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Health Care Education

Sugar – Our #1 Food Villain

by Jen Jenkins, Market Analyst

Over the past several months we have often blogged on the topic of sugar and soda consumption and the possible detrimental effects both may have on human health. Sugar is quickly claiming the spotlight as the most villainous of foods that we consume, due to soaring rates of diabetes, obesity, and heart disease — all sugar-related disorders. Up until now, however, there has not been a study that truly proves sugar is a lone culprit in the rise of these chronic diseases. Dr. Robert Lustig is the reason we may now have, in his words, “hard and fast data that sugar is toxic irrespective of its calories and irrespective of weight.”

A new study developed by Dr. Lustig, out of the University of California, San Francisco, tested the effects of removing sugar from the diet of 43 children while keeping their weight and the amount of calories consumed exactly the same. Previous studies argued that it couldn’t be proven that removing sugar alone creates positive outcomes, since removing sugar also lowers calorie consumption and induces weight loss. To overcome this argument, Dr. Lustig made sure the children weighed themselves daily. If the children were losing weight, he had them eat more of the foods provided, to keep their weight the same. According to Dr. Lustig, after only 9 days “everything got better.”

Overall, their fasting blood sugar levels dropped by 53%, along with the amount of insulin their bodies produced since insulin is normally needed to break down carbohydrates and sugars. Their triglyceride and LDL levels also declined and, most importantly, they showed less fat in their liver. – Time

The main goal of this study was to look at sugar and how its negative effect on the body isn’t correlated with other diet concerns, calorie consumption, or weight loss. In fact, Dr. Lustig admitted that the diet the children were fed was far from ideal and still loaded with processed foods. Despite that, there were very noticeable improvements in the children’s health. Dr. Lustig is hoping these findings, along with new ones that continue to emerge, will encourage the U.S. Department of Agriculture to consider this new information on sugar when finalizing the updated Dietary Guidelines for 2016.

For more information on why not everyone is convinced by this new study and for other concerns expressed by experts, see this Time article.

Big Soda, Big Problems

by Angela Sams

What is your daily beverage of choice — do you guzzle water throughout the day, or prefer a soda with every meal? If you chose the former, then you are part of a growing trend that has many Americans sipping from their water bottles rather than going to the vending machine for a Coke. According to a recent New York Times article, soda is the new “toxic product to be banned, taxed and stigmatized,” similar to tobacco decades ago. While soda consumption boomed from 1960-1990, the last twenty years have seen a dramatic shift, with U.S. sales of full-calorie soda decreasing by more than 25%. The popular replacement? Bottled water.

The decline is most obvious among the affluent, white population, but will likely spread to the poorer minorities in society, as time goes on. The change is evident among younger generations, as well. Children are consuming fewer calories from sugary beverages, and an overall decrease in kids’ calorie consumption has brought some positive news with it—school-age children’s obesity rates are leveling off. Habits are established at a young age, so the fact that today’s kids aren’t turning to soda as their drink of choice means that they are less likely to suddenly start drinking it consistently as adults.

Why the sudden decrease in consumption? This can be attributed to a shift towards a healthier lifestyle and a desire to eat and drink better. Additionally, the media has helped draw attention to anti-obesity campaigners and proposed soda taxes. Though it may be difficult for officials to pass such a tax, the recent publicity around the debate is still causing people to think twice before popping open carbonated, sugary drinks.

Obviously, this creates a challenge for beverage companies, and they have responded by advertising that their drinks contain “real sugar” and by reducing the size of the cans to 7.5 oz. Even diet soda is taking a hit, as consumers are starting to become wary of artificial ingredients.

While drinking soda every once in a while is not likely to cause any major health problems, it is important to remember that one can may contain at least 17 teaspoons of sugar. This time around, following societal trends has far-reaching health benefits. Let’s raise a glass of water and toast to that!

To read more, check out this recent New York Times article.

 

Hepatitis C: Who Can Afford to Be Cured?

In October U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved a new pill, Harvoni, that can cure hepatitis C, which afflicts about 170 million people worldwide and annually kills 350,000 people.

The price on the new treatment will be a hard pill to swallow for most: $94,500 for a 12-week treatment course with Harvoni, manufactured by Gilead Sciences.

Hepatitis C is a chronic blood-borne infection that attacks the liver, eventually causing cirrhosis or liver cancer and leading to death if not treated. The US Centers of Disease Control and Prevention believes 3.2 million people in the United States could be infected.

Patients who receive these treatments almost never see the total cost, but their insurers do. More than two dozen state Medicaid programs for low-income patients, as well as for-profit insurers, have restricted coverage for the treatment to only those with severe liver damage. While researching the subject for this blog post, we found such distressing – and sadly accurate – soundbites as “The $84,000 Cure – Cheaper than a Liver Transplant.” Last July two members of the Senate Finance Committee, including Ron Wyden, Committee Chair, Democrat from Oregon, asked the manufacturer to defend the cost. They are not alone.

“Never before have drugs been priced so high to treat such a large population,” says Steve Miller, chief medical officer at Express Scripts, the country’s largest manager of drug benefits for employers and insurers. In December, Express Scripts announced it would reject coverage for one-pill-a-day Harvoni and instead steer patients to a less pricey rival drug that requires four to six pills a day.

Just how profitable are drugs like Harvoni and Sovaldi, a Hepatitis C medication released last year? In 2014 Sovaldi, also manufactured by Gilead,  generated $10.3 billion in sales, making it one of the most lucrative pharmaceutical launches ever. Harvoni sales totaled more than $2.1 billion in the last 3 months of the year. Gilead’s market capitalization has soared from $29 billion to $167 billion in five years. The net worth of its chief executive officer, John Martin, exceeds $1 billion. “For a long time we’ve had innovation after innovation,” Martin noted. For many patients, Gilead’s drugs are indeed miraculous. But is the U.S. health-care system paying too much for them? And with 170 million carriers worldwide, what will the impact of this transmittable disease be on governments and citizens with much less spending power?

Dr. Oz to Respond to Criticism

Dr. Mehmet Oz will question the credibility of critics who sought to have him removed from his position at Columbia in a segment on his show on Thursday, a spokesman for the show said.

Why is this important, and why does MCNTalk care? Dr. Oz has noted on his Facebook page, “I bring the public information that will help them on their path to be their best selves. We provide multiple points of view, including mine which is offered without conflict of interest. That doesn’t sit well with certain agendas which distort the facts.”

But in the multi-billion dollar world of celebrity and supplement endorsement, is there such a thing as “without conflict of interest?” And, as we noted in 2013, “In medicine there is a continuum between hard science, that which can be objectively observed and tested, so-called ‘art,’ and unsubstantiated beliefs masquerading as science.”

There is certainly no harm in being a good person and given the nature of many illnesses, conveying warmth while the body heals itself may be more than enough. But promoting amulets, strange foods, and other hocus pocus presented by charlatans does a disservice to society. Oz appears to personally promote unproven products and their promoters in his show – conveying an irresponsible and unearned aura of legitimacy. It appears he has embraced celebrity at the expense of credibility and his millions of fans are none the wiser.

60,000 Additional Deaths a Year Attributed to Smoking

A study entitled “Smoking and Mortality – Beyond Established Causes” appeared in the New England Journal of Medicine last week. The study followed almost a million people over the course of ten years. Researchers found that compared with people who had never smoked:

  • Approximately 17% of the excess mortality among current smokers was due to associations with causes that are not currently established as attributable to smoking.

  • Smokers were about twice as likely to die from infections, kidney disease, respiratory ailments not previously linked to tobacco, and hypertensive heart disease, in which high blood pressure leads to heart failure.
  • Smokers were also six times more likely to die from a rare illness caused by insufficient blood flow to the intestines.

The study also found small increases in the risks of breast and prostate cancer among smokers. Dr. Brian Carter, an epidemiologist with the American Cancer Society, notes that those findings were not as strong as the others, adding that additional research could help determine whether there were biological mechanisms that would support a connection.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about 42 million Americans smoke — 15 percent of women and 21 percent of men.

 

Vaccinations: The Soaring Price of Prevention

MCNTalk has long taken on the vaccination story and has advocated rational and life saving public health policies that promote vaccination.

As this article demonstrates, the dark side of vaccinations is not the overstated risk of side effects, but the predatory cost escalation. The short answer to why the manufacturers are driving up prices is because they can.

This is further enabled by the requirements that some vaccinations be administered for school admission and other public good.

Also the lack of marketplace pressures since the cost is generally borne by government and insurance carriers promotes insensitivity and indifference among those who benefit from them. Finally, monopolies granted via patents and regulations do nothing to induce competition among manufacturers.

Sixteen years into the vaccination/autism myth

In 1998 Andrew Wakefield published a paper claiming a link between the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccination and autism – reporting on a total of eight children who developed symptoms of autism within a month of receiving the vaccine.

In the past sixteen years there have been multiple studies – at least 14 worldwide – and books published debunking the paper, which was initially rejected by four of the six reviewers who were asked to judge it. And yet the myth continues to have tragic effects worldwide as more deaths are reported from outbreaks of preventable these diseases here in the United States and abroad. Why? In part thanks to celebrities like Jenny McCarthy, actress, Playboy centerfold, co-host of The View, and since 2005 anti-vaccine activist. Read more…

How Doctors Rate Patients: What’s Your Activation Level?

More hospitals, health plans and employers are scoring patients on how engaged they will be in their care using an assessment called the Patient Activation Measure, or PAM. Scores make it easier to customize information, coaching and other interventions.

The aim is for patients, rather than feel overwhelmed by instructions, to become confident that they can change their own behavior.

Another aim: To reduce costs incurred through additional patient visits. Hospitals are using PAM to tailor support they give patients at discharge to avoid readmissions. Patients with low activation scores have nearly twice the risk of 30-day post-discharge hospital admission as patients with higher activation, according to a study last fall in the Journal of General Internal Medicine.

PeaceHealth, of Vancouver, Wash., used PAM at a primary-care practice in Eugene, Ore., and found over 18 months a 42% decline in average quarterly emergency and urgent-care visits. Read more…

Welcome to the Age of Denial

MCNTalk believes in the scientific process. It is a process to arrive at truth. It is not anti-religion, but rather can and often does exist in parallel with faith. Faith does not and cannot supplant or replace science. And faith is not a substitute or alternative for science – or vice versa. And scientific inquiry — and its conclusions — is not governed by majority vote or party rule. At times data can offend those who find that their beliefs or economic interests are challenged.

These three related articles from The New York Times (“Welcome to the Age of Denial,” “Eugene C. Scott Fights the Teaching of Creationism in Schools,” and “Young and Against Bad Science“) address scientific ignorance and the attempts by some, including politicians and schools, to suppress scientific inquiry and punish those who disobey. This is not a small matter when for example it leads to vaccination deniers endangering their children and communities based upon bad science or no science at all. Or those whose political agendas conflict with evidence of global warming. The list goes on.

Scientific literacy, like math and language skills, is an essential component of basic education, regardless of the ultimate career path chosen.

…And the other 367,000 babies born that day

On a quick trip to the grocery store I couldn’t help but notice the dozen or so smiling faces of the Duchess of Cambridge with her new baby while I was waiting in line to make my purchase. But it was this article in Slate.com that MCNtalk found interesting to read – UNICEF statistics and the Slate.com author’s thoughts on childhood diseases, access to secondary education, clean drinking water – things all parents of newborns worldwide ponder to varying degrees.

While it’s all very exciting that this particular baby was born—and I do wish him well—I can’t help but wonder about the estimated 367,000 babies born (roughly 4.3 born a second) around the world on the same day the most important baby ever came to be. While many of those commoner babies were also born into a world of relative privilege and safety—though not royal family levels of privilege, by any means—many of them were not. Many of the babies born that Monday are inheriting a world that is dangerous and even deadly, often for reasons that could easily be prevented.