Hartsell & Associates National Legal Nurse Consultants Newsletter

Hartsell And Associates National Legal Nurse Consulting Services

National Alliance of Certified Legal Nurse Consultants
Nurse Alliance of Tennessee
American Nurses Association

Assisting Attorneys To Victory By Providing Over 34 Years Healthcare Expertise

V.I.P. Member of the Manchester Who's Who Among Executive and Professional Women
V.I.P Member of the Cambridge Who's Who of America

Newsletter

2008

Volume 2, No 10

Doctors and Lawyers Butt Heads Over Statins for Primary Prevention in Women

Source: Medscape

Diabetes and Alzheimer's Linked
Diabetes increases your risk of Alzheimer's. Reduce this risk by controlling your blood sugar.
Diet and exercise can help. Diabetes and Alzheimer's disease are connected, in ways that
still aren't completely understood. Diabetes has been implicated as a risk factor for

eventually developing Alzheimer's disease. Some diabetes drugs appear to slow the
cognitive decline associated with Alzheimer's disease.

The link between diabetes and Alzheimer's disease may provide new targets for future
Alzheimer's treatments. But it may also mean an escalation in the number of people
dealing with dementia, as the incidence rate of diabetes keeps increasing.

Diabetes Growing More Common

Type 2 diabetes is by far the most common variety of diabetes, usually occurring in
people who weigh too much and exercise too little. Skyrocketing obesity rates have
helped double the number of Americans with diabetes in the past 15 years. Officials
with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention expect that number to double
again by 2050.

Losing weight and exercising can help prevent Type 2 diabetes. If you already have
diabetes, controlling your blood sugar with diet and medication, if needed, may help
break the link between diabetes and the development of Alzheimer's.

Diabetes Linked to Dementia

Because diabetes damages blood vessels, it has long been connected with
vascular dementia — a type of dementia caused by damaged blood vessels in
the brain. Many people have vascular dementia and Alzheimer's disease at the
same time.

While not all studies confirm the connection, many researchers have shown that
people who have diabetes are at higher risk of eventually developing Alzheimer's —
independent of their risk of vascular dementia.

Diabetes also increases the risk of developing mild cognitive impairment, a
transition stage between the cognitive changes of normal aging and the more
serious problems caused by Alzheimer's disease.

Diabetes Drugs Help Memory

People who keep their diabetes under tighter control tend to have better mental
function. Many people who have Alzheimer's disease also have a condition called
prediabetes, in which their bodies have become resistant to insulin, a hormone
necessary for cells to absorb glucose.

Small studies involving inhaled insulin have shown improvements in memory
and attention spans in people who have Alzheimer's disease.

Reducing Your Risk

If you have prediabetes, you can cut your risk of developing type 2 diabetes in
half by losing as little as 5 percent of your body weight — 10 pounds for a
200-pound person — and exercising 30 minutes most days of the week.

In addition to reducing your risk of diabetes and possibly for Alzheimer's,
these lifestyle changes can also help protect you from heart attacks and strokes.

Source: Mayo Clinic

Probiotic May Help Treat Crohn's Disease:

Miranda Hitti

October 21, 2008 — A gut bacterium called F. prausnitzii may make a good
probiotic treatment for Crohn's disease, French researchers report.

The scientists noticed that patients whose Crohn's disease recurred within
six months of Crohn's disease surgery tended to be low on F. prausnitzii,
compared to other patients.

Lab tests on cells showed that F. prausnitzii has anti-inflammatory effects,
though it didn't kill bad bacteria. So the researchers went one step further,
using F. prausnitzii to treat colitis in mice. Those mice lost less weight and
had less inflammation than other mice with colitis that didn't get
F. prausnitzii treatment.

Using F. prausnitzii as a probiotic "appears to be a promising strategy"
for treating Crohn's disease, write the researchers, adding that more work
is needed to develop the treatment and to identify which Crohn's patients
are most likely to benefit from such treatment.

The findings appear in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

SOURCES:

Sokol, H. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Oct. 21, 2008;
online early edition.

News release, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

Treating the Post Cardiac Arrest Syndrome - The Time is Now

Pub Date: Thursday, October 23, 2008 by the American Heart Association

Dr. Karl B. Kern MD

High Education Level May Reduce Memory Impairment, Delay
Onset of Alzheimer's Symptoms

Source: Medscape. The study is published in the October 21 issue of Neurology.

Eating Until Full and Eating Quickly May Triple the Risk for Overweight

News Author: Laurie Barclay, MD
CME Author: Charles Vega, MD

Infants' Mylicon Gas Relief Dye Free Drops (Simethicone-Antigas

Johnson & Johnson- Merck Consumer Pharmaceuticals Company and FDA
notified consumers and healthcare professionals of a voluntary recall of
Infants' Mylicon Gas Relief Dye Free Drops ( Lot No. SMF007 and SMF008)
sold in 1 oz plastic bottles that were distributed after October 5, 2008,
nationwide. The product was recalled because some bottles could include
metal fragments that were generated during the manufacturing process.
Parents who have given the product to their infant and are concerned
should contact their healthcare professional.

Source: F.D.A.

Night Shift Work in Nursing: Is it Really a Risk Factor for Nurses'
Health and Patients' Safety?

Source: Hanna Admi, PhD, RN; Orna Tzischinsky, DsC; Rachel Epstein, MA; Paula Herer, MS; Peretz Lavie, PhD
Nurs Econ. 2008;26(4):250-257. ©2008 Jannetti Publications, Inc.

Posted 10/20/2008

NCI's Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences recently
launched a new Web site at https://riskfactor.cancer.gov/mfe focused
on measures of the food environment,including food stores, restaurants,
schools, and worksites.

The site provides a searchable compilation of research articles on food available
in these settings,as well as some measurement instruments, and it allows users to
submit articles to the compilation. The site is intended to improve access to existing
measures and stimulate the development of tools in this growing field of research -
in turn, strengthening research on individual dietary behavior, informing
policymaking, and helping to reduce the prevalence of obesity through
targeted interventions.

Sexual Intercourse is Not Necessary for the Transmission of HPV

Are you inadvertently overlooking young women in your practice?
View the expert video now.

Source: Tamera Coyne-Beasley, MD, MPH
Associate Professor
Department of Pediatrics
Department of Internal Medicine
University of North Carolina School of Medicine at Chapel Hill