Weekend Wrap Up 12.8.17

Yay, yay, its Friday! I can’t wait for this wintery weekend to begin. With a new baby in the house (he’s here!), a cold Saturday seems like the perfect excuse to stay indoors for some infant snuggles. Maybe I’ll attempt to get caught up with some Christmas shopping online while I’m at it. If you could use some indoor, cold weather entertainment, check out this week’s more interesting medical news. 

Samsung develops app to allow color blind owners to enjoy their TVs. The new SeeColors app helps color blind users assess their visual color spectrum and adjust the settings on their TV accordingly. 

Sleep vs. Exercise? When you’re faced with the choice between waking up to workout or catching sufficient zzz’s, sleep expert Dr. Charles Czeisler says its counterproductive to throw off your biological clock to hit the gym. 

This year’s flu season looks like a bad one and it could be coming early. The southern hemisphere gets their season before ours here in the U.S. and so far the numbers aren’t looking good. Australia has been hit hard with a record-high number of cases. This year’s vaccine is only about 10 percent effective. 

Could pharmacists help fix healthcare? This month’s CVS-Aetna merger seems poised to shake-up healthcare. Pharmacists could be on the front lines of some of these changes. Many experts speculate that the bold business move could put pharmacists in a direct patient care role working to help alleviate the primary care shortage. 

The next frontier for protecting newborns. Pregnant women are encouraged to receive Tdap and influenza vaccines during pregnancy to help protect infants whose immune systems are still developing. Could other maternal vaccines for other infectious diseases like RSV be on the horizon? 

Can your ceramic cookware give you lead poisoning? The glaze used to coat ceramic ware sometimes contains lead to give the dish shine. If ceramic cookware isn’t baked long enough or at hot enough temperatures, the lead can leach into food. The FDA tests many products for contamination, but ceramic users should use caution with antique or handmade items. 

Pace of U.S. healthcare spending slows in 2016. A federal study shows that demand for drugs, hospital care and physician services is down. Could our healthcare system be on the right track to controlling costs?  

Could death rates have swung the 2016 election? Looking at data for individuals between the ages of 45 and 54, researchers found that Trump was more likely to win in counties where middle-aged death rates increased significantly from 1999 to 2016. Experts believe this is because these communities have higher degrees of social disruption. 

Man pops pimple with woodworking blade, gets nightmare infection. 

Have a great weekend!