Health

Mammograms: Hold off until age 50?

PG Admin10 — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 22:28:48 GMT

The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force has concluded that routine mammograms should be given to women starting at age 50, saying that the harm outweighs the benefits when the tests are given to women in their 40s. How do you feel about that?

Swine Flu

PG Admin24 — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 11:19:42 GMT

The H1N1 virus is spreading quickly and people are taking precautions to avoid contagion. [Read story]

What are you doing to prevent catching the virus?

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Children vaccines

edstem — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 10:57:02 GMT

"Children in the USA and Canada are being vaccinated against influenza without adequate proof that it will work, concludes a study published in this week's issue of THE LANCET. (A prominent medical journal)

Most immunization campaigns target people aged 65 years or older.

The USA and Canada have recently started vaccinating children, including those aged 6 to 24 months, in the hope of reducing disease spread, admissions and visits to hospitals, deaths of elderly relatives, complications (such as ear infections and pneumonia), absences from school, and parental loss of workdays and over-prescribing of antibiotics. However, there is no evidence that vaccinating children can achieve these goals."

http://news.bio-medicine.org/medicine-news-2/Influenza-vaccination-programmes-for-children-in-USA-and-Canada-based-on-little-evidence-485-1/

On the plus side, big Pharma is raking in the Big Bucks as they sell the vaccines.

Fixing health care

PG Admin24 — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 15:16:00 GMT

Dr. Thomas A. Doyle says we're missing the point of health care reform and we're becoming a nation of anxious wimps. [Read story]

Tell us your thoughts on what he has to say.

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Health care reform? really? How cool is that?

tom — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 14:55:32 GMT

Ever notice how people talk about reform but fail to expose "true" reform? Look at what they are doing in other industries?

Banking reforms?,Congress wants to regulate Ceo pay and bonuses?

Wow really now, should this same thing be talked about in Healthcare industry?

Max Baucus took election money from Manor Care nursing homes,its ceo gets paid $1 MILLION and gets a bonus of $2 MILLION ,how much has Dodd taken?

Now how can we control costs if we have Healthcare industry ceo's

Making MILLIONS in pay and bonuses all over the country?

look at what needs to be charged for industries to to pay those ?

Manor Care had profits of $160 MILLION a year and gets 77% of income from MEDICARE ? MEDICAID? HUH? government funds insures these amounts of profits?

I think we need county ownership of Healthcare sorta like local schools?

Ever hear of local schools giving HUNDREDS of MILLIONS to lobby Congress?
Ever hear of local schools spending Millions on TV ads saying "ASK YOUR DR."?
Ever hear of local schools spending MILLIONS on pay and bonuses?
Ever hear of local schools Teaching the wrong math class to its students? "math-practice suits"
Look at state level Cash amounts giving to state lawmakers? MILLIONS, add all these amounts together and there is real reform!

We all here about to many people going to hospitals raise costs? I dis-agree,with hundreds of dr. office's in each county many that send you to hospital for tests anyway ,why not just go to hospital and meet with your dr. there? Sorta like a wal-mart of the "one stop shop" Drs. can be paid for a job and not by the # of people it see's. Like a Nurse that gets Paid,A nurse doesn't charge per # of people it cares for? (do prison drs charge buy the paitent? or a set fee?)

therefore counties and its residents will have Better control of HC costs with its local control and not WASHINGTON,thats where WELLNESS kicks in ,counties that have bikepaths and walking trails and hold county events will have lower HC costs all because Residents will be a major factor in the Heathcare of Themselves

Untill these type of Ideas are done we will still have HUGE health care costs,
we will still have MILLIONS & MILLIONS giving to state and federal election funds
we will still have MILLIONS in HC ceo pay and Millions in bonus pay.
we will still have MILLIONS SPENT in perscription drug ads on tv
therefore an INCREASE in the ABUSE in those drugs and the 100,000 + people that loose there lives each year from perscription drugs that are OVER perscribed

The states already oversee MEDICARE / MEDICAID funding making it easy for transfer of control at county levels,where reform can take place.

Your county hospitals can be publicly owned and the place to be for Healthcare, the myth it cost more is debunked?

And if you see your dr. at an office or at the office in the hospital should cost no more ,You may even get better care because you can see other dr.s on the same visit? or more tests? Think of it as a "SUPER STORE of Healthcare" and "they will leave the light on"

thanks

www.opensecrets.org

www.taf.org

www.congress.org

above are few kool web sites

Thanks George

FATHERS DAY GIFT IDEA-- FOR THE DADS WHO SMOKE

Tobaccokills — Fri, 22 May 2009 14:19:40 GMT

PLEASE VISIT- www,tobaccokills.biz -- click "how it works"-- Really cool new technology

The Eletronic Cigarette-- "E-cig". My wife got me one of these for christmas-- I have not had a tobacco Cigarette since December-- I love this Product-- They just came out with a "Sportsmans Battery"-- for the Golfer-Hunter-Boater- Fisherman -- etc etc in a "Camouflage" Finish.

This is the Cleaner and Cheaper alternative to those Filthy Cigarettes- Try it-- Dad has nothing to lose.

Peace- Happy Fathers Day

What do you think about the new Children's Hospital?

PG Admin1 — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 18:34:46 GMT

On Saturday, May 2, Children's Hospital will move from its long-time home in Oakland into a new, state-of-the-art facility in Lawrenceville. The hospital held an open house earlier this month, and doctors are already seeing outpatients for appointments there.

What do you think about the new facility, from design to services to location?

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Welcome news: Headlines I'd like to see in 2009

Toadsly — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 13:21:46 GMT

On page A-8, of the January 1, 2009 edition of the PG, in the editorial column, the editors listed various headlines they'd like to see this year.

I wish to add several of my own:

1) Researchers discover cure for Alzheimer's disease

2) Pittsburgh Steelers win Super Bowl XLIII

How about you? Are there any headlines you hope to see in 2009?

Horrible Breaking News...Kris Kringle Is Kaput!!!

Toadsly — Thu, 25 Dec 2008 02:21:55 GMT

Kris Kringle has croaked!

After almost 1800 years, the corpulent elf king, known for his glitzy clothes and retro ride, has paid the ultimate penalty for his hedonistic lifestyle and draconian management paradigm.

Mrs. Kringle said she constantly urged Kris to stop eating foods fried in, or made with, colon and artery-clogging Bumble blubber. Besides, the gut-wrenching gore associated with butchering and rendering the adorable Bumbles was so unsettling, several disenfranchised elves had started a North Pole PETA chapter, and were periodically doing nude protests, in the main, toy-manufacturing facility!

Global warming exacerbated existing labor problems because many elves resented having to mow vast expanses of burgeoning grasslands, during the, now, balmy summers. Prior to this carbon-caused greening, many elves got summer jobs baking Keebler cookies, below the tree line.

Female empowerment, championed by Mrs. Kringle, always rubbed misogynistic Kris the wrong way, and his futile attempts to curtail it had given him a bleeding ulcer.

Mrs. Kringle said if Kris had exercised, quit smoking, quit drinking, and watched his diet, he could have lived another 4000 years.

Sadly, Kris left no heirs because he was too large to mate successfully.

There is a lesson to be learned here, but I'll be darned if I know what it is? Ho! Ho! Ho!

What can our community do to offer greater help to those coping with Alzheimer's disease?

PG Admin10 — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 04:48:23 GMT

What can the Western Pennsylvania community do to offer greater help to those confronting the ravages of Alzheimer's disease and support for their family and friends?

A two-part special report by the PG's Gary Rotstein and a video documentary by the PG's Steve Mellon examined one local man's stand against early-onset Alzheimer's and documented the wider trends seen by medical experts on the front lines of combatting the disease.
[ Read Part One | Part Two | View video report ]

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Beware! Venomous yellow sac spiders invading area homes!

Toadsly — Sun, 14 Sep 2008 04:30:37 GMT

The small (about the size of your thumbnail), venomous yellow sac spider, pictured at the end of this post, is extremely common in Western Pennsylvania and tends to head indoors, this time of year, as the outside air becomes cooler.

They hunt at night by stalking their prey (they don’t use webs) and hide during the day in silken tubes they spin in the corners of walls, or behind pictures, or in other low-activity areas. Cheiracanthium inclusum is not aggressive and most bites occur when they inhabit bedding or clothes and people trap them next to their skin. Take care and shake out stored blankets and sheets before making your winter bed!

These arachnids are responsible for the majority of reported spider bites in North America, because their powerful jaws easily penetrate human skin and their mildly-toxic venom produces symptoms that mimic brown recluse spider bites. Its bite is initially painful with redness and swelling that should abate in several days. If it doesn’t heal promptly, or becomes ulcerated, see a physician for antibiotic therapy.

I like spiders and rarely kill them; that said, when I find a yellow sac spider, and most homes have at least a few, I quickly and cautiously relocate them, well away from my abode. These spiders are not yellow; they are usually a pale white, and extremely good pictures of them abound on the Internet.

What's your view on Pennsylvania's new smoking ban?

PG Admin1 — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 12:30:16 GMT

Pennsylvania's statewide smoking ban became law Thursday, outlawing smoking in most public places. The idea is to make most workplaces smoke-free. [ Read PG story ]

What do you think of the new law?

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