Thursday, August 20, 2015
Well: Another Approach to Raising Healthy Eaters
A recent book provides three tips to introducing children to foods that are good for them.
USDA seeking proposals for production of bird flu vaccine
The U.S. Department of Agriculture is taking bids from animal health companies for a bird flu vaccine.
Only 1 in 10 With Heart Failure Sent to Rehab Programs
Younger patients and men more likely to be referred than older patients and women, study finds
Doctors must engage in contract talks | Letters
In response to your letter (Protecting patients and keeping Britain healthy, 19 August), NHS organisations know that junior doctors remain one of the hardest working and most critical parts of our NHS. But the reality is that the contract they are employed under today was designed to drive down the unacceptably long hours worked by previous generations of doctors. It means that a large proportion of junior doctors’ earnings remain variable, leading to unpredictable pay and an unwieldy bureaucracy for them and their employer. The contract needs to change.
The health secretary and NHS Employers have been clear that the overall pay bill will not be cut, nor will junior doctors be required to work more hours. However, a new contract is needed that properly rewards and recognises the vital contribution junior doctors make. Proposals include an increase in their basic pay and new protections against working unsafe long hours. We were disappointed that the BMA junior doctors committee could not again bring themselves to talk to us as our default setting is to seek agreement through discussion. Refusing to enter into talks doesn’t benefit junior doctors or their patients and we ask junior doctors to discuss with us the independent Doctors and Dentists Review Body report and the way forward.
Danny Mortimer
NHS Employers
Female libido pill gets US approval
The US Food and Drug Administration approves a libido-enhancing drug for women that has been dubbed "female Viagra".
Gone off sex? Never fear, ‘pink Viagra’ is here to save womankind
The holy grail of the drugs industry has arrived. Women who mostly can’t be bothered with sex can take a pill that will make them crave it – even with their own partners
Rejoice, rejoice womankind! There is now a magic drug that will make sex desirable. Again. Or for the first time. I can’t name here the already-existing drugs that have such an effect because they are illegal, and who knows what would happen if people took them? (In fact, they have done for decades.) But, never mind, this new magic drug has just been legalised in the US, having been approved by the US Food and Drugs Administration. Flibanserin has just passed an FDA advisory committee stage at the third attempt, so will soon be on the market. It will be sold as Addyi and is produced by Sprout Pharmaceuticals, which has been pushing what has been dubbed “the female Viagra” for some time.
The tablets are, of course, pink because women like pink pills and not blue smarties as we are silly like that. ‘Pink Viagra’ has been the holy grail of the drugs industry. Let’s face it, it’s the holy grail of all kinds of cultural imaginings: the magic substance that makes women who mostly can’t be that bothered with sex suddenly crave it. Even with their own partners! No drug can guarantee this, obviously. Years ago, when I worked in a health food shop in Manhattan, I was always shocked by the number of men who asked me to sell them something to: “Make my wife … you know? Like it.” But I still flogged them any old combination of herbs and vitamins because I was working on commission. I was hard of heart and short of money.
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