A collection of some interesting medical articles published recently:A Big Bet on Gluten-Free: 11% of households reporting purchases of gluten-free foods in 2013 (doubled in 3 yrs). 30% of the public says it would like to cut back on the amount of gluten it’s eating. "There is a growing population of people who have somehow heard that gluten-free is healthier or think of it as fashionable, and when they remove gluten from their diet, they’re inadvertently taking out a lot of processed foods and are really feeling the benefits of eating healthier foods.” http://buff.ly/1mt9phm
New nomenclature and classifications are proposed (see the figures below).
Negative physical and mental effects tied to bullying among children and teens may accumulate throughout the years http://buff.ly/Nafsar
Learning to Cut the Sugar - NYTimes.com: The bottom line is every country has its cuisine, and every cuisine works for that country. But there’s one thing that doesn’t work for any country: processed food. And any country that adopts processed food, which is now everywhere, is getting sick. However much sugar is in a piece of fruit, there’s an equal amount of fiber to offset it. One exception: grapes. You can take any cookie or cake recipe, and reduce the amount of sugar by one third, and it actually tastes better http://buff.ly/1mtbkCm
Itching was long overshadowed by pain in both research and treatment. It was even considered just a mild form of pain. But millions of people suffer from itching, and times have changed. “Itch is now where pain was probably 20 years ago. The science has to lead to treatment." Chronic itching becomes more common with age. One reason is that older people often develop dry skin. Itching also might occur because certain nerves in the skin deteriorate — nerves that transmit pain and inhibit itching. “Then itch kind of pops out”. Various remedies may help: numbing patches, sometimes along with the hot-pepper ingredient capsaicin; Botox injections; pills like gabapentin that affect nerve transmission; and physical therapy to change posture. Often, it is possible to find something that helps. http://buff.ly/1mtlh2Q
"The Fat Drug" - antibiotics, widely used in raising animals, may cause weight gain in humans who eat meat http://buff.ly/1h5tnaE
ACP Virtual Patients - Annals of Internal Medicine launches interactive CME- and MOC-accredited med education site http://buff.ly/1l26B9x
Outbursts of anger increase risk for irregular heart rhythm, stroke and heart attack http://buff.ly/1l3uiOF and http://buff.ly/1l3unlv
Medical conspiracies believed by almost 50% of people | Reuters and JAMA http://buff.ly/1l3vmCb
Unease grows among U.S. doctors over Indian drug quality | Reuters http://buff.ly/1gPaG9T - Here's why: http://buff.ly/1l3w6aD
Most Flu Is Asymptomatic - Influenza is asymptomatic in most (70%) people with serologically confirmed infection http://buff.ly/1l3wiXa
New Drug Approved for Orthostatic Hypotension - Droxidopa capsules (Northera) http://buff.ly/1gPbgEC
The articles were selected from Twitter and my RSS subscriptions. Please feel free to send suggestions for articles to clinicalcases AT gmail.com and you will receive acknowledgement in the next edition of this publication.