Category Archives: Neurology

Dr. Fotuhi discusses his program to expand the size of memory to improve memory and creativity at the Neurology Institute for Brain Health and Fitness.

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NEUROLOGY INSTITUTE FOR BRAIN HEALTH AND FITNESS - Video

Video skits of nursing students showing how to do a neurological assessment

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neurological assessment - Video

The average American consumes 45 gallons of soft drinks annually. This does not include noncarbonated sweetened beverages, which add up 17 gallons a person per year. Chips and Coke are a common breakfast.

Nearly a third of American children are overweight or obese. In our inner cities a prevalence of obesity of more than 50% is not uncommon. Too many calories in, too little energy out. An 18% tax on pizza and soda can decrease U.S. adults' weight by 5 pounds (2 kg) per year, according to some researchers.

Here are some ideas how to promote healthy diet from from the NYTimes:

- taxing unhealthy food would reduce consumption and generate billions of dollars annually. That money could be used to subsidize the purchase of staple foods like seasonal greens, vegetables, whole grains, dried legumes and fruit. Sell those staples cheap - let’s say for 50 cents a pound - and almost everywhere: drugstores, street corners, convenience stores, bodegas, supermarkets, liquor stores, even schools, libraries and other community centers.

- convert refrigerated soda machines to vending machines that dispense grapes and carrots, as has already been done in Japan

References:

The solution: Tax Soda, Subsidize Vegetables? NYTimes.
Timeline of the Standard American Diet in the NYTimes.
18% tax on pizza and soda can decrease U.S. adults' weight by 5 pounds (2 kg) per year
Image source: Soft drinks, Wikipedia, public domain.

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Comments from Google Plus:

Jamie Rauscher - Mark Bittman makes some excellent points. Taxing unhealthy foods may help (studies have shown cigarette taxes can discourage smoking) but it is not the complete solution. We must continue to educate people too about the importance of eating at home. The amount of time people spend preparing meals continues to decline. (See report "Who has time to cook?" by US Economic Research Service) Many people also no longer know how to cook. Finally we need to teach nutrition to children and adults. I recently completed a nutrition class in a graduate program at Boston University. It was a real eye opener--and I thought I was pretty knowledgeable going into the class.

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This Swedish retrospective cohort study, published in BMJ, examined the risk of neurological and autoimmune disorders in people vaccinated against pandemic influenza A (H1N1) with Pandemrix (GlaxoSmithKline) compared with unvaccinated people over 8-10 months.

Image of the H1N1 Influenza Virus, CDC.

One million people were vaccinated against H1N1 and 900,000 remained unvaccinated.

Excess risks among vaccinated people were of low magnitude, but present, for:

- Bell’s palsy (hazard ratio 1.25)
- paresthesia (1.11)
- inflammatory bowel disease (IBD)

Risks for Guillain-Barré syndrome, multiple sclerosis, type 1 diabetes, and rheumatoid arthritis remained unchanged.

The risks of paresthesia and inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) among those vaccinated in the early phase (within 45 days) of the vaccination campaign were significantly increased; the risk being increased within the first 6 weeks after vaccination.

The risks were small but significant among more than one million vaccinated, but only in high risk groups targeted for early vaccination and who were likely to have earlier comorbidity.

The absolute risk of Bell’s palsy was low, 6.4 cases per 100?000 vaccinated population.

References:

Neurological and autoimmune disorders after vaccination against pandemic influenza A (H1N1) with a monovalent adjuvanted vaccine: population based cohort study in Stockholm, Sweden. BMJ 2011; 343:d5956 doi: 10.1136/bmj.d5956 (Published 12 October 2011).

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Times have changed for physician practice websites.

Older sites included static content such as the practice name, location, hours of operation, fax and telephone number, procedure instructions, office policies, physician photos and bios, and mission statement.

New websites are dynamic, maintained by the physicians or the office manager, updated weekly, and often include the following:

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From the NYT:

Steve Owens had always left birth control to his wife, who took the pill. Then Mr. Owens volunteered to test potential methods that lowered his sperm count so much that “I was not viably able to produce a child,” he said. His count rebounded weeks after stopping each method, and he fathered a daughter between research studies.

Male contraceptives are attracting growing interest from scientists. The most studied approach uses hormones such as testosterone and progestin, which send the body signals to stop producing sperm. While effective and safe for most men, they have not worked for everyone (5% do not respond to treatment). Questions about long term side effects also remain.

Scientists are testing several ways of interrupting sperm production, maturation or mobility:

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