Health junction

Treatment and Research for Rheumatoid Arthritis and Other Autoimmune Diseases Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA), the first time I heard of this disease as a college sophomore, I was amazed it affected young people. The treatment used to be loads of steroids, which have plenty of side-affects including weight gain. My little-league-pitching nephew, Sebastian was struck with this dreaded youth flaying arthritis when he was twelve years old. I went to one of his games and yelled, �Swing batter� or �Knock the cover off�, not PC at all, but I am so glad I did it. His diagnosis was a slow process and needless to say, it ended his pitching career. When Sebastian came to visit me for one of our camping expeditions, I took him to a Mariners game (at his request). After sitting through all of the innings, he could barely get up and drag himself the few blocks to the car. It was as if his limbs were numb. This disease affects 10% of our nation, 1 in every 100 people. [1] 21 st Century Treatments Flash ...

Outbreak in Preventable Childhood Diseases On the Rise in the United States The measles outbreak in the nation has been on the rise for the past two years, but is nearly at epidemic proportions now. http://www.cdc.gov/measles/cases-outbreaks.html   There are 141 cases of measles in 17 states so far in 2015. This chart from the CDC shows the states which have the most outbreaks of measles.  Measles, is a preventable childhood disease for which an immunization (a shot) is usually given to a child when the child reaches nineteen to thirty-five months of age. Measles causes red spots, fever, and in some cases can result in death. This article reviews changes in childhood immunization patterns, which were reported for all fifty states in Unraveling U.S. Healthcare-A Personal Guide, published in 2013.  Information is drawn from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and is inclusive of 2013 calendar year data. http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm6334a1.htm?s...

PBS had an interesting program about The Netherlands Health system last night. The Netherlands (Dutch), has been on the cutting edge of a number of health care issues over the years, including policies for physician assisted suicide for the terminally ill and allocation of resources for maternity and child care. Recently, the Dutch decided to switch from a single payer health care system to an open market, privately insured system, where every resident has a health care budget. This approach could work for the United States, but a number of changes would have to be made to the insurance regulatory infrastructure. This article addresses those system delivery concerns. Question of Scale First of all, lets talk about scale, The Netherlands is a tiny country compared to the United States, with excellent public transportation and health services in place for the entire country. In the USA, if you have a car, transportation is excellent, though costly, but access to healthcare in rural and p...