Tag: Harvard University

Girls who drink more sugar-sweetened drinks may cause their menstruation to start earlier

Sugary drinks linked to earlier onset of menstrual periods

Girls who drink more sugary drinks start their periods earlier, study suggests. Image via doommeer.

Two days ago, we reported that puberty comes earlier for girls, thanks to EDCs and phthalates exposure. According to another research. girls who frequently consume sugary drinks also tend to start their menstrual periods earlier than girls who do not, The findings are important not only because of the growing problem of childhood obesity in a number of developed countries, but also because starting periods earlier is linked to an increased risk of breast cancer later in life.

Harvard Medical School researchers found that the girls who drank more than 1.5 daily servings of sugar-added drinks (not fruit juices) started their periods an average of 2.7 months earlier than girls who had been drinking fewer than two servings of such drinks a week. This should not be overlooked, because unlike most other predictors of a girl’s age at her first period, sugar-sweetened drinks consumption is something people can change,

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Institutional Corruption and the Pharmaceutical Industry

Certain practices have corrupted medical research, the practice of medicine and drug safety

Introduction:

Today, the goals of pharmaceutical policy and medical practice are often undermined due to institutional corruption — that is, widespread or systemic practices, usually legal, that undermine an institution’s objectives or integrity. We will see that the pharmaceutical industry’s own purposes are often undermined. In addition, pharmaceutical industry funding of election campaigns and lobbying skews the legislative process that sets pharmaceutical policy. Moreover, certain practices have corrupted medical research, the production of medical knowledge, the practice of medicine, drug safety, and the Food and Drug Administration’s oversight of pharmaceutical marketing. As a result, practitioners may think they are using reliable information to engage in sound medical practice while actually relying on misleading information and therefore prescribe drugs that are unnecessary or harmful to patients, or more costly than equivalent medications. At the same time, patients and the public may believe that patient advocacy organizations effectively represent their interests while these organizations actually neglect their interests.

Harvard University Articles:

JLME Issue on Institutional Corruption and the Pharmaceutical Industry
Today, the goals of pharmaceutical policy and medical practice are often undermined due to institutional corruption — that is, widespread or systemic practices, usually legal, that undermine an institution’s objectives or integrity.

The Edmond J. Safra Center put together 16 articles that investigate the corruption of pharmaceutical policy, each taking a different look at the sources of corruption, how it occurs and what is corrupted. The articles address five topics:

  1. systemic problems,
  2. medical research,
  3. medical knowledge and practice,
  4. marketing,
  5. and patient advocacy organizations.

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