Still not dangerous, though.
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Congratulations to Jennifer Doudna and Emmanuelle Charpentier!
Oral administration of the compound induces myelination of axons and protects neurons, in an animal model of multiple sclerosis.
The decrease in physical exercise, a sedentary lifestyle and sleep problems due to excessive use of mobile phones characterize the confinement of students.
Like “seeing a unicorn”.
California is developing its own generic drug label. This first measure in the country, according to its promoters, will remove the power of large pharmaceutical companies and will reduce prescription drug costs for Californians statewide.
The new law requires the California Health and Human Services Agency to create partnerships designed to increase competition, lower prices, and reduce shortages of generic prescription drugs.
The price problem
The most populous state in the United States has begun to identify certain medications and develop a plan to promote their manufacture and purchase. The agency will look for drugs that can produce the greatest cost savings.
California will shift all Medi-Cal pharmacy services next year from managed care to direct state payment, which will also increase the state's ability to negotiate better drug prices and take power away from drugmakers. The project of law SB-852 It also opens the door for California to make its own generic drugs in the future.
Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, which represents brand-name drug makers, has taken a neutral position on the bill: It could take years to bring a new California generic product to market and does not appear to be significant competition, yet.
It is unclear what drugs the state would manufacture or purchase, although it would focus on drugs that could produce the greatest cost savings for the state and consumers. But the bill specifically calls for the production of “at least one form of insulin, provided there is a viable avenue to manufacture a more affordable form of insulin at a price that results in savings.” Three major pharmaceutical companies, Eli Lilly and Co., Sanofi and Novo Nordisk, have long controlled the lucrative insulin market in the United States.
Regardless of whether these policies are correct or not, the truth is that a paradigm shift is urgently needed to avoid too wide inequalities in terms of health. Because the cost of medications It not only depends on the difficulty in developing them.
For example, as noted Javier Padilla in his book Who are we going to let die?, in Baltimore there is a 20.2-year difference in life expectancy between different neighborhoods; In Glasgow there is a 24-year difference between neighborhoods that are only 12 kilometers apart; In Catalonia the richest live 12 years longer than the poorest:
For decades, the explanation for these inequalities has been articulated around the so-called model of social determinants of health, according to which there are structural determinants, such as the economic system, the labor market or welfare policies, which, conditioned due to the existing power relations in society and the place that each person occupies in different variables (social class, gender, age, ethnic group, geographical location), will impact the intermediate determinants (working conditions, income, housing resources, domestic and care work, residential physical environment) and together with individual factors and the action of the health system to determine the health status of people and communities.
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The news
California is developing its own generic drug label and that is good for the consumer
was originally published in
Xataka Science
by
Sergio Parra
.
There are fewer and fewer violent deaths, fewer accidents, fewer food poisonings, longer life expectancy, greater opportunities to connect with each other, less unattainable technological challenges, more empathy and tolerance, more equal rights, more dynamic and participatory democracy, fewer nauseating odors. , better quality food, healthier air, a sustained increase in IQ in all the countries where the mass media has been installed...
Yes, it is true that there is still a lot to improve. It is also true that the optimistic progression has its ups and downs, and also that the global financial crisis has partially slowed all these advances. But if we look back just half a century, we will see that everything previously listed has gotten better. That is the thesis of Perfect future, of Steve Johnson.
Rational optimism
Perfect future, of Steve Johnson, has come to remind us with data, statistics and a focus on how the Internet is turning individuals into a more intelligent and harmonious network or superorganism that, ultimately, things are getting better, and that the future, although distant If it is perfect, it is at least getting closer, step by step, towards perfection.
Perfect future. About Progress in the Network Age (Noema)
The arguments used by Johnson are hardly questionable, and are also endorsed by many other experts in areas as dissimilar as neuroscience, cognitive psychology, biotechnology or philosophy. But sometimes he seeks more spectacularity than rigor.. This, consequently, carries burdens, but it also produces positive effects, or at least worthy of admiration: that one can go further than anyone else, and provoke reflections that may illuminate ideas that, otherwise, would have taken decades or centuries to arrive. .
Most of the topics about the apocalypse that is looming over the planet are born, mainly, from fear of change, from the lack of perspective and the lack of readings in anthropology. Johnson also includes the birth of the Internet as the definitive technology, the one that will finally propel humanity beyond its individuality. We'll see if that's the case or not.
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The news
Books that inspire us: 'Future Perfect' by Steven Johnson
was originally published in
Xataka Science
by
Sergio Parra
.
The power of placebo (and its counterpart, the nocebo) is so interesting that it can even affect our blood glucose levels if we are convinced that we are consuming a product with a lot of sugar even though it does not have it.
In it next studyFor example, two groups of people consumed drinks with identical ingredients (15 grams of sugar) but with misleading labels: those of one group indicated 31 g of sugar and those of another 0 g. The group that believed they had consumed more sugar experienced an increase in glucose.
Feeding
Specifically, 30 participants (a small sample size, it should be noted) who had type 2 diabetes consumed drinks that had identical ingredients but that displayed misleading nutrition labels.
At least three days before participants arrived at the lab, they received a packet of forms and instructions, including a brief survey about their medical conditions, a daily glucose diary, a glucose fluctuation chart, and fasting instructions. To ensure they were familiar with their own blood glucose fluctuations, participants were asked to record their blood glucose levels before and after each meal and to complete a chart of daily blood glucose changes for three days. before the experiment.
Throughout the study, blood glucose levels measured four times before and after consuming the beverages showed that blood glucose levels increased when participants believed the beverage was high in sugar, as shown on tags.
Furthermore, individual eating behaviors and nutritional satisfaction were related to changes in blood glucose levels.
These findings indicate that psychological processes can influence physiological levels, although the role of cognitive and perceptual processes in metabolism is still underestimated. The findings also suggest that psychological intervention programs may be important for diabetes control, beyond current programs in which type 2 diabetes is managed with diet, exercise and medications alone.
The World Health Organization (WHO) reports that diabetes rates have almost quadrupled worldwide over the last three decades, making diabetes one of the most important international public health challenges, causing approximately 1.6 million deaths in 2015 and a cost of approximately $825 billion per year worldwide.
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The news
The placebo also influences how you process what you eat: glucose rises if you think you ate more sugar
was originally published in
Xataka Science
by
Sergio Parra
.
How do they even do that!?