According to this article in The New York Times, there has been a significant increase in the online sale of opioids to the United States from international operations, many of which are located in Asia. Drug dealers utilizing the so-called “Dark Web” have been fulfilling orders for powerful synthetic opioids such as Fentanyl for years. However, as the number of drug overdose related fatalities increases over time, authorities have begun focusing more of their attention on stopping the online flow of drugs. Last year, more than two dozen arrests were made of American drug dealers who were running online opioid operations. While the opioid epidemic is growing on a global scale, the number of drug overdose related deaths in the United States most likely exceeded a record 59,000 last year, according to the article’s sources. And while online sales account for only a small portion of the overall inventory of drugs in the country, officials see unique challenges associated with these transactions. One of the primary concerns of online drug trafficking is that it allows these powerful substances to find their way into the lives and homes of many individuals who might not otherwise have the means to obtain them, including children.
New Gene Tests and the Potential Effect on Long-Term Care Insurance
Last month the Food and Drug Administration gave its approval for the gene testing company 23andMe to offer tests assessing risks for developing conditions such as Parkinson’s and celiac disease. Other genetics companies are planning to follow suit shortly and offer tests that will give people a better idea of what their “medical futures” look like. Although this may seem like an excellent step forward, these tests could actually prove to be a disaster for companies selling long-term care insurance. The issue does not currently lie with employment or health insurance because the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act protects employees from being asked to take gene tests and results cannot be used in employment decisions. However, unlike medical insurers, companies selling long-term care insurance can ask about health status and are permitted to consider future health when making decisions on whom they will insure and how much they will charge. The issue for these companies is that they believe many customers will choose not to reveal this information and genetics companies promise not to disclose anything to third parties.
Increasing numbers of people at low risk might decide the insurance was not worth the rising price. Even many at high risk would eventually find the policies unaffordable. It is the definition of an insurance death spiral. – New York Times
Read more from the New York Times here.
Has The Increase in Hand Sanitizer Usage Actually Cut Down on Illness?
This New York Times article answers the question with a resounding “No one knows.” No studies have been done yet that show whether hand sanitizers cut down on infectious diseases spread in public places. However, we do know that on a personal level keeping your hands clean can make a difference. The key to putting a halt to spreading disease is breaking the chain that allows germs to pass from one person to another. Washing or sanitizing hands can definitely do that. A 2008 study in The American Journal of Public Health found that clean hands cut gastrointestinal diseases by 31 percent and respiratory infections by 21 percent. Thus, it is important to get into the habit of washing your hands when you return from any public place as a part of good hygiene practices. Although we don’t know for sure how much hand sanitizers are currently affecting the spread of disease, it’s not a bad place to start.
The “Salt Equation” Taught to Doctors May Be Completely Wrong
The theory is quite simple. Our bodies rely on sodium for a variety of functions; thus, the sodium levels in our blood must be closely maintained. When we eat a lot of salt, we become thirsty so that we are encouraged to drink water in order to dilute our blood just enough to maintain the proper concentration of sodium. This is what doctors have been taught for over 200 years. However, new research published in The Journal of Clinical Investigation is contradicting this. The research presents new studies of Russian cosmonauts who are held in isolation to simulate space travel. When eating more salt, the cosmonauts found they were actually less thirsty and hungrier. Further experiments found that mice actually burned more calories when they consumed more salt. Ultimately, this new research is suggesting that what we know about how the body handles salt may not be true – high levels of sodium may actually even play a role in weight loss. Check out this New York Times article for more on this fascinating new study!
Warren Buffett’s Stance on Health Care Versus Taxes
According to this article featured in the New York Times, Warren Buffett has “one of the most cogent arguments for renewing attention on the underlying costs of our health care system.” This goes beyond the issue of the Affordable Care Act and whether it is replaced or not. According to Mr. Buffett, our global competitiveness has fallen in large part because U.S. businesses are paying more for health care than businesses in other countries. He believes that our health care system is the true barrier to our world competitiveness in this country. The article goes more in depth with numbers, comparing corporate tax rates in the 1960s compared to now as well as more of what Mr. Buffett said during Berkshire Hathaway’s annual shareholders’ conference. As always, we love to hear your thoughts on any articles we share.
Stroke “Miracle Cure” Is Currently Not Available to Everyone
60 percent of stroke patients treated with clot-retrieving stents were shown in a 2015 study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, to function independently after three months —compared to only 35 percent of patients having the same recovery timeframe when given drugs alone. However, these stents are rare outside of the approximately 150 specialized facilities in the U.S. that are known as “comprehensive stroke centers.” These centers require an in-house neurosurgery unit, minute-saving training, and the necessary space. So, although the hardware for the stent is relatively cheap, the procedure still is not available in many parts of the country.
“These treatments need to be available in the community, and access needs to be fair,” says Lee Schwamm, chief of stroke services at Massachusetts General Hospital and a professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School. “We need them to be more equitably distributed. Many are packed in big cities, and there aren’t enough in suburban communities and strategic locations in less populated areas.” –Bloomberg.com
This is being called a miracle cure for strokes and not everyone in this country has access to it. Read the article published in Bloomberg for more – we’d love to hear your thoughts!
The Cost of a Medical Miracle
How much is a medical miracle really worth? This is one of the biggest challenges drug and insurance companies are facing as modern medicine continues to advance. Insurers aren’t disputing the “worth of cures;” however, they do say they aren’t equipped to pay one large sum up front. Insurers are “used to paying rent for health, and we’re asking them to buy a houseful of cure,” says Mark Trusheim, a visiting scientist at MIT’s Sloan School of Management.
There are many different ideas being explored as far as how to handle high one-time or up-front costs including payments similar to annuities, money-back guarantees, “value-based pricing” which is already being used in Europe, radical payment plans, or even government grants or prizes to developers of cures. For more on these plans under consideration visit this Bloomberg article and please share your thoughts with us.
Type 2 Diabetes Being Diagnosed in Children at an Increasing Rate
According to the CDC, about 17 percent of kids and teens in the U.S. are considered obese, a number that has tripled since the 1970s. One of the consequences of excess weight in children has been an increase in childhood cases of type 2 diabetes. It used to be that type 2 diabetes was called “adult-onset diabetes” because it would take years to develop. However, data shows that doctors are now diagnosing type 2 in young kids and even toddlers. An article in the Seattle Times features the new data and also gives five take-aways. One of the most important of these is the tremendous effects diabetes can have over time because “the earlier the disease starts, the more potential it has to do damage.”
As always, share your thoughts with us in the comments section.
New Study Shows Running May Increase Life Expectancy
A new review and analysis of past research is saying that running may be the single most effective exercise to increase life expectancy. According to the study, runners tended to live about three more years than non-runners, regardless of other factors such as weight, lifestyle, or running style. The study mentioned here is featured in this New York Times article and is compared to past studies that have taken place. One of the most interesting calculations done by researchers in this new study found that “hour for hour running statistically returns more time to people’s lives than it consumes.” Check out the article for more!
The Struggle to Hold Opioid Manufacturers Accountable
Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals is one of the nation’s largest manufacturers of the highly addictive painkiller oxycodone. In 2011, the Drug Enforcement Administration targeted Mallinckrodt in an effort to combat the rising opioid epidemic in what would end up being the largest prescription-drug case ever pursued by the DEA. Despite allegations of violating laws that are meant to prevent legal narcotics entering the black market, the company ultimately reached a “tentative” settlement with prosecutors. This is an example, from this Washington Post article, which shows the difficulty the government has in holding drug manufacturers responsible for the repercussions of the drugs they produce.
Check out the article mentioned above to read more details about what happened with Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals and the importance of holding manufacturers accountable. As always, we love to hear your thoughts!