RedScrubs
The Resource for Medical Professionals

For years the idea of visiting hours ruled family members and patient visits. Tight controls over times when people could visit friends and families was strictly adhered to like rules of the local community pool - general swim, adult swim. Over the years the rules have become a bit softer, and in some cases the rules i.e. visiting hours hardly exist at all.

A butcher, a baker, a candle stick maker, and finally into nursing we shall go, or at least for some of us that are board, frustrated, or need a change from our current line of work. The Boston Globe has a brief article regarding mid-career changes that many are looking into. Several articles about switching careers for nursing have peppered that media in recent months outlining people’s concerns with the growing poor economy and general dissatisfaction in their work. The news of the continued nursing shortage and availability of steady stable employment has been somewhat magnetizing.

Women who eat a diet low in animal protein, moderate in low-fat dairy products and high in plant proteins, fruits and vegetables, or a typical DASH diet, tend to show a lower rate of coronary heart disease and stroke according to a recent JAMA article. The DASH diet stands for Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension. The DASH diet has formed the basis for the new Food Pyramid and is supported by The National Heart, Lung, Blood, Institute, the American Heart Association, US guidelines for the treatment of high blood pressure and the USDA MyPyramid.

The Weekly Wrap-up has been out for two months now. We’ve given away a few sets of red scrubs to the Scrubby Award winners, and we’re (that means us and NW Scrubs) going to keep on doing it. Ok, pay attention: SEND IN NOMINATIONS!!! Also, feel free to shoot us the url of any new medical blogging site that you like. We’ll help keep an eye on them for you.

About one in four people who take prescription medication also use such products as vitamins, minerals, amino acids, herbs and/or related ingredients. Despite the therapeutic nature of some of these supplements, they may also either enhance or antagonize the effects of prescription drugs.

If only we knew what makes people behave the way that they do, we’d be able to solve many of the health-related crises facing our world today: obesity, teenage pregnancy, inactivity, type 2 diabetes, and the list goes on.

The pine bark referred to in this study comes from a maritime pine that grows along the coast of southwest France and is found to contain a unique combination of procyanidins
Bioflavonoids and other organic acids which offer extensive natural health benefits according to some studies. One of the chemical extracts of the maritime pine tree is Pycnogenol, an extract from the bark of the tree. This extract has been widely studied for the past 35 years and has more than 220 published studies and review articles ensuring its safety and efficacy as an ingredient in dietary supplements, multi-vitamins and health products around the world.

A study involving 135 hospital patients with a mean age of 74 years receiving antibiotic treatment were randomized into a double-blind, placebo controlled study. Subjects in the study group received 100 g (97 ml) of the probiotic drink twice a day. The drink contained Lactobacillus casei, Lactobacillus bulgaricus and Streptococcus thermophilus.

Recently I published a news article about the relationship between fructose and the development of gout. Well, now there is more bad press about fructose, the sugary substance commonly found in soft drinks, baked goods and other foods. A recent study in the March 10 issue of the Journal of Hepatology (2008) has shown that fructose consumption parallels the growth in non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). The consumption of fructose is further linked to insulin resistance.