Thursday, December 30, 2004
tgio
Miss me? I didn't think so! I'd have liked to have missed me for the last week or so. It seems each time I get into town I wind up shortly thereafter with a case of whatever all those snortin', hacking, coughing folk in the stores have. Woke up Saturday morning with a throat so sore I had a hard time swallowing my own spit. Didn't help that it had started raining the previous day, cold and miserable with me out in it, even colder and constant rain all Saturday and most of Sunday with the highs for both days never making it out of the 30's. After a few days of running most of two rolls of Angel Soft under my nose, felt good enough yesterday to haul out the chainsaw and whack up the limbs overhanging the drive and stacking them in the firewood rack. My poor old garden cart, which I'd built out of some old signboards and scraps back in '87, had finally pretty-much become compost. It got hauled down to the shop for a rebuild after deciding bringing wood in the house armload by armload wasn't much fun, that's this evening's job. Goody! I get to play with power tools again! ...probably be a good idea to rip an old tee shirt into bandages and find a jug of alcohol ahead of time...
The choice of tackling the driveway tree was mostly due to the first expected shipment from the oh-so-unreliable UPS in several years here rather than a drop-ship to wherever they usually drop-ship my stuff to be lost forever. I wanted to be able to hear the van when it possibly rumbled down the road and perhaps attempt diverting the driver to turn down my lane for a change. He did, had a nice talk with him on future shipments, opened my package and found a green bottle inside. Can't wait for the remains of my case of the snots to wear off so it can be properly savored...
* * * * * *
Back on October 18 and October 23 , I was ranting about lawyers and our medical "system" being rendered less effective. However, I doubt if there is any way to repair it even with serious tort reform that includes a looser-pays policy until the welfare mentality of the majority (yes, I meant majority) of the population changes. It won't. People are used to it. Lawyers love it. Insurance companies just raise rates, doesn't bother them a fig. Docs bitch but I doubt they really care a lot as the cost is just passed along and their only real howl is the demonization they wind up wearing with the endless misery of having to practice the very-expensive-for-the-patient defensive medicine to cut down on the inevitable malpractice shit.
Love them or hate them, this latest misery for the pharmaceutical companies is really going to cost us and not just in the wallet.
Fear about painkillers hobbles key research
By Rob Stein
The Washington Post
WASHINGTON — The spate of bad news about painkillers has dealt a major setback to what had been a highly promising effort to use the drugs to prevent a host of leading killers, including many types of cancer, Alzheimer's and other forms of dementia.
Since concerns emerged that drugs such as Vioxx and Celebrex might cause heart attacks and strokes, researchers testing the drugs in dozens of studies have been frantically scouring whatever data they have gathered for signs of danger, urgently debating whether the trials should continue, and quickly informing participants of possible risks.
Several large studies have shut down fully or partially, including trials for preventing colon cancer, prostate cancer, Alzheimer's and, just last week, two large international studies evaluating Celebrex to cut the risk of getting breast cancer or suffering a recurrence. Other studies have been temporarily suspended.
Overall, the startling new concerns about the drugs' safety have cast a pall over what had been one of the most exciting fields of biomedical research: trying to gain new insights into the underlying cause of a wide spectrum of illnesses.
"It's definitely been a big setback," said Dr. Raymond DuBois of Vanderbilt University School of Medicine in Nashville, Tenn. "It's really disappointing, because there had been a lot of enthusiasm in this area, and a lot of trials were under way. I think this is going to slow things down considerably. It's really unfortunate." (snip)
* * * * * *
And, for no discernable reason other than I like it,
The choice of tackling the driveway tree was mostly due to the first expected shipment from the oh-so-unreliable UPS in several years here rather than a drop-ship to wherever they usually drop-ship my stuff to be lost forever. I wanted to be able to hear the van when it possibly rumbled down the road and perhaps attempt diverting the driver to turn down my lane for a change. He did, had a nice talk with him on future shipments, opened my package and found a green bottle inside. Can't wait for the remains of my case of the snots to wear off so it can be properly savored...
* * * * * *
Back on October 18 and October 23 , I was ranting about lawyers and our medical "system" being rendered less effective. However, I doubt if there is any way to repair it even with serious tort reform that includes a looser-pays policy until the welfare mentality of the majority (yes, I meant majority) of the population changes. It won't. People are used to it. Lawyers love it. Insurance companies just raise rates, doesn't bother them a fig. Docs bitch but I doubt they really care a lot as the cost is just passed along and their only real howl is the demonization they wind up wearing with the endless misery of having to practice the very-expensive-for-the-patient defensive medicine to cut down on the inevitable malpractice shit.
Love them or hate them, this latest misery for the pharmaceutical companies is really going to cost us and not just in the wallet.
Fear about painkillers hobbles key research
By Rob Stein
The Washington Post
WASHINGTON — The spate of bad news about painkillers has dealt a major setback to what had been a highly promising effort to use the drugs to prevent a host of leading killers, including many types of cancer, Alzheimer's and other forms of dementia.
Since concerns emerged that drugs such as Vioxx and Celebrex might cause heart attacks and strokes, researchers testing the drugs in dozens of studies have been frantically scouring whatever data they have gathered for signs of danger, urgently debating whether the trials should continue, and quickly informing participants of possible risks.
Several large studies have shut down fully or partially, including trials for preventing colon cancer, prostate cancer, Alzheimer's and, just last week, two large international studies evaluating Celebrex to cut the risk of getting breast cancer or suffering a recurrence. Other studies have been temporarily suspended.
Overall, the startling new concerns about the drugs' safety have cast a pall over what had been one of the most exciting fields of biomedical research: trying to gain new insights into the underlying cause of a wide spectrum of illnesses.
"It's definitely been a big setback," said Dr. Raymond DuBois of Vanderbilt University School of Medicine in Nashville, Tenn. "It's really disappointing, because there had been a lot of enthusiasm in this area, and a lot of trials were under way. I think this is going to slow things down considerably. It's really unfortunate." (snip)
* * * * * *
And, for no discernable reason other than I like it,
