Medicine stuff from the week 11-17/6/12

'Policies needed to tackle inequalities in deaths from heart disease in England'
The perpetuation of socio-economic division is achieved by preserving health discrepancies between the ancestrally wealthy and the ancestrally poor.
This is why high-quality public healthcare is so important - and why it must not be run for profit. The major reason that the US's healthcare system sucks phallus so hard is that it is available only to those who can afford treatment.
http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-06-policies-tackle-inequalities-deaths-heart.html

Good news for the millions of people - men and women - who have suffered genital mutilation, because of superstitious ritual.
The process is definitely reversible - 815 of 866 women who returned to the Poissy Saint-Germain Hospital had recovered or not lost clitoral sensation, consequent to the operation.
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21428694.500-mutilated-women-rediscover-sexual-pleasure.html

It might taste scrummy, but pub grub's got tonnes of salt in it!
'UK research shows dangerously high levels of salt in kids' meals'
“It is an outrage that when families go out for a pub lunch, they may be unknowingly putting their children’s health at risk.”
http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-06-uk-dangerously-high-salt-kids.html

'Nanoparticles in polluted air, smoke and nanotechnology products have serious impact on health'
Negative health effects, such as asthma, lung cancer, emphysema, cardiovascular problems, and birth defects, tend to be caused by inhlation of particles when they're smaller than 10 micrometres (10^-5 metres) across, because they are not stopped by the cilia that line the nose and throat.
Nanoparticles are, as the name implies, of the order 10^-9 metres across, meaning fragments of materials made from nanoparticles could pose a serious health risk, if not tested for fragmentatory decay well enough.
Pretty much all fossil fuels, when combusted, pollute our living environments with dangerous, highly carcinogenic particles. Disregarding climatic effects, we should stop using fossil fuels to avoid the massive health defecits!
http://phys.org/news/2012-06-nanoparticles-polluted-air-nanotechnology-products.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Particulates#Health_effects
'Study links smoking to increased all-cause mortality in older patients'
"In this review and meta-analysis on the association of smoking and all-cause mortality at older age, current and former smokers showed an approximately 2-fold and 1.3-fold risk for mortality, respectively,"
"Most smokers grossly underestimate their own risks. Many older smokers misbelieve that they are too old to quit or too old to benefit from quitting."
http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-06-links-all-cause-mortality-older-patients.html

Antibiotic-resistant strains of a dangerous sexually-transmitted disease - gonorrhea - are on the loose, and worrying the WHO
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21428695.500-who-demands-urgent-action-on-drug-resistant-gonorrhoea.html