Message Development Posts
Are High Drug Prices Here to Stay?
Last week the FDA approved PCSK9 inhibitors, which promise to help millions of Americans with high cholesterol. But these new drugs come with a projected price tag of about $14,600 a year. The PCSK9 inhibitors are the latest in a series of high-priced prescription drugs reaching the market.
Ebola: Getting to Zero, Staying at Zero
Dr. Philip Ireland has experienced the Ebola epidemic from two different angles: he is a Liberian physician and Ebola survivor. When he fell ill, his colleagues in Monrovia, Liberia, wrote off his symptoms as malaria, which Ireland knew wasn’t accurate. He’d had malaria many times. He and his mother took matters into their own hands. She quarantined him in his own home until he was finally admitted for treatment.
The Power of Placebos: Using Our Brains to Help Us Heal
Imagine if we could somehow trigger the brain to release endorphins, dopamine and other neurotransmitters to help relieve pain, depression and other health problems. It turns out that scientists and health care providers have already started doing this. It’s called the “placebo effect.”
What Do Drought, Ice Cream and Bird Flu Have in Common?
The U.S. agriculture sector faces many problems these days. Take the ongoing California drought that threatens more than one-third of our country’s vegetables and two-thirds of our fruits. Or have you eaten Blue Bell ice cream recently? Blue Bell recalled ALL of its ice cream products because of Listeria contamination, causing three deaths and 10 hospitalizations. Or check out the avian flu, which killed more than 48 million chickens and cost the USDA more than $500 million since mid-December.
Children’s Health Care Spending Driven by Rising Costs
With child visits to the emergency room declining and the overall use of prescription drugs by children at its lowest in years, it only makes sense that spending on health care for kids would be down. Right? Not quite.
Prescription Abuse Fuels Rise in Newborn Drug Exposure
Improving strategies for prescribing opioids to women of childbearing age are particularly critical to newborns and their families. Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome (NAS) occurs when babies are exposed to addictive opiate drugs in the womb, and the effects are terrible. Babies can experience breathing problems, vomiting and tremors in their early days of life.
What Will Stop the Rising Trend of Obesity in America?
Imagine the challenge for the millions of parents who live without access to healthy, affordable foods or in neighborhoods where it’s not safe for their kids to play outside. Consider that U.S. food and beverage companies spend nearly $2 billion each year targeting kids with ads, apps and websites promoting junk foods, sugary drinks and other unhealthy fare. How do we turn the tide?
The Pope’s Climate Change Role Models
The Pope’s environment and climate change encyclical exploded on the scene this week, unleashing debate about humanity’s relationship to the planet. While the document, entitled Laudato Si, was generally critical of the way people have treated the planet, it praised one group for its respect for the earth: indigenous people.
Online Tool Aims to Bring Bounty Harvest in Kenya
If you are a farmer living in Embu County, Kenya, how do you know which seed to plant? Maybe you decide based on what your neighbors plant or what you’ve always planted. But over the last 10 years, plant breeders in Kenya have likely developed new varieties of seeds with specific traits that could thrive on your farm and give you higher yields.
School Is Out For Summer
Across the country, kids (and parents!) are celebrating the end of the school year. But should it be a break from learning? No. The so-called "summer slide" is real. Students typically lose two to three months in reading achievement and two months of math skills during the summer.
