geoffrey modest medical blogs

  A recent study found that vitamin D supplementation was associated with less telomere shortening, which could foretell deceasing aging effects and associated severe diseases, in a pre-publication paper (see   vit d longer telomeres  AmJClinNut2025  in dropbox, or DOI:   10.1016/j.ajcnut.2025.05.003 )   Details : -- this current study was part of the VITAL study (Vitamin D and Omega-3 trial), a large, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial with a 2x2 factorial design of vitamin D 3  2000IU/d (equivalent to 50mcg) and/or marine n-3 fatty acids (n-3 FAs)  1 gm/d  for 5 years. randomization was from 2011 to 2014, with intervention until the end of 2017 -- the overall study included 25,871 US females aged at least 55yo and males aged at least 50yo -- the VITAL Telomere study, which included 1054 participants, was designed to assess the effect of these supplements on leukocyte telomere length (LTL)     -- LTL was assess...

front page article in NY Times on excessive (extortive) costs of medical equipment/meds (see  http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/06/health/even-small-medical-advances-can-mean-big-jumps-in-bills.html?hp  ). from my extrapolation (pretty crude) of their graph, between 1987 and 2008, outpatient costs have stayed flat at about $750, inpatient costs have gone down a bit from $1550 to $1400, while prescription drugs increased from $450 to $2200. the article highlights type 1 diabetes and insulin pump therapy, though mentions the dramatic increase in costs for rheumatoid arthritis, etc [on that note, it was a great pleasure sending out the blog on rheum arthritis drugs last june -- will append to end of this blog]. they highlight a woman with an insulin pump. cost of pump $26,400. her cost after insurance $4224. monitor probes at $100 and need to be replaced every 6 days, disposable tubing replaceable every 3 days, 10 or so teststrips (which can be $1.50/strip),  and insulin wh...