In our blog post about Twitter this week, we’re linking to interesting health articles and blogs, so even if you’re not on Twitter, you can benefit.

For those of you on Twitter, we thought it would be interesting to see who we tweeted about the most in June.  We’ve included a few of the posted links.  Enjoy!

Some People We Retweeted Most:

@2ndhelping
Recipes to make your own spice mixes. Fun!

@AllergyNotes
AMA: “The duck refused medical treatment and left the area…”

@nytimeshealth
TierneyLab: Flaws in the Case Against BPA

@PearlMustafa
RT @USATODAYhealth: Wait times to see doctor are getting longer

@WSJHealthBlog
Recession Helps Nursing Shortage, At Least for the Moment

Healthy Blogs on Twitter We Linked Most To:

@amnichols
Yum! Fun for 4th of July: Grilled strawberries & kiwis

@fitsugar
Did you know your cast-iron skillet can add iron to your food?

@Medgadget
- “Toyota Working on Thought Controlled Wheelchairs”
- “Electronic Patch May Be New Option for Menstrual Cramping”

@rebeccasportsrd
- Starbucks launches healthier options! Woo-hoo! (Granted, some based on unproven ideas about “bad” ingredients)
- Yogurts rated for their nutrition

@sandwichINK
Healthy snack for grandchildren: Popsicles with pure or diluted juice; fun molds

Health Blogs We Linked to Most That Don’t Seem to Be on Twitter:

All Scrubbed Up
- “Old Time Medicine”: Heroin, “non-addictive substitute for morphine”
- Tee hee … neurosurgery humor (cartoon)
- I guess this cartoon is funny for doctors. A bit scary for the rest of us. ; - )

Dieting Dietitian
- A registered dietitian rails against rice cakes. Short, funny … true?
- How to stop hating your body: Get old. (Ha!)

A Dietitian’s View
- Yes, you can eat dry oatmeal straight from the box, says A Dietitian’s View
- Cherry buying, storing, freezing tips, with interesting salad recipe
- Ooooh … I’m saving this one: Lowfat Artichoke Dip

What do you think? Any other health tweeters you’d recommend?

You can follow us at @DrHubbard, @FamilyDoctorMag and @Health55Plus.  And a special thanks to @littlebytesnews and @PhysicianAssist for retweeting us the most in June.

Get the headlines from the news. Get the real scoop from My Family Doctor, the magazine written by health-care providers. Subscribe today!

Doctors and business owners: Send customized issues of My Family Doctor to your customers or patients. E-mail publisher-at-familydoctormag.com for details.

As with all information on this site, this article cannot replace professional, personal medical advice. Read more here.

Michael is my first grandson and doing well, probably the most beautiful and brightest kid ever born.

Beth and Roger are tired but doing well. Grandpa and Grandma Hubbard are very happy and proud.

My Family Doctor has learned that Boniva and Tamiflu are no longer covered by the recently announced Medicare-discount agreement.  Whether their manufacturer Roche Pharmaceuticals will instate its own discount is unclear.

On June 20, the powerful trade group Pharmaceutical Researchers and Manufacturers of America made big news, announcing their members would offer a 50-percent discount to most people in the dreaded Medicare Part D doughnut hole. But today, the Center for Medicine in the Public Interest reported Roche is leaving PhRMA.

My Family Doctor asked Roche whether they would still offer the discount. Spokesman Alfred Wasilewski responded, “unfortunately we cannot comment at this time.”

Roche makes the well-known and expensive osteoporosis drug Boniva (the one Sally Field promotes in those commercials). It also makes Tamiflu, which many seniors and others take to prevent and treat the flu. Tamiflu could have a big year if swine flu and the fears that accompany it hit big. Neither Boniva nor Tamiflu has a generic equivalent.

We’ll stay on this story.

To see a list of other drugs Roche makes, click here to go to their Web site.

What do you think of this news?  If you take Boniva, how much do you pay for it?

In an interesting turn of events, relief is coming for seniors. Drug manufacturers are going to help pay for some medicines!

This sounds great, definitely, but we want to know from you: How much will it really help?

The News
Today, President Obama and industry trade group Pharmaceutical Researchers and Manufacturers of America announced a big deal, part of which involves the dreaded Medicare Part D doughnut hole.

Under Medicare Part D, after you’ve reached $2,250 worth of drugs, you have to pay for the next $3,216 yourself.  This is the much-bemoaned “doughnut hole” (or donut hole).  But in a press release today, PhRMA said that soon (presumably) their members will provide a 50-percent discount on brand-name medicines during that gap.

Of course, notice that it only covers brand-name drugs. Medicare doesn’t prefer those anyway.  Just last week, in fact, American Medical Association members decided to urge Medicare and Medicaid to stop giving pharmacists incentives “to ‘push’ generic drugs over brand name drugs.”

Then again, many newer drugs are only available under the brand name–and they’re certainly the ones more likely to break the bank.

So how much difference do you think this new policy will make?

Get the headlines from the news. Get the real scoop from My Family Doctor, the magazine written by health-care providers. Subscribe today!

Doctors and business owners: Send customized issues of My Family Doctor to your customers or patients. E-mail publisher-at-familydoctormag.com for details.

As with all information on this site, this article cannot replace professional, personal medical advice. Read more here.

On Friday, I blogged about some interesting resolutions from the American Medical Association’s annual meeting.  Today, as promised, it’s time for the My Family Doctor first annual Resolutions Awards (tongue firmly in cheek)!

Drum roll, please …

Most Hoity-Toity Resolution:
Resolution 605:  Be it known that henceforth, physicians are no longer “health-care providers” or (scoff) “providers,” thank you very much. These “generic terms” are  “inadequate to describe the extensive education and qualifications of physicians ….”  They will no longer appear in AMA journals like JAMA. (Is “shrink” still allowed?)

Most All-Embracing Resolution:
Resolution 405, A-08:  Medical facilities should serve healthy food.  (Um, duh?)  But wait, there’s more!  AMA doctors want food that’s “environmentally sustainable and economically viable, and supports human dignity and justice.”  Plus, the AMA should consider helping educate the public “about the importance of healthy and ecologically sustainable food systems.”

Most Ominous Resolution Title:
“520 – Disease Transmission Via Foods: Public Health Disaster in Waiting.”  Well, thanks for reminding us.  AMA doctors want a Congressional review of what’s going on at the FDA, USDA and other such agencies.

Resolution Requiring the Most Re-reads:
512: “RESOLVED, That our American Medical Association strongly encourage the Association of American Medical Colleges to encourage its medical schools to adopt policies of licensing that guarantee third party manufacturers the ability to provide essential medicines at locally affordable prices in low- and middle-income overseas markets …”

And finally, we’d like to pat our own selves on the back, giving us a few “We Told You First” awards:

• Say a doctor prescribes marijuana in a state where it’s legal. Well guess what:  The federal government can still prosecute, as we told you in our March/April 2009 issue.  AMA delegates want the Executive Order that makes such prescriptions illegal reversed.
• Despite the popular push to increase vitamin D recommendations, AMA doctors admit they just don’t know how much vitamin D we need. They’ll keep watch.  Our publisher, Dr. Hubbard, bucked the trendy D-craze and blogged about the real scoop in March.
• More people–including physicians–need to know about obstructive sleep apnea, said the doctors. You could start right here, with the article from our March/April issue.
• And finally, did you know some pharmacists get incentives for pushing generics or certain brand-name drugs?  Our May/June issue revealed that practice and more.  Lemme tell ya’, it wasn’t easy finding someone to talk about it; under the rug was a cozy place to be.  But guess what:

RESOLVED, That our American Medical Association call upon the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to abolish the provision of providing incentives for pharmacists to ‘push’ generic drugs over brand name drugs.

So, what do you think of these resolutions?  Do you agree with them?  Let us know in the comments section below.

Want to order a previous issue? Just e-mail questions-at-familydoctormag.com or call 877-DOC-IS-IN (877-362-4746).

Correction: An earlier version of this post said the AMA will recommend hospitals stop using white coats and ties to reduce infection.  In fact, this resolution did not pass yet and, according to The Wall Street Journal blog, will be studied further.

Trophy image courtesy wpclipart.com.  Award image courtesy freeclipartnow.com.

Get the headlines from the news. Get the real scoop from My Family Doctor, the magazine written by health-care providers. Subscribe today!

Doctors and business owners: Send customized issues of My Family Doctor to your customers or patients. E-mail publisher-at-familydoctormag.com for details.

As with all information on this site, this article cannot replace professional, personal medical advice. Read more here.

The American Medical Association held their annual meeting this week.  Obama’s speech there grabbed the headlines, but AMA members also voted on some interesting resolutions.  You may be surprised at some of the topics.  But first, some …

AMA FAQs

How many practicing doctors belong to the AMA?
Probably less than a third.

Who votes in the AMA meeting?
Delegates from 180 medical societies.

What’s the significance of the AMA resolutions?
They set the AMA’s agenda. Many of the resolutions, for example, direct the organization to lobby Congress for action.

And now for some AMA resolution highlights
The voting AMA members say …

• People who get a Medicare card should be required to sign a living will.
• You should be able to sue your insurance company if they refuse you a needed test and you’re harmed as a result.
• Congress should ban pharmacies from selling tobacco.
• They don’t like guns on TV and in the movies: AMA doctors firmly (?) instructed their AMA to talk to the Council on Science and Public Health about whether they could and should embark on a multi-media campaign about this subject.  So there.
• Nutrition and calorie information may be coming to a restaurant menu near you.  They want to “create a method” to display such things.
• They endorse teaching evolution “as an integral part of science education.”
• They like the idea of mandatory HIV testing for women in labor who haven’t been tested yet during that pregnancy.
• Everybody needs to know that depression is “a significant risk factor” for heart disease–and increases your risk of death if you already have heart disease.
• Electronic cigarettes may or may not be good to help you quit. Stay tuned; they’ll study and report at the 2010 meeting.

What do you think of these resolutions?  Do you agree?

Coming Monday: resolution awards!  We highlight some of the most interesting resolutions in various categories.  Stay tuned (and get the blog delivered via e-mail so you don’t miss a thing!  See the box in the upper right-hand corner).

Get the headlines from the news. Get the real scoop from My Family Doctor, the magazine written by health-care providers. Subscribe today!

Doctors and business owners: Send customized issues of My Family Doctor to your customers or patients. E-mail publisher-at-familydoctormag.com for details.

As with all information on this site, this article cannot replace professional, personal medical advice. Read more here.

Last Friday, we highlighted some great health-related Twitter folks to follow.  Now, it’s time to celebrate registered dietitians and people who tweet healthy recipes.

What do you think of the list?  Any to add?

A couple of requirements we set:

1. A real person must be behind the account (not only an RSS feed; they can be great; we just omitted them from this particular list).
2. If the person gives nutrition advice, it must be solid and evidence-based (as far as we could tell).

Now for our recommendations:

@2ndhelping
Great weight-maintenance tips and recipes that aren’t boring or tasteless!

@Cooking_Light
From Cooking Light magazine. Yummy, creative recipes with easy ingredients.

@eatrightdenise
Recipe links and quick, healthy tips.

@HealthCastleGlo
Solid nutrition information–not fads or myths. (Gloria Tsang, R.D., the face behind this account, has written for us. There’s a reason. She knows her stuff.)

@hollyclegg
Easy recipes that are lower in calories. (She writes the trim&TERRIFIC cookbooks. We’ve featured some of her recipes in the magazine.)

@JanetHelm
Fun nutrition-story links.

@lizmarrmsrd
Links to lots of different nutrition articles on lots of different sites.

@lizweiss
Love her recipes–from the Meal Makeover Moms’ Kitchen. (We’ve featured one.)

@mothersrecipes
Watch out. These creative ideas will make you hungry.

And then of course, we’re on Twitter: @DrHubbard, @FamilyDoctorMag and our new account, @Health55Plus.

Get the headlines from the news. Get the real scoop from My Family Doctor, the magazine written by health-care providers. Subscribe today!

Doctors and business owners: Send customized issues of My Family Doctor to your customers or patients. E-mail publisher-at-familydoctormag.com for details.

As with all information on this site, this article cannot replace professional, personal medical advice. Read more here.

]]> http://www.familydoctormag.com/blog/2009/06/twitter-best-healthy-recipes-registered-dietitians-nutritionists/feed/ http://www.familydoctormag.com/blog/2009/06/3093/ http://www.familydoctormag.com/blog/2009/06/3093/#comments Tue, 16 Jun 2009 06:01:24 +0000 jhubbard http://www.familydoctormag.com/blog/?p=3093 by James Hubbard, M.D., M.P.H.

Last week Congress passed a bill that gave the FDA regulating authority over tobacco. The president is sure to sign it. It is supposed to be a blow to the tobacco industry and their advertising efforts. No more flavored tobacco or “light cigarette” claims.

But I have a few questions:

• Will cigarettes now be safer?
• Will this make people stop smoking, or will this just be another bloated, unproductive bureaucracy?

If it does work, I wonder where Congress is going to raise the money they lose.  Tobacco has been an easy target for the federal or state government when they need to raise some extra cash. They just tax tobacco more.   Smokers fuss but don’t stop buying. One pack of cigarettes cost $9.00 now in New York, with more than half of that being taxes.

We’ve sued tobacco, banned advertising, raised taxes, humiliated the CEOs in congressional hearings and given dire warnings that tobacco causes everything from cancer to impotence. Tobacco use is lower than before we started in the ’60s. But it’s like illegal drugs: Some people continue to buy. Do we start punishing the smokers in some fashion? We are, above all, a free society.

Do you have suggestions or comments?

Note: Here’s the New York Times article on the topic. Details about the bill and new regulations start in paragraph seven.

James Hubbard, M.D., M.P.H., is the publisher of My Family Doctor, a magazine written by health-care providers for the general public. Learn more and subscribe here.

Picture courtesy National Cancer Institute/Bill Branson.

As with all information on this site, this article cannot replace professional, personal medical advice. Read more here.

by Leigh Ann Otte, managing editor

Oh sure, CNN, Ashton Kutcher, Oprah and the like may have jumped on the bandwagon in the past few months, but we at My Family Doctor have been tweeting for more than a year.  Mm-hm.  Ahead of the curve, we are.

OK, I’ll stop.

If you’re new to Twitter or just want to discover more health tweeters, here are a few follow suggestions.  I’ll be doing this regularly for the Follow Friday festivities (the tradition of recommending good tweeters weekly).

• @AllergyNotes
  Don’t let the name fool you. This doctor links to interesting articles on various topics—most medical, some not.
• @latimeshealth and @nytimeshealth
  Interesting health articles.
• @twittercize
  This is just plain funny: Twitter-sized exercise prompts delivered every hour–and you can do them all in less than a minute!
• @WSJHealthBlog
  Thoughts and updates on interesting medical news from The Wall Street Journal health blogs.

And then, of course, there’s me (@FamilyDoctorMag) and our publisher Dr. James Hubbard (@DrHubbard).

Coming in the next few weeks: recommendations for healthy-recipe tweeters, funny tweeters and opinionated health insiders, and must-follows for people 55 and over.

Have any questions about Twitter–health-related or not? Ask away.  I’ll try to answer.

Get the headlines from the news. Get the real scoop from My Family Doctor, the magazine written by health-care providers. Subscribe today!

Doctors and business owners: Send customized issues of My Family Doctor to your customers or patients. E-mail publisher-at-familydoctormag.com for details.

As with all information on this site, this article cannot replace professional, personal medical advice. Read more here.

Pop quiz:

1. Why are some outdoor workers more prone to heat strokes after the first hot spell in early summer than later when it gets even hotter?
2. Why are there more heat strokes in Chicago when the temperature may be hotter elsewhere at the same time?

Answer:

Much has to do with your body having time to adapt, otherwise called acclimatization.  It takes between eight and 12 days for your body to acclimate to higher temperatures so when those hot days hit, you’re not ready.  The body acclimates to heat by:

• Triggering sweating a lower body temperatures and sweating more. The amount of total body sweat may double.  This is a great way to cool off by the water evaporating off your skin, but doesn’t work well with high humidity.  The sweat can’t evaporate.  A little breeze helps.
• Conserving sodium.  More sweat means more sodium (salt) loss, so your body starts making sweat that contains less sodium.
• Ramping up your heart’s efficiency by pumping more blood per heartbeat.  That way more blood can be delivered close to the skin surface for cooling.  The cooler blood then circulates to your inner organs. This is one reason the elderly and heart patients don’t do well (weaker heart pumping).
• Using body oxygen more efficiently so metabolism works a little slower.  Metabolism produces body heat.  More efficiency, less heat.

How to Stay Safe in the Heat

To prevent heat-related illness, go slow when the weather turns hot.

• Take breaks under the shade.
• Do the heavy work before 10 a.m. or after 4 p.m.
• Fan a little and be sure to drink lots of water.
• Maybe add a teaspoon of salt to the first quart or two of water, or drink an occasional sports drink with your water.

It is a fact that most people who work outside in the sun get dehydrated due to sweating and heat.  You can easily lose a quart of fluids per hour or more.  Dehydration leads to increased body heat (it’s a physiological thing).  Most people don’t become thirsty until they’re already dehydrated. So make it a point to drink fluids, thirsty or not.  On hot days with heavy work, you may need a quart or two of fluids per hour of work to keep up.  Sipping a little at a time is just as good, as long as you get drink the same net amount.

By the way, check on the elderly and chronically ill during hot spells.  Make sure they’re getting fluids and breezes.  When the humidity and heat soar, though, even fans don’t work well for cooling.  During heat waves, see if they can spend time in an air conditioned area around midday at least.  If nothing else, placing cool wet cloths on the neck or under the arms helps.

Does anyone have further suggestions to stay cool?

Get the headlines from the news. Get the real scoop from My Family Doctor, the magazine written by health-care providers. Subscribe today!

Doctors and business owners: Send customized issues of My Family Doctor to your customers or patients. E-mail publisher-at-familydoctormag.com for details.

As with all information on this site, this article cannot replace professional, personal medical advice. Read more here.