"Hydrocodone is another name for ibuprofen," states AP's story on the just released toxicology report by the NYC Medical Examiner's office.
Ibuprofen is the over-the-counter (OTC), non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID).
Hydrocodone is a synthetic opioid. In the US there is no drug that contains the pure form of hydrocodone, and is usually combined with an NSAID such as ibuprofen (Vicoprofen), acetaminophen (Vicodin) or an antihistamine.
I wonder if this writer for the Associated Press realizes the danger of shooting from the hip in writing for the Web. Sure, there is always a rush to put a story up on the Web before everyone else, but how many seconds would it take to double check the basic facts. Even Wikipedia would work for this.
UPDATE: The author has replaced this sentence with "Hydrocodone is a widely used prescription painkiller." Still off the mark. But it's not possible to write a prescription for hydrocodone in its pure form (see above).
The Lance Armstrong Foundation, which spends about $40 million a year
on health programs and cancer research, is teaming up with Web-site
operator Demand Media Inc. to launch a health-and-wellness Web site
funded by advertising. The site, called "livestrong.com," is expected
to go live this year.
It's hard to believe that yet another personal health Web site can position itself as being unique. We'll see.
I get so many press releases about the new this or that, and when it applies to clinical medicine, they always start off with how its going to save lives and money. However, it's readily apparent that the flacks who write these have no idea about the thing that is doing all this saving. Anyway, the main think about this drug or device is that--it's new! Shouldn't THAT be all that matters?
WASHINGTON, DC—Top physicists from several major American universities
appeared before a Congressional committee Monday to request $50 billion
for a science thing that would further U.S. advancement science-wise
and broaden human knowing.
AlphaGalileo is the online resource for European research news which includes press releases and contact information for embargoed articles. I just registered, but when I've thoroughly checked out their Web site, I'll post a review.
They offer e-mail feeds for various subtopics: Science, Arts, Technology, Health, Society and Humanities.
African trypanosomiasis (sleeping sickness) is a bloodborne disease caused by the protozoa parasites of the Trypanosoma Genus, transmitted via the tsetse fly. This disease affects the poorest of countries with estimates of up to 50,000 deaths per year.
During recent epidemic periods, in several villages in the Democratic
Republic of Congo, Angola and Southern Sudan, prevalence has reached
50%. Sleeping sickness was considered the first or second greatest
cause of mortality, even ahead of HIV/AIDS, in those communities.
Drug discovery research involves looking at specific enzymes selected as targets because of their critical role in a disease process. Traditionally, static images of molecular models of these enzymes have been produced by x-ray crystallography or nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR).
Now, with the aid of the computational power of the SDSC, a dynamic molecular simulation can be run in a realistic environment to test inhibitors to various active sites in the enzyme. The binding of an inhibitor may alter the 3D structure of the model, and it's important to visualize this new conformation of the enzyme. This simulation could involve 30,000 to hundreds of thousands of atoms interacting in this 3D model, therefore the need of a supercomputer.
Essentially, instead of the old lock and key metaphor of enzyme action that presented a fixed view, dynamic molecular simulation is comparable to placing a large rock in a moving stream and watching how the flow of water changes, then trying other obstacles or adding more to reroute the stream most effectively.
Another feature possible is a 3D virtual reality view of the enzyme in lifesized form. In the image below, you can see a virtual reality rendition of a protein ribbon model of an enzyme in which a researcher can examine the active sites for a better appreciation of the spacial arrangement and the changes that occur when you test an inhibitor or combinations of inhibitors. This could include testing inhibitors used for other diseases, as well as custom-design protein molecules.
Here's the video with Dr. Rommie Amaro describing her work at the SDSC:
I remember reading the Cancer Blog at the beginning, and it was reporting on scientific topics. Then it shifted to AOL where it took on more a patient and support group orientation.
There are more and more online medical resources that are seeking wider audiences by using the patient-2-patient approach. The current, and I believe last, issue of Business 2.0 mentions PatientsLikeMe.com. This is not a doctor boasting about his bedside manner but rather patients who want to follow other patients with a similar diagnosis.
With the political race accelerating and Hillary giving her plan for health insurance, it only seems right for the NY Times to open up their opinion columns.
And we have this other news:
In addition to opening the entire site to all readers, The Times will
also make available its archives from 1987 to the present without
charge, as well as those from 1851 to 1922, which are in the public
domain. There will be charges for some material from the period 1923 to
1986, and some will be free.
These were the options in the poll question "What is the one pill you can't live without?" posted on the boomer social media site TBD.com, which I heard about this morning on NPR. Their tag line is "Sharing Experience to Thrive."
It is based out of San Fran, and is following the social media fad, this time for an older crowd that just wouldn't seem to fit in with the MySpace site. Facebook is increasingly being populated by the oldersters, but is becoming unwieldy with a population of 40 million and continued rapid growth.
In the coming days, I'll see how much TBD is borrowing from the functionality of Facebook from which I recently unsubscribed.
