The investigators of the Trial of Nonpharmacologic Intervention in the Elderly (TONE) have attempted to test whether there is an adverse effect of weight loss, ie, increased mortality (1). This approach is similar to trying to determine whether a specific drug therapy in a clinical trial increases mortality and morbidity, especially in a selected subset of the population. Unfortunately, there r...

Ten million third molars (wisdom teeth) are extracted from approximately 5 million people in the United States each year at an annual cost of over $3 billion. In addition, more than 11 million patient days of “standard discomfort or disability”— pain, swelling, bruising, and malaise—result postoperatively, and more than 11000 people suffer permanent paresthesia— numbness of the lip, tongue, and...

Madam, Caffeine is widely consumed as part of many drinks all over the world. The Food and Drug Administration of USA started to doubt the safety of caffeinated drinks first in 2010. Four Loko which was the first energy drink that combined caffeine with alcohol and received opposition.1 In 2013 Health Canada limited quantity content of caffeine to 180mg per regular serving bottle. As compared t...

BACKGROUND Owing to the stigma associated with sexually transmitted infections, patients may prefer to keep their illness private, and choose instead to try self-treatment remedies from the internet. However, such remedies may prove hazardous if the sellers do not provide detailed advice on adverse effects, or on avoiding transmission and re-infection. We conducted an internet search to determi...

Background: Tert-butyl mercaptan is one of the frequently used odorants derived from natural gases. It has been declared as a health hazard by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) in the USA. There is not much information available about the mercaptans long-term toxicity secondary to occupational exposure. This study was conducted to evaluate the oxidative stress caused by m...

This paper empirically studies two issues in health insurance provision for wage and salary workers in Argentina and their utilization of health services: (1) the moral hazard problem; and (2) the role of prices in utilization. I examine the relationship between insurance and utilization both by estimating how insurance type affects utilization and by parameterizing characteristics of seven maj...

British Journal of General Practice, August 2015 435 InTroduCTIon Although a native of southern Europe, the thermophilic oak processionary moth (OPM, Thaumetopoea processionea) is expanding its prevalence to encompass Central and Northern Europe. Roughly, over the past decade, the moth’s range has spread northwards and the species has now became established in the warmer regions of Northern Fra...

Endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) are exogenous chemicals that may occur naturally (e.g., phytoestrogens), while others are industrial substances and plasticizers commonly utilized worldwide to which human exposure, particularly at low-doses, is omnipresent, persistent and occurs in complex mixtures. EDCs can interfere with/or mimic estrogenic hormones and, consequently, can simultaneously ...

It is well-known that pooled insurance coverage can induce people to make inefficiently low investments in self-protective activities. We identify another ex ante moral hazard that runs in the opposite direction. Lower levels of self-protection and the associated chronic conditions and behavioral patterns such as obesity, smoking, and malnutrition increase the incidence of many diseases and con...