pmc — News

Giving Swine Flu Drug by IV Could Save Lives 0

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Mend a Broken Heart, literally 0

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – For people who suffer from so-called “broken heart syndrome,” the long-term outlook is excellent and nearly all patients have full recovery of heart function, doctors from Rhode Island report.

Broken heart syndrome was first described by Japanese researchers in the early 1990s. Symptoms typically mimic a heart attack and tend to occur soon after an intense physical or emotional event. Experts think these symptoms may be brought on by the heart’s reaction to a surge of stress hormones, like adrenaline, causing a part of the heart to temporarily weaken or become stunned.

 However, based on the experience of Dr. Richard Regnante from Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, Providence and colleagues, it appears that broken heart syndrome is temporary and completely reversible.

Source: American Journal of Cardiology, April 1, 2009.

How to Age Gracefully – Attitude is Everything 0

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DSHS Cuts and You 0

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Walgreens to Withdraw 44 WA Pharmacies from Medicaid Program 0

On Monday, Walgreens announced that it will pull 44 of 111 WA pharmacies from the Medicaid program, while some of the remaining pharmacies will stop accepting new Medicaid patients for prescription services.
Many facilities cannot sustain the increasing costs of supplies and a drop in reimbursements, and are forced to make the difficult decision to stop serving Medicaid patients.

Drugstore company Walgreen Co said on Monday it would pull almost half its pharmacies in Washington state from the U.S. Medicaid program in protest against the state’s plan to cut reimbursements for drugs.

Cash-strapped Washington state plans to insist on cheaper, generic drugs for low-income Medicaid clients whenever available and equivalent to brand-name drugs, and is also cutting the rate of reimbursements on all drugs to pharmacies which supply them.

Call Your (Grand)Parents! 0

Older adults who lack family and friends, or who feel lonely despite having others around them, tend to be in poorer physical and mental health, a new study finds.

Researchers found that among roughly 3,000 U.S. adults ages 57 to 85, those with few social connections were less likely to describe their physical health as good or excellent. Meanwhile, those who felt socially isolated — even if they had friends, family and social activities — tended to report poorer physical and mental well-being.

The findings, reported in the Journal of Health and Social Behavior, add to evidence linking social connections to older adults’ health.

But they also suggest that older people’s actual social support and their perceptions of that support each have independent effects, according to the researchers.

“Most older adults will experience significant changes in their social relationships due to things like retirement and bereavement, for example,” said lead researcher Dr. Erin York Cornwell, of Cornell University in Ithaca, New York.

More after the jump.

Source:  Journal of Health and Social Behavior, March 2009