People With Intellectual Or Developmental Disabilities Particularly Vulnerable To Effects Of Tobacco Use And Dependence

While tobacco use is an ongoing health hazard for the entire population, its consequences for people with developmental or intellectual disabilities can be especially severe. And the medical community often tends to overlook the tobacco-related burdens these people face. An extensive review of published research on this topic appears in the June edition of the journal Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities.

“This is too important an issue to ignore,” said Dr. Marc L. Steinberg, an assistant professor of psychiatry at the UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and the article’s lead author. “Health care professionals often do not ask these individuals about tobacco use or exposure.”

Long-term effects of Tylenol PM

Question:

Are there any long term adverse effects to taking one tylenol pm pill every night. I am 60 years old, otherwise healthy, but have had a hard time falling asleep and staying asleep since I was young

Answer:

There should not be any long-term adverse effects to using Tylenol PM as long as you have a healthy liver. Alcohol, acetaminophen (the active ingredient in Tylenol), and some other medications can cause liver problems. As long as you are not on other medications that can damage the liver, and you limit your alcohol intake and do not use other doses of Tylenol throughout the day, you should not have any problems taking a Tylenol PM each night.

Amiodarone long-term effects

Question:

I have been on amnioderone for the past 8 years. How long will it take to get out of my system, do I need any other medicine to help my shortness of breath. My electrophysiologist just took me off of it after seeing a ct scan of the llungs

Answer:

Thank you for contacting NetWellness. Amiodarone is an antiarrhythmic agent that is used to treat serious fast heartbeats. It has some very serious side effects that should be closely monitored that affect the lung, liver, and thyroid.

Drug interactions and side effects

Question:

Things seem to be going from bad to worse with my husband who is 51. He has a blood clotting problem so he is on Coumadin. Now he is on Flomax (1 week new) and will be picking up a new medicine (pill not insulin) for new diabetes. He has high blood pressure pills, too. Anyway…I`m worried about the 2 medications together. Will his sex drive also be affected. His emotional health is taking a hit with all this. He wants to lose weight but his reply “I can`t eat green leafy vegetable because of the Coumadin”…HELP! Thank You VERY much!!!

Papers Examine Effects Of Expanded Eligibility In Public Health Insurance Program For Older Children, Medicare Spending; More

“Has Public Health Insurance for Older Children Reduced Disparities in Access to Care and Health Outcomes?” Journal of Health Economics: The paper examines the effects of expanding public health insurance programs for older children. The paper analyzes data from the National Health Interview Survey from 1986 to 2005 and finds that income became a less important predictor of the health statuses of children ages nine to 17 in recent years. In addition, the report finds that while eligibility for public health insurance programs improves current utilization of preventive care, it has little effect on a person’s current health status. In addition, the paper finds some evidence that Medicaid eligibility in early childhood has positive effects on future health, which suggests that early and adequate care puts children on a course for better health as they grow (Currie et al., Journal of Health Economics, December 2008).

Honest Sexual Signalling Mediated By Parasite And Testosterone Effects On Oxidative Balance

Oxidative stress is a physiological condition whereby essential biomolecules are damaged. There has been much interest in understanding the interrelationships of oxidative stress with disease, parasite infections and ageing.

Here we describe how oxidative stress can explain the evolution of animal ornaments, by being a cost of displaying more exaggerated signals, and thus maintaining the honesty of signals.

In a wild bird, the red grouse, we showed that parasites and testosterone cause oxidative stress and influence ornamentation proportionally to the amount of oxidative stress experienced.

Severe Underreporting Of Side Effects In ENT Medical Journals

Harms and adverse events (untoward side effects of surgery or medicine) have been under-reported or poorly described at an alarming low rate by the publishing authors in the four leading otolaryngology medical journals, according to new research presented at the 2008 American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery Foundation (AAO-HNSF) Annual Meeting & OTO EXPO, in Chicago, IL.

In a review of 1,835 articles from the four journals, at separate points of time (1996 and 2006), researchers at SUNY Downstate Medical Center determined that nearly a third (31 percent) of clinical research articles contained no mention of adverse or harm events, while more than half (53 percent) failed to explicitly describe these events. Furthermore, over 76 percent of the articles in question failed to describe the methodology in collecting adverse event date.

Papers Examine Effects Of Expanded Eligibility In Public Health Insurance Program For Older Children, Medicare Spending; More

“Has Public Health Insurance for Older Children Reduced Disparities in Access to Care and Health Outcomes?” Journal of Health Economics: The paper examines the effects of expanding public health insurance programs for older children. The paper analyzes data from the National Health Interview Survey from 1986 to 2005 and finds that income became a less important predictor of the health statuses of children ages nine to 17 in recent years. In addition, the report finds that while eligibility for public health insurance programs improves current utilization of preventive care, it has little effect on a person’s current health status. In addition, the paper finds some evidence that Medicaid eligibility in early childhood has positive effects on future health, which suggests that early and adequate care puts children on a course for better health as they grow (Currie et al., Journal of Health Economics, December 2008).

clobetasol and its side effects

Question:

I am a 27 year old woman. Couple of months ago I had a rash on both my hands which my dermetologist asked me to treat with Clobetasol. I aaplied it regularly for 2 months twice a day. After 2 months I noticed that where ever I applied clobetasol it was all red in those areas and I had a burning sensation in that area; it was a bit painful too. My doctor said it could be because I applied too much Clobetasol and asked me to stop using it completely. I haven`t applied anything on my hands since then and the red mark and burning sensation is also completely gone. It`s been a month since I stopped using this clobetasol. But since then I have noticed a white color on my skin whereever I applied the clobetasol. I also noticed that there is no hair growing in that area. I can see hair growing around the white area but not inside the white area. Could it be a side effect of long time use of clobetasol? Can long term using of clobetasol cause white mark on the skin? When cn I expect to get my normal skin color on those area back? Thanks!

Prednisone side effects or healing?

Question:

I have been on prednisone for a month and a half. The starting dose was 60mg and I have titrated down to 35mg a month later. I take 20mg in the AM and 15mg in the PM, since I have been on 35mg, I feel my breathing is more labored and I am bruising and suffering from myalgia. First, should I be splitting the doses up or take the full 35mg in the morning. (Divided doses when on 60mg due to tremors and tachycardia) Are these symptoms due to titrating off of the drug, including the slightly labored breathing? By the way, Im on medical leave at this time and am not exerting myself physically.