News Brief
News Brief
U.S. health care system is far from best, says WHO
A recent report from the World Health Organi-zation (WHO) shows that while the United States spends the most from among 191 nations when it comes to delivering health care to its population, its health care system ranks only 37. The top-performing nation, France, spends $2,125 per person annually on health care, while the United States spends $3,724 per capita — a difference of 43%. WHO ranked countries by the overall health of their populations; health care inequities; response to problems within their systems; how well the systems serve people of varying economic conditions; and how costs are distributed among the population.
The United States’ health care system was, however, ranked as being the most responsive. Japanese citizens had the highest life expectancy at 74.5 years, while Sierra Leone had the lowest rate at 26 years.
Coffee, Parkinson’s disease linked
A new study recently published in the Journal of the American Medical Association found a link between coffee consumption and Parkinson’s disease. In a study of 8,004 Japanese-American men in Hawaii, it was found that the men who did not drink coffee were five times more likely to develop the disease than those who drank the most (up to five and a half six-ounce cups per day). Moreover, men who did not drink coffee were two to three times as likely to get the disease than those who drank anywhere between four ounces and four cups a day.
The study, conducted by a neurologist at the Veterans Administration Medical Center in Honolulu, suggests that caffeine — the more the better — might have qualities that prevent the degenerative brain disease from occurring. It was suggested that caffeine may somehow protect against nerve-cell destruction. Although the test’s findings have yet to be extrapolated to women or other ethnic groups, scientists are calling the study important "because it trace[s] the benefits to caffeine, showing similar results with caffeine-laden foods other than coffee."
New screening method for colon cancer
Colonoscopies may soon be the preferred detection method when it comes to finding colon polyps that might become cancerous. A study recently published in the New England Journal of Medicine found that in a randomized study of 580 people who had had previous polyps removed through a colonoscope, researchers were able to detect new polyps in 45% of those who had a colonoscopy compared to 26% for those who had a barium enema. Colon and rectal cancers are the second leading cause of cancer-related death in the United States; each year 131,000 Americans are diagnosed with cancers of the colon and rectum.
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