The New Face of Asperger’s Syndrome

Well, the NY Times Health blog, has a post about Heather Kuzmich, the recently eliminated America’s Next Top Model contestant who has Asperger’s. Asperger’s was endlessly discussed on the show by Tyra Banks and other cast members, generating newfound awareness of the syndrome. A definition of the condition can be found here.

Kuzmich auditioned for the show because “It was a point in my life where I was thinking either Asperger’s was going to define me or I was going to be able to work around it.”

Those interested in learning more about Asperger’s should read Tim Page’s moving first account of life with Asperger’s. Page is the Pulitzer Prize-winning classical music critic of the Washington Post.

– Lakshmi Gandhi

The Semantics of Hunger

According to the USDA, 11 percent of U.S. households experienced what the USDA call “food insecurity” in 2006. Three years ago, the USDA used the term “hunger,” but a 2003 expert panel deemed “hunger” to be a misleading word for the sensation one gets in her belly when she lacks sufficient food.

A recent article in Mother Jones magazine challenges a report from The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think-tank, that says these 12.5 million hungry people eat too much food and therefore shouldn’t get more money to buy more food. The online discussion that ensues, much of which is in favor of The Heritage Foundation, is rather interesting too.

World AIDS Day

This public service announcement was produced by amfAR, the Foundation for AIDS Research.  A recent NY1 article said that 100,000 New Yorkers have HIV, including one in 40 African Americans.

– Lakshmi Gandhi

Smoking and the Mentally Ill

The Washington Post had an interesting op-ed piece by Steven A. Schroeder this weekend on the prevalence of smoking among the mentally ill.

The most startling passage is this one:

The facts about smoking and mental illness are stark. Almost half of all cigarettes sold in the United States (44 percent) are consumed by people with mental illness. This is because so many people who have mental illnesses smoke (50 to 80 percent, compared with less than 20 percent of the general population) and because they smoke so many cigarettes a day — often three packs. Furthermore, smokers with mental illness are much more likely to smoke their cigarettes right down to the filters.

Shroeder says that because physicians and mental health advocates have looked the other way for years regarding smoking and their patients the problem has not gotten the attention it deserves. Sadly, tools such as counseling and nicotine replacement have been severely underutilized by the mentally ill.

– Lakshmi Gandhi

A Loss for Victory

Victory Memorial Hospital appears to be on its deathbed: the 107-year-old Bay Ridge institution announced sweeping layoffs last week and could be shuttered by Feb. 1. The only saving grace at this point would have to come in the form of a miracle.

The hospital, in the throes of bankruptcy for a year, revealed Nov. 10 that approximately 900 workers would be without jobs come the new year. Plans call for the rest of the medical staff to be phased out through January.

Hopes for a takeover by SUNY Downstate Medical Center were dashed Monday, bringing Victory Memorial’s demise a step closer. If the proposal had been approved, Downstate would have interjected around 38 million dollars to save the hospital’s Emergency Room and Acute Care beds.

“They’re going to have blood on their hands,” said Dr. Simon Saada, Director of Surgery and Urology at Victory Memorial since 1989.

Hospital supporters said 300,000 people in Bay Ridge, Dyker Heights and Bensonhurst – many of them senior citizens and immigrants ¬– would be left without proper medical care by Victory Memorial’s loss.

“I’m going to predict a healthcare crisis come February,” said Bill Guarinello, the acting chair of the not-for-profit hospital’s board of trustees, adding that creditors are urging Victory Memorial to close by Feb. 1.

The draconian layoff moves come in response to the demands of creditors, said Claudia Hutton, a spokeswoman for the state Health Department.

The 92nd Street medical center was among those recommended for closure by the Berger Commission, a state panel charged with helping reduce the number of empty hospital beds to save taxpayer money.

Victory Memorial owes creditors $90 million, said Assemblyman Peter Abbate, who is among those battling to save the hospital.

“Healthcare is going up and they’re looking at the bottom line – not lives,” said Abbate.

Area residents will now have to choose between two already understaffed and overburdened hospitals: Lutheran Medical Center in Sunset Park and Maimonides Medical Center in Borough Park.

But Victory Memorial supporters vowed to fight until the end. “I will not leave until they put the bolt on the door,” said Saada.

One Million Votes, One Million Dollars

BYLINE: Caitlin Drexler, Roisin O’Connor-McGinn, Rosaleen Ortiz

Preparing For the New York City Marathon

Leading up to Sunday’s New York City Marathon the Wall Street Journal’s Health Blog had a nice interview with Lewis Maharam, the marathon’s medical director.

Dr. Maharam’s biggest worry is that one of the runners will have a heart attack. As he described it “running the race could be their stress test that they don’t pass.” Internationally, about 1 in 70,000 marathon runners dies during a race.

Marathon directors have been especially anxious since the Chicago marathon was halted last month due to sweltering heat. One runner died of cardiac arrest and roughly 50 others were hospitalized due to the extraordinarily high temperatures.

– Lakshmi Gandhi

Medical Trial Information to be Kept Confidential from Patients

Congress last month passed a bill requiring greater disclosure to patients who participate in medical trials for drugs that are brought to market, but those who participate in trials for drugs that are never marketed are not entitled to the same information, the New York Times reports.

Specifically, drug companies that test but do not market do not have to disclose the results of their studies to patients.

The next most important news of the article – which doesn’t appear for fifteen grafs – is that problems that arise during failed clinical trials do not have to be publicly reported.

Small device makers would supposedly face being put out of business by being forced to make such disclosures. The article seems to imply that small device makers that lobbied congress were influential in changing the bill.

But consider that Dr. Steven E. Nissen, quoted in the article as the chairman of the cardiology department at the Cleveland Clinic, said, “The problem is that if you don’t tell people about failed trials, you can make the same mistake again and again.”

-Clark Merrefield

Pharmacies Need Translators Too

Bensonhurst Brooklyn houses one of the largest immigrant communities in New York. A few weeks ago, The New York Timescame out with an article which highlighted this ethnic resurgence through one tiny pharmacy on 18th Avenue. According to the article, “A total of 16 languages are spoken in this single storefront.”

This transitions nicely into why certain immigrant advocacy groups are making noise to ensure that all pharmacies throughout the five boroughs provide interpreters and written translations of medication instructions. The Times piece yesterday addressed a complaint saying that 16 local pharmacies were failing to meet the federal civil rights law and state health regulations which “require pharmacies to provide linguistic help to guarantee that people who speak little or no English receive equal access to health care.”

Go Semi-Organic

Going organic is pretty expensive – particularly in NYC. A recent blog in the New York Times gives some advice on how to pick and choose organic groceries so that there isn’t too huge of a dent in your wallet after a grocery run. The blog highlights parts of pediatrician Dr. Alan Greene’s book, “Raising Baby Green.” Some produce, the article says, are more important to buy organic than others. Apples and apple juice, for example, have high levels of pesticides and should be purchased organic. Thick-skinned fruit such as avocados, bananas and oranges are less of a threat because the thick peels don’t allow chemical to seep into the fruit (plus we’re not eating the peels, as opposed to other fruit!). The blog mentions four other items including peanut butter, ketchup and milk.

“When you choose a glass of conventional milk, you are buying into a whole chemical system of agriculture,’’ the Times quotes Dr. Greene. If nothing else, milk is one product that definitely should be purchased organic. Or, more important than organic, there should be a visible sign on the carton that reads, “Does Not Contain rBST.”

rBST is a synthetic version of a specific cow hormone. It is injected into a cow to artificially maintain her milk production. Most countries, including Canada and the European Union, have not approved rbST in milk products for use due to public health and animal welfare concerns. But there has also been testing which suggests that rBST is bad for humans, too.

Health Canada deemed that the hormone was unsafe to cows. The Scientific Committee on Animal Health and Animal Welfare also did not approve the hormone either.

Despite objections from the Consumers Union, the Cancer Prevention Coalition, and other organizations, the FDA approved the hormone for human use in the U.S. in 1993.

In the mid-90’s two Fox News producers, Steve Wilson and Jane Akre, were fired from the station for attempting to reveal data about the potential side effect of the growth hormone rBST. Health Consultant Jonathan Campbell has details about the case on his website. To sum it up, Mansato, the largest manufacturer of the hormone, submitted there own statistics to Fox and told them to run it. Fox agreed. Wilson and Akre refused and said they were going to report it to the FCC. Ultimately, Fox won the battle on an appeal because the FCC policies on news agencies reporting the truth did not legally require the station to report the truth, because FCC policies are not law.

Aren’t legal technicalities frightening?