Archive for August 2011
Geographic Inequality
All men are created equal. All deserve equal treatment as a human being and freedom to chose their own fate must prevail. Exceptional and absolutely valid philosophy! But when I applied the factor of geographic equality, equality between places where these men are born, this philosophy remained shattered in the reality. Despite having been created equal, these men are all positioned in so widely disparate geographic regions of the world that one segment of population is dying of hunger, while the other is dying of obesity and its complications. In one part of the world people die as early as 45 years on average, while in the other, live beyond 75 years. Geography has historically been the greatest determinant of quality of medical care people seek and the quality they actually receive, and have no doubts that it would be in the future. Regions in some countries are not even fortunate enough to understand the need of quality primary care. They graciously succumb to illness devoting themselves to the wrath or will of god. No wonder awareness of -and exposure to- where their rest of the world has progressed has deserted them for centuries. Today, one part of the world, that is experiencing the pleasures of prosperity, has started to shift its vision to reach out to the other part of the world, that is experiencing what would be worse than a nightmare. This time not just for the motivation of exploiting natural resources, but in fact to help improve the quality of life of geographically unfortunate people, supply them the basic supplements essential for living, primary and preventive health care, equip them with new technologies that are easy to implement and do not disrespect their traditional cultural beliefs. Today, there are immense efforts, though with unrelenting struggles, in both parts of the world to bring the divide closer and hope to walk the talk one day that all men are created equal.
Article by Ravi Goyal
about cardiology
Without doubt, today and especially to the increasing in the developed world of coronary disease, cardiology has become perhaps the most demanding medical specialty, both in relation to diagnostic and therapeutic measures as mainly for prevention.
Cardiologists are physicians who specialize in the diagnosis and treatment of diseases of the heart and blood vessels, the cardiovascular system. You can also consult a cardiologist for more information about cardiovascular risk factors and find out what can be done to improve cardiovascular health.
When one is faced with a complex disease such as heart disease, it is important to find the most appropriate specialist. The diagnosis of the heart disease often starts with the primary care physician, who refers the patient to cardiologist. The doctor will check the symptoms and old medical reports and can recommend studies that allow more accurate diagnosis. Then the cardiologist decides if you can treat it himself with medications or other treatments available. If the cardiologist decides that the patient needs surgery, referred to a cardiovascular surgeon who specializes in operations on the heart, lungs and blood vessels. The patient remains under the care of cardiologist even when it is referred to other specialists.
Cardiology is a vast field, so many cardiologists have expertise in various areas. Cardiologists who are dedicated to clinical diagnosis, drug therapy and prevention of heart disease. Some clinical doctors have expertise in pediatric cardiology, which is the diagnosis and treatment of heart problems in children. Cardiologists clinicians treating adult patients only specialize in adult cardiology. Others may specialize in clinical cardiologists, interventionism procedures (balloon angioplasty and stenting), echocardiography and electrophysiology.
The importance of taking medications as prescribed
Any treatment that includes medication intake, must respect the prescription (dose amount and time period), this is extremely important to get the desired results.
But the truth is that many patients do not take the medication the way your doctor the indicators and this often brings with it various health complications for the individual and huge health care expenses for states.
Taking medications incorrectly, is technically called non-adherence to treatment and includes multiple causes. Among them are those who do not take drugs because they can not afford them, others for fear of side effects and others because they feel that need or that may be beneficial.
Doctors often prescribe certain drugs to think their patients how to take them and tell them that these have no more doubts. However, because many times the query is very short and the doctor explains everything too quickly the patient is removed with a thousand doubts and shame or fear, do not ask and then take the drugs as you like.
Anyway, this is a serious public health problem and despite the efforts of the pharmaceutical industry and physicians have performed for decades to solve, is far from an exit.
- Studies suggest that between 25% and 50% of individuals with hypertension, high cholesterol or diabetes, leaving the drug treatment during the year following the beginning of the same.
- Most studies show that between 45% and 55% of adults do not take their medications as prescribed.
- According to a study of people who had suffered a heart attack, only about 45% continued taking the remedy (blocker) per year. This medication is indicated, usually, all patients who have suffered heart attacks, and preventing future attacks and reduce the risk of death. The study also showed that only 70% of patients continued to take the betabloquante within 30 days of the attack, which means that 30% never took it directly or quickly dropped out of treatment.
- Among patients with mental illness also cautioned non-adherence to treatment. According to research by University of California at San Diego, only 40% of patients with schizophrenia were drug treatment according to medical indications.
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