Princess Health and Princess Health andElizabethtown cancer clinic pays $3.7 million to resolve claims it diluted drugs, prolonged chemotherapy to make more money.Princessiccia

Princess Health and Princess Health andElizabethtown cancer clinic pays $3.7 million to resolve claims it diluted drugs, prolonged chemotherapy to make more money.Princessiccia

cancer courts hospitals law enforcement Medicaid Medicare

Gusty 08:11 Add Comment

Elizabethtown Hematology Oncology PLC and its owners has paid $3,739,325 to settle claims "that they submitted false claims for payment to the Medicare, Medicaid and the military's medical provider for extending the duration of chemotherapy infusion treatment to patients and inappropriately billing office visits for infusion therapy," Andrew Wolfson reports for The Courier-Journal.

"To subject cancer patients to unnecessary treatments that are physically draining and emotionally stressful is utterly unconscionable," said Patrick McFarland, inspector general of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management.

The settlement agreement not only explains that the clinic's owners, Dr. Rafiz Ur Rahman and Dr. Yusuf K. Deshmukh, extended the time period of chemotherapy and infusion treatments for patients just to make more money but also says the clinic wrongly billed for office evaluations of patients getting chemotherapy, Wolfson writes.

"Manipulating treatment protocols and lengthening infusion times to increase reimbursement reflect an extraordinary lack or regard for patient welfare and the integrity of our health care system," David Hale, U.S. attorney for the western half of Kentucky, said in a news release.

In 2011, Dr. Ijaz Mahmood of Elizabethtown filed a lawsuit against the clinic, saying it created written protocols designed to prolong chemotherapy infusion times "by a factor of three or more beyond what is generally recognized." Mahmood said Deshmukh and Rahman provided patients with the correct dose of chemotherapy but administered it over a longer period of time by diluting it. They could make more money that way because Medicaid and Medicare pay partially based on how long a procedure takes.

Aside from the $3.7 million payment, the inspector general of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services will monitor the clinic for three years. The clinic will still be allowed to bill federal medical programs, Wolfson writes. The government could still potentially prosecute the doctors. (Read more)

Princess Health and Princess Health andPeople with a genetic risk of obesity should avoid saturated fat, national study of 2,800 people suggests.Princessiccia

Princess Health and Princess Health andPeople with a genetic risk of obesity should avoid saturated fat, national study of 2,800 people suggests.Princessiccia

diet genetics nutrition obesity research

Gusty 21:20 Add Comment

A new study shows that avoiding saturated fat may be advantageous for those whose genetic makeup predisposes them to obesity. Researchers from the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University used 63 gene variants associated with obesity to determine a genetic risk score for obesity for more than 2,800 white, American adults participating in two studies about heart disease prevention.

"People with a higher genetic risk score, who also consumed more of their calories as saturated fat, were more likely to have a higher body mass index, the ratio of body weight to height," Newswise reports.

"We already know there are certain genes that interact with dietary fat and affect BMI," said senior author Jose M. Ordovas, Ph.D., director of the Nutrition and Genomics Laboratory at the USDA center and a professor at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts. We "saw that while total fat intake was related to higher BMI, people who were genetically predisposed to obesity and ate the most saturated fat had the highest BMIs."

The study is published in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. The findings also take into consideration factors like age, sex and physical activity levels. Ordovas and the other researchers believe that those who have genetic makeups predisposing them to obesity might be more easily affected by saturated fat, which is often found in fatty cuts of meats, butter, cheese and other high-fat dairy products.

Ordovas said that although they cannot yet explain with confidence the "role of saturated fat intake in obesity . . . Some clinical models suggest that saturated fat might interfere with activity in the part of the brain that lets us know we're full, in addition to a few studies in people that suggest a diet high in saturated fat interferes with satiety." Ordovas also said that if additional research could explain the connection between obesity-related genes and saturated fat, people would have even more convincing reasons to eat less saturated fat. (Read more)

Princess Health and Princess Health andKentucky gets $1.75 million in national settlement with big drug maker; marketing and promotional practices reined in.Princessiccia

Princess Health and Princess Health andKentucky gets $1.75 million in national settlement with big drug maker; marketing and promotional practices reined in.Princessiccia

asthma depression drugs pharmaceuticals

Gusty 21:16 Add Comment

Kentucky will receive approximately $1.75 million from a $105 million national settlement with GlaxoSmithKline to resolve allegations that the pharmaceutical manufacturer unlawfully promoted its asthma drug, Advair, and its antidepressant drugs, Paxil and Wellbutrin, according to a press release from Attorney General Jack Conway's office.

The complaint and consent judgment alleges that GSK violated state consumer-protection laws by misrepresenting the uses and qualities of these drugs. Conway said in the release that this settlement will change the way pharmaceutical sales teams are motivated and paid.

The consent judgement requires GSK to reform its marketing and promotional practices, stating the company shall not: make any false, misleading or deceptive claim about its products; make claims not approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration; present information or conclusions from inadequate clinical studies; provide samples to health care professionals if they know it is being prescribed for non-approved use; or provide information describing any off-label use of a GSK product, unless consistent with applicable Food and Drug Administration regulations.

They must also continue a program through March 2019 that decreases financial incentives for sales representatives who use deceptive marketing practices, says the release.  In addition, scientifically trained personnel will be responsible for providing unbiased and non-promotional information to health care providers.

Kentucky joined 43 other states and the District of Columbia in reaching the national settlement with GSK.

Princess Health and Princess Health andLexington preschool becomes Kentucky's first with a farm-to-school food program.Princessiccia

Princess Health and Princess Health andLexington preschool becomes Kentucky's first with a farm-to-school food program.Princessiccia

child obesity childhood obesity children children's health farm to school local food nutrition school health school lunch

Gusty 13:24 Add Comment

About 20 years from now, today's preschoolers will be purchasing and preparing their own food. What if they spent 13 years in an educational setting that taught farm-to-school practices? Children who represent the next generation would learn not only to eat healthy food but also to support local food systems, state Farm to School Program coordinator Tina Garland told Cerise Bouchard of Lexington Family Magazine.

This year, Growing Together Preschool in Lexington became the first Farm to Preschool program facilitated by the state Department of Agriculture. Bouchard returned to GTP in July 2013 as the executive director with the goal of improving the menu by working with a farm to provide community-supported agriculture.

When Bouchard told Garland about her idea, Garland connected her with Lazy Eight Stock Farm and Carla Bauman, who told the magazine, "I am excited about being part of a project that encourages young children to like eating fresh fruits and vegetables while their food preferences are still forming." Bauman said the the GTP project also will give the students' families weekly access to fresh, local, organic produce.

Childhood obesity rates in Kentucky are very high, and many children eat most of their meals in school, Bouchard writes. Instead of exacerbating the problem, schools have an opportunity to improve the health of children. GTP's focus has always been on quality improvement initiatives, and "Implementation of the Farm to School program is simply the next step to ensuring that we are making the best decisions to improve and support the development of the whole child," Bouchard writes.

Princess Health and A NATUROPATHIC DOCTOR/ NUTRITIONIST TRIES THE HUNGER SCALE. Princessiccia

Princess Health and A NATUROPATHIC DOCTOR/ NUTRITIONIST TRIES THE HUNGER SCALE. Princessiccia

Gusty 13:19 Add Comment

Princess Health and Princess Health andWhat you eat, such as refined and easily digestible carbohydrates, may be more important that how much you eat.Princessiccia

Princess Health and Princess Health andWhat you eat, such as refined and easily digestible carbohydrates, may be more important that how much you eat.Princessiccia

diet nutrition obesity research

Gusty 12:14 Add Comment

By Melissa Patrick
Kentucky Health News

Our weight is determined by the number of calories we take in compared to the number of calories we expend. So, if you over-eat and don't exercise, all those extra calories will be stored as fat, and the solution to losing the fat is to eat less and exercise more, right? What if this isn't true?

For most people, over the long term, eating less doesn't work, nutritionists David S. Ludwig and Mark I. Friedman write in an opinion piece for The New York Times. They suggest it is time to look at another idea, one that says overeating is not causing us to get fat, but that the process of getting fat is causing us to overeat.

This hypothesis suggests that when fat cells take in too many calories, those calories increase the amount of fat tissue instead of providing the energy our bodies need to function. When this happens our bodies still think we need food, so they continue to tell us we are hungry. Thus, we eat more and subsequently gain weight, Ludwig and Friedman write in The Journal of the American Medical Association.

Studies have shown our bodies have a "set point" for weight largely determined by our genes, Ludwig and Friedman note. If this is true, they then pose the question: Why has obesity almost tripled since 1960, and what can we do about it?

Ludwig and Friedman write that among the many biological factors that affect the storage of calories in fat cells, one has an indisputably dominant role: the hormone insulin. We know that excess insulin causes weight gain, and insulin deficiency causes weight loss. We also know that highly refined and rapidly digestible carbohydrates, like sugar or potatoes, produce the most insulin.

The authors suggest that the increasing amount of refined carbohydrates in Americans' diets has "increased insulin levels, put fat cells into storage overdrive and elicited obesity-promoting biological responses in a large number of people."

The authors suggest that one reason we consume so many refined carbohydrates is because they have been added to processed foods in place of fats, especially since low-fat diets are the most recommended diet. However, several studies cited in the article show that low-fat diets are the least effective way to lose weight.

The authors recognize that existing research cannot provide a definitive test of their hypothesis and the existing trials have exhibited major limitations, but it is time to "invest much more in this research." The cost savings for treating diabetes alone�predicted to approach half a trillion dollars by 2020�would make it a good investment.

If this hypothesis turns out to be correct, the authors say obesity treatment would more appropriately focus on diet quality rather than calorie quantity.

"With reduced consumption of refined grains, concentrated sugar and potato products and a few other sensible lifestyle choices, our internal body weight control system should be able to do the rest," they write. "Eventually, we could bring the body weight set point back to pre-epidemic levels. Addressing the underlying biological drive to overeat may make for a far more practical and effective solution to obesity than counting calories."

David S. Ludwig directs the New Balance Foundation Obesity Prevention Center at Boston Children�s Hospital and is a professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School. Mark I. Friedman is vice president of research at the Nutrition Science Initiative. (Read more)

Princess Health and Calorie Intake and Body Fatness on Unrestricted High-fat vs. High-carbohydrate Diets. Princessiccia

Princess Health and Calorie Intake and Body Fatness on Unrestricted High-fat vs. High-carbohydrate Diets. Princessiccia

Gusty 11:56 Add Comment

In recent posts, we've explored the association between calorie intake and the US obesity epidemic, and the reasons why this association almost certainly represents a cause-and-effect relationship. I also reviewed the evidence suggesting that carbohydrate and fat are equally fattening in humans, calorie for calorie.

One valid objection that came up in the comments is that calorie-controlled diets in a research setting may not reflect what happens in real life. For example, in a context where calorie intake isn't tightly controlled, diet composition can impact calorie intake, in turn affecting body fatness. This, of course, is true, and it forms one of the central pillars of our fat loss program the Ideal Weight Program.

Some low-carbohydrate diet advocates argue that the obesity epidemic was caused by US dietary guidelines that emphasize a carbohydrate-rich diet*. The idea here is that the increase in calorie intake was due to the diet shifting in a more carbohydrate-heavy direction. In other words, they're hypothesizing that a carbohydrate-rich eating style increases food intake, which increases body fatness**. According to this hypothesis, if we had received advice to eat a fat-rich diet instead, we wouldn't be in the midst of an obesity epidemic.

Fortunately for us, this hypothesis has been tested-- many times! Which eating style leads to higher calorie intake and body fatness when calories aren't controlled: a carbohydrate-rich diet, or a fat-rich diet?

Short-term Studies

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