Quotulatiousness

February 22, 2011

Iatrogenic hypertension

Filed under: Bureaucracy, Health — Tags: , — Nicholas @ 12:17

It’s possible that millions of people are on high blood pressure medication today who don’t really need to be:

Currently, anyone suspected of having high blood pressure is diagnosed by a GP with an inflatable arm cuff. Doctors then call the patient back for additional readings, but these are always taken at their surgery or in hospital.

New draft guidance to be published today by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice) says as many as one in four people experiences a surging pulse rate on entering a GP’s surgery.

This nervous response, termed “white coat hypertension”, can significantly raise blood pressure readings and many people are being misdiagnosed as a result.

To counter this, Nice is recommending that doctors do not rely solely on readings taken in their own surgeries. After the initial assessment, a patient should be sent home and asked to wear an ambulatory blood pressure monitoring (ABPM) device.

A suspicious mind might wonder if there’s a financial benefit to drug companies large enough to have them pressure physicians to diagnose high blood pressure even in people whose readings are not far off normal.

H/T to Eric Kirkland for the link.

Former UK Home Secretary shocked to discover the internet awash in porn

Filed under: Britain, Government, Law, Liberty — Tags: , , , — Nicholas @ 07:52

The amusing thing is that she lead a major effort to suppress “extreme porn” while in office:

Former Home Secretary Jacqui Smith has professed herself “shocked” at the availability of porn on the internet after investigating the issue for a radio documentary.

Which raises the question of what exactly she thought she was cracking down on during her time in charge of law and order.

[. . .]

Smith told the Radio Times that during her research for the documentary, she had been “shocked” to discover how much hard-core material was washing around the net. And so much of it for absolutely no cost at all.

She admitted that after the pay-per-view smut scandal had broken, her son had said: “Dad, haven’t you heard of the internet?” Smith was also shocked by a visit to the Erotica exhibition, where confronted by the likes of the Monkey Spanker and artisan-built bondage furniture, “I felt completely innocent.

That Smith was ignorant of the amount of porn available on the internet seems incredible, given that during her time in government Labour cracked down hard on “extreme porn”. Smith’s Home Office also sought to clamp down on extremism on the internet, and to track all the UK’s browsing habits via a vast uber-database, the Interception Modernisation Programme. Surely some her staff might have noticed there’s lots of smut out there as well?

A tale for our times

Filed under: Bureaucracy, Humour — Tags: , — Nicholas @ 07:25

Jon, my former virtual landlord, sent along this link:

A modern Romance novel
He grasped me firmly but gently just above my elbow and guided me into a room, his room. Then he quietly shut the door and we were alone. He approached me soundlessly, from behind, and spoke in a low, reassuring voice close to my ear. “Just relax.”

Read the whole thing.

New Zealand struck by major earthquake

Filed under: Environment, Pacific — Tags: , — Nicholas @ 07:23

This quake has inflicted severe damage on downtown Christchurch, with 65 reported dead as of this morning, and the death toll almost certain to rise. The Wall Street Journal is running constant updates to this article as further news becomes available. TVNZ is also running a live feed.


Click to go to the live update page

Australia has offered whatever aid they can provide:

Australia’s Prime Minister Julia Gillard has told a press conference that Australia will give New Zealand whatever it needs to deal with the aftermath of the earthquake. She says she told her New Zealand counterpart, John Key, “anything you want that we’ve got we will get it to you.”

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