When occupational rehabilitation professionals consider when an employee should return to work they tend to emphasize the ability of a worker to perform tasks associated with their jobs. Workers returning to their job after an injury are more likely to quit or be fired if their job requires more hours than the traditional 40-hour week. Allard […] Read more

Who doesn’t hate to wait? Well meaning wait management strategies focus on moving the line along with the intent of reducing stress. The strategy may work well at Disney World, but may backfire when implemented in a hospital waiting room. Elizabeth Gelfand Miller, Boston College; Barbara E. Kahn, University of Miami; and Mary Frances Luce, […] Read more

There is an old expression–“It is the cheap man who pays the most.”–that best explains why the higher co-payments for drug prescriptions or to see a doctor that took effect January 1, for many people, may actually cost a company more money. The University of Michigan and Harvard University researchers studied the concept called “value […] Read more

Since the 1950s stress has directly been linked to coronary heart disease. In one study chronic stress at work or at home was attributed to a 30% increase of death during a 9-year study. Depression has also been linked as a result to stress. But it is also noted that both heart disease and depression […] Read more

Researchers wanted to better understand what brain circuits suppress or assist in long-term memory retrieval. Yadin Dudai and colleagues report in the 01/10/2008 journal of Neuron on a study performed on a group of volunteers. The group was divided into those who were susceptible to hypnotic suggestions and those not. Both groups were shown a […] Read more

In the late 1950s, Chairman of the United States Senate’s Anti-Trust and Monopoly, Democratic Senator Estes Kefauver, put together an extensive indictment against the pharmaceutical industry. His 3 key charges were: Patents sustained predatory prices and excessive margins. Costs and prices were extravagantly increased by large expenditures in marketing. Most of the industry’s new products […] Read more

Thioredoxin is a naturally occurring protein. Its existence has been known to be secreted by the body to counter stressful chemical reactions that occur with inflammation. What wasn’t known about thioredoxin is its ability to open ion channels, which allow the movement of ions. Ions are electrically charged atoms across a cell’s membrane that carries out a […] Read more

Drug therapy in older adults often consists of preventing illnesses by decreasing the risks so an illness will never affect them. Several factors should be considered when older adults are prescribed drugs, as reported by Tufts University School of Medicine clinicians in an article recently published in the American Family Physician. An older patient that […] Read more

Often lesser known diseases do not get the media or pharmaceutical company attention that better known diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease receive. Two of these lesser known diseases are Huntington’s disease and Spinocerebellar Ataxia 1, and they are no less devastating to patients, family, and friends as the better known diseases. Dr. Juan Botas, associate […] Read more

Good health and well being is partly achieved by a balance between caloric intake and expenditure. When caloric intake balance is disrupted by an excess of calories we gain weight. The reason we consume more calories than needed is often thought to be psychological, but Maribel Rios, PhD, and Thaddeus Unger, graduate student at Sackler […] Read more