The Truth About Organ Donation

August 26, 2010 | by

This article was written by Rebekah Apple.

Right now, more than 107,000 Americans wait for a life-saving organ transplant. The list grows with another name every 11 minutes, and every day, 18 people on that list die.

One organ donor can save eight people’s lives and a tissue donor can help up to 50 others. The fact remains, however, that there simply aren’t enough organs to save everyone on the waiting list.

Donate Life

Signing up to become a donor is easy — most Americans can designate themselves as donors when they get their drivers license and, in many states, that designation transfers their information to a state database. In the event of their death, organ donation professionals access that database, which begins the process of saving lives.

Making the decision to become a donor is different; it requires a clear understanding of the way donation works — which can prove difficult, given various persistent myths about donation.

Social Media in Health and Medicine: Medlibs Round 2.7

August 11, 2010 | by

Welcome to Medlib’s Round, edition 2.7, the monthly blog carnival highlighting excellent blog posts in the field of medical information. Just under a year ago, we hosted MedLibs Round 1.8: Finding Credible Health Information Online. For this edition, we wanted to focus on how social media is being used to promote health information online.

Social media in health and medicine
There’s a revolution occurring on the Web: those “authoritative” articles written on traditional, static websites are being replaced with blogs, wikis and online social networks. In the sphere of health, medicine and information technology, this “real-time Web” consists of many who are professionals in the field; their posts are listed below.
In the digital age, these are the characteristics of new media: recent, relevant, reachable and reliable.

Perhaps not surprisingly, the term mobile is being used quite often when discussing social media and health. Indeed, according to a recent Pew Internet report, 59% of adults are now accessing the internet wirelessly using a laptop or cell phone [1].

Keeping with this month’s theme, we’re tweeting and sharing posts using the Twitter hashtags #medinfo and #medlibs. If you like a particular post, share it with your friends and be sure to add both hashtags.

The Quick Guide to Healthy Living

August 4, 2010 | by
The Quick Guide to Healthy Living

Earlier this year, we reported on the National Health Observances Toolkit, a resource at healthfinder.gov to help promote certain health observances. Late last month, they released another really useful tool: the Quick Guide to Healthy Living.

Your job, friends, the kids — we’re all on tight schedules these days. You try to stay up-to-date with prevention and wellness tips, but often there isn’t time to search through all the complex health information on the Web. The Quick Guide to Healthy Living now makes it easier — and faster — to find actionable prevention and wellness tips.

The guide features one-page, printable tools so you can find information to help you and those you care about stay healthy. Topics range from “Nutrition and Fitness” to “For Parents” to “Cancer Screening and Prevention” and include articles such as:

  • Manage stress and protect yourself from serious health problems
  • Take a heart healthy shopping list with you to the grocery store
  • Prevent allergy and asthma attacks at home
  • Get tested for breast cancer
  • Prevent mosquito and tick bites

Most of the guides have three sections, displayed as tabs on the page: Overview, The Basics and Take Action. Each guide also provides suggestions — Start Today: Small Steps — to help you get started right away.

Eat Healthy

With over 80 health and wellness tips, there’s something for everyone. It’s easy, it’s fast and it’ll help you stay healthy: the Quick Guide to Healthy Living from healthfinder.gov.

NIH Scientists Advance Universal Flu Vaccine

July 23, 2010 | by

A universal influenza vaccine “” so-called because it could potentially provide protection from all flu strains for decades “” may become a reality because of research led by scientists from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health.

In experiments with mice, ferrets and monkeys, the investigators used a two-step immunization approach to elicit infection-fighting antibodies that attacked a diverse array of influenza virus strains. Current flu vaccines do not generate such broadly neutralizing antibodies, so they must be re-formulated annually to match the predominant virus strains circulating each year.

The research, led by NIAID scientist Gary J. Nabel, M.D., Ph.D., appears online ahead of print July 15 in Science Express.

“Generating broadly neutralizing antibodies to multiple strains of influenza in animals through vaccination is an important milestone in the quest for a universal influenza vaccine,” says NIAID Director Anthony S. Fauci, M.D. “This significant advance lays the groundwork for the development of a vaccine to provide long-lasting protection against any strain of influenza. A durable and effective universal influenza vaccine would have enormous ramifications for the control of influenza, a disease that claims an estimated 250,000 to 500,000 lives annually, including an average of 36,000 in the United States.”

Gene Associated with Rare Adrenal Disorder Appears To Trigger Cell Death, According to NIH Study

July 13, 2010 | by

A gene implicated in Carney complex, a rare disorder of the adrenal glands, appears to function as a molecular switch to limit cell growth and division, according to a study by researchers at the National Institutes of Health and other institutions. Mice lacking functional copies of the gene in the adrenal glands developed an overgrowth of adrenal tissue and were more susceptible to tumors in the gland.

The adrenal glands — one located on top of each kidney — produce hormones which help control heart rate, blood pressure, and other important body functions.

The researchers discovered that the normal process by which cells in the adrenal gland grow old and die is put on hold when the gene, known as Prkar1a, is deactivated. The Prkar1a gene is known to be involved in how the cell regulates its activities.

“Loss of Prkar1a appears to lead to unchecked cell growth in the adrenal glands,” said Dr. Constantine A. Stratakis, M.D., acting director of the Division of Intramural Research of the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development and an author of the paper. “Our hope is that future studies of the gene and its functions will lead to a greater understanding of how certain types of cancer develop and ways to limit their growth.

The findings were published online in PLoS Genetics. The study’s first author is Isabelle Sahut-Barnola of Clermont University, France. Other authors include researchers at Ohio State University, Columbus and at three French institutions.

Carney complex is a rare disorder of the adrenal glands (http://ghr.nlm.nih.gov/condition/carney-complex). Individuals with Carney complex typically develop Cushing’s syndrome, a combination of weight gain, high blood pressure, diabetes, and other symptoms stemming from the overproduction of the hormone cortisol, which is produced by the adrenal glands. People with Carney complex are also predisposed to developing benign tumors of the heart and connective tissue, as well as benign and cancerous tumors of the adrenal and other glands. Previous studies have shown that people with Carney complex are likely to have a mutation in the Prkar1a gene.