The Selenia Dimensions 3-D system for three dimensional breast imaging will help improve screenings by revealing the inner architecture of the breast, free from the distortion typically caused by tissue shadowing or density. The new improved system scans 2-D as well as 3-D adding only a couple of seconds on to the screening which is well within FDA standards of radiation exposure for breast screenings.

The Selenia Dimensions 3-D system is already in use in Europe, Asia, South America and Australia and it’s no suprise that it got the okay with a 12-0 vote by the food and drug administration in Gaithersburg, Maryland.

“This, that I’ve seen today, is probably the tool that I’ve been looking for for the last 37 years,” a panel member Leonard Glassman, a radiologist in Washington who has been practicing breast imaging since 1973, said. “It will allow me to get rid of the overlap, to see around corners, to see behind things.”

According to experts women should start receiving yearly clinical breast exams by the age of 40 and breast exams every 3 years by a health care provider starting as early as 20.

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While Maine had pretty much already decriminalized personal marijuana use with possession of less than 2.5 ounces being a civil violation punishable by a fine of $200 – $400 and medical marijuana already legal, the people have spoken and Maine residents now have the opportunity to buy there weed at there local corner dispensary.

If you are in pain from a variety of diseases and conditions you may be able to get a prescription to buy marijuana legally. All the stipulations aren’t quite ironed out yet, but they have made it clear that they won’t let it turn into the fiasco that LA has seen in recent years with their marijuana dispensaries.

The dispensaries will have to be licensed with the states bureau of health and human services, and people will have to have prescriptions to buy the marijuana at the stores.
How to get a prescription in Maine to buy marijuana? Well under Maine’s medical marijuana law, a person may be recommended marijuana for the following conditions:

1. Persistent nausea, vomiting, wasting syndrome or loss of appetite as a result of:
   1. Acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) or the treatment thereof; or
   2. Chemotherapy or radiation therapy used to treat cancer;
2. Heightened intraocular pressure as a result of glaucoma;
3. Seizures associated with a chronic, debilitating disease, such as epilepsy; or
4. Persistent muscle spasms associated with a chronic, debilitating disease, such as multiple sclerosis

It’s expected that Maine is planning on expanding the list of conditions and diseases for which cannabis can be prescribed in the near future but have assured the public that they will keep a strict policy on use for only chronic conditions.

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The researchers at INSERM, the French National Institute for Health and Medical Research in Toulouse, followed 608 people with mild to moderate Alzheimer’s disease for four years, testing their memory and thinking skills twice a year.

There were 63 participants with diabetes that started with the same average score of 20 on the test of thinking ability. There was an average overall decline of 1.24 points on that test every six months. But the decline in the thinking ability scores was 0.38 points greater every six months for those without diabetes.

Dr. Robert Friedland, chair of neurology at the University of Louisville said the differences seen in the study “are very minimally significant, less than a point on a 30-point scale,” “The difference in many of the mental state examination scores was very small. It was statistically significant, but clinically meaningless.” He mentioned several reasons why this effect may have been.

The medications taken for diabetes to help control blood sugar level could have a beneficial effect on the brain, patients with diabetes have more vascular disease in the heart as well as the retina, and some of their impairment might be due to that, so it was progressing more slowly,”

“It’s not clear from this study and others what the relationship is,” said William Thies, chief medical and scientific officer of the Alzheimer’s Association.

What is clear, Thies said, is that having diabetes increases the risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease — a relationship acknowledged in the first sentence of a report on the French study in the Oct. 27 issue of Neurology.

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So far over sixty million people have gotten the flu vaccine this year which far exceeds other years at this point in the season. But more needs to be done at all levels.

“We’ve seen more than 1,000 deaths and 20,000 hospitalizations,” said Dr. Thomas Frieden, head of the CDC. “We expect it to occur in waves, but we can’t predict when those waves will happen.”

With officials expecting more infections and the swine flu now widespread in 46 states, vaccination is more important then ever, especially for the young, the elderly, and other high risk people.

Supplies of the flu vaccine are lower then expected because of production delays as of Wednesday, only 11 million doses had been shipped to health departments, doctor’s offices and other providers.

The Government has hopes to have about 50 million doses of vaccine for the out by mid-November and 150 million in December if all goes according to plan.

The White House went on to say in a statement;

“The foundation of our national approach to the H1N1 flu has been preparedness at all levels — personal, business, and government — and this proclamation helps that effort by advancing our overall response capability,”

and

“The H1N1 is moving rapidly, as expected. By the time regions or healthcare systems recognize they are becoming overburdened, they need to implement disaster plans quickly,”

With the National emergency proclamation, health care providers will be able to request additional resources on a case-by-case basis and relieve some of the pressure by waving certain federal requirements which will help people get the treatment and vaccines they need.

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Still in the testing stage, this new form of birth control comes as an injection and lasts for two months. It contains the hormones testosterone and progesterone which make the sperm count in men drastically decrease.

Men have never been very keen on birth control methods like vasectomies for various reasons but the most probably being the idea of “snip, snip” even though it’s a perfectly safe and usually reversible procedure.

This new form of male contraceptive could be the answer men have been waiting for to take over their sexuality and place it in their hands. Not having to worry about pregnancy defiantly has it’s advantages for both men and women hopefully this new form of birth control becomes popular.

It will be years before this new contraceptive hits the market, if ever, so for now if men want to control birth it’s back to condoms.

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2. Your Not Alone October 10th is National Depression Screening Day

Your not alone in these feelings, depression effects over 20 million adults every year and unfortunately many of these people don’t seek treatment not knowing that they don’t have to feel this way.

October is National Depression Screening day and it’s the perfect opportunity to give it a shot. Depression isn’t always a text book example, many people feel down and don’t realize their symptoms may be a form of depression and can be treated.

All across the U.S. the National Institute of Mental Health is sponsoring free depression testing at thousands of sites including online testing. If your feeling down and it’s interfering with your everyday life this may be the perfect opportunity to get a free professional opinion on your condition.

You don’t have to consider these feelings as just a part of life. You can get treated and have a far better quality of life. Contact your local health department to find out where you can find free depression screening in your county or find out here.

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In the pursuit of medical science Elizabeth Blackburn winner of  the Nobel prize for medicine together with Carol Greider and Jack Szostak have been duley noted for their work in  the existence and nature of telomerase, an enzyme that helps prevent the fraying of chromosomes and is the key to work on preventing and curing types of cancers.

A professor of biology and physiology at the University of California, San Francisco, Elizabeth  Blackburn was working on a federal grant that funded the ground breaking research.

“I was just following my nose,” she told a news conference after the announcement of her prize by the Nobel committee in Stockholm. “That would look pretty bad in a business plan,” she said, noting that basic research is long and costly.

Blackburn has been working in the field for almost thirty years and it has finally paid off big. Although this is only the beginning stages, it will most likely lead the way to a cancer fighting drug like non we have seen.

Biotech firms Merck and Geron have jumped on board to start trials for therapy based on the enzyme but there is still a long road ahead.

Funding for the project is running out fast but a new $5 billion grant from President Obama may be the key that can unlock the chest needed to push the research to the next level. Bio companies are in business to make money which is fine but we need long term cash flow to get the ball rolling and keep it rolling.

Whether any of the grant money, that was part of President Obama’s Stimulus plan, will reach Blackburn and her team is unknown as of yet, but everyone is hopeful that the research will continue at full speed.

“The old paradigm needs to be revamped,” said Sam Hawgood, dean of the University of California San Francisco School of Medicine, who says star researchers may be able to attract corporate backing even for basic science. This can be hard to do however when the research may not lead to profit and stockholders start getting frustrated.

There is a lot of work to do but with grants like the Presidents stimulus money it is possible. We all just need to keep pushing forward.

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Swine flue vaccine

The H1N1 otherwise known as the swine flu vaccine is scheduled to arrive in states and cities across the country on Tuesday and should be ready for the public by Thursday if everything goes according to plan.

Dr. Anne Schuchat of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the first U.S. H1N1 vaccine to be delivered will be 600,000 doses of a nasal spray made by MedImmune, a division of AstraZeneca.

“This is a bit earlier than we were planning to get started,” Schuchat said in a telephone briefing.

The first vaccine on the market will be limited to only high risk patients such as the elderly and people with chronic conditions and will be available in spray form.

Since the H1N1 flu has quickly moved across the country, with numbers of infected well into the thousands, it’s important to get this vaccine to everyone that needs it. There have been deaths associated withe the virus but most of those people had other issues that helped the virus take over so there’s no need for panic as of yet.

According to the CDC the virus is most prominent in the southern states but is making its way north at a rapid rate and as of now there is no state that doesn’t have a confirmed case of H1N1.

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