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Canadians Watch U.S. Reform Effort Closely
American health care reform has become a "hot topic north of the border," the Washington Times reports. "If Mr. Obama succeeds, the U.S. could draw even more Canadian doctors and nurses to the U.S., exacerbating a shortage of medical professionals, said Dr. Brian Day, a Canadian health care critic and former head of the Canadian Medical Association. If Mr. Obama fails, perhaps Canada could open its system to "medical tourism" from the U.S., Dr. Day said." Under the Canadian system, everyone is insured and has "access to basic health care without ever seeing a doctor or hospital bill." But 70% of Canadians also have "some form of supplemental health insurance," in part because of long wait times for tests and treatments under the government plan. For Canadian citizens who become ill in the U.S., it is often cheaper to "ride on a private Lear jet back to Canada" than to be treated in a U.S. hospital.
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What Is Cerebral Palsy? What Causes Cerebral Palsy?
Cerebral palsy is a term which encompasses a set of neurological conditions that cause physical disability in human development - they affect the brain and nervous system. The word cerebral refers to the area in the brain that is affected, while palsy means complete or partial muscle paralysis, frequently accompanied by loss of sensation and uncontrollable body movements or tremors. Cerebral means related to the brain or cerebrum. Cerebrum is a Latin word meaning "brain; top of the head, skull". In the English language the cerebrum is the anterior (front) portion of the brain consisting of two hemispheres; it is the dominant part of the brain in humans.
News of the day
Utah Bill Would Offer Parents Choice Of Two Sex Education Options
A bill (H.B. 189) before the Utah Legislature"s Health and Human Services Interim Committee would allow parents to choose between two sex education curriculums, the Salt Lake City Deseret News reports. The first curriculum would be "abstinence-based and teach strategies for waiting until marriage but also offer information about issues such as sexually transmitted" infections. The "other class would emphasize abstinence but also offer facts," including STI prevention and contraceptive options.State Rep. Lynn Hemingway (D), who proposed the bill, cited data from the state Department of Health showing that 4,356 young women became pregnant in 2007 and that there were 1,805 reported cases of chlamydia among girls ages 15 to 19 in 2008, an increase from 1,332 in 2005. Hemingway said, "These numbers are frightening. This isn"t a moral issue anymore. This is a health issue." Hemingway"s bill is modeled after similar legislation under consideration in North Carolina.According to the Deseret News, the state Office of Education"s rule on sex education currently states that educators are allowed to instruct on contraception options if they have parental consent. Some advocates, policymakers and teens argue that students are receiving inadequate sex education because instructors are leaving out important information over concern that they will be accused of advocating sex. Hemingway"s bill allows instructors to provide information on contraception "without fear of reprimand," according to the Desert News (Stewart, Salt Lake City Deseret News, 6/18).
Public Health

Breast Cancer Risk Signalled By Wet Ear Wax And Unpleasant Body Odors

If having malodorous armpits (called osmidrosis) and goopy earwax isn"t bad enough, a discovery by Japanese scientists may add a more serious problem for women facing these cosmetic calamities. That"s because they"ve found that a gene responsible for breast cancer causes these physical symptoms. The report describing this finding is featured on the cover of The FASEB Journal"s June 2009 print issue, and should arm physicians with another clue for detecting breast cancer risk. "We do strongly hope that our study will provide a new tool for better predication of breast cancer risk by genotyping," said Toshihisa Ishikawa, Ph.D., a professor from the Department of Biomolecular Engineering at the Tokyo Institute of Technology and the senior researcher involved in the work. "Using a rapid and cost-effective typing method presented in this study would provide a practical tool for pharmacogenomics-based personalized medicine." To draw their conclusions, Ishikawa and colleagues monitored the activities of a protein created by a gene associated with breast cancer, called "ABCC11." By studying this gene and its complex cellular and molecular interactions in the body, the researchers discovered a distinct link between the gene and excessively smelly armpits and wet, sticky earwax. Specifically, the researchers expressed the ABCC11 gene and variant proteins in cultured human embryonic kidney cells and showed exactly how the ABCC11 gene produces the wet-type earwax and excessive armpit odor. This discovery could lead to practical tools for clinicians - especially those in developing nations - to rapidly identify who may have a higher risk for breast cancer. "Wet, sticky earwax might not be easily noticed, but most people can"t miss unpleasant body odors," said Gerald Weissmann, M.D., Editor-in-Chief of The FASEB Journal, "As it turns out, the type of ear wax one has is linked to a gene that leads to bad odors from one"s armpit. These may become lifesaving clues to the early detection and treatment of breast cancer." Details: Yu Toyoda, Aki Sakurai, Yasumasa Mitani, Masahiro Nakashima, Koh-ichiro Yoshiura, Hiroshi Nakagawa, Yasuo Sakai, Ikuko Ota, Alexander Lezhava, Yoshihide Hayashizaki, Norio Niikawa, and Toshihisa Ishikawa. Earwax, osmidrosis, and breast cancer: why does one SNP (538G>A) in the human ABC transporter ABCC11 gene determine earwax type? FASEB J. 2009 23: 2001-2013. http://www.fasebj.org/cgi/content/abstract/23/6/2001 Cody Mooneyhan Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology


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