Feb 14, 2025 05:18 PM
(This post was last modified: Feb 15, 2025 08:36 AM by C C.)
Is it a good idea to pee when you don't need to?
https://www.sciencenorway.no/body/is-it-...to/2463386
INTRO: According to researcher Anne Cathrine Staff, we should not pee when we don't actually need to. She is a professor of obstetrics and gynaecology at the University of Oslo and has previously researched urinary and anal incontinence in pregnant women.
She says that at the very least, we should not do it too frequently. If you do, your bladder can become accustomed to being emptied more often than necessary. Over time, the bladder becomes less elastic, which means the urge to pee comes before the bladder is actually full.
This leads to a vicious circle: You have to urinate more and more frequently because you have trained your bladder to empty itself without being full. [...] An overactive bladder is characterised by a strong or sudden urge to urinate, especially at night, and it affects both women and men.
However, it is more common in women. Up to 30 per cent of women over the age of 65 experience it, compared to 20 per cent of men. "The cause may be unknown or linked to infections, such as bacterial infections and cystitis," says Skålhegg. [...] In men, an enlarged prostate may be the cause.
"Regular bladder training is recommended for those with an overactive bladder," he says... (MORE - details)
'Ineffective' generic drugs fuel rare public anger in China
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ceve1xpdjxro
EXCERPTS: Public anger in China over concerns raised by doctors that generic drugs used in public hospitals are increasingly ineffective has led to a rare response from the government. Doctors say they believe the country's drug procurement system, which incentivises the use of cheap generic drugs over original brand-name pharmaceuticals, has led to costs being cut at the expense of people's safety.
But officials, quoted by multiple state media outlets on Sunday, say the issue is one of perception rather than reality. One report said different people simply had different reactions to medicines and that claims about them being ineffective had "mostly come from people's anecdotes and subjective feelings".
The official response has done little to allay public fears over the reputation of drugs in public hospitals and pharmacies. It is the latest challenge to a healthcare system that is already under enormous strain because of a rapidly ageing population.
[...] The debate surrounding the use of generic drugs began in December, when authorities announced the list of nearly 200 companies that had won contracts to sell medicines to Chinese state hospitals. Almost all were domestic makers of generic pharmaceuticals.
[...] Some of the most popular posts discussing the procurement controversy have been taken down, though it is unclear by whom. China's heavily monitored internet has a strong culture of censorship by both authorities and users themselves. ... Public anger has also been focussed on the difficulties of accessing imported drugs that people believe to be of better quality.
[...] "The manufacturers that win the bids often set prices so low that they may struggle to produce high quality drugs with the correct ingredients, potentially leading to ineffective medications," Stacy Zhang, associate professor at NYU Langone Health, told the BBC. She added that while the procurement system "was not designed to restrict access to imported brand-name drugs", it may still have "affected their accessibility".
[...] Adding to quality concerns are counterfeit drugs, which have seeped into both generic and brand-name drugs markets across the world and are notoriously difficult to detect. The World Health Organization has described this a global health problem.
[...] The controversy comes at a time when China's healthcare system is already under mounting pressure. A rapidly ageing population has meant that the country's total health expenditure has increased nearly 20-fold over the last 20 years, reaching 9 trillion yuan ($1.25 trillion; £1 trillion) in 2023.
Across the country, public medical insurance funds are running thin. Deficits have already appeared in some provinces, where local governments that had relied heavily on land sales for revenue are now struggling with debt as a real estate crisis engulfs China's economy.
At the same time, the healthcare system has been experiencing a trust crisis. Violent attacks against medical staff have risen since the 2000s, fuelled by anger at the lack of resources and an erosion of faith in doctors.
[...] As one Weibo user argued, the savings from lower drug prices are but "a drop in a bucket" of China's national healthcare costs. On the other hand, they wrote, allowing potentially defective drugs to be widely used is akin to "drinking poison to quench thirst"... (MORE - missing details)
https://www.sciencenorway.no/body/is-it-...to/2463386
INTRO: According to researcher Anne Cathrine Staff, we should not pee when we don't actually need to. She is a professor of obstetrics and gynaecology at the University of Oslo and has previously researched urinary and anal incontinence in pregnant women.
She says that at the very least, we should not do it too frequently. If you do, your bladder can become accustomed to being emptied more often than necessary. Over time, the bladder becomes less elastic, which means the urge to pee comes before the bladder is actually full.
This leads to a vicious circle: You have to urinate more and more frequently because you have trained your bladder to empty itself without being full. [...] An overactive bladder is characterised by a strong or sudden urge to urinate, especially at night, and it affects both women and men.
However, it is more common in women. Up to 30 per cent of women over the age of 65 experience it, compared to 20 per cent of men. "The cause may be unknown or linked to infections, such as bacterial infections and cystitis," says Skålhegg. [...] In men, an enlarged prostate may be the cause.
"Regular bladder training is recommended for those with an overactive bladder," he says... (MORE - details)
'Ineffective' generic drugs fuel rare public anger in China
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ceve1xpdjxro
EXCERPTS: Public anger in China over concerns raised by doctors that generic drugs used in public hospitals are increasingly ineffective has led to a rare response from the government. Doctors say they believe the country's drug procurement system, which incentivises the use of cheap generic drugs over original brand-name pharmaceuticals, has led to costs being cut at the expense of people's safety.
But officials, quoted by multiple state media outlets on Sunday, say the issue is one of perception rather than reality. One report said different people simply had different reactions to medicines and that claims about them being ineffective had "mostly come from people's anecdotes and subjective feelings".
The official response has done little to allay public fears over the reputation of drugs in public hospitals and pharmacies. It is the latest challenge to a healthcare system that is already under enormous strain because of a rapidly ageing population.
[...] The debate surrounding the use of generic drugs began in December, when authorities announced the list of nearly 200 companies that had won contracts to sell medicines to Chinese state hospitals. Almost all were domestic makers of generic pharmaceuticals.
[...] Some of the most popular posts discussing the procurement controversy have been taken down, though it is unclear by whom. China's heavily monitored internet has a strong culture of censorship by both authorities and users themselves. ... Public anger has also been focussed on the difficulties of accessing imported drugs that people believe to be of better quality.
[...] "The manufacturers that win the bids often set prices so low that they may struggle to produce high quality drugs with the correct ingredients, potentially leading to ineffective medications," Stacy Zhang, associate professor at NYU Langone Health, told the BBC. She added that while the procurement system "was not designed to restrict access to imported brand-name drugs", it may still have "affected their accessibility".
[...] Adding to quality concerns are counterfeit drugs, which have seeped into both generic and brand-name drugs markets across the world and are notoriously difficult to detect. The World Health Organization has described this a global health problem.
[...] The controversy comes at a time when China's healthcare system is already under mounting pressure. A rapidly ageing population has meant that the country's total health expenditure has increased nearly 20-fold over the last 20 years, reaching 9 trillion yuan ($1.25 trillion; £1 trillion) in 2023.
Across the country, public medical insurance funds are running thin. Deficits have already appeared in some provinces, where local governments that had relied heavily on land sales for revenue are now struggling with debt as a real estate crisis engulfs China's economy.
At the same time, the healthcare system has been experiencing a trust crisis. Violent attacks against medical staff have risen since the 2000s, fuelled by anger at the lack of resources and an erosion of faith in doctors.
[...] As one Weibo user argued, the savings from lower drug prices are but "a drop in a bucket" of China's national healthcare costs. On the other hand, they wrote, allowing potentially defective drugs to be widely used is akin to "drinking poison to quench thirst"... (MORE - missing details)
