Health Scienzaefede

Summary: Prescription drugs cause more deaths and disability than heart disease since congress approved TV drug ads in 1997.

Drugs "properly prescribed and administered" caused 106,000 deaths in hospitals making adverse drug reactions the 4th leading cause of death. Journal American Medical Assoc, 4-15-1998.

Prescription drugs killed 199,000 outpatients. Western Journal of Medicine, June, 2000, p 391. These reports support 305,000 people per year dying from drugs "properly prescribed," circa 1998. "1998-2005fatal adverse drug events increased 2.7 fold." Archives of Internal Medicine, 9-10-2007. Multiplying 305,000 deaths in 1998 by 2.7, 824,000 drug deaths/yr in 2005 exceeds heart disease.

Drug Reactions caused 116 million extra office visits, 76 million more Rx's, 17 million emergency room visits, 8 million hospital admissions, 3 million nursing home admissions [often totally disabled]The total cost was calculated to be $76.6 billion and that now exceeds the total cost of diabetes. Western Journal of Medicine, June, 2000. That's the non-death morbidity for 1998.

"1998-2005serious adverse drug events increased 2.6 fold." Archives Internal Medicine, 9-10-2007. Multiplying the data above (1998) by 2.6, we got 302 million extra visits to a doctor, 198 million more prescriptions, 44 millions emergency department visits, 21 million admissions to long term care, all at a cost of $200 billion for 2005.

Only congress understands such figures, or should, because they approved the TV drug ads in 1997 that led to the 2.7 increase in death (824,000 in 2005) and the 2.6 increase in visits to doctors and emergency departments, admissions to hospitals and long-term care facilities, and the $200 billion in cost.

Congress allows the pharmaceutical companies to run TV ads and rake in billions. Marcia Angell, MD, former editor of the New England Journal of Medicine, and author of The Truth About the Drug Companies; How They Deceive Us told 60 Minutes that drug companies spend $400 million/year lobbying congress, contributing to re-election campaigns and congress thanks them by approving legislation like the Medicare Prescription Drug Plan to make brand name (more expensive) drugs available to seniors at tax-payers expense. Now they want "Healthcare Reform" to expand drug coverage to all Americans.

Thanking lobbyists, congress approved the Medicare Prescription Drug Plan and now they want "Healthcare Reform" to expand drug coverage to all Americans. Like a smoker, drinker or glutton, we are doing it all to ourselves. Why should taxes pay for someone's choice to smoke or drink? We are drugging America to death as we ignore personal responsibility and the media sponsored by the pharmaceutical companies, makes health practitioners who encourage supplements to look like quacks as SWAT teams destroy their offices.

What is acute bronchitis? Acute Bronchitis is inflammation of the tubes that carry air to the lungs . When these tubes get irritated, they enlarge and produce more mucus. The swollen tubes and increased mucus trigger cough and may make it difficult for you to breathe. Acute bronchitis generally develops rapidly and stays 2 to 3 weeks in otherwise healthy people.

What causes acute bronchitis?

Acute bronchitis is generally caused by a virus. It is more common during cold months and often develops after an upper respiratory tract infection such as influenza or common cold.Acute bronchitis can also be due to exposure to smoke, chemicals, or air pollution, which can irritate the bronchial tubes.

What are the risks of acute bronchitis? Acute bronchitis poses little risk. Pneumonia is the most serious complication and is most likely to develop if you have a long-term chronic disease, such as asthma, cystic fibrosis, or heart failure, or a weak immune system.

How effective are antibiotics for acute bronchitis? Research on antibiotics and acute bronchitis suggests that antibiotics modestly control cough after 1 to 2 weeks, but they have no effect on a night cough or a cough with mucus.

What are the risks of using antibiotics? Antibiotics have side effects, such as diarrhea, nausea, upset stomach, vomiting, sore mouth, skin rash, dizziness, and headache. Frequent use of antibiotics can lead to antibiotic resistance, as a result the bacteria develops in a way that allows them to grow despite the medicine, so that the antibiotic may not work henceforth.

Many online resources are presenting themselves as insurance companies when really what they are offering is low cost medical discount cards. Many people have been misled by their advertisements, and the deception seems almost intentional in most cases. Medical discount cards do not in fact provide insurance, and the difference is obvious, they provide a discount on medical services through specific providers, however, you in turn pay the remainder of the bill.

Medical discount cards don't actually pay for any insurance. By purchasing one, you are merely enrolling in a plan which allows you to receive discounts from certain health providers who are also in the plan.

As a consumer, you purchase the medical discount card for a fixed fee, often followed by a monthly charge, which allows you to access the network of preferred health providers. The providers give you health services at a lesser cost than if you didn't have the card.

These discounts usually only apply for routine exams and procedures, and do not offer any type of hospitalization or other forms of trauma care. This can be a big deal if you dont have any other back up health insurance plan or other health care option. And another problem with these plans is that many times they advertise discounts of up to 50%, however most providers only offer a 10% to 20% discount. This can be a big let down, when you are having services performed.

For some, these cards can be a benefit. For instance, if you have a high deductible on your health care plan, or if you only carry catastrophic insurance, you would likely benefit by getting a discount on regular office care, so long as the discount received was larger than the monthly cost of carrying the card.

Credits go to: Toddler Wooden Bed. Discussing MSN emoticons should probably start with understanding what emoticons or smileys are. An emoticon, or smiley, is actually a sequence of ordinary characters existing on each computer keyboard. They are used in different forms of communication involving the computer, such as: email and instant messages. Smiling symbols were first introduced as MSN emoticons but they are available on Yahoo! too for instance. The smiling faces represent a substitute for the direct casual encouraging smile, but lots of other things can be implied depending on the context.

Since many people tend to use these signs while communicating via the Internet, MSN, Yahoo, and Google, too, provide you with lists of emoticons, which are converted to real icons while used during a chat session. These emoticons graphically express an emotion through an icon.

Hence the name emoticon. Hundreds of these emoticons are being used, whether they are MSN emoticons or other emoticons. The whole point or purpose for their use is to convey or stress out emotions and feelings in the funniest way.

Is there any difference between smileys and emoticons? Europeans usually call them emoticons, while Americans tend to call the same things smileys. Anyway, regular messenger users often call them Yahoo smileys, MSN smileys or MSN emoticons. There are huge numbers of sites that give away free smileys, of which Smiley Central smileys are the most popular.

Both basic and custom MSN emoticons are available for the instant message and email services, all free of charge. Many of these, which are really great, have been designed for messenger by fans.

The custom MSN emoticons feature allows an Internet surfer to use animated emoticons up to 50x50 pixels in size. At My Emoticons, for instance, these icons are divided into romance, girlie, bad boys, moody and other categories. You'll even find adult emoticons and sex smiles that can make a message or email pretty spicy.

Each MSN emoticon has a tag, which automatically generates a particular item. The simplest example is a smiley face, which consists of a colon and a right-hand bracket. Using the opposite bracket will give you a sad face. Many other emoticons come with similar tags, and it's possible to remember the majority of such basic emotion tags relatively quickly. For the more difficult to remember, use the drop down menu included in the chat window. Like this, MSN emoticons will be just a click away.