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Atrial Fibrillation In Endurance Athletes Still Poses Problems For Sports Cardiologists
The fulfilment which so many people increasingly derive from competitive sports and endurance training comes with a real - even if rare - twist. Because, while most people will enjoy the benefits and pleasures of exercise, there are a few for whom regular athletic training will increase the risk of cardiac arrhythmias and even sudden death, especially among those in middle-age or with pre-existing cardiac diseases.
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Blogs Comment On Planned Parenthood Ad Campaign, Sex-Selective Abortion, Other Topics
The following summarizes selected women"s health-related blog entries.~ "A Radical Notion: Women"s Health Care as Mainstream," Cecile Richards, Huffington Post blogs: "To hammer ... home" the message that "Planned Parenthood and other essential community providers are the affordable, local access to basic preventive care that saves lives," the Planned Parenthood Action Center has introduced advertisements "educating the policy folks involved in fixing our health care system" about "why women"s health care needs to be taken care of in this mega-reform effort," Richards writes. She writes, "From cancer screenings to contraception to immunizations, the majority of women who go to women"s health care centers consider them their primary health care provider," adding, "In fact, more than 90% of what Planned Parenthood health centers do is preventive and primary care." According to Richards, "Essential community providers, including those who provide women"s health care, need to be part of any newly established health care system." She adds that "the three million patients who came to Planned Parenthood health centers last year can testify to it." Richards writes that "[f]amily planning and reproductive health care are unfortunately still not fully part of mainstream health care, even though 98% of women use contraception at some point in their lives -- there"s nothing more universal!" The "fact that women reproduce and, therefore, have different types of health care needs makes some folks on Capitol Hill go pale and start to sweat," Richards writes. She concludes, "Maybe one day we won"t need a special campaign to support women"s health," but "until then, Planned Parenthood is here to make sure women aren"t worse off after health care reform than before" (Richards, Huffington Post blogs, 6/18).~ "The Role of Medical Education in Preserving Abortion Access," Our Bodies, Our Blog: In response to a recent Salon opinion piece that examined whether there will be a next generation of abortion providers, the blog post discusses a few organizations that are "working to increase access to (accurate) abortion-related training." The blog includes links to Medical Students for Choice -- a group that "does student organizing and advocacy to influence medical school curricula, workshops ... and lectures on abortion techniques" -- and The Ryan Program -- which offers "funding, technical expertise, curriculum, workshops and other res to support training opportunities in abortion and contraception for ob-gyn residents." The blog entry also highlights the work of Physicians for Reproductive Choice and Health, which partners with members of the American Medical Student Association "to provide "project in a box" materials for medical students wanting to access and influence their schools" curricula on sexual and reproductive health" (Our Bodies, Our Blog, 6/18). ~ "Regulating Abortion May Be OK But Not To Avoid Sex-Selection," Marianne Mollmann, Huffington Post blogs: "Sex-selective abortion raises a multitude of overlapping ethical concerns regarding eugenics, population control and provider privilege or knowledge," according to Mollmann, advocacy director for the Human Rights Watch"s Women"s Rights Division. Mollmann writes that recent media reports indicating that sex-selective abortion occurs among some ethnic communities in the U.S. "has generated new discussion about what to do -- indeed what to think -- about the practice here." She continues that the "effect of abortion regulations depends on the context and motivation," adding that "[f]rom a human rights perspective, the regulation of medical procedures and interventions is legitimate and indeed often necessary so long as they are based on full respect for the full range of human rights." It is "perhaps tempting to hope that banning sex-selective abortions would safeguard the gender balance of future generations," but the "criminalization of abortion for whatever reason has in the past led only to underground and unsafe prac
News of the day
Need For Accurate Estimates Of The Severity Of The New H1N1 Virus
A paper published on bmj.com reports that there is a need for precise estimates of the severity of the new H1N1 virus. Experts need to assess in particular how many deaths might arise over the course of the pandemic. This will be the focus of healthcare planning over the upcoming months.
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Can A Society With Smokers Be Profitable?

The latest rise in the indirect taxation on tobacco and alcohol took place in June. The most popular brand of cigarettes went up in price from 3.10 euros to 3.30 euros per packet. Are these taxes a form of dissuasion or a way of compensating the rest of society for the harm generated by those who smoke? A study by the Polytechnic University of Cartagena has looked into the most significant questions concerning the tobacco economy. The research, carried out by ngel L關pez and Ar獺ntzazu Viudes, reviews the main economic arguments for the analysis of the policies to control tobacco addiction and describes the market failures from different paradigms. As L關pez declared to SINC, "we have not attempted to verify a specific hypothesis but rather carried out an appraisal of the studies on tobacco consumption from the economic point of view, including both the traditional vision and the more recent progress". It can be seen from this review, for example, that smoking is a personal choice which can generate net losses of welfare for other members of society and for the family of the smoker but, above all, for the person in question. "Upon this basis there exists an economic justification for corrective interventions by the State", the researchers explained. The article, which has recently been published in the Revista Espa簽ola de Salud P鏗blica (Spanish Magazine of Public Health), also discusses two of the most significant preventive measures nowadays: the ban on smoking in bars and restaurants and the taxes on payment in tobacco. The economists put forward the following argument: "the measures depend on the mechanisms which generate losses of welfare. The taxes have traditionally been justified as corrections for the costs imposed on the rest of society, due either to a supposed imbalance between taxes and payments from the public sector or to the harm caused by secondhand tobacco". The advantages of raising taxes The question which then arises is whether the taxes are sufficient for the costs generated by tobacco. For L關pez, "if we bear in mind all the significant costs, the evidence available indicates that this is not so". In their work, and according to the evidence collated, the financial externalities are partly compensated for by the level of taxation applied in many industrialized countries. Nevertheless, the most solid justification for increases in taxes lies "in the existence of failures in the sovereignty of the consumer, both when starting to smoke and when attempting to give it up and sticking to such a decision. These failures generate a demand for self-control mechanisms, and the high price is one of the most effective mechanisms", the economist explained. Under no circumstances can it be said that a society with smokers is per se economically ineffective. According to L關pez, it depends on whether the smokers are fully aware of the harm they cause to themselves and smoke because they want to (not because they cannot overcome the addiction) and whether they compensate the rest of society for the external costs they generate. "It is quite difficult for these premises to be fulfilled", the researchers asserted. The taxes on tobacco, the study says, can also be justified by the existence of externalities arising from the social use of tobacco and by the possible inappropriateness of regarding the costs imposed by secondhand tobacco affecting the rest of the family as private costs. The restrictions on consumption in closed public places is another powerful self-control mechanism and represents "a second solution to the problem of the externalities arising from secondhand tobacco". According to L關pez, "both taxes and the restrictions on consumption are measures which impose losses of welfare on the people who smoke with full sovereignty, in other words, those who value the pleasure of smoking more than the present and future costs of the habit. Nevertheless, in view of the estimates of the private costs and the evidence that most smokers want to stop give up, the hypothesis that taxes and restrictions on consumption increase net welfare gains plausibility. In any case, the researchers argue that "measures of prevention and control which increase the options of individuals without interfering in the decisions of those who wish to smoke with full sovereignty are desirable". The policies in the study which are regarded as being inspired in the principles of liberal paternalism "may produce positive results in the future, although there is still much to be done as regards their potential implementation and evaluation", the experts concluded. References: ngel L關pez Nicol獺s; Ar獺ntzazu Viudes de Velasco. "El control del tabaquismo desde la perspectiva de la econom穩a". Revista Espa簽ola de Salud P鏗blica. N鏗mero 83(1), p獺ginas 9-23. Enero-febrero de 2009. SINC FECYT - Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology


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