Doctor radio is new 24 hour channel launched by Sirius Satellite Radio.

As per the company:

What is Doctor Radio? Here are the symptoms it’s presenting:

• World-class Doctors from the NYU Langone Medical Center.
• Listeners calling with their medical questions.
• Real medical information delivered in a down-to-earth style.
• Amazing real-life stories from the ER, operating room and beyond.

Wall Street Journal Health Blog has complete coverage.

A recent article in the New England Journal of Medicine - “The collective dynamics of smoking in a large social network” highlights the influence of society on smoking behavior.

The probability of quitting is related to the number of people in your social network who smoke. The influence of smoking cessation depends on the relationship status which can be summarized in the following table:

However, in interpreting the above table the following should be kept in mind:

• The stronger the friendship and the better the educated the friend, the greater the influence on smoking behavior
• The the patterns in the table were more likely to be followed among highly educated smokers
• The influence of the persons family/spouse remained significant regardless of whether the relative was a heavy or light smoker
• The influence of friends on smoking cessation was limited to the influence of light smokers only

Therefore when trying to quit smoking, it will be very helpful to motivate your relatives and friends to quit also.

A video from JAMA featuring Steve Nissen, one of the authors of the STRADIVARIUS trial.

This trial was designed to show that Rimonabant ( a drug used for weight loss in several countries but not US) could reduce plaque build up in the arteries which is a surrogate risk marker for developing heart attack and stroke.

This study used two methods to measure the amount of plaque in the arteries. The main method (called percent atheroma volume) to measure plaque thickness did not show any benefit. However, the second method (called normalized total atheroma volume) did show some benefit. The clinical benefit of this medication therefore will need to determined by additional studies before it gets FDA approval.

Reference: JAMA

Educational videos on heart attack (myocardial infarction) from YouTube (courtesy Multi-ed Medical Ltd).

What is a heart attack (Approx 4 min) ?

Causes of a heart attack (Approx 3 min) ?

Tip: If you are alone and start experiencing a heart attack, you can do what is called auto CPR.

Take deep breaths followed by vigorous coughing continuously till there is someone to help you or pain subsides.

Deep breathing creates a negative pressure in the chest thereby pulling blood from the legs into the heart and also increasing the oxygen content in the lungs and therefore in blood. Coughing creates a positive pressure in the chest which augments the beating heart to pump out blood, ensuring that the vitals organ such as the brain and heart receive adequate oxygen.

Technorati Tags: Animation, autoCPR, CPR, Education, Heart Attack, Myocardial Infarction, Video, YouTube

Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is a bug resistant to many antibiotics.

This graph shows the number of patients discharged with MRSA infections over the 13 years from 1993 to 2005. In 2005, there were about 368,600 cases of MRSA infection in U.S. hospitals, a figure that increased by 30 percent after 2004, more than tripled after 2000, and increased nearly tenfold after 1995. Elderly persons and infants are the most susceptible to the antibiotic-resistant infection. Those age 65 and older are 3 times more likely than other patients to be hospitalized for MRSA.

Technorati Tags: MRSA, Infection, Antibiotics, Staphylococcus, Bug, Swivel