2008年6月6日 星期五

自來水比包裝水略勝一籌

此信息在重述英美去年的新聞


自來水、包裝水比一比 消基會:自來水略勝一籌

【中時電子報方佳怡/台北報導】 不少消費者對自來水有疑慮,改喝包裝水,消基會日前特別針對自來水及包裝水進行檢測,結果在今(六)日公布。消基會指出,以每公升的單價而言,包裝水和自來水的價差可高達400到8000倍,而且包裝水抽檢結果,不是偏酸就是太鹼,PH值反而沒有呈現中性的自來水佳;相較之下,自來水還略勝一籌。

消基會董事長程仁宏說,在什麼都漲的年代,消費者改飲燒開過的自來水,不失為一種省錢的好方法。不過,他提醒,燒開水還是有些地方要注意,包括開水沸騰後,記得要馬上掀蓋再燒個三分鐘,以消除餘氯。另外,由於開水在沸騰時所蒸發出的氣體,也可能有致癌的疑慮,因此,燒開水時應全程打開抽油煙機。 程仁宏說,此次的調查的樣本,是從大台北地區的量販店、超市、百貨公司、便利商店等地,所購得的十六件包裝水;自來水的採樣地點則包括台北市十二個行政區域內的住宅、辦公室、公共場所等處,共十二個未加裝過濾器的出水口。合計本次包裝水與自來水樣品共二十八件。

經調查發現,以價格來說,此次測試的包裝水樣品,每公升單價介於五元至110元之間,若以台北市自來水使用每度需付出13.24元來計算,換算下來,每公升單價約為0.013元,與單價最便宜的包裝水每公升5元相比,相差接近400倍,若是與最貴的每公升110元相較,相差更是達到8000多倍。 消基會並針對部分重金屬或微量元素進行檢測,選取十七種與健康息 息相關的元素,整體而言,十七種元素的檢出值有高有低。不過,十二個行政區採樣的自來水,表現較為一致,也就是說消費者不用擔心不同行政區的水質會不一 樣。反而是包裝水因水源不同,且各品牌間有各自的訴求,檢測結果就有所差異,像是「evian愛維養天然礦泉水」的鈾檢出量最多,約是自來水的800倍, 值得消費者注意。

消基會說,由此次測試結果來看,台北市的自來水酸鹼值趨近中性、單價便宜,表現的確較佳,雖然有某些採樣點的自來水中單一元素含量是全數樣品中最高的,但較有可能是水池水塔或管線因素所造成。因此,消基會也提醒,在清潔水塔的過程中,須注意避免清洗藥劑的殘留,以免愈洗愈髒,反而污染水質。

臺大醫院臨床路徑-醫師篇 護理篇

臺大醫院臨床路徑-醫師篇 護理篇

這兩本書是臺大醫院要推行臨床路徑的報告 表格
有意思的是:-醫師篇 很馬虎 都採用英文 真是莫名其妙
護理篇的比較認真可觀

兒童多吃豆類

【高麗玲╱台北報導】長庚醫院昨發表最新研究發現,常攝取豆類食物的小朋友,比偶爾食用者,罹患氣喘、過敏性鼻炎的機會減少兩至三成,醫師建議,一歲以上小朋友,每周應至少吃兩次豆類或豆製食品,如豆漿、豆腐等。

多吃豆類 兒童罹氣喘機率少3成

醫師:每周至少吃2次

2008年06月06日蘋果日報

最新研究
長庚醫院在二○○七年十月至二○○八年一月,針對基隆十八所國小一年級三千三百二十一名學童進行過敏氣喘疾病盛行率調查,結果發現,百分之十六學童有氣喘症狀、百分之四十五點八有過敏性鼻炎、百分之九有異位性皮膚炎。
研究成員之一、林口長庚兒童過敏氣喘風濕科主治醫師歐良修昨受訪時表示,此次研究發現,一周食用一至二次豆類食物的小朋友,比偶爾吃的小朋友,罹患氣喘比率少二成八,一周攝取三次以上更少了三成二。

對過敏性鼻炎也有效
調查也發現,每周吃一至二次豆類食物,比偶爾才吃的小朋友,罹患過敏性鼻炎的比率少一成八,每周攝取三次以上,又比偶爾吃的小朋友出現過敏性鼻炎機會少兩成。吃越多豆類食物,罹患氣喘及過敏性鼻炎的機率越少。
歐良修說,過去日本也有研究發現,豆類對氣喘及過敏性鼻炎患者有保護效果;今年初國外最新研究也發現,豆類的異黃酮素可降低白三烯素過敏物質產生。雖未針對成人研究,但他認為,患有氣喘及過敏性鼻炎的成年人,多吃豆類應也具保護效果。

抽菸點精油容易誘發
歐良修指出,很多家長以為孩子對豆、奶等食物過敏,不敢讓孩子吃,事實上食物較易引發皮膚過敏,不會引起氣喘、過敏性鼻炎,因此,只要不會對豆類產生皮膚過敏反應,一歲以上的孩子至成人都可多吃豆類,包括黃豆、豌豆、扁豆等食物。
台灣兒科醫學會秘書長林應然指出,醫界對豆類可減少氣喘、過敏性鼻炎罹患的研究報告不多,研究人員應進一步研究找出原因。他提醒家中有過敏兒的家長,應隨時保持室內通風,不要在家裡抽菸、點精油等,以免誘發氣喘、過敏性鼻炎等症狀發作。

氣喘、過敏性鼻炎病童注意事項
.少喝冰飲,尤其症狀出現時最好別喝
.室內保持通風,不要有過多家具、擺飾,尤其別鋪地毯、擺絨毛玩具等
.不要在家裡抽菸、使用精油及蚊香等
.一歲以上孩童可攝取適量豆類,如黃豆、豌豆等製品
.有過敏性疾病患者可適度運動,但勿過於劇烈
.有症狀時應就醫服藥
資料來源:林應然醫師、歐良修醫師

2008年6月2日 星期一

Jacob Robbins, Thyroid Researcher,

Jacob Robbins, 85, Thyroid Researcher, Is Dead


Published: June 2, 2008

Dr. Jacob Robbins, whose studies of the thyroid gland at the National Institutes of Health helped explain how it helps govern metabolism and how thyroid cancers caused by radiation may be treated or possibly prevented, died on May 12 in Bethesda, Md. He was 85.

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National Institutes of Health

Dr. Jacob Robbins studied thyroid cancer and the thyroid’s role in metabolism.

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The cause was heart failure, his family said.

With another endocrinologist at the health institutes, Joseph E. Rall, Dr. Robbins embarked on a study of thyroxine, an important hormone produced by the thyroid that helps regulate metabolism. In the 1950s, the two researchers theorized that levels of thyroxine might vary in the bloodstream, but that the level of thyroxine actually in use would often be markedly lower. They found that thyroxine had to be “free,” or not bound to globulin and other plasma proteins, to be effective, whatever the overall thyroxine level in the bloodstream.

The findings of Dr. Robbins and Dr. Rall yielded insights about what are “normal and pathologic states in the thyroid, and how to distinguish between them,” said Dr. Phillip Gorden, an endocrinologist who directed the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases at the N.I.H. from 1986 to 1999. The observations have also aided physicians and pharmaceutical companies in developing targeted dosages of thyroxine, which in some pregnant women helps prevent or treat hypothyroidism, a hormone deficiency that can cause lasting developmental problems in infants.

In further fruitful collaborations with Dr. Rall and others, Dr. Robbins studied incidences of thyroid cancer in patients exposed to radioactive fallout from nuclear testing. Earlier, in the 1950s, he had examined the therapeutic properties of radioactive iodine when used to pinpoint and treat cancer in the thyroid. In the decades that followed, Dr. Robbins became an authority on the harmful effects of radioactive iodine released spontaneously into the atmosphere.

At the health institutes, Dr. Robbins helped direct long-term studies of the survivors of nuclear tests and accidents, and he followed the health effects of iodine fallout after the Chernobyl reactor meltdown in Ukraine in 1986 and after American weapons testing in the Marshall Islands from the 1940s to the 1980s. He joined a vocal group of scientists who called for wider availability of a drug that can help prevent thyroid cancers from showing up after intense exposures to radiation. That drug, potassium iodide, is taken orally and floods the thyroid with iodine to block the absorption of radioactive iodine.

Dr. Robbins argued that people living near commercial nuclear reactors, particularly children, should have immediate access to potassium iodide. He urged the federal government to stockpile the drug and widen its potential distribution.

In 2001, he told The New York Times, “To me, the smart thing to do would be to have it in homes, in blister packs with adhesive backs.”

Jacob Robbins was born in Yonkers. He studied chemistry at Cornell before earning a medical degree there in 1947.

Dr. Robbins joined the health institutes as an investigator in 1954. He was chief of the clinical endocrinology branch at the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases from 1963 to 1991. The health institutes named him a scientist emeritus in 1995.

Dr. Robbins was a president of the American Thyroid Association. From 1968 to 1972, he was editor in chief of the journal Endocrinology.

Dr. Robbins is survived by his wife, the former Jean Adams. The couple lived in Bethesda. He is also survived by a son, Mark, of Seattle; two daughters, Alice of Amherst, Mass., and Susan of Shelburne Falls, Mass.; a brother, Lionel, of Bloomfield Hills, Mich.; a sister, Evelyn Savitzky of Pittsboro, N.C.; and four grandchildren.

Contagious diseases still the scourge of Africa

Contagious diseases still the scourge of Africa

05/30/2008

Bacteriologist Hideyo Noguchi, who researched yellow fever in Africa in the early Showa Era (1926-1989), was struck down by the disease and died there in 1928 at the age of 51. It is said his death was due to the fact the vaccine he made did not work. His last words are said to have been: "I don't understand." Although times have changed, I feel those words reflect the horror of infectious diseases.

In commemoration of Noguchi's achievements, the government established the Noguchi Hideyo Africa Prize for medical research and health-care services related to Africa. The prize was presented for the first time Wednesday to coincide with the Fourth Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD) in Yokohama.

One of the recipients of the prize, Dr. Brian Greenwood, is a British specialist on malaria research. He has lived in Africa for many years and, aside from his own research, has devoted much of his time to training local researchers. Although the local conditions are harsh, I heard his work has produced steady results.

But there is still a long way to go before the disease is eradicated. In Africa, 3,000 children are said to die every day of the disease, which is transmitted by mosquitoes. In sub-Saharan Africa, one out of every six children dies before he or she reaches the age of 5. Malaria is one of the major causes of infant deaths.

Malaria has also been dubbed the "disease of poverty." What little money residents have is used for prevention and treatment. The disease causes poverty, and poverty causes the disease to spread. Malaria is not the only disease that continues to plague the region. Eight decades after Noguchi's death, various infectious diseases such as AIDS continue to pose a major threat to people across Africa.

When Noguchi moved to Africa, an American newspaper reported that he started a fight against his arch-nemesis yellow fever. While it may be difficult for ordinary people to make such a contribution, with a little cooperation, there are various ways in which we can support Africa. Can we not make TICAD, which started with great fanfare, an occasion for us to become closer to African nations, which are said to be "both geographically and psychologically far" from Japan?

--The Asahi Shimbun, May 29(IHT/Asahi: May 30,2008)