Tendances nouvelles en santé

Les soins dentaires et les frais de pharmacie sont de plus en plus pris en charge par l'État. Les dossiers de rénovations d'hôpitaux accusent des dépassements de coûts de 1,200,000,000 $. L'hôpital de Lachine à lui seul accuse une hausse de coûts de 95,000,000 $ à 233,000,000 $. 30% des québecois n'ont pas un médecin de famille. Il y a de nouveaux programmes de formation en médecine. LÉcole de médecine de l'université métropolitaine de Toronto à Brampton va assueillir 94 étudiants à sa première année d'opération. Au Cap Breton en Nouvelle Écosse, 30 nouveaux médecins seront formés par an. l'université Simon Fraser va ouvrir sa faculté en 2026 centré sur la médecine de famille. Et l'université York à Vaughan, elle aussi centrée sur la formation d'omnipratitiens va ouvrir en 2028. Le role du pharmacien sera étendu. Je prévoie aussi que les sites d'injection supervisés seron fermés selon les veux de Sylvia Jones (ministre de la santé de l'Ontario) et Pierre poilièvre (chef des conservateurs fédéraux).

Un homme attaque deux personnes pour être incarcéré dans une prison fédérale

Mathieu Isabel vivait dans la rue depuis six mois et il avait de la difficulté à recevoir des soins médicaux. Il a donc poignardé un homme choisi au hasard. Le couteau n'a pas pénétré profondément à cause des vêtements épais que la victime portait. Le blessé a alors demandé de l'aide. Quand la police de Lévis est arrivée, une deuxième personne a été blessée au bras. Mathieu Isabel a collaboré avec la police et a signé des déclarations incriminantes. Il se défend sans avocat. Il doit rester en prison avant son procès. On doit comprendre que les peines de plus de deux ans sont purgées dans une prison fédérale, et les peines de moins de deux ans sont subies dans des pénitentiers surpeuplés provincaux. L'encadrement général est meilleur dans les prisons fédérales. Les victimes en sont quittes pour quelques points de suture.

Les architectes sont des gens qui s'engagent...

Les architectes sont des gens qui s'engagent à faire eux-mêmes de qui requiert leur expertise. Ils engagent leur responsabilité personnelle dans leurs actes professionnels Les bons architectes spécifient des matériaux durables. Les architectes font des designs originaux et imaginatifs utiles et fonctionnels. Ils conçoivent avec un souci de protection du feu et parfois de l'innondation. Ce qu'ils concoivent est adapté à l'environnement et au voisinage. Les architectes sont disponible pour des inspections en fonction de l'avencement des travaux. Les architectes font une dernière version telle que construite à moins que leur mandat exclue celà Les architectes construisent en fonction du climat, de la charge de neige possible, des ouragans etc. Les architectes écoutent leur clients. Ils s'entourent de gens compétants et intègres. Les architectes tiennent leurs promesses. Ils s'engagent à ce que leurs toits ne coulent pas et que leurs fenêtres soient fonctionelles. Ils respectent leur budget et leurs échéances. Ils font appel à des experts au besoin.

From tents to hospitals

The University of Clifornia in San Francisco surveyed the homeless. More than a quarter said they had been hospitalised for mental illness. Two-thirds said they were currently stuggling with a mental-health condition. One third said they were using methamphetamine. This dangerous condition of drug use, mental illness and sleeping rough has increased homeless death to 2200 last year in LA County. California's Democratic governor, Gavin Newsom, wants to use a 6,400,000,000 $ bond issue to build 10,000 treatment beds and housing units. Kathy Hochul, the governor of New York set aside 1,000,000,000 $ in her 2024 budget for hospital beds and housing. California also wants to increase involuntary treatment, mostly with long-term injection of anti-psychotics of people in the community.

Pharmacy-benefit managers in the US

In the USA, 4,100,000,000,000. $ is spent yearly on health-care. This is 17% of GDP, a rate almost twice the average of OECD countries. The middlemen take 45% of America's helth-care bill. UnitedHealth Group made 324,000,000,000 $ in revenues last year. Just three PBMs handled 80% of all prescription claims. Between 2013 and 2023, the nine health care giants spent 325,000,000,000 $ over 320 mergers and acquisitions. Increasingly, vertical integration brings in the same group : insurance, clinics, hospitals and pharmacies. The latest entry into medical care is Amazon. Its Amazon Clinics offer virtual consultations and RxPass offers cheap generic drugs to Amazon Prime subscribers.

weight-loss drugs

Every decada brings a new fad : in the 1870s it was calories, in the 1980s, salt, in the 1990s fat, in the 2000s, carbs, in the 2010, gluten and dairy. Now the new fad is not a diet, but injectable medicines. Wegovy was approved in 2021. Ozempic and Munjaro are anti-diabetes drugs widely used off label for weight loss. The food industry is not worried : American appetites drives an over-consumption of food. remember that carbohydrates provide 4 calories per gram, protein also 4 calories per gram and lipids (fat) provide 9 calories per gram. If you are gaining too much weight, eat less or exercise more. There are many benefits to exercising more. Other tricks are : don't do your grocery shopping when you are hungry (eat before you go out), don't eat between meals and don't leave snacks lying around : put them in a cupboard. Also ask for reduced portions at restaurants.

Ending cash bail bonds

On september 18th, Illinois beccame the first state to completely scrap cash bail. In New York, a law that eliminated cash bail in all but a few violent affences reduced pre-trial detention. Judges now have to release before the trial or emprison the accused.

142 deaths due to exposure !

 According to the coroner's office, hypothermia killed 142 persons between 2015 and 2021.  21 of those deaths occured in first peoples' communities.  Ancestral knowledge about how to build an igloo and survive a severe storm is being lost.  Alcohol is present in three quarters of the cases.  63 of the 142 deaths occured to people 70 years or more.

biblical commandments, up-to-date

 The commandments, as explained in Deuteronomy, chapter 5 are extracted here from the "good news Bible"

Worship no god but me.

Obey my instructions and do not be swayed by hoarding money or participate in sects.

Do not make for yourselves images of anything in heaven. 

Restect church property especially images of godliness.

Do not bow down to any idol or worship it 

Remember that you are serving God, abide by my instructions which will keep you away from worshiping your Mercedes or a bribe oor similar object

Do not use my name for any evil purposes

Swearing is to be averted

Observe the sabbath, and keep it holy

Rest weekly

Respect your father and your mother

Help them in their old age.

Do not commit murder

Respect life

Do not commit adultery

Have a responsible sex life

Do not steal

Respect other's and public property.  Respect copyright.  Stay away from shady dealings.  Do not claim more than is due to you.  Pay your taxes.  Accept expropriations because railways, pipelines, canals and power lines are important to the public good.  Drive safely and keep your licence palte cleen.

Do not accuse anyone falsely

Stick to the truth and your opinion will be respected.

Do not desire another man's wife, do not desire his house, his land, his slaves, his cattle or anything else that he owns.  

jealous people are sad.  We are not on earth to be served but to serve.

the Office of Digital Transformation

 The Food and Drug Administration will use this new department to regulate equipment that indicates oxigen saturation, sugar level in the blood, ECG and other heart monitors and future health measurers and data loggers.  Devices are grouped in three categories:

Class 1 : not used to sustain life and cause little danger.

Class 2 : a sensor goes through the skin or other prolonged contact with the patient.

Class 3 : implanted in the body or otherwise depended upon to sustain life.

NEW TESTING APPARATUS

Theranos

Elizabeth Holmes had an idea to develop medical tests using a small drop of blood and an electronic chip.  Her mantra becomes "lab on a chip".  Her device is analysed by the Defence Deparment, which does not validate the device.  In 2013, Walgreen pharmacies offer Theranos blood tests in its facilities.  On 23 may 2013, Theranos' chief scientist commits suicide.  Meanwhile, conventional tests are being performed even though the company was claiming to use brand new technology.  In february 2015, professor John Iaonnidis from Stanford university writes in JAMA (journal of the american medical association) that there is nothing in the scientific literature validating the new technology.  Professor Diamandis from the university of Toronto decribes the claims as wildly egagerated.  Vice president Joe Biden tours the facility, which was expanded and modified for the visit !  He is positively impressed !  In october 2015, John Carreyrou, from the Wall Street Journal, exposes the fraud : conventional tests are being performed, the Edison device is not being used and the "nanotainer" does not exist.  In November 2015, the Arizona Republic discloses that all of Theranos is a fraud.  In 2016 and 2017, government investigations and layoffs occur.  In 2018, criminal charges are laid.  On january 3, 2022, Elizabeth Holmes is found guilty of fraud.  The story is told in TV documentaries and movies.

Blood sugar level monitoring

Levels Health offer mobile units to measure glucose.  Expect to pay $400 per month

Digbi Health

They claim that their analysis of stools indicates the state of the microbiote, which is involved in some illlnesses.

Skin and Me

Pictures of the skin is analysed by doctors

Teva 

This device is not a consumer product.

Apple

Future watches could interpret ECG, etc.

Lumen

This tube through which one takes a deep breath supposedly determines whether one burns fat or glucides.  This is a falacy!  We all burn glucose and low carb-high fat regimens are dangerous!  Dieting should be a long-term family-wide endeavor.

New electronic devices provide centralised data, better analysis of chronic conditions, continuous monitoring, faster data transfer and better clinical outcome.  

Suicides by veterans and soldiers

 Michel Sartori's PhD thesis informs us on this taboo subject.  58,000 soldiers died in Viet Nam but more than 150,000 Nam veterans commited suicide in the USA.  Being alone and pennyless are contributing factors.  Sartori's thesis is ethnobiographical.  He explains his beginning hypothesis, analyses the data he obtained after much effort (because access to information requests are tedious matters). He provides excerpts wich he kept as a chaplain in Afghanistan (in 2006-2007).  He then interviews soldiers who made a suicide attempt and questions padre Major Guy Chapdeleine and army psychiatrist Col. Bottam.

Sartori examines 274 suicides (including 42 reservists) from 1994 to april 2009.  Official army data lists only 156 suicides between 1995 and 2009.  The suicide rate is higher in the Canadian  Forces than in its American counterpart.  Col Bottam insists that suicides are no more common in the Army than in the general population.  He adds that only half of those with a mental trouble are being treated in the general population.  Major Chapdeleine gives us food for thought by saying : "I observe that many prople are looking for a purpose for their life and therefore there are not many non-believers in the Forces.

Protestant army chaplain Captain Michel Sartori's thesis is available for free on Laval University' website.  It is 440 pages long.

Mont Carmel closes as a nursing home

 The new owner of the building, Henry Zavriyev, has decided to convert it into a regular appartment block.  In his eviction notice, he invites residents to remain in place but without the nurses and attendants or to pursue residence in one of his nursing homes.  2/3 of the residents are more than 75 years old.  60 nursing homes have closed in the last 7 months, 110 in the last 12 months and 500 in the last 5 years.  Nursing homes are not a profitable venture !

Ukraine should not join the ranks of NATO

 Russia feels threatened because its influence over east european countries has waned.  In 1996, for example, Poland, the Czech republic and Hungary joined NATO.  American presidents had promised that Eastern European countries would never be in NATO.  Yeltsin and Putin feel betrayed.  The port of Sevastopol has always been very important to the Russian navy.  They don't want the place to turn into an American base !

The last thing we need is military agreements which suck many nuclear-armed countries in a large war as was the case in early WW I.  For more information, listen to Vladimir Posner on  youtube.com/watch?v=8X7Ng7Se5gQ   and    youtube.com/watch?v=yoKPd-Lu84U

New drugs alert

 The European Monitoring Center for Drugs and Drug Abuse warns that new benzodiazepines a appearing on the black market.  30 new molecules (25 of them were first detected between 2014 and 2020) are causing apprehension.  At this point, the market is dominated by etiazolam and flualprazolam but this situation could change because repressive measures on those substances have been enacted by many countries.  In 2019, 1240 seizures of new benzodiazepines have been carried out in Europe.  Early on, these drugs were sold as research chemicals, mainly under the names Phenazepam or Pyralolam. But increasingly they are sold as fake Valium or Xanax, common benzodiazepines.  Those 30 new benzodiazepines are imported from China as powder and fabricated in pill form in Europe.  France has an interesting law on the books prohibiting new illicit drugs that belong to a family of controlled substances.   One impact of Covid-19 could be that more people would be tempted to auto-medicate with benzodiazepines.  For more information on legal benzodiazepines, read my article on this blog on june 24, 2008.  To learn more about life after being caught dealing with controlled substances, go to www.lacloture.ca  (it is in french)

Covid-19

New pills !

The Food and Drugs Administration has granted emergency approval for Merck's new antiviral, Molnupiravir.  The treatment should last 5 days and be given to adults who have a mild case.  England has already bought a large quantity.  

The Food and Drug Administration has also granted emergency approval for Pfizer's new antiviral, Paxlovid.  The treatment should last 5 days and should be given to mild cases, 12 years and up who weigh at least 40 kilos.  Only small quantities will be available for months.  

England

In September 2021, the positivity of PCR tests dropped suddenly from 3% to 1%.  This drop was not observed elsewhere.  Concerned health professionals asked the NSH to investigate.  On October 12 the Immensa lab was closed because the investigation revealed that 43,000 false negative results were issued.  The positivity rate then soared because infected people had not isolated.  On 14 November, Thiemo Fetzer, a graduate student from the University of Warwick, estimated in his study that 21,000 additional cases were attributable to that blunder.  And the number of excess deaths is 400 to 1100.  In 2020, a database error wiped out the data of 15,000 cases of Covid-19.  Contact tracing was wiped out.  1500 deaths were attributable to this other NHS blunder.

China

China was the first country to detect and treat Covid-19.  Its borders are closed and new arrivals must be quarantined for 14 days.  Vaccination with Sinovac and Sinopharm is rolled out.  The pandemic has killed 6,000 chinese, compared to 800,000 Americans.  The National Institutes of Health (of the American government) has spent 1,000,000,000 $ to develop treatments and prevention methods.  The winter olympic games will take place in front of a strictly chinese audience.  The "zero covid" policy is popular there because of results.  In the Shanghai Disneyland, 34,000 visitors were confined to the site and then tested at night because of a single case.  Visitors were then asked to isolate for 48 hours.  about 100 cases are discovered every day in China (against 70,000 cases in the United States.)  Foreigners make up only 0.06% of China's population.  Quarantines are required for all visitors to China including Hong Kong.

New Alzheimer diagnosis test

 Dr" Serge Gauthier, from McGill University, reports an accuracy of 96% by measuring p-tau-217 in blood to diagnose Alzheimer .  More accuracy is possible by measuring the presence of APO4 protein in blood.  Effective treatment remains evaive...

Death of Dr. Aaron Beck

 There are a lot of psychiatric therapies, like role-playing, Gestalt, psychoanalysis, group therapies, art therapy, music therapies, hypnosis, primal cry.  But the most used today is probably cognitive-behavior therapy (CBT).  Its effectiveness has been demonstrated for a wide array of psychiatric problems.  The american founder of CBT has passed away.

In the 1950s, he follows Freud, like most psychiatrists of the time.  But in 1961, he rejects psychoanalysis.  He notices that patients have negative thoughts on self, the future or the world around them.  He works with patients to demonstrate those thoughts are mostly falacies.  He wrote more than 600 scientific papers; he launched "Cognitive Therapy and Research" a refereed publication: and he participated to the writing of 25 books.  He is also known for the Beck scales, used to measure depression, affliction, anxiety, OCD, and youth troubles.  He founded the Beck Institute with his daughter Judith who is a psychologist.  

Aaron Beck (Providence, Rhode Island 18-07-1921 / Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 1-11-2021)

An Inuit killed by police

 In early November, in Rankin Inlet, police is notified of the presence of agitated drunk men.  A man then fired his gun towards the police, then fled in his truck.  The tactical intervention team (RCMP) found him, but the 22-years-old was dead.  The Ottawa police is investigating.  A protest march was organized from the Winnipeg police station to the courthouse on nov. 6.

Female soldiers in the american army !

 An amendment to the annual defense budget would have extended conscription to young women. Congresswoman Chrisey Houlahan (who was an air force officer) declares that it is about time to go ahead with the concept.  But the principle is not popular among women : only 36% approve.  In Afghanistan, the medical condition which sent the most soldiers home was pregnancy ! 

the Guantanamo prison

 Twenty years after its opening, there are still 39 prisoners left.  731 internees have been transfered or freed and 9 have died (6 suicides and 3 deaths related to torture).  Among those who have been held there, 29% were Afghans, 17% were from Saudi Arabia, 15% were Yemenis, 9% were Pakistanis.  In all, 50 different countries of origin were represented.  80% of the Pakistanis and Afghans were there because a bounty was pledged for their capture so someone took them up on it.  Between 17 and 22 were less than 18 years old when they entered the facility.  14 of them were from secret CIA prisons abroad.  To learn more on the matter, consult:https://original.antiwar.com or www.antiwar.com/blog/author/scott-horton