Twitter addiction: Could you get by without Twitter?

From BBC:

A popstar gave up on social networking after a dinner party at which she realised she spent more time updating Twitter than interacting with her companions.

Online communities like Twitter, where people follow each other without being acquainted in real life, can be brutal: "If you're going to broadcast as a tweeter then you need to be thick skinned," says Dr Yeung, "If you're the kind of person who takes things personally, opening yourself up to criticism from strangers is not a good idea."

A Twitter user: "I could not fully concentrate on anything for longer than 20 minutes," says Carolyn. I simply had to check and update the feed. What if someone had asked a question of me? What if there was an interesting piece of information related to our experiment that I could read? It was highly distracting and I felt genuinely anxious."

"Everybody craves information," says applied psychologist Dr Lucy Atcheson, "It's what makes the world interesting. But you have to ask whether you need it all. Twitter has an element of making people feel important."

"You can get addicted to thinking that somebody is interested in your every move. You have this idea that there is a virtual audience. But when are you tweeting information, and when is it just vanity?"

References:
Could you get by without Twitter? BBC.

Low vitamin D levels in children associated with higher plasma glucose and lower HDL

Vitamin D is a steroid hormone and a component of a complex endocrine pathway sometimes called 'vitamin D endocrine system' (Medscape, 2012).  A retrospective record review of pediatric outpatients (age, 2-18 years) included simultaneous measurement of 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25[OH] D) and fasting plasma glucose or 25(OH) D and a lipid panel.

25(OH) D levels were inversely correlated with fasting plasma glucose levels.

Lower 25(OH) D levels were also associated with lower serum high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL) concentrations.

Children who were vitamin D insufficient (25[OH] D ≤30 ng/mL) had higher fasting plasma glucose and lower HDL levels than children who were vitamin D sufficient (25[OH] D >30 ng/mL).

References:
http://www.jpeds.com/article/PIIS0022347609009858/abstract

Monounsaturated fats found in vegetable oils, nuts and avocados increase "good" HDL cholesterol levels by 12% http://goo.gl/GBQa5

Image sources: Wikipedia, public domain.

COX-2 inhibitor can prevent "religious headache" during fast

Every year, millions of observant Jews fast on their holiest day, Yom Kippur, and millions of Muslims fast for the month of Ramadan. And every year, as many as 40% of those who fast develop serious headaches.

Yom Kippur headache is a well documented phenomenon but the causes are unclear, but doctors have suspected withdrawal from caffeine, nicotine, oversleeping, and dehydration.

About 36% of subjects who took COX-2 inhibitor etoricoxib (related to Vioxx) developed headaches, compared to about 68% who took placebo. Those who took etoricoxib also had less severe headaches, and they had an easier time fasting.

References:
Could Vioxx cousin prevent religious fast headache? WebMD.

Image source: Etoricoxib, Wikipedia, public domain.

Changes in the childhood immunization schedule for 2010

From WebMD:

- Gardasil human papillomavirus vaccine is now suggested for boys. Previously recommended only for girls.

- There are 2 new recommendations for boosting the bacterial meningitis vaccine: children at high risk should get the shot as early as age 2 and as late as age 6. Children not at high risk should get the first shot at age 11 or 12 (or ages 13 to 18 if not previously vaccinated).

- Preference for combination vaccines over separate injections of vaccine components.



CDC, Get The Picture: Child Immunizations.

References:
New Schedule for Childhood Vaccines. WebMD.

Google Buzz "antisocial networking" exposed details of “estranged spouses, current lovers, attorneys and doctors”

From Google: Antisocial networking. FT.com:

At the root of the problem is Google’s decision to use Gmail, with its 175m active users, as a launchpad for its latest push into social networking. All users were enrolled as soon as they clicked a link to look at the service, and many found the names of those they corresponded with most frequently by e-mail – usually a private list – became the basis for a public “social network” of contacts on Buzz. That risked exposing the details of “estranged spouses, current lovers, attorneys and doctors”.

Doctors should be very cautious when using social media to communicate with patients. In general, "friending" patients on Facebook, Buzz and Twitter is not a good idea at the current level of social network services, and is best avoided.

It may be irresponsible to answer patient questions on blogs, Twitter, Buzz and Facebook because no complete data for an informed evaluation and decision can be collected.

Chronic sleep loss decreases performance - One night of good sleep is not enough to recover from chronic sleep deficit

On average, a person needs about eight hours a night to preserve performance.

Acute sleep loss is being awake for more than 24 hours in a row and chronic sleep loss is getting only about four to seven hours of sleep per night.

While most people caught up on acute sleep loss with a single night of 10 hours sleep, those with chronic sleep loss showed deteriorating performance for each hour spent awake.

People are largely unaware that they are chronically sleep-deprived but they are more vulnerable to sudden sleepiness, inattentiveness, and potentially, accidents and errors.

Three days is not enough to recover from chronic sleep loss, but they still do not know how many days or weeks may be needed.

References:
Chronic sleep loss hampers performance. Reuters, 2010.

Image source: Sleeping kitten. Wikipedia, Tilman Piesk, public domain.

Eric Topol: The wireless future of medicine (TED Talks)

Eric Topol says we'll soon use our smartphones to monitor our vital signs and chronic conditions. At TEDMED, he highlights several of the most important wireless devices in medicine's future -- all helping to keep more of us out of hospital beds.