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A.
A Simple Communication Technique Improves Diabetes
Management
Narrator:
This is Science Today. A simple communication technique
may be key to improving the health outcomes of patients
with diabetes. Dr. Dean Shillinger led a recent
University of California, San Francisco study, which
found that doctors who engaged in what's called
a 'teach-back' method made more of an impact with
their patients.
Shillinger:
In a health care setting, the idea is that at some
point during the visit, the physician could sort
of say, OK, Mrs. Jones - we've decided to make these
changes with your medications. Let me just be clear
in my instructions, when you go home today, how
are you going to take your medications?
Narrator:
But Shillinger says their study found this method
is underused.
Shillinger:
Most studies of doctor-patient communications
I have to say, we doctors tend not to perform up
to snuff and I think that's a manifestation of the
multiple, competing demands that we have to do in
a context of a fifteen or twenty minute visit. That
said though, I think that it's really well worth
the effort - what we're trying to do is manage a
person's chronic condition in this case and in other
situations, their acute conditions.
Narrator:
For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
B.
The Life Expectancy Gap Between Races and Education
Levels
Narrator:
This is Science Today. For the first time, researchers
have identified and ranked diseases that contribute
most to the life expectancy gap between races and
education levels. Mitchell Wong, an assistant professor
of medicine at UCLA, led the study.
Wong: We did a comparison looking
at blacks and whites and we also compared those who
had more education versus those who had less education.
We found that the diseases that contributed most to
the black-white disparity were hypertension, number
one, followed by HIV and then followed by diabetes
and homicide. When you compare those who have less
or more education, all the diseases that contributed
most were actually smoking-related diseases.
Narrator:
While
previous studies confirmed there were racial and educational
disparities, Wong says this study identified how much
of a difference there was and then ranked the different
diseases.
Wong:
We think the implications for this really are on a
public health level, perhaps at a governmental level
we could say, well these are the areas that we should
really be focusing more resources on.
Narrator: For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
C.
The Potential for Asteroids and Comets to Hit Earth
Narrator:
This is Science Today. Most people associate a comet
or an asteroid hitting Earth with the extinction of
the dinosaurs, but they don't think of themselves
as a potential target. Greg Aldering, an astrophysicist
at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, says
that your chances of getting hit are actually not
that trivial.
Aldering:
Averaged over the long term of civilization, your
risk of dying due to the impact of an asteroid or
comet is comparable to your chances of dying flying
on a jet airplane.
Narrator:
Aldering says that the shockwave from the impact would
be similar to a nuclear bomb exploding over a city
- a threat significant enough to get the government
involved in tracking and predicting asteroid and comet
explosions.
Aldering:
There's actually a mandate from Congress to try to
find all of these objects that threaten Earth. Now
there'll be some smaller ones that will take a long
time to find because they're very small really. But
the larger ones can be found. And it's a waiting game
in part, because even those are fairly faint unless
they come somewhat near Earth.
Narrator:
For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
D.
Researchers Strive to Ease Morphine Addiction
Narrator:
This is Science Today. People who suffer from chronic
pain usually have bigger problems than morphine addiction.
Many have cancer or other debilitating illnesses.
But when these patients try to stop taking the drugs
that relieve their pain, they often suffer physical
withdrawal. Dr. Jennifer Whistler of the University
of California, San Francisco, leads a team of researchers
who may have found a way to ease the transition.
Whistler:
We think that the kind of tolerance that you develop
to morphine is going to go hand-in-hand with dependence.
By dependence I mean physical dependence-whereby you're
going to show signs of withdrawal.
Narrator:
Morphine
dependence worsens as the dosage is increased. Because
patients tend to build a tolerance for morphine, long-term
users end up taking high doses of the drug. Whistler
found that using a tiny amount of another opiate,
like methadone, with the morphine, prevented test
rats from becoming tolerant of the drug.
Whistler:
And if that's true, hopefully that will be true
for patients as well. Even at a single dose you may
be able to prevent some of the physical signs of withdrawal
from the drug.
Narrator:
For
Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
E.
Minor Changes in Fuel Efficiency May Have Major Results
in the Third World
Narrator:
This is Science Today. Making minor adjustments in
the fuel efficiency of automobiles could result in
major changes for the third world poor. Kirk Smith,
a professor of environmental health sciences at the
University of California, Berkeley, calculates that
a half a percent annual increase in the efficiency
of every car could provide the petroleum needed to
supply fossil fuels for cooking in all poor households.
Smith:
So that even after ten years it would only be about
a one mile per gallon increase in the efficiency,
well within economic and technical capabilities.
Narrator:
Smith adds that the current movement towards hybrid
or electric cars is a step in the right direction.
Smith:
More high-efficient cars in the short-term, vehicles
and other uses of petroleum, and in the long-term
vehicles that don't require release of carbon, maybe
not even use combustion at all. These kinds of technologies
are definitely possible, but do have to be encouraged
by policies, and taxes, and subsidies and research.
Narrator:
Smith
is currently working to promote the use of fossil
fuels for heating and cooking in rural Guatemala.
For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
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