The Independent – Health News
- Britain could be the first country in the world to vaccinate every baby against meningitis B Every baby in Britain could be protected against meningitis B by the end of the summer, the company behind a new vaccine have said, after the Government announced the UK would become the first country in the world to provide universal vaccine coverage against the killer disease.
- What is meningitis and what are the symptoms?Menigitis has hit headlines after a family shared a photograph of a two-year-old before she died of the disease
NYT > Health
- The New Old Age: A Retirement Community Turned Away These Married WomenAccording to the facility’s “cohabitation policy,” marriage is between one man and one woman, “as it is understood in the Bible.”
- F.D.A. Approves Generic EpiPen That May Be CheaperTeva Pharmaceuticals will sell a generic copy of Mylan’s EpiPen, which became the target of public outrage over its price.
- Lyme Disease Is Spreading Fast. Why Isn’t There a Vaccine?The only vaccine was taken off the market more than 15 years ago. As reports of the disease skyrocket, researchers are working on a new one.
- Should You Choose a Female Doctor? Studies show that female doctors tend to listen more, and their patients — both male and female — tend to fare better.
- Phys Ed: Why Sitting May Be Bad for Your BrainTaking a walk every 30 minutes can restore blood flow to the brain when you’re sitting for hours.
Doctor if you could kindly give me some advise on the following high blood pressure medicine :-
Combination A – plendil 2.5mg, dilatrend carvedilol 25 mg and natrilix sr
Combination B – felodipine 5mg, metoprolol tartrate 100mg and natrilix sr
I am suppose to change from combination A to combination B due to costs purposes.
My age is 56 and my readings without medication is around 150/90 to 160/100.
Will the change have any sever effect on my pressure. Most grateful if you can give me some advise. Thanks a lot.
Doctor2008 says:
I don’t think its good to give online consultation as your own doctor knows best. I will only say that personally I would optimise medications as much as possible before adding new ones, so that one is better off with 2 meds than having 3 or more meds.
Dear Doctor,
My 84 yrs old mother recently was hospitalised for peptic ulcer disease probably caused by her aspirin medication. According to blood tests done, she also had a heart attack.
She has been discharged and still on controloc and iron supplements. Doctor has also advised us to put her on aspirin again but we have decided to put that on hold.
We are considering putting her on Plavix’s generic which is supposed to be safer than aspirin.
Please give us your honest opinion.
Thanks and Regards,
Michael Ng
Doctor2008 says : While I generally refrain from online consultations, your plight highlights a common dilemma faced by patients and their doctors.
While aspirin is effective in preventing a second heart attack, it frequently causes bleeding in the stomach. (see my posting An Aspirin A day Used To Keep The Doctor Away”).
You are quite right to replace aspirin with another “safer” blood thinner, but Plavix may also cause the same. An alternative is ticlopidine, but you need to discuss this with your doctor.
[…] Cutting Your Healthcare Costs […]
In Malaysian scenario, the best way to keep the health cost down is to heavily depend on the public health system. Most health problem can be covered reasonably well by public health system. Maybe buy an insurance that cover your bill after exceed certain amount e.g.50k to keep the premium down. Some insurance companies do offer such insurance.
Doctor2008 says: no government in the world,I suspect, can afford to fully take care of its citizens’ healthcare needs, fully subsidized, for too long.Hence, the subsidy for public healthcare is likely to diminish in future.