Wikipedia, the online encyclopaedia, contains errors in nine out of 10 of its health entries, and should be treated with caution, a study has said.

Scientists in the US compared entries about conditions such as heart disease, lung cancer, depression and diabetes with peer-reviewed medical research.

They said most articles in Wikipedia contained “many errors”.

Wikimedia UK, its British arm, said it was “crucial” that people with health concerns spoke to their GP first.

Open-access ‘concerns’
The online encyclopaedia is a charity, and has 30 million articles in 285 languages.

It can be edited by anybody, but many volunteers from the medical profession check the pages for inaccuracies, said Wikimedia UK.

The open-access nature has “raised concern” among doctors about its reliability, as it is the sixth most popular site on the internet, the US authors of the research, published in the Journal of the American Osteopathic Association, said.

Up to 70% of physicians and medical students use the tool, they say.

The 10 researchers across America looked at online articles for 10 of the “most costly” conditions in the US, including osteoarthritis, back problems and asthma.

They printed off the articles on 25 April 2012 to analyse, and discovered that 90% of the entries made statements that contradicted latest medical research.

Lead author Dr Robert Hasty, of the Wallace School of Osteopathic Medicine in North Carolina, said: “While Wikipedia is a convenient tool for conducting research, from a public health standpoint patients should not use it as a primary resource because those articles do not go through the same peer-review process as medical journals.”

Dr Hasty added the “best resource” for people worried about their health was their doctor.

Contact GP ‘first’
Stevie Benton, at Wikimedia UK, said there were a “number of initiatives” in place to help improve the articles, “especially in relation to health and medicine”.

He said the charity had a project to bring together volunteer Wikipedia editors with a medical knowledge to identify articles that need improvement, find credible sources and make entries more “accurate and more readable”.

Mr Benton said Wikipedia was also working with Cancer Research UK to review cancer-related articles by clinical researchers and writers to keep them accurate and up-to-date.

But he added: “However, it is crucial that anybody with concerns over their health contacts their GP as a first point of call. Wikipedia, like any encyclopaedia, should not take the place of a qualified medical practitioner.”

Wikipedia also expressed concern at the small sample size used in the research, as it may not be representative.

The study did not account for Wikipedia leaving out important information.

Source: bbc news

A 39-year-old Santa Cruz woman who has been in a coma for more than 10 weeks gave birth to a healthy baby boy Thursday.

Melissa Carleton, still in a semi-comatose state, gave birth by cesarean section to West Nathaniel Lande at 10:56 a.m. The baby came in at 5 pounds 9 ounces.

“I was just so happy to have a healthy baby, healthy son,” said Brian Lande, Carleton’s husband. “It’s a feeling of immense relief, joy and immense sorrow for Melissa not able to be awake for it.”

The past few months have been filled with anxiety for Lande after Carleton was rushed into emergency surgery to remove a large brain tumor.

“Ten weeks of heartbreak, pain and anxiety not knowing if we get to keep either of our family members,” Lande said.

Lande said he is hopeful Carleton will one day recover to hold their baby. Her prognosis is uncertain.

“I want her to know she did an amazing job, and she loved the baby hard for two months,” he said. “I’m so grateful to her and I miss her. We can now work on getting her to wake up and get back us and be a mom.”

Source: nbc

Fifteen-month-old boy breaks spine and suffers multiple injuries but will live, doctors say

A 15-month-old US boy has survived an 11-story fall from a balcony at his parents’ apartment in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Musa Dayib has been nicknamed “the miracle baby” after escaping death despite slipping through the railing and making a perilous fall.

In addition to fractures to both his arms, his backbone and his ribs, Dayib also suffered a concussion and is breathing through a ventilator. In critical but stable condition, he is expected to survive.

The boy was apparently saved by his soft landing spot, on a mulched area. “If you and I fell that far, we would be dead,” Tina Slusher said from the paediatric intensive care unit at Hennepin County Medical Center, the Star Tribune reported.

“He’s a baby and … they tend to be more flexible and pliable than you and I would be. Having said that, it’s a real gift from God that he made it because this is a huge fall.”

The Tribune said the boy, from the large Somali American community of Minneapolis, fell from his family’s balcony around 8:00pm Sunday.

“When people found out he survived, no one could believe it,” said local community activist Abdirizak Bihi, who spent time at the hospital with the family on Monday. The boy’s uncle Abdirahim Ahmed told NBC television affiliate KARE he was worried about Dayib’s parents.

“I don’t think my brother and his wife will recover from this. They really torture themselves,” he said. Dayib’s mother was running errands nearby while his father watched him and his three-year-old sister. The father was getting something in another room when his daughter ran over and said her brother fell.

“It took place in less than a minute,” Bihi said, adding that it was the daughter who had apparently opened the balcony door. Slusher said it was too early to tell whether Dayib would suffer any long-term complications from his big fall, but he will likely be out of the hospital in weeks or months.

“I expect him to survive,” she said. “It’s amazing.” The apartment building’s owners and managers said the balcony had passed inspection when the 1,303-unit Riverside Plaza underwent a $65 million renovation in 2011-2012.

About half of the units are equipped with balconies. Residents have suggested installing an extra lock or latch to secure the door that opens to the balconies, according to KARE.

Source: telegraph

Living near foreclosed property may increase your risk of higher blood pressure, according to new research in the American Heart Association journal Circulation.

The study provides the first evidence that foreclosed property may affect neighbors’ systolic blood pressure, the top number in a blood pressure reading.

Neighborhood environment is an important social determinant of cardiovascular health, including blood pressure. The scale of the recent U.S. housing crisis has prompted the public health community to seek a better understanding of how foreclosure activity might impact health. The number of foreclosures spiked in the United States in 2007-10 when more than 6 million homeowners fell behind on their mortgages and banks took ownership of the homes, or foreclosed.

Researchers reviewed data from 1,740 participants (mostly white, 53 percent women) in 1987-2008 in the Framingham (Massachusetts) Offspring Cohort, which is part of the Framingham Heart Study. The researchers distinguished between real-estate-owned foreclosures, which are owned by lenders and typically sit vacant, and foreclosures purchased by third-party buyers, which are generally put into productive use.

Researchers found each additional foreclosed property within 100 meters (328 feet) of participants’ homes was associated with an average increase of 1.71 mm Hg in systolic blood pressure. The association only applied to properties that were real-estate owned and there was no effect from foreclosed properties more than 100 meters from participants’ homes.

“The increases in blood pressure observed could be due in part to unhealthy stress from residents’ perception that their own properties are less valuable, their streets less attractive or safe and their neighborhoods less stable,” said Mariana Arcaya, Sc.D., M.C.P., study lead author and Yerby Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies in Cambridge, Mass. “Safety could also be a concern that affects their ability to exercise in these neighborhoods.”

“Healthcare providers, particularly those serving neighborhoods still recovering from the recent housing crisis, should be aware of foreclosure activity as a possible source of unhealthy stress for residents,” Arcaya said.

Because the study involved predominately white, middle-class, suburban neighborhoods with single-family homes, research on different populations in urban and rural settings is needed, Arcaya said.

High blood pressure affects nearly 76 million people in the United States and is a major contributor to heart disease and stroke. Risk factors include genetics, advanced age, poor nutrition and excessive body weight and alcohol consumption. Stress and other factors may also contribute to high blood pressure.

Source: science daily

The 12-year-old girl who was mauled by a raccoon as a baby is back at home after successfully undergoing surgery to create a new ear.

Charlotte Ponce of Spring Lake, Michigan was just three-months-old in 2002 when her young parents left her at home with the pet and she lost her right ear, nose and part of her lip in an attack.  Two years ago, Doctor Kongrit Chaiyasate repaired little Charlotte’s nose and now he’s focusing on giving her a new ear.

 

The raccoon pretty much ate the right side of her face, all the way back to the ear,’ Charlotte’s adoptive mom Sharon Ponce told ‘Now, all she wants is to wear two earrings.’ That dream of pierced ears came closer to reality on April 15, when she underwent a seven-hour surgery to embed lung cartilage, shaped into an ear lobe, into her arm where it will continue to grow until June.   That’s when Charlotte will go under the knife for hopefully the last time as Dr Chaiyaste attaches the cartilage to her ear.

But this last procedure will be the most complex yet, as it is claimed it has only been performed twice before.
Dr Chaiyasate admitted the procedure is not easy and he will only have one chance to get it right, so he has been practicing on a potato.

Dr Chaiyasate, of Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak, Michigan,  ‘As plastic surgeons we need to think outside the box a little bit – what can we do to make a life long reconstruction for her. ‘I’ve been practicing carving potato last weekend using this as a template. It’s not easy.

He said he could not guarantee success, but would try his best.

Charlotte’s adopted mother Sharon Ponce said people from as far as Britain and Australia had contacted the family to tell them what an inspiration the girl has been.

She was just a newborn when her 18-year-old mother and 23-year-old father left her home alone with the pet.
The raccoon was thought to have escaped from its cage after a door was left open when food had been dropped in, and no one was there to save the baby when she was attacked.

Her great-aunt Sharon and great-uncle Tim only found out about the attack with horror when they watched that night’s news bulletin.

They gained custody of Charlotte and her brother Marshall, who was then 15 months old, and they and their friends raised more than $10,000 to help pay for her trips in and out of hospital. Sharon had to quit her job at a daycare center to look after Charlotte after doctors said she would need full time care. Although ears have been made out of ribs before, the method of ‘growing’ the ear inside the forearm is extremely rare.
It has to be done because Charlotte’s ear was so badly damaged that the foundations of an ear structure no longer exist inside her head.

Charlotte previously had a prosthetic ear fitted but it was not an ideal solution and soon became infected and uncomfortable.
Yet despite the enormous damage, there is one miracle. Even before the extensive surgery which will grant her a new quality of life, Charlotte’s hearing has been largely unaffected.

Source: the daily mail