By Marc

Remember I mentioned that at the Health 2.0 conference one of the presenters described how she could leave her crutches behind and experience a completely different life through Second Life? Well, here is the clip that she showed at this meeting, courtesy of Matthew Holt, that provides a tour of her virtual world. Here she is Gentle Heron, the co-founder of the support community, Heron Sanctuary.

BTW — Matt — thanks for organizing the conference.

By Iris Grossman, Communications Director, Johnson & Johnson Consumer Companies

A lot has been said in the blogosphere and elsewhere about a recent study on the presence of phthalates in consumer products, and talking to Marc and Bill, I asked if I could be a guest on JNJBTW to share what the Johnson & Johnson company I work for knows about phthalates. So here goes…

Phthalates are a large family of compounds used in a wide variety of everyday products. However, the Johnson & Johnson Consumer Companies use only one of the many phthalates — diethylphthalate (DEP) – in some of their personal care products as a component of fragrances used in some products.

DEP has been extensively researched and is not linked to reproductive toxicity or endocrine disruption. For instance, both the Cosmetic Ingredient Review (CIR) Expert Panel, an independent, nonprofit panel of scientists and physicians who assess the safety of personal care product ingredients in the U.S., and the Scientific Committee on Consumer Products (SCCP), the body that advises the European Union Commission on safety matters related to cosmetics, have determined DEP to be safe as used.

After reviewing the study that was recently published in the Journal Pediatrics, the medical experts at the Johnson & Johnson Consumer Companies also had some concerns about its design. The study references the presence of seven phthalate compounds, yet only DEP is used in any baby care products. This suggests that most of the phthalates found in the urine samples came from another route of exposure. The Personal Care Products Council also had similar concerns, which they highlighted in a statement yesterday:

By Marc

For Super Tuesday, Amy Tenderich has a very timely Grand Rounds on Diabetes Mine with links to loads of posts about Health 2.0. She introduces the weekly best-in-medical-blogging round-up with a reminder of how things are changing as people apply on-line tools to take greater control of their health care needs:

Whether or not you live in one of the 24 states that cast their votes today, you probably agree that healthcare will be one of the major opportunities –- and major challenges -– for the next White House. Now for the first time in history, policy makers are facing a more outspoken, more organized medical and patient constituency than ever, due to the emergence of social media on the Internet, aka Health 2.0.

By Marc

Antibiotic resistant bacteria is a hot topic these days. Every day seems to bring more stories, and questions are often asked about what’s being done to combat some of the drug resistant strains — the so-called superbugs.

Certainly, drug-resistant bacteria represent a significant risk to human health. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention , about 2 million people acquire bacterial infections in U.S. hospitals each year, and 90,000 die as a result. About 70 percent of those infections are resistant to at least one drug.

One topic being discussed has been about why more treatments aren’t available. In an October article on the subject in BusinessWeek, Catherine Arnst noted that over the past 20 years the number of new antibacterials approved by the FDA has fallen from 16 launched in 1983-87 to just 2 in the past five years. She chalks that trend up to the low financial rewards associated with developing a medicine that is used only once for a few days.

(Hmmm… I can’t really speak for other companies, but I do know that anti-infective medicines have been part of the portfolio of products manufactured by the Johnson & Johnson pharmaceutical companies since I joined back in 1997, and are in the current pipeline of new medicines in development.)

But while it is important that we continue to look for new treatments, medicines aren’t the only way of combating bacterial infections. When talking to my colleagues over at Ortho-McNeil, I found they had some interesting tips we could all follow to help combat the rise of antibiotic resistance:

1) Don’t take an antibiotic for viral infections like a cold or the flu

2) Discuss your symptoms fully with your doctor

3) Take the antibiotic exactly as prescribed

4) Take the entire supply of antibiotics, even if you feel better (That means you, mom and dad)

5) Don’t take old antibiotics and don’t save unused antibiotics for the next time you get sick

6) Don’t take an antibiotic that’s prescribed for someone else.