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Recognizing 'Intoxication'
One well-known and often deadly consequence of alcohol intoxication is impaired driving. Yet still today, it is difficult for even trained observers to fully identify "intoxication," given that so many factors contribute to it. This review examines the very definition of intoxication, as well as methods designed to prevent impaired driving.
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Troubled Waters: Low Apalachicola River Flow May Hurt Gulf Fisheries
Reductions in the flow of the Apalachicola River have far-reaching effects that could prove detrimental to grouper and other reef fish populations in the northeastern Gulf of Mexico, according to a new Florida State University study that may provide new ammunition for states engaged in a nearly two-decade water war.
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Protecting The Heart With Glucocorticoid Drugs
Glucocorticoids are steroid hormones that have numerous functions; for example, they regulate the response to stress and suppress inflammation. Synthetic glucocorticoids are used clinically in many situations, most famously to treat asthma, allergies, and autoimmunity. They have also been shown in animals and humans to help protect the heart from the damaging effects of heart attack, and this has been attributed to their anti-inflammatory effects. However, Motoaki Sano and colleagues, at Keio University School of Medicine, Japan, have now determined another mechanism by which glucocorticoids protect rodent hearts from the damaging effects of heart attack. Specifically, glucocorticoids, acting via the glucocorticoid receptor (GR), induced mouse and rat heart muscle cells to produce PGD2, and this was responsible for the ability of glucocorticoids to reduce damage to mouse hearts in both an ex vivo and an in vivo model of heart attack. The authors therefore suggest that GR-selective glucocorticoids might be more beneficial to humans following heart attack than glucocorticoids that activate both GR and the MR protein, activation of which occurs in response to stress and might have unwanted consequences.
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Drugstores Group Sues Delaware Over Medicaid Cutbacks

Walgreen Co."s member organization in Delaware has "filed a suit against the state to put a stop to Medicaid rate cuts" just one week after "Walgreens announced it will stop filling prescriptions of brand-name medications for patients on Medicaid" in Delaware, the News Journal reports. The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court by the National Community Pharmacists Association and the National Association of Chain Drug Stores, whose members include Rite Aid, CVS, Wal-Mart and Target, in addition to Walgreens. The groups say "the new rates will lead to more pharmacies closing their doors to Medicaid clients. Gov. Jack Markell, D-Del., "said in a statement that the suit will not intimidate his administration into paying Walgreens higher reimbursement rates." A similar suit was filed in Washington state after the government announced a plan to cut reimbursement rates for brand-name prescriptions. The state "renegotiated a different rate" after a federal judge "temporarily suspended the plan" (Ratnayake, 6/12). Meanwhile, Time reports that "in the past decade, more and more pharmacies like CVS and Walgreens, supermarkets such as Kroger and Publix and big-box stores like Wal-Mart have made space for clinics that treat minor ailments, administer vaccines and examine kids who need medical forms to enroll in camp." The retail health clinics often provide cheap treatment for the uninsured and quick service for those who can"t get an appointment with a regular physician. The clinics are also money-makers for the drug stores. "Doctors have emerged as the biggest critics of the new trend, because they fear that patients will visit clinics for the treatment of minor ailments, a major of doctor revenue, and they "will be left with only complicated cases that yield less profit." "In 2007, the American Medical Association called for an investigation into retail clinics, arguing that the drugstores, which position clinics directly adjacent to pharmacies, have a conflict of interest" (Pickert, 6/11). This information was reprinted from kaiserhealthnews.org with kind permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives and sign up for email delivery at kaiserhealthnews.org. © Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.


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