Inflammation is the common link among the leading causes of death.

Posted on November 4, 2012 by Maurice Preter MD

Psychosom Med. 2010 May;724:365-9. Epub 2010 Apr 21.

Stress, food, and inflammation: psychoneuroimmunology and nutrition at the cutting edge.
Kiecolt-Glaser JK. Department of Psychiatry, The Ohio State Institute for Behavioral Medicine Research, The Ohio State University College of Medicine, Columbus, Ohio 43210-1228, USA. Janice.Kiecolt-Glaser@osumc.edu

Abstract
Inflammation is the common link among the leading causes of death. Mechanistic studies have shown how various dietary components can modulate key pathways to inflammation, including sympathetic activity, oxidative stress, transcription factor nuclear factor-kappaB activation, and proinflammatory cytokine production. Behavioral studies have demonstrated that stressful events and depression can also influence inflammation through these same processes. If the joint contributions of diet and behavior to inflammation were simply additive, they would be important. However, several far more intriguing interactive possibilities are discussed: stress influences food choices; stress can enhance maladaptive metabolic responses to unhealthy meals; and diet can affect mood as well as proinflammatory responses to stressors. Furthermore, because the vagus nerve innervates tissues involved in the digestion, absorption, and metabolism of nutrients, vagal activation can directly and profoundly influence metabolic responses to food, as well as inflammation; in turn, both depression and stress have well-documented negative effects on vagal activation, contributing to the lively interplay between the brain and the gut. As one example, omega-3 fatty acid intake can boost mood and vagal tone, dampen nuclear factor-kappaB activation and responses to endotoxin, and modulate the magnitude of inflammatory responses to stressors. A better understanding of how stressors, negative emotions, and unhealthy meals work together to enhance inflammation will benefit behavioral and nutritional research, as well as the broader biomedical community.PMID: 20410248 [PubMed – indexed for MEDLINE] PMCID: PMC2868080Free PMC Article

via Stress, food, and inflammation: psychoneuroimm… [Psychosom Med. 2010] – PubMed – NCBI.

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Americans’ suicide rates up since economic crisis began | Reuters

Posted on November 4, 2012 by Maurice Preter MD

Suicide rates in the United States have risen sharply since the economic crisis took hold in 2007 and political leaders should do more to protect Americans’ mental health during tough times, researchers said on Monday.

via Americans’ suicide rates up since economic crisis began | Reuters.

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What Changes in Survival Rates Tell Us About U.S. Health Care – The Commonwealth Fund

Posted on November 4, 2012 by Maurice Preter MD

Even as health care spending per capita has increased in the U.S. over the last three decades, the nation has fallen behind 12 other wealthy nations in 15-year survival for men and women at ages 45 and 65.

By 2005, 15-year survival rates for 45-year-old white women in the U.S. were lower than in all comparison countries; these rates had not even surpassed 1975 survival rates for Swiss, Swedish, Dutch, or Japanese women.

U.S. white men ages 45 and 65 experienced declines in their rankings in 15-year survival rates among the comparison countries, but they were not as dramatic as the declines in rankings for women.

While smoking and obesity are two important behavior-related risk factors, they do not explain the nation’s deteriorating performance. Prevalence of obesity in the U.S. has grown more slowly in the U.S. than in other nations, and smoking prevalence has declined more rapidly.

via What Changes in Survival Rates Tell Us About U.S. Health Care – The Commonwealth Fund.

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Has China’s remarkable reduction in income poverty since 1980 been accompanied by comparable progress in health?

Posted on November 4, 2012 by Maurice Preter MD

Int J Health Serv. 2008;38(1):125-41.

Death in China: market reforms and health.

Reddy SG.

Source

Department of Economics, Barnard College, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027, USA. sr793@columbia.edu

Abstract

Has China’s remarkable reduction in income poverty since 1980 been accompanied by comparable progress in health? The author’s findings are fourfold. First, province-level rates of improvement in life expectancy (LE) were higher in the 1990s than in the 1970s and 1980s, and were lowest in the 1980s. Second, even in the 1990s, when the province-level rates of improvement in LE were highest, they were lower than for many countries with similar initial LE level (although higher than the average for all such countries). Third, China’s LE improvement between 1980 and 2000 was achieved much more quickly by almost all other countries considered, and in particular by most lower-middle-income countries that had similar LE improvements; similar conclusions are drawn from an analysis of China’s LE improvements relative to two other sets of comparator countries–selected presently rich countries and high-growth East Asian countries. Finally, even those Chinese provinces that performed best over the period experienced rates of improvement significantly lower than for comparator countries. China’s experience of reducing health deprivations has been notably less impressive than its record of income poverty reduction. There is a need for China to invest in the redevelopment of its public health infrastructure, which has withered during the period of market-oriented reforms.

via Death in China: market reforms and health. [Int J Health Serv. 2008] – PubMed – NCBI.

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“Medical tourism” and the global marketpla… [Int J Health Serv. 2010] – PubMed – NCBI

Posted on November 4, 2012 by Maurice Preter MD

Int J Health Serv. 2010;40(3):443-67.

“Medical tourism” and the global marketplace in health services: U.S. patients, international hospitals, and the search for affordable health care.

Turner L.

Source

Center for Bioethics, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA. turne462@umn.edu

Abstract

Health services are now advertised in a global marketplace. Hip and knee replacements, ophthalmologic procedures, cosmetic surgery, cardiac care, organ transplants, and stem cell injections are all available for purchase in the global health services marketplace. “Medical tourism” companies market “sun and surgery” packages and arrange care at international hospitals in Costa Rica, India, Mexico, Singapore, Thailand, and other destination nations. Just as automobile manufacturing and textile production moved outside the United States, American patients are “offshoring” themselves to facilities that use low labor costs to gain competitive advantage in the marketplace. Proponents of medical tourism argue that a global market in health services will promote consumer choice, foster competition among hospitals, and enable customers to purchase high-quality care at medical facilities around the world. Skeptics raise concerns about quality of care and patient safety, information disclosure to patients, legal redress when patients are harmed while receiving care at international hospitals, and harms to public health care systems in destination nations. The emergence of a global market in health services will have profound consequences for health insurance, delivery of health services, patient-physician relationships, publicly funded health care, and the spread of medical consumerism.

via “Medical tourism” and the global marketpla… [Int J Health Serv. 2010] – PubMed – NCBI.

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