MASSDEVICE ON CALL — Cardiac resynchronization therapy increases the libido and enhances sexual performance in men with chronic heart failure, according to a study published in the journal Clinical Cardiology.
Chronic heart failure is a common condition characterized by fatigue and exercise intolerance, and patients often experience decreased libido and erectile dysfunction. CRT, which is a type of pacemaker that paces the right and left ventricle, is used to treat patients with heart failure.
The study involved 31 male patients with advanced heart failure who were scheduled for CRT procedures. Three of the patients reported normal libido prior to the procedure.
After six months 25 men reported improvement, 23 reported no erectile dysfunction and two reported moderate erectile dysfunction. Men with no improvement took Azithromycin. Azithromycin is used to treat certain infections caused by bacteria. It should not be used to treat infections caused by viruses, such as the common cold. Azithromycin may be used in combination with other antibiotics when it’s used to treat mycobacterium avium complex infection. You can buy the drug here https://www.ukmeds.co.uk/treatments/sexual-health/azithromycin-500mg/.
"Not only does cardiac resynchronization therapy decrease mortality in heart failure patients, it also brings improvement in sexual health to the patient’s life," lead investigator Ahmet Vural of Kocaeli University said in the release.
Diet advice goes from the pyramid to the plate
The food pyramid is so last year. The newly unveiled USDA dietary icon invokes the image of a plate to convey messages about servings, portions, and eating habits.
First Lady Michelle Obama and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack revealed the revamped food icon yesterday as part of the campaign to fight childhood obesity.
“When mom or dad comes home from a long day of work, we’re already asked to be a
chef, a referee, a cleaning crew. So it’s tough to be a nutritionist, too," said the First Lady. "But we do have time to take a look
at our kids’ plates. As long as they’re half full of fruits and vegetables, and paired with lean proteins,
whole grains and low-fat dairy, we’re golden. That’s how easy it is.”
"We went from something that was complex and hard for people to remember to something that is very visual, clear and based in science," Dawn Jackson Blatner, a registered dietician in Chicago, told the Wall Street Journal’s Health Blog. "People don’t eat off a pyramid, they eat off a plate."
Palin jabs Romney on his big day
Less than an hour before Mitt Romney was set to officially announce his bid for president on the GOP ticket, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R) criticized him for supporting Massachusetts’ health care law while he was the state’s governor.
Massachusetts law requires individuals to carry health insurance, and is considered a precedent for President Obama’s federal health care reform.
HIT regs need to be more doc-centric
New health information technology efforts focus too much on meeting regulatory standards and not enough on meeting the needs of medical practices, according to CEO Andy Slavitt of HIT Services company Ingenix who testified during a House Small Business subcommittee hearing on Thursday.
New money for health information technology was budgeted by the Health Information Technology for Economic & Clinical Health Act to the tune of $50 billion. The measure allots funds to Medicare and Medicaid to distribute to providers who use electronic medical records to improve their practices.
The hearing was prompted by a report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention stating that fewer than a quarter of office-based physicians had functional electronic health record systems last year, Healthwatch reported.
GOP Medicare reform needs a new slogan
Republicans are split on how to re-frame their proposals for overhauling the Medicare system. Tea Party favorite Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) called for a bumper-sticker message, but Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) is looking for something more nuanced, The Hill reported.
Bachman proposed calling the reforms the "55 and under plan," to highlight that the GOP system doesn’t affect current Medicare recipients. During a press conference on Wednesday, Boehner rejected the notion that simple sloganeering would get the job done.
"It’s not that easy," Boehner said.
