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In 2010, I became IronPhi #23, a proud honor for me as I balanced work, training for my first ever Half Ironman & fund raising and achieved all my goals, which is pretty cool!  -

The mission of Iron Phi is to strengthen the Phi Delta Theta International Fraternity and the impact it has on the fight against Lou Gehrig’s disease through the fundraising and athletic efforts of its members. Lou Gehrig was a member of Phi Delta Theta, and our organization has taken an active role in finding a cure.

The net proceeds will support ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease) research, education, screening and treatment.  It will also help strengthen an organization (Phi Delta Theta) that has had a lasting impact on my life.

In 2011, I will be competing in my 2nd Half Ironman in Augusta, GA in September and my First Full Ironman in Florida in November (140.6 miles!)

According to The ALS Association’s web site, approximately 5,600 people in the U.S. are diagnosed with ALS each year. It is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and the spinal cord. Motor neurons reach from the brain to the spinal cord and from the spinal cord to the muscles throughout the body. The progressive degeneration of the motor neurons in ALS eventually leads to their death. That’s why I’m becoming an Iron Phi. To do something bold about Lou Gehrig’s disease.

I’ve set my personal goal at $2,500.00, as last year I raised $1,081 so this year I only need to raise $1,419. So I need your help. Would you please consider making a donation of $50.00 or larger?  You can make a donation by visiting, www.tinyurl.com/3mu7ues .  You can also send a check to Iron Phi to me at (850 South Tamiami Trail, #325, Sarasota, FL  34236) if you’d rather donate that way.
I hope that you’ll share this incredible adventure with me - by supporting me in my fundraising efforts.

I felt honored and humbled in so many ways by the amount of support I received in my fund raising efforts and motivating comments from friends, family and supporters.  I will need to hear those kind words again as this year’s goals are stout!

I will also be raising funds this year to honor 2 fallen Phi’s.  Both of which played a part in who I am today and not only were my friends, but sons and fathers and brothers to many.

R.I.P. - Michael Bertino

R.I.P. - Jason Moore
Thank you in advance for your generosity and uplifting words.

Mahalo,

Sean Dreznin

FL EP

#694

http://support.ironphi.org/site/TR/Events/General?px=1007562&pg=personal&fr_id=1040
 

The mission of Iron Phi is to strengthen the Phi Delta Theta International Fraternity and the impact it has on the fight against Lou Gehrig’s disease through the fundraising and athletic efforts of its members. Lou Gehrig was a member of Phi Delta Theta, and our organization has taken an active role in finding a cure.

The net proceeds will support ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease) research, education, screening and treatment. It will also help strengthen an organization (Phi Delta Theta) that has had a lasting impact on my life.

In 2011, I will be competing in my 2nd Half Ironman in Augusta, GA in September and my First Full Ironman in Florida in November (140.6 miles!)

According to The ALS Association’s web site, approximately 5,600 people in the U.S. are diagnosed with ALS each year. It is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and the spinal cord. Motor neurons reach from the brain to the spinal cord and from the spinal cord to the muscles throughout the body. The progressive degeneration of the motor neurons in ALS eventually leads to their death. That’s why I’m becoming an Iron Phi. To do something bold about Lou Gehrig’s disease.

I’ve set my personal goal at $2,500.00, as last year I raised $1,081 so this year I only need to raise $1,419. So I am asking for your support. Would you please consider making a donation of $50.00 or larger? You can make a donation by visiting, www.tinyurl.com/3mu7ues . You can also send a check to Iron Phi to me at (850 South Tamiami Trail, #325, Sarasota, FL 34236) if you’d rather donate that way.
http://support.ironphi.org/site/TR/Events/General?px=1007562&pg=personal&fr_id=1040

The mission of Iron Phi is to strengthen the Phi Delta Theta International Fraternity and the impact it has on the fight against Lou Gehrig’s disease through the fundraising and athletic efforts of its members. Lou Gehrig was a member of Phi Delta Theta, and our organization has taken an active role in finding a cure.

The net proceeds will support ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease) research, education, screening and treatment. It will also help strengthen an organization (Phi Delta Theta) that has had a lasting impact on my life.

In 2011, I will be competing in my 2nd Half Ironman in Augusta, GA in September and my First Full Ironman in Florida in November (140.6 miles!)

According to The ALS Association’s web site, approximately 5,600 people in the U.S. are diagnosed with ALS each year. It is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and the spinal cord. Motor neurons reach from the brain to the spinal cord and from the spinal cord to the muscles throughout the body. The progressive degeneration of the motor neurons in ALS eventually leads to their death. That’s why I’m becoming an Iron Phi. To do something bold about Lou Gehrig’s disease.

I’ve set my personal goal at $2,500.00, as last year I raised $1,081 so this year I only need to raise $1,419. So I am asking for your support. Would you please consider making a donation of $50.00 or larger? You can make a donation by visiting, www.tinyurl.com/3mu7ues . You can also send a check to Iron Phi to me at (850 South Tamiami Trail, #325, Sarasota, FL 34236) if you’d rather donate that way.

http://support.ironphi.org/site/TR/Events/General?px=1007562&pg=personal&fr_id=1040

 RN.org automatically reports course completions electronically to CE Broker on a monthly basis so the State of Florida is aware of your CEU activity.

Please visit out friends at  http://www.rn.org   

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 If your hospital, staffing agency or organization is looking for a source for nursing continuing education that is state approved consider RN.org! We can compliment your existing nursing education program with our extensive course catalog which is constantly growing. If you have specific courses that you require your staff to be proficient in, we can test (and certify) your nurses over your materials on RN.org! We offer various discounts based on volume and are exclusive providers to various agencies and hospitals. When it comes to healthcare and nursing continuing education, remember RN.org!

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Picking A Hospital Can Give You A Headache 
By CORRIE BENFIELD The Tampa Tribune

Published: April 13, 2008

If you needed surgery, and you had to pick a hospital in your area, how would you choose? You could base your decision on word of mouth. Or quality of care. Or even price.

Trying to gather all the information and weigh the facts can be complicated. One place to start is Medicare’s recently updated Hospital Compare tool at www.medicare.gov. The site allows you to gauge patient satisfaction, pricing and quality of care based on patient records submitted by participating hospitals.

The database was created by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and the Hospital Quality Alliance, a public-private partnership, to track how often hospitals provide certain recommended treatments in four categories: surgery, pneumonia, heart attack and heart failure. It also includes patients’ responses to surveys about overnight stays, as well as the average amount Medicare pays for procedures at specific hospitals.

To give you an idea of how local hospitals measure up, here is information about the health care providers in Hillsborough and Pasco counties included in the database. Of the 14 hospitals, the five that provided the most patient records in each treatment area are compared. In cases in which the recommended treatment would not have benefited the patient, for reasons such as allergies, that information was not counted against the hospital.

Surgery patients who received preventive antibiotics one hour before incision: Continue reading ‘Picking a hospital can give you a headache’

FDA has issued an import alert regarding entry of cantaloupe from Agropecuaria Montelibano, a Honduran grower and packer, because, based on current information, fruit from this company appears to be associated with a Salmonella Litchfield outbreak in the United States and Canada. The import alert advises FDA field offices that all cantaloupes shipped to the United States by this company are to be detained. Continue reading ‘FDA Warns Of Salmonella Risk From Agropecuaria Montelibano’

New research shows how well people get around and keep their balance in old age is linked to the severity of changes happening in their brains. White matter changes, also called leukoaraiosis, are frequently seen in older people and differ in severity. Continue reading ‘Problems Getting Around In Old Age’

Early colon cancer detection is the key to its cure.

According to National Cancer Institute (NCI) about 150000 people are being colon cancer diagnosed each year. About 50000 of these people die every year. Colon cancer is rated the second cancer after breast cancer, but it’s easily treatable if detected early.

About half of all Americans with colon cancer are not aware of the disease. It has a 90% cure if detected early, but some people don’t get screened regularly as advised by doctors.

People are avoiding screening and there are different reasons for it. Some of them are just afraid to find out they have the cancer, some of them are just afraid of colonoscopy that may be painful, some people just feel healthy, don’t have annoying symptoms and think they don’t need a screening.

Colonoscopy is the latest screening to detect colon cancer. It uses a tube with a camera and light, which passes through the colon and enables doctors to closely monitor colon tissue. If there are any suspicious tissues found in colons they are immediately removed for biopsy. These tissues are clumps of cells called polyps.

About 30% of polyps are later turning into cancerous tissues. The process takes from 7 to 10 years allowing patients a plenty of time for early cancer treatment. Proper colon cancer treatment combined with healthy lifestyle successfully cure the disease.

Gastroenterologists advise everyone aged 50 and older to get regularly screened. Those with colon cancer family history are advised to start screenings at age of 40. Any bowel disease, such as diarrhea, constipation, stool bleeding, anemia, gas should be immediately told to a doctor, because these may be signs of cancer.

Do you remember the seventh song that played on your radio on the way to work yesterday? Most of us don’t, thanks to a normal forgetting process that is constantly “cleaning house” – culling inconsequential information from our brains. Researchers at the Buck Institute now believe that this normal memory loss is hyper-activated in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and that this effect is key to the profound memory loss associated with the incurable neurodegenerative disorder. Continue reading ‘Alzheimer’s finding may shed new light on memory loss’

Scientists have found how pre-menstrual tension (PMT) and epilepsy affects brain and give hope for developing way to control brain receptors and block the symptoms.

A team of scientists from University of Cambridge, Aston University and University of Alberta have discovered a switch in brain that is responsible for behaviour of a person who is, for example, drunk of suffers from PMT or epilepsy.

The switch is a brain receptor that reacts on a messenger chemical GABA, which is responsible for sending signals to brain. These receptors are very sensitive, and researchers will try to find ways of blocking them not to receive annoying signals caused by health conditions. Continue reading ‘New Discovery To Ease PMT, Epilepsy’

Lots of people suffer from gout - a joint disease causing pain, inflammation, and stiffness. Previously, researchers were blaming unhealthy lifestyle and eating habits as a main cause for this disease. However, a team of scientists from MRC Human Genetics Unit, in Edinburgh, have found that gout is caused by a certain gene variation.

Scientists examined genetic data of 12000 people and found that there are people with healthy diet and regular exercising who suffer from gout as well.

Uric acid is a waste product in blood that is being filtered in kidneys and removed by urine. Some people with specific genes (SLC2A) and produced proteins are unable to normally filter uric acid, causing blood pollution. Acids form crystals in joints causing gout.

Of course, sugary food, alcohol, and fatty food increase the risk for gout, but if gene variation is playing the most important role in joint condition. Researchers explain that the gene responsible for uric acid control is also responsible for sugar control. This is why sugary soft drinks are even more worsening the condition.

There are no serious drugs for gout treatment. The main way to fight the disease is diet in combination with exercising. Scientists will need further research on SLC2A gene to find out how it works and to develop drugs improving acid control.

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World Medical Association and the Medical Women’s International Association urge every single woman and girl to get HPV vaccine to protect themselves from cervical cancer.

Cervical cancer is the second most common cancer occurring among women. About 500000 women worldwide are being cervical cancer diagnosed each year, 1/4 million women die annually from the disease, most of dying are from poor countries. However, the cancer is preventable by human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine.

Human papillomavirus is a sexually transmitted infection, most of women are being infected with this virus. There are about 100 types of HPV, 30 of them are leading to cancer. If the infection is not being properly treated and remains in a body for a long time, it increases the risk for cancer.

HPV is commonly being transmitted genital contact. Most sexually active women, about 50%, are being infected within the first 4 years of sexually active life.

World Medical Association and the Medical Women’s International Association are urging health officials to make HPV vaccination a priority, allocate funds to make it available for every women and to reduce cervical cancer rates.
 

A new vaccine may lower high blood pressure.

A team of researchers from Cytos Biotechnology in Schlieren, Switzerland have developed a new vaccine named CYT006-AngQb for lowering blood pressure. The vaccine is to strengthen blood vessels that regulate blood pressure.

The vaccine was shown to be successful in a trial of 72 patients with mid and moderate hypertension. The patients were given to one or two doses of vaccine and a placebo after 4 and 12 weeks. The patients were been measured for blood pressure before the study and 14 weeks after it. They showed those having higher doses of vaccine have systolic blood pressure by 9 millimetres of mercury, diastolic pressure by 4 millimetres of mercury.

Diastolic is the blood pressure in arteries while heart is resting. It’s the bottom number of pressure measuring. Systolic is the blood pressure in arteries while heart is beating. It’s the top number of pressure measuring.

Results were even better in morning times: at 8 am systolic pressure was reduced by 25mm, diastolic pressure was reduced by 13mm.

Researchers suggest that this new vaccine a few times a year will replace blood pressure pills and lower hypertension.

Scientists from Liverpool’s Alder Hey Hospital want to remind parents about the threat of secondhand smoke.

Researchers examined data from numerous studies and hospitals showing how harmful secondhand smoke is for children.

The report found that about half of all children are being exposed to secondhand smoke. Third of all children in hospitals suffer from secondhand smoke. Continue reading ‘Smoking Parents Result Unhealthy Children’

 
Even moderate drinkers are at high risk for high blood pressure. Previous studies proved heavy alcohol consumption leads to hypertension, but this study shows that even those drinking not that much significantly suffer from blood pressure.

Bristol University researchers examined data of 12000 men and women previously involved in similar studies. Previous studies were partially banned, because they did not consider other factors affecting blood pressure, such as exercising, smoking, and diet.

This study excluded all mentioned factors and looked at gene background. There are two types of people:

1. People with alcohol dehydrohenase 2 (ALDH2) in gene who can drink a lot, because ALDH2 eliminates alcoholic chemicals from body right after alcohol consumption.

2. People with no ALDH2 in gene who suffer from side effects, such as headache, drowsiness, intense nausea, and other symptoms. These people generally don’t drink much or don’t drink at all.

Scientists compared blood pressure levels of both groups and found that even those not drinking much suffer from hypertension.

Dr Lewis from Bristol University’s department of social medicine said: “This study shows that alcohol intake may increase blood pressure to a much greater extent, even among moderate drinkers, than previously thought.”

The study concludes, that even three units of alcohol a day (for example, two small glasses of wine) almost double the risk for developing high blood pressure.

Do we really know the truth about depression treatment medications and antidepressants?

Following last week’s study suggesting that new generation antidepressants aren’t all they’re cracked up to be, a special report in this week’s BMJ asks do we really know the truth about antidepressants? Or statins? Or any other drug on the market?

Lack of access to data is an ongoing problem in the United States, despite passage of the Food and Drug Administration Amendments Act (FDAAA) of 2007, which requires clinical trials to be registered in a public database, write journalists Jeanne Lenzer and Shannon Brownlee.

Although it’s a positive step towards greater transparency, the act may not reduce the likelihood of dangerous or ineffective drugs remaining on the market as much as some people might have hoped, they warn. For example, not all trials have to be registered and access to full data is also constrained by trade secrecy laws.

To overcome this, researchers often request data under the Freedom of Information Act, but various rules can still prevent full access to underlying results.

Trade secrecy laws, for example, permit companies to withhold all information about drugs that do not win approval for a new indication, even when the drug is already on the market for other indications.

Such data are protected as trade secrets so that drug companies aren’t put at a “competitive disadvantage” when other companies, learning of the initial studies, aren’t forced to expend the same “wasted efforts.”

This was the case with valdecoxib, a COX 2 inhibitor that failed to gain FDA approval to treat acute pain in 2001. As a result, some of the trial information was withdrawn from the FDA website, leaving researchers and the public in the dark about possible side effects.

But it is precisely these failed trials that should be made public, argue the authors.

One suggestion is to make the FDA database available to researchers. The FDA says that it is far too onerous to put all its material online. But, as a number of experts have pointed out, the burden on the FDA from future Freedom of Information requests would be lessened if it posted all its data.

Ultimately, redacting clinical information from studies, forcing companies to expend “wasted efforts,” and failing to insist that data derived from trial participants be placed in the public domain simply cannot be reconciled with what is in the public interest, write the authors.

Trial participants, as well as patients who take drugs and doctors who prescribe them, deserve nothing less than the assurance that all the news - not just the good news - has been carefully assessed, they conclude.

An editorial, also published in this week’s BMJ, suggests that before we embrace any treatment as first line, it is prudent to ask whether its efficacy is beyond question. It also calls for drug regulatory authorities such as the FDA to make their reviews publicly and retrospectively available on the world wide web.

Newly developing diet pill will offer a brand new weight loss technique by reducing the size of stomach, which is currently being done by bypass surgery.

‘Gastric banding’ and ’stomach stapling’ are surgeries reducing stomach size. These are the most effective weight loss treatments, but they have adverse side effects and are complicated. For example, 1 out of 100 bypass patients die within 12 months after surgery. Most of patients have difficulties with dense food, they need to chew it properly and eat slowly to avoid stomach discomfort.

The new pills will have the same efficiency in stomach size reduction as surgeries, but it will be much safer, easy to implement and with less side effects.

While eating, stomach relaxes muscular wall and expands to digest food. Muscular wall is found to have P2Y1 and P2Y11 receptor proteins, they get signals from nerve cells and control gut wall size. The new pill will block receptor cells to prevent gut expanding. This means that one may eat very little and take a pill to feel full.

Dr Brian King from University College London said: “This would be a brand new approach to weight control. At present, the most successful way to help obese patients lose weight is gastric banding or stomach stapling, both of which reduce the maximum volume of the stomach. But these are also tricky surgical procedures, not without attendant risks. A pill that could replace this surgery, yet have the same effect, might be a useful alternative.”

Scientists from University College London are currently working on the pill that introduces a brand new approach to weight loss.

Eat your broccoli. That’s the advice from UCLA researchers who have found that a chemical in broccoli and other cruciferous vegetables may hold a key to restoring the body’s immunity, which declines as we age.

Published in this week’s online edition of the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, the study findings show that sulforaphane, a chemical in broccoli, switches on a set of antioxidant genes and enzymes in specific immune cells, which then combat the injurious effects of molecules known as free radicals that can damage cells and lead to disease.

Free radicals are byproducts of normal body processes, such as the metabolic conversion of food into energy, and can also enter the body through small particles present in polluted air. A supercharged form of oxygen, these molecules can cause oxidative tissue damage, leading to disease — for example, triggering the inflammation process that causes clogged arteries. Oxidative damage to body tissues and organs is thought to be one of the major causes of aging.

“The mysteries of aging have always intrigued man,” said Dr. Andre Nel, the study’s principal investigator and chief of nanomedicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. “While we have known for some time that free radicals are important in aging, most of the past attention has focused on the mechanisms that produce free radicals rather than addressing the pathways used by the body to suppress their production.”

A dynamic equilibrium exists in the body between the mechanisms that lead to increased free radical production and those antioxidant pathways that help combat free radicals.

“Our study contributes to the growing understanding of the importance of these antioxidant defense pathways that the body uses to fight free radicals,” said Nel, a practicing clinical allergist and immunologist at the Geffen School. “Insight into these processes points to ways in which we may be able to alleviate the effects of aging.”

The delicate balance between pro-oxidant and antioxidant forces in the body could determine the outcome of many disease processes that are associated with aging, including cardiovascular disease, degenerative joint diseases and diabetes, as well as the decline in efficiency of the immune system’s ability to protect against infectious agents.

“As we age, the ability of the immune system to fight disease and infections and protect against cancer wears down as a result of the impact of oxygen radicals on the immune system,” Nel said.

According to the UCLA study, the ability of aged tissues to reinvigorate their antioxidant defense can play an important role in reversing much of the negative impact of free radicals on the immune system. However, until this current study, the extent to which antioxidant defense can impact the aging process in the immune system was not properly understood.

“Our defense against oxidative stress damage may determine at what rate we age, how it will manifest and how to interfere in those processes,” Nel said. “In particular, our study shows that a chemical present in broccoli is capable of stimulating a wide range of antioxidant defense pathways and may be able to interfere with the age-related decline in immune function.”

The UCLA team not only found that the direct administration of sulforaphane in broccoli reversed the decline in cellular immune function in old mice, but they witnessed similar results when they took individual immune cells from old mice, treated those cells with the chemical outside the body and then placed the treated cells back into a recipient animal.

In particular, the scientists discovered that dendritic cells, which introduce infectious agents and foreign substances to the immune system, were particularly effective in restoring immune function in aged animals when treated with sulforaphane.

“We found that treating older mice with sulforaphane increased the immune response to the level of younger mice,” said Hyon-Jeen Kim, first author and research scientist at the Geffen School.

To investigate how the chemical in broccoli increased the immune system’s response, the UCLA group confirmed that sulforaphane interacts with a protein called Nrf2, which serves as a master regulator of the body’s overall antioxidant response and is capable of switching on hundreds of antioxidant and rejuvenating genes and enzymes.

Nel said that the chemistry leading to activation of this gene-regulation pathway could be a platform for drug discovery and vaccine development to boost the decline of immune function in elderly people.

“This is a radical new way of thinking in how to increase the immune function of elderly people to possibly protect against viral infections and cancer,” Nel said. “We may have uncovered a new mechanism by which to boost vaccine responses by using a nutrient chemical to impact oxidant stress pathways in the immune system.”

Kim said that although there is a decline in Nrf2 activity with aging, this pathway remains accessible to chemicals like sulforaphane that are capable of restoring some of the ravages of aging by boosting antioxidant pathways.

The next step is further study to see how these findings would translate to humans.

“Dietary antioxidants have been shown to have important effects on immune function, and with further study, we may be adding broccoli and other cruciferous vegetables to that list,” Nel said.

For now, Nel suggests including these vegetables as part of a healthy diet.

Nel said that these findings offer a window into how the immune system ages.

“We may find that combating free radicals is only part of the answer. It may prove to be a more multifaceted process and interplay between pro- and antioxidant forces,” he said.
 
 

Although smoke-free policies have been introduced at all NHS Hospital Trusts a study by researchers at The University of Nottingham has found that smoking is still prevalent, even by staff in uniform.

Researchers in the School of Community Health Sciences conclude that effective enforcement is critical and more must be done to find better ways of supporting staff to engage effectively in enforcement, manage nicotine withdrawal and stop smoking on site. Continue reading ‘UK Hospitals Are Still Not Smoke-Free’

The majority of patients with narcolepsy / cataplexy sleep disorder experience a number of symptoms of eating disorders, with an irresistible craving for food and binge eating as the most prominent features, according to a new study.

The study, authored by Hal Droogleever Fortuyn, MD, and Sebastiaan Overeem, MD, of the Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Center in The Netherlands, focused on 60 patients with narcolepsy/cataplexy who were recruited from specialized sleep centers and 120 healthy controls. Continue reading ‘Narcolepsy and Cataplexy Sleep Disorder Linked To Eating Disorder’

Curing cancer with herbal remedies - a case for shamans and herb women? Not at all, for many chemotherapies to fight cancer applied in modern medicine are natural products or were developed on the basis of natural substances. Thus, taxanes used in prostate and breast cancer treatment are made from yew trees. The popular periwinkle plant, which grows along the ground of many front yards, is the source of vinca alkaloids that are effective, for example, against malignant lymphomas. Continue reading ‘Herbal Pharmacy And Remedies’

Patients cared for by hospitals with residents in training have a 17 percent less chance of dying after lung cancer surgery compared with patients undergoing surgery at non-teaching hospitals, according to results of a Johns Hopkins study published in the March issue of the Annals of Thoracic Surgery. Continue reading ‘Teaching Hospitals Are Safer For Lung Cancer Surgery’

The 50 best hospitals of America rating is based on analysis of patient outcomes at US hospitals from 1999 to 2006. Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, Cleveland Clinic and Cedars Sinai in LA are in the list.

HealthGrades, the nation’s leading independent healthcare ratings organization, today identified America’s 50 Best Hospitals, an elite class of top-performing facilities. The HealthGrades America’s 50 Best Hospital designation represents the healthcare industry’s only quality ranking based solely on objective clinical outcomes among U.S. hospitals. Continue reading ‘HealthGrades Releases America’s 50 Top Hospitals Of 2008′