Breakthroughs Today

There is a difference between caution and overdiagnosis. It is the difference between healthy fear and near-pathological paranoia. And medical practitioners have the responsibility to ensure that before they write on their Rx pads to order the test, they have well-informed clinical bases for doing so. DURING March this year, the United States Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) rang the bell of caution with regard to the now-popular early detection test for cervical cancer called human papillomavirus (HPV) testing. Six studies agreed that it has a higher sensitivity to cancer indicators but lower specificity to cervical cancer compared to tissue studies. This means that it gives more positive results than it correctly should. And that’s where the concern of women patients lies. Studies have shown that such bloated counts of positive results in the past led to repeated testing and invasive procedures, such as colposcopy (using a lighted magnifying device) and cervical

As microbes start to learn defying the science behind antimicrobials, more superbugs are noted more and more. Let's look on what happens with superbug 'Streptococcus aureus.' THIS minute, “bundle of grapes-looking” bacteria naturally resides on the mucous membranes of the body and on the human skin. Staphylococcus aureus (aureus is Latin for “yellow”) is present in around a third of any human population, with 20 percent being long-term carriers of this silent menace. And it is very adaptable to antibiotic threats. Being so, it is one of the five most common causes of nosocomial infections, those diseases that we got for getting so sick and hospitalized. The first cases of resistance to penicillin, the groundbreaking discovery of Alexander Fleming in 1928, appeared in 1947 (four years after mass production started in 1943). So methicillin became the antibiotic of choice. But then reports of significant toxic effects on the kidney came out. Methicillin-resi

SO MUCH of the environment can be a factor in human behavior. The same is true with alcoholism. A study in 1993 has documented how the number of alcoholic drinks outlets in a neighborhood relates strongly to the level of diagnosed alcoholics in the same neighborhood. And it was not only alcoholism that found much influence from the neighborhood. Certain groups of crimes and diseases related to alcoholism can also be linked. Such legal offenses include fatal and injury traffic crashes, drunk driving, assaultive violence and liquor law violations. Diseases noted include cirrhosis (which eventually led to death) and sexually transmitted diseases. A 2007 study also noted the contribution of alcohol outlets in physical disorders (graffiti, liquor advertising, and trash) as well as social concerns (loitering, drug sales, prostitution, and altercations). That was more or less the American picture. The Theall study in 2011 noted that liquor stores are the... [ READ MORE

Anything can go wrong during pregancy. The fact alone that the child survives and came into the world just fine is an enduring miracle of life the many people tend to take for granted as a gift from God. IN BUSINESS, competition defines profitability. And going ahead of your competition is the name of the game. In obstetrics, however, particularly in pregnancy management, a placenta going ahead of the baby can spell trouble for both the mother and the child. The condition is called placenta previa or “preceding placenta.” It is a complication of pregnancy wherein the placenta grows in the lowest part of the womb, and in its complete form (type IV), completely covers the cervix. That sets up the mother to bleed severely in the latter part of pregnancy. The danger of placenta previa cannot be overemphasized. It increased the risk of death for both the mother and the baby before childbirth via severe vaginal bleeding. Blood transfusion is often needed. Premature deliver

It is wiser to avoid taking in bisphenol A (BPA) through food than wait for a human study that proves it definitely toxic. At the same time, it is also to our advantage as consumers to know which plastics to avoid as food containers simply because it contains BPA, or at least used it in its manufacturing process. EARLY this year we knew of the piece of legislation—Senate Bill 3121—that Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago submitted for deliberation that aimed to prohibit the use of plastics containing BPA in manufacturing baby products. But like diseases and drugs, plastics are not created equal. There are plastics that are not manufactured in a way that it becomes likely for them to contain BPA. The United States Department of Health and Human Services (USDHHS) identified these plastics as those “marked with recycle codes 1, 2, 4, 5, and 6.” It also noted that since 1957, BPA has been used to manufacture hard plastic food containers such as baby bottles and reusable cups, not to

The last thing I expect that can be cancer producing is the caramel color I used to think to come only from heated table sugar. But it turned out I was darnly mistaken. EARLY last March news broke on the Philippine airwaves (through two of the country’s largest broadcasting outfits) over “cancer-producing” chemicals found in caramel, a coloring used in colas of at least two of the largest soda-makers worldwide with markets in the country. I thought there was only one caramel, that is, the caramelized sugar, that we can prepare at home using the same process used in manufacturing tira-tira (caramelized candy bars), which graders in the provinces used to love during recess. But the fact is far from that. There are four classes of caramel colors, says the European Union Scientific Committee for Food (SCF), the Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA), and the Nordic Council of Ministers (TemaNord). Class I is... [ READ MORE ] This article appears i

THE INFANT AND Pediatric Nutrition Association of the Philippines (IPNAP), a lobby group representing multinational manufacturers of infant-nutrition products in the country such as Abbott Laboratories, Fontera Brands, MeadJohnson Nutrition, Nestle and Wyeth, had questioned on 21 December 2011 the implementing rules that the Department of Health (DOH) drafted for Executive Order 51 (EO51), otherwise known as the Milk Code, that sought to regulate false health claims and attractive marketing strategies to promote milk-replacement products that undermine the government's program promoting breastfeeding among Filipino mothers. But the Department of Justice and the Supreme Court ruled that DOH has all the right to establish implementing rules being the sole government authority tasked in implementing the Milk Code.  This development came after the results of the Infant and Young Child Feeding (IYCF) study in 2008 showed last year that the Philippines had a very week breastfe