells will exist such that the body's immune system can recognize the cancerous cells as foreign and attack them. These targeted therapies are also called immunotherapies because the treatment tweaks the body's natural immune responses.
How Prevent From Lung Cancer?

Cancers that are closely linked to certain behaviors are the easiest to prevent. For example, choosing not to smoke tobacco or drink alcohol significantly lowers the risk of several types of cancer - most notably lung, throat, mouth, and liver cancer. Even if you are a current tobacco user, quitting can still greatly reduce your chances of getting cancer. The most important preventive measure you can take to avoid lung cancer is to quit smoking.

Quitting smoking will also reduce your risk of several other types of cancer including esophagus, pancreas, larynx, and bladder cancer. If you quit smoking, you will usually reap additional benefits such as lower blood pressure, enhanced blood circulation, and increased lung capacity.

Exposure to tobacco smoke is not the only risk factor for lung cancer though. Those who have come into contact with asbestos, radon, and secondhand smoke also have an increased risk of developing lung cancer. In addition, having a family member who developed lung cancer without being exposed to carcinogens could mean that you have a genetic predisposition for developing the disease, increasing your overall risk.

Screening techniques are designed to find cancer at the earliest stage so that the most treatment options are available, increasing survival rates and avoiding highly invasive procedures. Most lung cancers are detected in the late stages of the disease after they have spread and are harder to treat. Although there currently do not exist approved screening tests for lung cancer that improve survival or detect localized disease, there is promising research underway. Advocates of screening recommend that certain high risk groups be screened. This includes persons age 60 or older with a history of smoking, previous lung tumors, or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Possible lung cancer screening tests include analysis of sputum cells, fiberoptic examination of bronchial passages (bronchoscopy), and low-dose spiral CT scans.

Over night Contacts Helps You in Nearsightedness:

Being nearsighted made life a blur for 12-year-old Isabella Jorgenson..

"That tree, that grass, the plants it all blends in to make one big thing," she said.

She tried contacts, but the maintenance was too much. That's when her mom heard about a study testing contacts worn only at night.

"We're looking to see if we can stop the progression, and I said, that's what we want," said Isabella's mother, Sheri.

Kids wear the cornea-reshaping contacts while they sleep. In the morning, their vision is temporarily corrected. Regular contacts are curved. These look like a plateau.

"It's flat in the center and steeper on the sides," said optometrist Rob Davis.

It gently changes the shape of the cornea. Before wearing the contacts, a nearsighted eye is steep, highlighted. After the contacts have been worn, the eye flattens out.

"Very similar to if you've ever worn a watch or a ring, and you take the ring or the watch off, there's a little indentation," said Davis.

In a study of 300 kids, those with the re-shaping lenses maintained their vision after the first year. Those with regular contacts needed a stronger prescription.

"I'm really not talking about permanent correcting, but what I am talking about is reducing the progression," said Davis.

For Isabella, it means 20/20 vision during the day.

The cornea-reshaping lenses are already FDA approved for adults. Now doctors are collecting data to find out if they can stop the progression of nearsightedness in

Medical Scientists Make a Chip To Sniff OUT Type-Severity Of Cancer:

Search Scientists have developed a microchip that is sensitive enough to quickly determine the type and severity of a patient's cancer and nip the disease in the bud.

'This remarkable innovation is an indication that the age of nanomedicine is dawning,' says David Naylor, professor of medicine at the University of Toronto (U of T).

'Thanks to the breadth of expertise here at U of T, cross-disciplinary collaborations of this nature make such landmark advances possible,' he adds.

The new device can easily sense specific markers that indicate the presence of cancer at the cellular level.

These biomolecules - genes that indicate aggressive or benign forms of cancer and differentiate its subtypes - are generally present only at low levels in such samples.

Analysis can be completed in 30 minutes, a vast improvement over the existing diagnostic procedures that generally take days, says a U of T release.

'Today, it takes a room filled with computers to evaluate a clinically relevant sample of cancer biomarkers and the results aren't quickly available,' says Shana Kelley, professor in pharmacy and medicine U of T, project investigator and study co-author.

'Our team was able to measure biomolecules on an electronic chip the size of your fingertip and analyse the sample within half an hour. The instrumentation required for this analysis can be contained within a unit the size of a BlackBerry."Kelley Says".

Social Isolation Worsens Cancer (Mouse S

Using mice as a model to study human breast cancer, researchers have demonstrated that a negative social environment (in this case, isolation) causes increased tumor growth. The work shows—for the first time—that social isolation is associated with altered gene expression in mouse mammary glands, and that these changes are accompanied by larger tumors.
See also:
Health & Medicine

* Breast Cancer
* Brain Tumor
* Cancer

Mind & Brain

* Social Psychology
* Psychology
* Relationships

Reference

* Nanomedicine
* Lavender oil
* Mammary gland
* Metastasis

"This interdisciplinary research illustrates that the social environment, and a social animal's response to that environment, can indeed alter the level of gene expression in a wide variety of tissues, not only the brain," said Suzanne D. Conzen, MD, associate professor of medicine at the University of Chicago and senior author of the study, to be published on September 30, 2009, in Cancer Prevention Research. "This is a novel finding and may begin to explain how the environment affects human susceptibility to other chronic diseases such as central obesity, type 2 diabetes, hypertension, etc."

The research began six years ago when cancer specialist Conzen joined forces with biobehavioral psychologist Martha McClintock, PhD, professor of psychology and founder of the Institute for Mind and Biology at the University of
Using mice as a model to study human breast cancer, researchers have demonstrated that a negative social environment (in this case, isolation) causes increased tumor growth. The work shows—for the first time—that social isolation is associated with altered gene expression in mouse mammary glands, and that these changes are accompanied by larger tumors.

The research began six years ago when cancer specialist Conzen joined forces with biobehavioral psychologist Martha McClintock, PhD, professor of psychology and founder of the Institute for Mind and Biology at the University of Chicago, who has long been interested in the result of social isolation in aging, to study behavior and cancer in a mouse model.

The University of Chicago scientists took mice that were genetically predisposed to develop mammary gland (breast) cancer and raised them in two environments: in groups of mice and isolated. After the same amount of time, the isolated mice grew larger mammary gland tumors. They were also found to have developed a disrupted stress hormone response.

"I doubted there would be a difference in the growth of the tumors in such a strong model of genetically inherited cancer simply based on chronic stress in their environments, so I was surprised to see a clear, measurable difference both in mammary gland tumor growth and interestingly in accompanying behavior and stress hormone levels," Conzen said.

The researchers then turned their attention to how the chronic social environment affected the biology of cancer growth. In other words, they sought to discover the precise molecular consequences of the stressful environment.

To do this, they studied gene expression in the mouse mammary tissue over time. Conzen and her colleagues found altered expression levels of metabolic pathway genes (which are expected to favor increased tumor growth) in the isolated mice. This was the case even before tumor size differences were measurable.

These altered gene expression patterns suggest potential molecular biomarkers and/or targets for preventive intervention in human breast cancer.

"Given the increased knowledge of the human genome, we can begin to identify and analyze the specific alterations that take place in caner-prone tissues of individuals living in at-risk environments," Conzen said. "That will help us to better understand and implement cancer prevention strategies."

These findings do suggest novel targets for chemoprevention, according to Caryn Lerman, PhD, Scientific Director of the Abramson Cancer Center at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia and Deputy Editor of Cancer Prevention Research. "Future studies should evaluate whether these molecular processes can be reversed by chemopreventive agents."

The findings also support previous epidemiologic studies suggesting that social isolation increases the mortality of chronic diseases, as well as clinical studies revealing that social support improves the outcomes of cancer patients.

The research was funded by the National Institutes of Health Centers for Population Health and Human Disparities; the University of Chicago Cancer Center's Women's Auxiliary Board; and the University of Chicago Cancer Center.

The paper is titled "A Model of Gene-Environment Interaction Reveals Altered Mammary Gland Gene Expression and Increased Tumor Growth following Social Isolation," and Cancer Prevention Research is published by the American Association for Cancer.

Noble Prize in medicine this year has been awarded to three Europeans, Luc Montagnier, Francoise Barre-Sinoussi and Harald Zur Hausen for their work on viruses. This was announced at the Karolinska Institute in Stockho, recently. The ‘gift hamper’ includes a gold medal, a diploma and a cash reward of 1.42 million dollars.

One half of the prize money will be shared by the French duo, virologists Montagnier and Barre-Sinoussi for their discovery of the AIDS-causing Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV). The former is a 76 year old professor emeritus and the director of the World Foundation for AIDS Research and Prevention in Paris while the 61 year old Barre-Sinoussi is a professor at the Institut Pasteur, Paris.


The other half of the Nobel Money will go to the physician scientist from Germany, Dr. Harald Zur Hausen, 72, for defining the role of the Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) in causing cervical cancer.

Montagnier dedicates his Nobel to the AIDS victims and claims that ‘the fight is not over’. He predicts the emergence of a ‘therapeutic vaccine’ for the disease in a short span of four years. Barre-Sinoussi on the other hand wants a greater flow of money and ideas into research in order to create an AIDS vaccine which has , thus far, been elusive.

AIDS remains the worst pandemic that mankind has seen. It is estimated that currently 33 million people are living with the disease. The identification and understanding of the AIDS causing virus, HIV, by Montagnierand Barre-Sinoussi has paved the way for diagnostic blood tests and anti retroviral drugs to improve and prolong the lives of the affected people. Donor blood screening has also made safe blood transfusions possible.

‘Never before has science and medicine been so quick to discover, identify the origin and provide treatment for a new disease entity,’ the Karolinska Institute said.

Harald Zur Hausen, professor emeritus and former chairman of the German Cancer Research Center at Heidelberg in Germany, challenged the existing dogma by postulating that it was the HPV that caused cervical cancer in women. This scintillating discovery led to the development of a vaccine against cervical cancer.

One of the best things ever to have happened to women, this vaccine helps to prevent cervical cancer, widely known as a ‘silent killer’. It may be administered to young women to protect them from the cervical changes caused by the HPV. The vaccine has been proven to be extremely safe.

Cervical cancer is the second most common cancer that affects women mostly from the poorer countries of the world. An estimate of 2,50,000 women succumb to this disease every year.

As with the previous years this year too there are glaring omissions. Dr. Robert Gallo, an American virologist was engaged in a long and bitter dispute with the French team claiming credit for the discovery. This dispute, which spanned several years, scaled new heights when the respective governments intervened.

Montagnier and Gallo shared the prestigious Lasker award in 1986 Montagnier for discovering the HIV and Gallo for establishing that HIV caused AIDS. In 1897,US President Ronald Reagan and French Prime Minister Jacques Chirac agreed, on paper, to share the credit and royalties related to the discovery.

Despite the omissions it is heartening to see life saving research being rewarded, although the reward took a quarter of a century to come by! One can only hope that such exemplary work of science will inspire selfless toil in others and all for a Noble Cause.

In most of Doctors;s offices and hospitals have slowly started the difficult switch from outmoded paper records to sophisticated electronic systems in a bid to improve care and cut costs.

Making records more accessible is a big part of the effort. Complicating matters, though, is that the industry still has to figure out how to ensure the records don't get locked into just one health care provider's computer network and can instead follow patients as they move around.

"It's increasingly frustrating for us and other providers that it's difficult to find a workable interface," said Dr. James. E. Sanders, chief of staff for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs' Kansas City Medical Center. "Our systems don't talk to each other."

Interoperability, or allowing providers to share records and view them from anywhere, is a requirement for facilities to receive some of the more than $17 billion in stimulus funding the government is offering to encourage adoption of electronic medical records. Congress likely will penalize providers who aren't using them by 2014, cutting their Medicaid and Medicare payments. But the debate over interoperability among health care providers, which has been going on for years, could take well beyond the 2014 timeframe to be solved, industry experts say.

"A private sector effort started 11 years ago and is still a going concern," said Carla Smith, executive vice president of the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society. "Every year they solve an X number of problems. They're eating the elephant one bite at a time."

For an integrated system to work, developers have to agree on how their hundreds of programs present information and connect with each other. For example, if one uses its own set of abbreviations, the information would be useless to a doctor who uses a different program.

Some envision a "network of networks" that would resemble the model used in the banking industry for customers to access accounts through ATMs nationwide.

Studies have found that fewer than 10 percent of U.S. health care providers are using electronic medical records.

Sanders, for instance, has access to one of the nation's most expansive computerized record systems, allowing VA staff to securely access patient data from 1,400 locations - but that benefit ends at the medical center's doors.

If a patient is transferred from the University of Kansas Medical Center in Kansas City, Kan., for example, Sanders said his staff has to revert to receiving the records by fax and then scanning them into the VA's system.

Dr. David Blumenthal, the Obama administration's health information technology director, acknowledged a national system for sharing records is far off. He said federal officials hope to issue regulations controlling how medical information is shared by the middle of next year and plan to provide about $300 million in stimulus funds to develop regional and local information exchanges.

But he said the government likely will stay out of the thorny issue of exactly how that national system will work.

"We're very committed to innovation and we're very aware that the government is not the repository of all wisdom, especially in a field as dynamic as health information technology," Blumenthal said. "So we fully expect there will be a lot of different solutions to the exchange problem."

Regional groups, which use bridge programs to allow health care providers in a city or state to view patient records in each others' databases, have shown some success hurdling the differences between records software.

A survey this year by Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit firm eHealth Initiative found 57 health information exchange groups were operating in the U.S., up from 32 in 2007.

At the moment, there are hundreds of programs sold by scores of developers approved by the Certification Commission for Health Information Technology, a nonprofit group that evaluates whether medical record software meets federal and industry standards.

With billions of dollars in potential revenue at stake, the vendors have a big incentive to ensure their products don't get shut out of a national system. Industry experts say that's made interoperability a key feature in most new programs.

"If you envision that everyone who has a computerized system can talk to another system in a standardized way, you've in essence started to build the foundation of a national network even if it didn't exist as such," said Rod Piechowski, senior associate director on policy for the American Hospital Asociation.

Stopping Swine Flu:
Sep,30,2009.
Who's on the front line of this fall's flu fight? You are, say HHS and CDC officials.

Until Thanksgiving, at the earliest, it's going to be up to you to try not to catch the flu. And if you do catch the flu, it's going to be up to you to try not to infect anyone else.

Why? The government is rushing to deliver H1N1 swine flu vaccine to states on or around Oct. 15. Vaccination likely will take two shots given three weeks apart. No protection is expected until two to four weeks after the second shot -- around Thanksgiving for those who start vaccination in mid-October.

"We are not going to have vaccine before H1N1 disease gets here because the disease never went away this summer," Anne Schuchat, MD, director of the CDC's Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, said this week at a pandemic flu symposium. "Schools are now opening and cases are appearing. I would expect to see clusters popping up soon."

"I think we're going to have an interesting fall," Steven C. Redd, MD, director of the CDC's Influenza Coordination Unit, said at the symposium.

All relevant branches of the U.S. government are making full-speed-ahead efforts to prepare for a bad flu season, as the new H1N1 swine flu collides with the seasonal flu. But in the end, the government can do only so much.

The rest is up to citizens, says Kathleen Sebelius, secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

"It is essential people make plans, because we will not have a vaccine available for a few months," Sebelius said at the CDC symposium.

What plans?

The first part of the plan is to avoid infection:

* Wash your hands frequently and thoroughly. Use soap and warm water when available; use hand sanitizer between hand washings.
* Avoid close contact with sick people. Close contact means getting within 6 feet of a sick person. If you must care for someone who is ill, minimize close contact.
* It's not known whether face masks protect against infection. If you use one, don't slack off on hand washing or avoiding close contact with sick people. Use the face mask properly and throw it away after use.
* Get your seasonal flu vaccine as soon as possible. It's safe, and it protects against the three seasonal flu bugs expected to circulate this fall and winter -- even though it won't protect against H1N1 swine flu.

The second part of the plan is to keep from spreading the swine flu virus:

* Stay home if you are sick.
* Observe flu etiquette. Don't cough or sneeze into your hands. Cough/sneeze into a tissue -- or, failing that, your elbow.
* If you can do so comfortably, wear a face mask if you come into contact with others.
* If you are an employer, do not penalize workers for staying home if sick or for caring for sick children.
* Make plans -- now -- for what you'd do if you or your children get sick this Fall.
Am i right?

Periods of short-term stress boost the immune system and protect against a certain type of skin cancer in mice, U.S. researchers say.

The finding was surprising, the researchers noted, because it's believed that chronic stress weakens the immune system and increases the risk of disease.

"This is the first evidence that this type of short-lived stress may enhance anti-tumor activity," Firdaus Dhabhar, an associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Stanford University School of Medicine, and a member of Stanford's Cancer Center and Institute for Immunity, Transplantation and Infection, said in a news release from the university.

"This is a promising new way of thinking that calls for more research," Dhabhar said. "We hope that it will eventually lead to applications that help us to care for those who are ill by maximally harnessing the body's natural defenses while also using other medical treatments."

In the study, mice were exposed for 10 weeks to doses of cancer-causing ultraviolet light. Some of the mice were subjected to nine periods of short-term stress by placing them in a confined space that limited their ability to move. Each stress session lasted 2.5 hours, the authors explained.

Compared with non-stressed mice, fewer of the acutely stressed mice developed a type of skin cancer called squamous cell carcinoma during weeks 11 through 21. The stressed mice that did develop skin cancer had few tumors than the non-stressed mice.

But the protective effect of the acute stress wasn't permanent, the researchers found. After week 22, about 90% of mice in both groups developed cancer, but the stressed mice continued to have fewer tumors until week 26.

"It's possible that the pre-tumor cells were eliminated more efficiently in the group that was stressed," Dhabhar said. "There may also have been a longer-term enhancement of immunity, as we have seen in our non-cancer-related studies. However, acute stress did not lower tumor burden beyond week 26. We are in the process of determining why'.

H ave you heard of the "E-Cigarette"? If you haven't and you're a smoker or even a non-smoker, today is your lucky day! An E-Cigarette looks like a cigarette, feels like a cigarette, taste like a cigarette, but there's something very different about it--it's a healthier way to smoke! To be good to be true? Actually no, it's not. Thousands of customers are raving about how amazing this product is. So much that they are recommending this product to everyone they know as a substitute for friends, colleagues, and loved one as a way to smoke, but in a non-harmful and healthier manner. This high-tech electronic smoking device provides the nicotine individuals crave, with none of the chemicals and tar that comes from your typical cigarette. Not only does it not harm the smoker, but there is none of the harmful second hand smoke either!

Personal Success Story:
"Judy Thomson, a mom of 3 children from Ohio, was an avid smoker for over 30 years. Over the years, her dependency on traditional cigarettes grew to become a major health hazard and Judy, desperate for an alternative tried many different things--over the counter medications, nicotine gum, nicotine patches, and even hypnosis. Judy decided to try one last product that was highly recommended by one of her friends That's when Judy started using "E-Cigarette," a product that has changed her life. Judy was able to reduce her reliance on real cigarettes by utilizing the realistic smoking action of a new breed of highly effective smoking substitution products that have hit the market. These so called E-Cigarettes are starting to gain rapid popularity among people who wish to continue the sensation of smoking without the harmful effects of combustible cigarettes." More Stories Available Here

How Does The E-Cigarette Work?

The E-Cigarette works by utilizing state of the art sophisticated micro-electronic technology to provide users a real smoking experience without the fire, flame, tobacco, tar, carbon monoxide, ash, stub or smell found in real cigarettes.

The development of the electronic cigarette has been underway since the late 90's, but only recently have these nifty "smoking life savers" been available thanks to some major technological advancements and improvements. The newest E-Cigarettes look like cigarette, feels like a cigarette, releases "smoke" like a real cigarette. However, what these new millennium cigarettes don't have is all of the chemicals, toxins and carcinogenics found in real cigarettes.

E-Cigarette are a non-flammable cigarette substitute that uses micro-electronic technology, which provides smokers a real "smoking" experience without the fire, flame, tobacco, tar, carbon monoxide, ash, stub or smell found in real cigarettes. They even allow you to inhale and exhale a real smoke "vapor" that replicates real cigarette smoke.

"E-Cigarette smokers still get their nicotine," explains Elicko, a serial entrepreneur and Smoking Everywhere Founder & CEO, "without having to suffer many of the other negative side effects of tobacco smoking. There are absolutely no carcinogenic substances and no tar. Ordinary cigarettes contain some 4,000 different chemical substances. They pollute the air, and they are hazardous to the health of others - including small children - who breathe the dangerous secondhand smoke. We are looking to supply Smoking Everywhere E-Cigarette to a numerous of leading casinos and clubs, and open E-Cigarette stores in majors malls around the country.

Since E-Cigarette does not burn tobacco or ash like a traditional cigarette, it is not restricted by USA smoking laws and is completely legal to use indoors i.e. restaurants, bars, etc. There are no longer needs for lighters and you don't have any messy leftovers to dispose of! The E-Cigarette is so much more than economical, you enjoy the traditional sensation of smoking, but avoid all of the other adverse side effects!.

The new E-Cigarette works by utilizing a very small in line vaporizer that turns the liquid inside the cigarette into an atomized smoke mist. They are fully re-chargeable and each E-Cigarette can last a full day on one single charge. They make a variety of flavors that contain a either no nicotine or a high levels of nicotine, depending upon what your intended use is.

Benefits of E-Cigarette's:

* No Secondhand Smoke
* No Tar, No Tobacco, Much Healthier
* One Cartridge is equivalent to 20 cigarettes (Huge Savings!)
* As Simple As Recharging
* Different Flavors Are Available
* Being Able To Smoke In Smoking Prohibited Places
* No Carcinogenic Substances

"We recently purchased a few of these E-Cigarette for use by our smoking and non smoking colleagues. The smokers were impressed by the feel and function of these E-Cigarette, the non smokers were as well. The smokers enjoyed the fact that these could readily substitute their real cigarettes without providing all the nasty health effects that go along with really smoking. The non-smokers just thought they were plain COOL. Being able to smoke these E-Cigarette, emit a vapor and do so wherever and whenever they felt like with zero effects on their health. We all felt like James Dean for the afternoon. These new E-Cigarette were truly a fun alternative to the real thing."

If you are a smoker trying to quit, we think you will be pleased with the latest E-Cigarette. If you are a smoker who has no intention of quitting, yet are looking for a cigarette substitute that can be "smoked" anywhere and everywhere that current cigarettes are banned, your moment has arrived.

Any of these "E-Cigarettes" can be used with real nicotine cartridges or with zero nicotine. We see these "E-Cigarette" as a monumental first step in getting smokers to step down from the real ones. With cigarette prices rising daily and the health detriments offered up my these big tobacco companies now is the time for you to at least give one of these technological marvels a puff.

WASHINGTON - More than 3,000 people a day have a heart attack. If you're one of them the day after your swine flu shot, will you worry the vaccine was to blame and not the more likely culprit, all those burgers and fries?

The government is starting an unprecedented system to track possible side effects as mass flu vaccinations begin next month. The idea is to detect any rare but real problems quickly, and explain the inevitable coincidences that are sure to cause some false alarms.

"Every day, bad things happen to people. When you vaccinate a lot of people in a short period of time, some of those things are going to happen to some people by chance alone," said Dr. Daniel Salmon, a vaccine safety specialist at the Department of Health and Human Services.

Health authorities hope to vaccinate well over half the population in just a few months against swine flu, which doctors call the 2009 H1N1 strain. That would be a feat. No more than 100 million Americans usually get vaccinated against regular winter flu, and never in such a short period.

How many will race for the vaccine depends partly on confidence in its safety. The last mass inoculations against a different swine flu, in 1976, were marred by reports of a rare paralyzing condition, Guillain-Barre syndrome.

'How do we know it's safe?'
"The recurring question is, 'How do we know it's safe?'" said Dr. Gregory Poland of the Mayo Clinic.

Enter the intense new monitoring. On top of routine vaccine tracking, there are these governmentsponsored projects:

* Harvard Medical School scientists are linking large insurance databases that cover up to 50 million people with vaccination registries around the country for real-time checks of whether people see a doctor in the weeks after a flu shot and why. The huge numbers make it possible to quickly compare rates of complaints among the vaccinated and unvaccinated, said the project leader, Dr. Richard Platt, Harvard's population medicine chief.
* Johns Hopkins University will direct e-mails to at least 100,000 vaccine recipients to track how they're feeling, including the smaller complaints that wouldn't prompt a doctor visit. If anything seems connected, researchers can call to follow up with detailed questions.
* The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is preparing take-home cards that tell vaccine recipients how to report any suspected side effects to the nation's Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting system.

"We don't have any reason to expect any unusual problems with this vaccine," said Dr. Neal Halsey, director of Hopkins' Institute for Vaccine Safety, who is directing the e-mail surveillance.

Recipe substitution
After all, the new H1N1 vaccine is a mere recipe change from the regular winter flu shot that's been used for decades in hundreds of millions of people without serious problems. Nor have there been any red flags in the few thousand people given test doses in studies to determine the right H1N1 dose. They've gotten the same sore arms and occasional headache or fever that's par for a winter flu shot.

But because this H1N1 flu targets the young more than the old, this may be the year that unprecedented numbers of children and pregnant women are vaccinated.

Then there's the glare of the Internet — where someone merely declaring on Facebook that he's sure the shot did harm could cause a wave of similar reports. Health authorities will have to tell quickly if there really do seem to be more cases of a particular health problem than usual.

So the CDC is racing to compile a list of what's normal: 25,000 heart attacks every week; 14,000 to 19,000 miscarriages every week; 300 severe allergic reactions called anaphylaxis every week.

Any spike would mean fast checking to see if the vaccine really seems to increase risk and by how much, so health officials could issue appropriate warnings.

Very rare side effects by definition could come to light only after large-scale inoculations begin — making this the year scientists may finally learn if flu vaccine truly is linked to Guillain-Barre, an often reversible but sometimes fatal paralysis. It's believed to strike between 1 and 2 of every 100,000 people. It often occurs right after another infection, such as food poisoning or even influenza.

But the vaccine concern stems from 1976, when 500 cases were reported among the 45 million people vaccinated against that year's swine flu. Scientists never could prove if the vaccine really caused the extra risk. The CDC maintains that if the regular winter flu vaccine is related, the risk is no more than a single case per million vaccinated.

So the question becomes, Is the risk of disease greater than that?

Mayo's Poland cites a study in Chicago that found the rate of preschoolers being hospitalized for the new H1N1 flu last spring was 2 1/2 times higher than that possible Guillain-Barre risk.

However the flu season turns out, the extra vaccine tracking promises a lasting impact.

"Part of what we hope is that it will teach us something about how to monitor the safety of all medical products quickly," said Harvard's Platt.

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