Thursday, 12 April 2012

Princess Health and Diabetes can cause gum disease and tooth decay.Princessiccia

Though it's commonly known that diabetes can affect organ function and eyesight, an oral-health expert points out that the disease can also cause tooth decay and gum disease.

"Diabetics with uncontrolled glucose levels tend to develop more gum disease and may lose more teeth than diabetics who have good control of their glucose levels," writes Dr. John Novak, associate director of University of Kentucky's Center for Oral Health Research, in an op-ed piece for the Lexington Herald-Leader. A high carbohydrate/sugar diet can also lead to high levels of sugar in the blood, which can hamper the way the body deals with infection, he writes. Gum disease may be the result because the gums are inflamed by the increased levels of bacteria living in the mouth.

Diabetes can also cause dry mouth, which "creates the perfect environment for the growth of bacterial plaque and for fungal infections such as thrush," he writes. To avoid these problems, Novak recommends brushing teeth and gums twice a day with a fluoride toothpaste, flossing every day and using fluoride mouth wash before going to bed.

Signs of tooth decay or gum disease include tender gums that bleed easily when brushing or flossing; teeth sensitive to hot or cold temperatures; loose or broken teeth; sores, ulcers or a burning sensation in the mouth; and bad breath or a bad taste. (Read more)
Princess Health and Beshear vetoes parts of budget, but health spending is intact.Princessiccia

Princess Health and Beshear vetoes parts of budget, but health spending is intact.Princessiccia

Though Gov. Steve Beshear vetoed 45 parts of the state budget yesterday evening, health-related spending was safe from the cut.

The budget will help reduce caseloads for social workers who investigate child abuse and neglect, funds colon cancer screenings for 4,000 uninsured Kentuckians, substance-abuse treatment for Medicaid recipients and includes funding for an elder abuse registry to protect senior citizens from unscrupulous caretakers.

"This is the most difficult budget I have ever drafted, and it will also be a challenge to implement and manage over the next two years," the governor said in a statement.

In the two-year, $19 billion budget, Beshear voted more than three dozen line-item appropriations, including "portions of the General Fund budget that limited his ability to manage the state's budget or spent money that doesn't exist," reports Beth Musgrave of the Lexington Herald-Leader.

He also cut some earmarks, including $100,000 for Actors Theatre of Louisville and $150,000 for the International Mystery Writers' Festival in Owensboro. "I am vetoing these parts because they identify new spending earmarks yet the General Assembly failed to appropriate additional funds to finance them," Beshear said. (Read more)

Princess Health andRunning Seminar Series.Princessiccia

Join Dr. Sean Delanghe of H+P at CrossFit Kitchener for a 3-part seminar series looking at the sport of running.

Humans have been perfectly molded by evolution to run effectively over long distances.  Come out to learn exactly what the newest scientific research is showing with regards to technique, training, nutrition, recovery and injury management.

Saturday, May 5 1pm
Saturday, May 19 1pm
Saturday, June 2 1pm

$40 per session or $100 for all 3

To Register:
 
Call: (519)208-7240
E-Mail: seandelanghe@gmail.com

Tuesday, 10 April 2012

Princess Health and Beshear tells national audience legislature should pass pill-mill bill.Princessiccia

Princess Health and Beshear tells national audience legislature should pass pill-mill bill.Princessiccia

Today, Gov. Steve Beshear again called on legislators to pass a bill Thursday that would crack down on so-called pill mills and thus curb prescription drug abuse. Speaking at the National Prescription Drug Abuse Summit in Orlando, Beshear asked for comprehensive collaboration to fight the problem, which kills more Americans than car accidents.

"No state or community is an island. It will take all of us � working across geographical and agency borders � to make headway against prescription drug abuse," he said.

The three-day summit is sponsored by Operation UNITE, which serves Kentucky's Fifth Congressional District, and features 100 leaders and experts, including Surgeon General Regina Benjamin, Office of National Drug Control Policy Director Gil Kerlikowske, Fifth District Rep. Hal Rogers, and Centers for Disease Control Principal Deputy Director Illeana Arias.

Beshear outlined what has already been implemented in Kentucky to combat the problem, including working with Ohio, Tennessee and West Virginia to identify those who exploit the system by crossing state borders and forming a panel of health professionals to develop criteria to identify suspicious drug-prescribing habits. But he also stressed the importance of passing House Bill 4, which would require pain clinics to be owned by doctors, require doctors to participate in the state's prescription-tracking system, and move the system to the attorney general's office from the Kentucky Board of Medical Licensure and the Cabinet for Health and Family Services.

The latter provision continues to draw opposition from the Kentucky Medical Association, which is lobbying hard to make changes to the bill, or perhaps kill it. Beshear has been touting the bill, considered the cornerstone of this year's General Assembly, since before it was filed. Al Cross, director of the University of Kentucky's Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, said on KET's "Comment on Kentucky" Friday night that if the bill does not pass, the legislative session will be a failure. (Read more)

Princess Health and U of L researcher gets $3.4 million to replicate studies of stem cells for heart treatment.Princessiccia

Dr. Roberto Bolli of the University of Louisville has received a $3.4 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to test the validity of several recent studies by replicating them. The studies examine whether certain types of stem cells are safe and effective in treating heart failure, heart attacks and other cardiovascular disorders.

"Replicating studies in several locations with a large number of patients is necessary for researchers to ultimately determine which ones can be submitted to the Food and Drug Administration for approval," Jill Scoggins reports in a U of L press release.

Bolli has received more than $100 million in grants for basic research for NIH. This is the first grant he has been awarded for clinical research. (Read more)

Monday, 9 April 2012

Princess Health and Rx Drug Abuse Summit in Florida, organized by Ky. group, set to start as lobbying on 'pill-mill bill' continues to ramp up.Princessiccia

Princess Health and Rx Drug Abuse Summit in Florida, organized by Ky. group, set to start as lobbying on 'pill-mill bill' continues to ramp up.Princessiccia

By Tara Kaprowy
Kentucky Health News

As a bipartisan group of political leaders pushes the General Assembly to pass a bill Thursday that would crack down on "pill mills" that contribute to prescription drug abuse, Eastern Kentucky's Operation UNITE has organized a national summit in Florida.

The National Rx Drug Abuse Summit aims to "foster understanding and cooperation among those involved in the battle against the epidemic," reports Laura Ungar for The Courier-Journal.

The event starts tomorrow in Orlando and is expected to draw 700 people. "I think it's important because Kentucky's not an island ... This truly needs to be a national effort, standing up against the problem," Karen Kelly, president and CEO of Operation UNITE, which serves Eastern Kentucky's Fifth Congressional District, told Ungar.

Tuesday's agenda will include an address by Gov. Steve Beshear and Dr. Regina M. Benjamin, the U.S. surgeon general. About 1,000 Kentuckians died last year from prescription drug abuse, more than the number of people who died in car accidents.

But while Beshear, Attorney General Jack Conway and key legislators in both parties push to pass a bill that would crack down on the problem, the Kentucky Medical Association is pushing back.

An editorial Sunday in the Lexington Herald-Leader says the KMA "should support the effort to pass this bill and fight this killer." It said, "Drug abuse is not a problem society dumps at the door of physicians. It's one deeply entwined with how we deliver medical care and police the providers."

Today, 15 business lobbying groups issued a press release calling on the legislature to pass the bill, noting that it would "limit direct dispensing of narcotics at a physician�s office to no more than a 48-hour supply. This will help control the supply of narcotics and allow for better monitoring of prescription drug abuse." Dave Adkisson, president and CEO of the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce, said in the release, �Businesses large and small, rural and urban are all experiencing cost increases due to prescription drug abuse. Drug abuse is not only a social problem, it is a bottom-line business issue for Kentucky employers.�

Besides the Chamber, other groups joining in the release were the Kentucky Association of Manufacturers, Associated General Contractors, the Home Builders Association of Kentucky, Kentuckians for Better Transportation, the Kentucky Coal Association, Coal Operators and Associates, the Kentucky chapter of the National Federation of Independent Businesses and local chambers in Louisville, Lexington, Northern Kentucky, Southeast Kentucky, Christian County and Hardin County.

Meanwhile, the legal battle against prescription-pill abuse continues. Last week, a Christian County jury found three men guilty of mailing large amounts of oxycodone from Florida to Kentucky. Peter Nibert, 27, of Pasco County, Fla., is believed to have mailed more than 3,000 pills in 2010. Cary Alder, 24, and Scotty Highsmith, 26, both of Hopkinsville were sentenced 10 and 15 years respectively for their part in the scheme.

Kentucky Health News is a service of the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, based in the School of Journalism and Telecommunications at the University of Kentucky, with support from the Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky.

Princess Health and Pain-pill problem has spread to new areas from Appalachia.Princessiccia

Sales of hydrocodone (the key ingredient of Vicodin, Norco and Lortab) and oxycodone (the main ingredient in OxyContin, Percocet and Percodan) skyrocketed in new parts of the country as the problem spread from its Appalachian roots in the last decade, an Associated Press analysis shows.

Oxycodone sales in Tennessee, New York and Florida were up by more than 499 percent from 2000 to 2010, the highest increases in the country, the study shows. When it came to hydrocodone, South Dakota had the highest increase, with 300 to 399 percent.

In Kentucky, oxycodone sales increased by 171 percent and hydrocodone sales increased 176 percent from 2000 to 2010. Kentucky's increase was not as high because the problem started in the eastern part of the state and in West Virginia, with coal miners needing relief from back and chronic pain, reports the AP's Chris Hawley. The problem also started in affluent suburbs, said Pete Jackson, president of Advocates for the Reform of Prescription Opioids. "Now it's spreading from those two poles," he said.

In 2010, pharmacies dispensed 69 tons of oxycodone and 42 tons of hydrocodone nationwide. "That's enough to give 40 5-milligram Percocets and 24 5-milligram Vicodins to every person in the country," Hawley reports.

As sales increase, so do overdose deaths and pharmacy robberies, Hawley reports. Opioid pain relievers, a category that includes oxycodone and hydrocodone, caused 14,800 overdose deaths in 2008 and numbers are rising, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Part of the increase in sales can be blamed on the fact that the U.S. population is aging, resulting in more pain issues. There is also more of a willingness by doctors to treat pain, said Gregory Bunt, medical director at New York's Daytop Village chain of drug treatment clinics. But they're also increasing because people are addicted. "We all recognized that these drugs can be just as dangerous and deadly as illicit substances when misused or abused," said Gil Kerlikowske, the U.S. drug czar.

The AP analysis used drug data collected four times a year by the Drug Enforcement Adminstration's Automation of Reports and Consolidated Orders System. "The DEA tracks shipments sent from distributors to pharmacies, hospitals, practitioners and teaching institutions and then compiles the data using three-digit ZIP codes," Hawley writes. "Every ZIP code starting with 100-, for example, is lumped together into one figure."

ZIP codes that include military bases or Veterans Affairs hospitals have had large increases because of treatment of injured soldiers. Some areas are affected because mail-order pharmacies have shipping centers there. Areas with large Indian reservations also had larger numbers.

The most sweeping trend, though, is how the pain pill epidemic has spread to areas previously untouched. In 2000, Florida's oxycodone sales were centered around West Palm Beach. By 2010, they were common in almost every part of the state. It has become commonplace in New York City and its suburbs. Staten Island alone saw a sales jump of 1,200 percent. And Tennessee had a five- to six-fold increase in that decade. "We've got a problem. We've got to get a handle on it," said Tommy Farmer, a counterdrug official with the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation. (Read more)

For a view of an interactive map that shows more Kentucky numbers, click here.