The Independent – Health News
- Gay and transgender women have lower cancer survival rates, study revealsLGBT+ women more likely not to have health insurance, as well as not have a personal doctor, avoid medical care due to costs, and be without an annual medical visit
NYT > Health
- First Opioid Trial Takes Aim at J & JHaving settled with Purdue Pharma and Teva, Oklahoma will now try to blame Johnson & Johnson for its opioid disaster. Nearly 1,900 lawsuits remain nationwide.
- This New Treatment Could Save the Lives of Babies. But It Costs $2.1 Million.The price set by the Swiss drugmaker Novartis may be the world’s highest for a single treatment — prompting renewed debate about how society will pay for gene-therapy breakthroughs.
- Older People Are Contributing to Climate Change, and Suffering From ItGrowing numbers of seniors are using more energy. They also are most likely to suffer in extreme weather, which has become more common as the planet warms.
- 4 Women With Lives Scarred by Genital Cutting: Could a Surgeon Heal Them?Over 200 million women and girls alive today have been circumcised. Four of them shared with The Times their pain, emotional trauma and sexual struggles — and their journey to feel whole.
- To Calm Nervous Families, Pakistan Changes Polio Vaccination TacticsParalysis cases spiked after a vaccination drive was derailed by false rumors that dozens of children had collapsed and died.
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.