ppp 01-15-07

Quote of the day:

“Second star to the right and straight on ‘til morning.” - Peter Pan

How do you measure things? Many people use the dollar for most things but have to use days, weeks, feet, centimeters, amps, joules, foot-pounds, or horsepower for other things. A fellow fraternity brother hated to walk from the outlying parking lots at the University of Minnesota so he would cough up the $0.75 to park at the student union (this was a long time ago). His unit of value was “one park” and measured all things monetary in $0.75 increments. Drug companies may be measured in FDA approvals and the FDA in drug approvals per year. Think about what you value and how you count it. I hope that you have gone beyond dollars and have other “personal value units.” (Children, grand children, vacations, articles published, etc).

How does a little child appreciate time before acquiring the concept of minutes and hours? Our family came up with a method to communicate time to our preschoolers. The children watched cartoons and had a pretty good feel for the length of time that “Scooby-Doo” was on the air. In answer to their common question “How long until supper?” came the reply, “Two Scooby-Doos” (if dinner would be ready in 1 hour). One “Scooby-Doo” became a unit of measure.

Last week the main cartoonist responsible for Hanna-Barbera cartoons such as the Flintstone’s, the Jetson’s and Scooby-doo, Iwao Takamoto, died in LA. He spent 60 years of his life creating animated cartoons for children. He worked under the famous “nine old men” of Disney studios and was part of the creation of “Peter Pan”, “Lady and the Tramp”, and “Cinderella” before moving to Hanna-Barbera studios. http://tv.msn.com/tv/article.aspx?news=247112&GT1=7703 My daughter sent me the news of his demise and told me that she would measure everything in “Scooby-Doos” for the next week in his honor. We wish him God-Speed. … Second star to the right and straight on until morning….” (that would be about 22 Scooby-Doos).

ps. Best answer this week to the question "How are you?" was "Great!" from a cahier at the supermarket named "Dane". (I thought it was funny)

pps. Occasionally, some of the links require FREE registration.... I'm sure you can handle THAT slight inconvenience.

Washington Post thinks that there will be no Government negotiations with Pharma companies for Part D. Presently, each health system negotiates their best deal and COMPETES for patients. So far the rates have dropped and patients are generally happy with the benefit. If the Democrats want to nationalize the drug industry they will have to wait.

Cerebral bleeds increase four-fold in octogenarians. From 4 per 100,000 to over 46. Lesson may be to watch the “old-old” more closely or reduce the INR goals. Scientists have 25 years to figure it out… (Who’s self centered?!!!)

In the country know for fast food and childhood obesity it appears that insulin-dependent kids (about 6 years old) are not getting enough food to keep up with growth needs. A consultation with a dietician is in order for these kids.

If your mother had high homocysteine levels then you are more that twice as likely to develop schizophrenia than children whose mothers had normal levels of the amino acid in their blood. Elevated homocycteine levels have been associated with coronary heart disease, dementia, stroke and peripheral artery disease. Increased consumption of folic acid, vitamin B6 (pyridoxine), and Vitamin B12 (cyanocobalamine) tend to lower homocycteine levels. Something to ponder.

Hormones cut colorectal cancer although the other studies have show increases in heart disease and other cancers. Hormone replacement therapy should only be used for a limited time for women who experience unacceptable "hot flashes".

Patients are demanding drugs that they see on TV ads. Docs don’t like it but need the patients.

FDA to raise PUDFA fee on Pharma companies in the bill knows as PUDFA IV (four). Originally PUDFA user fees were earmarked to speed the process of FDA drug approval. Last year only 17 new drug entities were FDA approved. The number has been declining for at least the last 4 years. The FDA now relies on the fees for operations. When the FDA has a shortfall you can now expect the fees charged to Pharma to go up instead of your tax bill. Surprisingly, Pharma had urged the agency to seek additional appropriations.

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