MRI technique shows how energy drinks alter heart function

Posted on December 3, 2013 by Maurice Preter MD

MRI technique shows how energy drinks alter heart function

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Long-term effects?

While Dörner and colleagues concluded that energy drinks have a short-term effect on cardiac contractility, they do not know exactly how or if this greater contractility affects daily activities or athletic performance. Also unknown is the degree to which consumption may lead to an adverse cardiac event, such as a heart attack or arrhythmia.

“We cannot say if there is a risk for people with known heart disease, but that is a good question to answer in further investigations,” Dörner said. “Because cardiac disease is not that obvious in people drinking energy drinks in high amounts — and maybe in combination with alcohol or drugs — it may be possible to have arrhythmia that can be harmful. We don’t know that yet because all our subjects were healthy, with no known heart disease, and the dosages were very low.”

Dörner and colleagues plan to continue their research with extended timelines to see how long the effects of energy drink consumption may last.

“It is already known that caffeine concentration can last four to six hours,” Dörner said. “Taurine is different; it depends on the metabolism of each subject. So it’s hard to say how long the energy drink effects may last.”

In the meantime, the researchers recommend that children and people with known cardiac arrhythmias avoid energy drinks, given that changes in contractility could trigger arrhythmias.

They also advocate additional research to assess the potential risks of consuming energy drinks with alcohol.

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via Radiology, News, Education, Service.

 

Posted in dietary, Fifth Avenue Concierge Medicine, Forensic Neuropsychiatry, Health, keto, News |

Parental olfactory experience influences behavior and neural structure in subsequent generations : Nature Neuroscience

Posted on December 2, 2013 by Maurice Preter MD

Nature Neuroscience 

Parental olfactory experience influences behavior and neural structure in subsequent generations

Nature Neuroscience
doi:10.1038/nn.3594
Received
Accepted
Published online

Abstract

Using olfactory molecular specificity, we examined the inheritance of parental traumatic exposure, a phenomenon that has been frequently observed, but not understood. We subjected F0 mice to odor fear conditioning before conception and found that subsequently conceived F1 and F2 generations had an increased behavioral sensitivity to the F0-conditioned odor, but not to other odors. When an odor (acetophenone) that activates a known odorant receptor (Olfr151) was used to condition F0 mice, the behavioral sensitivity of the F1 and F2 generations to acetophenone was complemented by an enhanced neuroanatomical representation of the Olfr151 pathway. Bisulfite sequencing of sperm DNA from conditioned F0 males and F1 naive offspring revealed CpG hypomethylation in the Olfr151 gene. In addition, in vitro fertilization, F2 inheritance and cross-fostering revealed that these transgenerational effects are inherited via parental gametes. Our findings provide a framework for addressing how environmental information may be inherited transgenerationally at behavioral, neuroanatomical and epigenetic levels.

 

via Parental olfactory experience influences behavior and neural structure in subsequent generations : Nature Neuroscience : Nature Publishing Group.

Posted in Affective Neuroscience, development, epigenetics, Fifth Avenue Concierge Medicine, Forensic Neuropsychiatry, Health, keto, Psychiatry/Neurology | Tagged , , , , , |

Medicare currently reimburses physicians the equivalent of about 1/3 of the annual cost of cable TV for the typical patient with multiple medical problems. Is this a case of being truly too expensive for a $650 Billion per year Medicare program that pays physicians to care for complex elderly medical patients far less than what most Americans pay for cable TV? Seriously?

Posted on November 3, 2013 by Maurice Preter MD

Love that blog.

Medicare currently reimburses physicians the equivalent of about 1/3 of the annual cost of cable TV for the typical patient with multiple medical problems. Is this a case of being truly too expensive for a $650 Billion per year Medicare program that pays physicians to care for complex elderly medical patients far less than what most Americans pay for cable TV? Seriously?

via » Long Office Wait Times: Don’t Blame the Patients.

Posted in keto, Psychiatry/Neurology |

» Long Office Wait Times: Don’t Blame the Patients

Posted on November 3, 2013 by Maurice Preter MD

Only in this wacky system of ours is something as critical as health care expected to be squeezed into a 10-15 minute office visit.

via » Long Office Wait Times: Don’t Blame the Patients.

Posted in keto, Psychiatry/Neurology |

» Why Are Screening Colonoscopies So Expensive?

Posted on November 3, 2013 by Maurice Preter MD

» Why Are Screening Colonoscopies So Expensive?.

Interesting blog post with some hard truths about U.S. medical care.

Excerpt:
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Americans have a preoccupation with technology and procedures in health care instead of consultation and collaboration with their health care providers. It is because of this that the US health care system pays it’s doctors far more to perform procedures then it does for them to be doctors. A typical gastroenterologist gets reimbursed about $150 to $250 to see a new patient and to perform a history and physical, review medical records, determine the most likely diagnoses, and formulate a treatment plan. This is called BEING A DOCTOR. But this same specialist gets paid several times this initial cost to perform a colonoscopy which might take all of 5 to 10 minutes from the time he or she enters the room to the completion of the post procedure dictation (seriously). This is why the US has so many specialists, MRI machines, hospitals, etc and expensive and excessive health care is not just limited to emergencies or complex conditions.
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Posted in Events, Fifth Avenue Concierge Medicine, Health, keto |