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?

The Rising Rate of HIV/AIDS Among Asian and Pacific Islanders in the United States

Asians and Pacific Islanders “were the only racial group with statistically significant percent increases in annual HIV/AIDS diagnosis rates,” in the United States according to an article in the September issue of the Journal of Urban Health. In addition, the diagnosis rate among APIs is increasing faster than any other group. The CDC fact sheet on HIV/AIDS among APIs can be found here.

Despite these startling statistics, there has not been much discussion in the medical community about what these numbers mean or what can be done to contain the problem. While the CDC and some state and local governments have funded programs in New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Honolulu, all of which have significant API populations, there has been almost no media coverage of the rising HIV/AIDS rate for APIs.

The conclusion of the Journal article sums it up best. The authors write “… we have a critical opportunity to develop effective prevention programs before these alarming indicators translate into markedly higher HIV prevalence in API American communities, as has occurred in other communities in the U.S. and in the Asia/Pacific region. Let’s not miss this opportunity again.”

– Lakshmi Gandhi

More on Hospital Closure

To recap from last week’s story about the closure of Victory Memorial.

Despite the support at the October 17th rally to keep the hospital open, many past patients and area residents certainly wouldn’t fight to keep it running– “It was a victory if you got out of there alive“, one blogger wrote.

There are about 100 legal cases against the hospital, complaints about doctors and care but most especially, criticism comes from those who believe the hospital caters to the poor, the immigrants– many of which are illegal– who carry no health insurance. Considering Bensonhurst and the surrounding areas contain the heaviest populations of immigrants in Brooklyn, it makes sense.

We’ll have to see what the Health Department decides about the closure and then worry about where immigrants will find alternative care.

Health Care Reporters Talk Shop

Freelance journalist Amy Selwyn and New York Times reporter Richard Perez-Pena explain the issues health care journalists can expect to investigate in the near future.

-Clark

FDA Panel Calls for Ban on Children’s Cold Medicine

An article in today’s New York Times announced that the Food and Drug Administration’s panel strongly recommended the FDA to ban all over-the-counter cold medicine for children under the age of six. The panel also unanimously voted against allowing pharmaceutical companies to market their products as ‘doctor recommended.’

Children’s medicine manufacturers like Consumer Healthcare Products Association are fighing against the FDA panels recommendations. Not a surprise, considering that a ban on such medicine would be a great financial loss for such manufacturers.

Whether or not the ban shall be put in effect is still undecided. What is clear, however, is that panel experts have agreed that over-the-counter medications for colds are not safe for children to use and have not proven to be effective in the healing process. Most succeed in simply knocking the child out. A quick, easy, and dangerous solution.

We Need Victory

By Loren Bonner

Despite the gray day, community and city council members of Bay Ridge, Dyker Heights and Bensonhurst, as well as staff of Victory Memorial Hospital, exuded solidarity at a rally Wednesday morning. They came out to support a proposal that is critical to saving the community.

In order for the emergency room and acute care facilities at Victory Memorial Hospital to remain open, the New York State Department of Health needs to approve the SUNY Downstate Medical Center proposal.

“The Downstate plan is a good plan, a life-saving plan and a plan we need the State to approve,” said Councilman Vincent Gentile.

In the partnership, Downstate would take over the acute care and emergency services at Victory Memorial. The alternative would be closing these services completely and having patients travel to Lutheran Medical Center or Maimonides Medical Center for urgent care.

Gentile said there would be an even bigger delay in emergency care at these hospitals not only because of the distance in some cases but because “these emergency rooms are already overloaded,” he said.

Certainly, Victory Memorial shares the burden of delays due to its emergency room that is full to capacity. Senator Martin Golden quoted a startling 150-hour wait time for patients.

Representative Alex Brook-Krasny said this was “a reflection of the healthcare crisis in our country.”

There is no question that Victory Memorial has not been affected by this crisis. They filed for bankruptcy in November 2006 and have since come under new management. But many of the council members present at the rally believed Victory Memorial was going strong despite the restructuring. Most of all, they said, the community could not afford to loose their hospital.

Currently, Victory Memorial services around 300,000 patients a year. Mostly, they accommodate the poor immigrant groups in the communities— equipped with bilingual personnel and interpreters— as well as the senior citizen population that dominates the three community districts.

“We are the highest population of seniors in state of New York,” said Golden.

Certain members of the community see Victory Memorial as a vital part of the area. “If anything, it should be enlarged,” said long-time resident Joseph Seminara who immigrated to Bay Ridge from Italy decades ago. Back then he was even impressed by the hospitals immigrant service. “It’s a tremendous source for our community,” he said.

While council members have been lobbying for Downstate, they urged area residents at the rally to do the same: “We need thousands of calls to the Commissioner,” said Representative Peter Abbate.

“A community hospital is not about profit, it’s about the community,” said Brook-Krasny, “why should the criteria be different in this situation?”

In addition to the phone calls and e-mails, a petition letter was going around at the rally, which would be sent upstate to State Health Commissioner Richard Daines later that day.

“We want to continue this fight even if the answer is no,” said a doctor in attendance.

Kids Open to Wrath of Pandemic

That’s the headline of an AP article published in AM New York today.  A new report says that the needs of children are being ignored in the nation’s preparations for a potential flu epidemic.  Among other things, the report points out “there are no plans for how to feed the 30 million children who rely on the school lunch program, if schools close.”

The Trendy New Way to Get Children to Eat Well

Jessica Seinfeld, Jerry’s wife, has been everywhere lately promoting her new cookbook Deceptively Delicious: Simple Secrets to Get Your Kids Eating Good Food. She wrote the book after discovering that she could get her very picky children to eat vegetables by discreetly adding them to their favorite foods. As the New York Times recently put it, “Mrs. Seinfeld… developed a method of feeding her children that is, essentially, based on lying.” The book’s cover features a winking caricature of the author.

According to an article in today’s Washington Post, Seinfeld’s recipes include “cauliflower hidden in mozzarella sticks, butternut squash in quesadillas, zucchini and banana in oatmeal raisin cookies, carrots in deviled eggs and beets in chocolate cake.” The startling thing about this list is that everything on it seems to be doused in oil, butter or sugar. The recipes also contain considerable servings of carbohydrates. Parents who are considering buying Deceptively Delicious should do a simple cost-benefit analysis of the recipes before they serve them to their children. Is getting your child to eat a serving of beets worth it if they also have to eat chocolate, sugar and canola oil along with it?

The Post reports that many experts disagree with this approach. David Ludwig of Children’s Hospital Boston told the paper that the message these recipes present to children is that “vegetables have to be hidden and mixed with large amounts of fat and sugar to be edible. . . . We don’t have to sneak vegetables under the rug.”

– Lakshmi Gandhi

Please Don’t Drug Your Babies

By Shuka Kalantari

A recent article in the New York Times said that companies making infant cold and cough medicines are recalling some of their products after numerous reports of hallucinations, misuse and deaths in children under the age of six who consumed infant decongestants and antihistamines.

Safety reviewers from the Food and Drug Association urged the agency to make a ban on all infant cough and cold medicines, including Robitussin Infant Cough DM Drops, Triaminic Infant and Tylenol Concentrated Infant Drops Plus Cold and Cough. But companies are still selling the drugs, and pharmacies are buying them.

Chances are, the pharmacies will keep buying them until they are banned – if that ever happens. A group of outside experts are going to meet in the next few weeks to give recommendations to the FDA. I have a feeling the drug companies will have a few recommendations of their own. I guess we’ll have to wait and see who’s voice is louder.

Personally, the FDA’s final say on the matter won’t affect my take on it. I think you should try your hardest to keep your kids off these drugs. Sometimes, it’s inevitable – usually that’s when you’ve already had to go the pediatrician, however.

The thing is, I remember taking the exact recommended dosage of Robitussin and similar drugs when I used to catch a lot of colds back in high school.

And man, that stuff gets you high.

Another New York Times article discussed how homeopathic, over-the-counter cough and cold medicine is becoming more popular, but consumers should still be careful – many drug companies are giving themselves the label of ‘natural’ without really having anything natural in them. It’s a similar phenomena to the whole organic food situation in the U.S.A today: looking the other way and stamping the seal of approval.

But there are other alternative options to popular infant drops: before Tylenol ruled the drug stores, people used natural, nonhallucinogenic methods to help alleviate their children’s ailments.

Here are a few leads on alternatives:

An article in Mother Nature describes making elder, yarrow root tea to reduce fevers and peppermint tea for upset stomach in children.

Preventative medicine is important for kids too. Herbs for Kids reports that Echinacea root, Hyssop, Lemon Balm, Lemon Thyme, Lemongrass and Ginger root are all beneficial for a child’s immunity to cold’s and coughs (though a recent study from the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine say that there is no evidence that Echinacea is beneficial for children.)

There are more remedies, and I will keep adding them to the list. Feel free to add your own.

The most important thing to remember, however, is that there is no cure for the common cold – whether your child is filled with antihistamines or elder flower. All the the remedies can do is knock the kid out or alleviate the pain (p.s. elder flower will not knock out your child. Chamomile, however, has been known to help relax people and therefore lead to better sleep…).

NOTE: The mother of the cute baby boy in the picture posted a lot of useful information about natural remedies for children’s colds in the comment section of another blog. I recommend you read it.

 

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rice cakes and Paxil: mom & pop pharmacies getting pushed out by duane reades

If you stroll through the majority of NYC neighborhoods, you’re bound to come across pharmacies. They are plentiful, but usually come in two types: The family owned places that know your health history as well as their relative’s and the monolithic uber pharmacies that keep the poor pregnant lady waiting 45 minutes to pay for her SSRI and hair dye.

Most locals acknowledge that Duane Reade is the most dreadful and demoralizing pharmacy experience known to mankind. And yet the chain continues to mulitipy, like subway rats. New York magazine finally decided to tackle the mystery of DR this week, and am-New York gave the phenomenon a mention as well. Sadly, the success of the business has nothing to do with the knowledability of the staff, but everything to do with location, location.

“In the end, it really does come down to real estate. . . With banks bidding up prime spaces by 50 percent or more, Duane Reade’s cheap leases have become the jewel of the company. Some 200 of them are locked in past 2008, taking the rents progressively below-market with each passing day. Jeffrey Roseman, a Newmark commercial-real-estate agent who’s leased spaces to Duane Reade, says that the company doesn’t really have to sell another toothbrush.”

Still if you’ve ever wondered why DR has 40 varieties of condoms but the little corner place only a few it’s because the chain have become masters of the New Yorker’s psyche, as the New York magazine article discusses.

“When New Yorkers make their way to the pharmacy counter, their selections are heavy on sex and therapy and ambivalent about kids. The top-selling sedative, ranked nineteenth nationally, is one of the top five drugs sold at Duane Reade. Also popular here is Viagra, and a couple of anti-AIDS drugs are in the top twenty. But what New Yorkers really specialize in is birth control: Three contraceptives rank in the top 25 of Duane Reade sellers, while no contraceptive breaks the top 50 nationally. ‘There is no birth-control pill that’s No. 1 in any market except here,’ Cuti explains. ‘It’s the nature of the city. It’s where the action is.’”

Word on the streets is we like our Soy Crisps, too.