Tired of Water

You already know that drinking water is key to your health. Downing at least six cups of water daily can minimize bloating, prevent headaches, help prevent you from getting sick and smooth the appearance of wrinkles. It may even temporarily rev your metabolism, if you drink it on the cool side (72 degrees). That's a lot of benefit from a beverage you don't even have to pay for! But H20 isn't the only sip that can safeguard your health. Coffee, which some people accuse me of being addicted to, is basically liquid gold. It may lower your risk for Alzheimer's and Parkinson's, breast cancer, skin cancer, diabetes, gallstones, even oral cancer. P.S., java drinkers make half as many errors in daily life compared with decaf fans, according to a study from Cardiff University in Wales, because caffeine helps you process information quickly. It's also linked to a reduced risk for depression. Those pit stops at Starbucks aren't just perking me up—they're protecting every part of me! Not a java junkie? Read on to learn the hidden health bennies of your favorite bevy: Orange juice guards against heart disease. Antioxidants in OJ help protect your ticker by fighting the inflammation that can cause blood vessel damage. Consider this: People who ate fast food with a glass of orange juice had fewer artery-harming free radicals in their blood afterward than those who had their burger and fries with water, a study in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition indicates. Isn't that a great reason to choose juice? Just watch the sugars—one cup contains 21 grams and 122 calories. Chamomile tea can keep you calm. People who downed chamomile extract daily for two months felt significantly less anxious, a study from the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia reports. Ease into mellow mode at night with a cup of chamomile tea. Cranberry juice may prevent gum disease and urinary tract infections. Natural compounds in the juice may ward off gum disease by preventing bacteria from adhering to the teeth below the gum line. Cranberry juice also delivers 39 percent of the daily value for vitamin C per 8 ounces, raises levels of good cholesterol and keeps your urinary tract tip-top. A berry smart sip indeed! Chocolate milk keeps your abs flat. A glass of skim chocolate milk delivers a great combo of carbs and protein, helping you recover after a workout. Athletes who drank it post-workout had lower levels of muscle damage after four days of intense exercising than those who guzzled water or other recovery drinks, according to findings presented at the American College of Sports Medicine meeting in Seattle. That translates to less soreness and fatigue, so you can get back to the gym and those tummy-toning planks sooner. Simply stir 2 tablespoons of cocoa powder or syrup that has less than 20 g sugar into your milk and sip. Green tea may keep your weight steady. Mice that exercised and drank green tea were 22 percent less likely to gain weight than those who only exercised or only had tea, according to a study in the International Journal of Obesity. Polyphenols in the drink may rev your metabolism and make it easier for your body to fry fat. Plus, the tea's plentiful stash of antioxidants slashes your risk for cancer and heart disease. Try it iced in summer! Tomato juice may lower your cancer risk! The scarlet sip is loaded with vitamins and lycopene, which protect you against cancer. Try it with spices, a celery stalk and no vodka for a cocktail any time of day! Black tea may help fend off skin cancer. The classic brew is loaded with flavonoids, antioxidants that carry anticancer perks. Research suggests that downing a cup or more of tea a day may lower risk for squamous cell carcinoma, a type of skin cancer, by 30 percent. Hot or iced, black tea is a delicious addition to your skin care regimen—and a lovely way to wake up thanks to its caffeine content—so put on the kettle each morning!

Health Care

Health Care

If you're a parent and get bad news from the doctor, your first question may be, "Am I going to live?" But the second is probably, "What do I tell my kids?"

For most people, the honest answer is, "Not a thing." A dire diagnosis takes your breath and your words away. It's a reaction that's natural, understandable, even wise. But silence shouldn't be your final answer—because it won't protect your children.

"From a very young age, children are attuned to their parents' moods," says Paula Rauch, MD, founder of Parenting at a Challenging Time, a counseling service at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston that helps moms and dads discuss illness with their children. "They sense your worry even if you don't actually voice it.

"Our culture severely underestimates how many families are living with serious illness," adds Rauch, an assistant professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. "One in three women with breast cancer has children under 18. These days, people are able to live longer with chronic diseases, and they're having children later in life. Everyone needs to know how to talk to kids about illness. Everyone."

8 Superfoods that pack a disease-fighting punch.

Here's what to say—and what to avoid—to help your child feel safer during a scary time.

You: Have a health test coming up, and the results may not be good.

DO: Keep your kids in the loop. Let your child know that planned tests are making you nervous. Kids relate to dreading a doctor's visit—that makes it easier to communicate how you feel without unduly worrying them. You might say: "You've probably noticed that I've been coughing. Dr. Bailey wants me to get some tests. As soon as I find out what's what, Dad and I will let you know."

DON'T: Allow your children to find out about your worries by overhearing you. The worst way to hear about something is to overhear it, says Rauch. You won't be able to give your child any context—and she's likely to assume that something that can't be spoken about directly must be very scary.

You: Receive a frightening diagnosis.

DO: Start by sharing the simple stuff. Tell your child the name of your illness and the tests you're having—then let her guide the talk. "You can flood a kid with details and do nothing but muddy the waters," says Rauch. "Find out your child's worries and address them."

30 Ways to help cancer-proof your life.

DO: Look for fears behind the questions. Often, a child is frightened at the thought of being left on her own, says Dan Gottlieb, PhD, a Philadelphia-based family therapist and host of the public radio program Voices in the Family. "When my wife was diagnosed with malignant melanoma, my daughters were both under 5," Gottlieb says. "We told them, 'Mommy has a disease called cancer in her leg, and she's going to need lots of treatment for it.' The first question the girls asked was, 'Who will take care of us?' We laid that out very carefully. The second was: 'Will Mommy die?' We told them, 'We don't know, but we hope the treatments will make her better.' That was enough to make them feel better." DON'T: Use a euphemism. Vague language can confuse a child. "Name the illness as best as you can, no matter what the child's age," says Rauch. "If it's breast cancer, call it that—not a lump or a boo-boo." DON'T: Say "You shouldn't worry." "You may be trying to protect your children," says Gottlieb, "but 'don't worry' tells them not to feel what they're feeling." Get a dialogue going by asking for questions. You don't have to answer right away—if you're stumped or not ready for a discussion, say you need to think about it or consult someone before getting back to them. Then do just that. You: Want to talk about it; your child doesn't. DO: Seek situations in which the pressure's off. If your kids tend to open up when you're driving them to the mall, make that a priority. When your child does ask a question, don't pounce. If you're doing the dishes, continue to scrub instead of facing him. Emotions can feel more manageable when a speaker and listener aren't looking at each other, experts say.

DON'T: Clam up entirely. If your child doesn't want to engage in a back-and-forth, give news bulletins: "Dad may go to Baltimore to see another doctor, and I didn't want you to overhear us talking about it." You: Broke down when you were telling your child about your condition, and now you're worried she's terrified. DO: Put your tears into context. "Some people cry about lots of things," says Rauch. "If this describes you, just remind your children that when you get upset, you cry." If you never cry, give kids new perspective. You might confide: "There are days when I feel really down about this, but crying actually makes me feel better." "It's a chance to show your kids that no one's happy all the time—especially when hard stuff is going on," Rauch says. "And also, that people can cry and not break." 12 Myths about breast cancer. DON'T: Hold yourself to an impossible standard. "If you had to have knee replacement surgery, you wouldn't expect yourself to say, all smiles, 'Guess what—I'm going to have my knee replaced!'" says Rauch. "But with a grim diagnosis, people often do—and it isn't possible." It isn't authentic, either. Kids want words that match emotions. You: Feel overwhelmed by your own fears. DON'T: Miss the opportunity to let your kids lead you. "Many adults tell me what a huge role their children play in helping them cope with their illness," says Rauch—not just as a distraction but as a model. "It's often hard for adults in the midst of dire situations to grasp that they can do something to make things a little better"—take a walk, play a game, watch a movie. Kids understand that. Let them remind you.

The Medical research

The Medical research

Biomedical research (or experimental medicine), in general simply known as medical research, is the basic research, applied research, or translational research conducted to aid and support the body of knowledge in the field of medicine. Medical research can be divided into two general categories: the evaluation of new treatments for both safety and efficacy in what are termed clinical trials, and all other research that contributes to the development of new treatments. The latter is termed preclinical research if its goal is specifically to elaborate knowledge for the development of new therapeutic strategies. A new paradigm to biomedical research is being termed translational research, which focuses on iterative feedback loops between the basic and clinical research domains to accelerate knowledge translation from the bedside to the bench, and back again.

The increased longevity of humans over the past century can be significantly attributed to advances resulting from medical research. Among the major benefits have been vaccines for measles and polio, insulin treatment for diabetes, classes of antibiotics for treating a host of maladies, medication for high blood pressure, improved treatments for AIDS, statins and other treatments for atherosclerosis, new surgical techniques such as microsurgery, and increasingly successful treatments for cancer. New, beneficial tests and treatments are expected as a result of the human genome project. Many challenges remain, however, including the appearance of antibiotic resistance and the obesity epidemic.

Most of the research in the field is pursued by biomedical scientists in cooperation with

Preclinical research is research in basic science, which precedes the clinical trials, and is almost purely based on theory and animal experiments. Much of these experiments involve preclinical imaging modalities to aid in vivo, longitudinal studies.

New treatments come about as a result of other, earlier discoveries — often unconnected to each other, and in various fields. Sometimes the research is done for non-medical purposes, and only by accident contributes to the field of medicine (for example, the discovery of penicillin). Clinicians use these discoveries to create a treatment regimen, which is then tested in clinical trials.

Research funding in many countries comes from research bodies which distribute money for equipment and salaries. In the UK, funding bodies such as the Medical Research Council derive their assets from UK tax payers, and distribute this to institutions in a competitive manner.

In the United States, the most recent data from 2003[2] suggest that about 94 billion dollars were provided for biomedical research in the United States. The National Institutes of Health and pharmaceutical companies collectively contribute 26.4 billion dollars and 27.0 billion dollars, respectively, which constitute 28% and 29% of the total, respectively. Other significant contributors include biotechnology companies (17.9 billion dollars, 19% of total), medical device companies (9.2 billion dollars, 10% of total), other federal sources, and state and local governments. Foundations and charities, led by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, contributed about 3% of the funding.

In Australia, medical research is funded mostly by the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC), whose expenditure on research was nearly $AUD700 million in 2008-09.[3]

The enactment of orphan drug legislation in some countries has increased funding available to develop drugs meant to treat rare conditions, resulting in breakthroughs that previously were uneconomical to pursue.

Medical research is highly regulated. National regulatory authorities oversee and monitor medical research, such as for the development of new drugs. In the USA the Food and Drug Administration oversees new drug development, in Europe the European Medicines Agency (see also EudraLex), and in Japan the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (Japan). The World Medical Association develops the ethical standards for the medical profession, involved in medical research. The International Conference on Harmonisation of Technical Requirements for Registration of Pharmaceuticals for Human Use (ICH) works on the creation of rules and guidelines for the development of new medication, such as the guidelines for Good Clinical Practice (GCP). All ideas of regulation are based on a country's ethical standards code. This is why treatment of a particular disease in one country may not be allowed, but is in another.

In 2001, the editors of 12 major journals issued a joint editorial, published in each journal, on the control over clinical trials exerted by sponsors, particularly targeting the use of contracts which allow sponsors to review the studies prior to publication and withhold publication. They strengthened editorial restrictions to counter the effect. The editorial noted that contract research organizations had, by 2000, received 60% of the grants from pharmaceutical companies in the U.S. Researchers may be restricted from contributing to the trial design, accessing the raw data, and interpreting the results.

Brazilian Women's Beauty Secrets

Brazilian Women's Beauty Secrets

By Petti Lubis, Lutfi Dwi Puji Astuti

Brazilian woman famous for its exotic beauty. Smooth tanned skin and sexy curves characterize the posture of most women of Brazil.

Curious to know the secret? Brazil women's beauty rituals practiced the following, as quoted from page Modernmom.com:

Babassu oil

Babassu oil derives a lot of trees grown in Brazil. From the nutritional content, babassu oil similar to coconut oil. However, according to some studies this oil states have overcome the popularity of palm oil.

At room temperature, this oil has a semi-solid form which melts when applied to the body. If applied to the body's cooling sensation on the skin feels cool. Wonders of this oil is effective when applied to dry skin types. This oil can moisturize without making the skin look oily.

Warm sand

Lying on warm sand, as is often done Brazilian woman, could create an exotic brown skin color. Brazilian woman who liked to the beach often do this beauty ritual. They often rub gently sand beach while sunbathing or after swimming at the beach.

In some spas in Brazil has a skin care with a special sand.

Hair straightening techniques

Despite its exotic face and skin color, Brazilian women have a hereditary problem about hair. Many of those who have the kind of unruly hair.

To overcome this, an expert on Brazilian hair straightening hair to create a popular technique called, 'Escova Progressiva'. As reported by one of the leading women's magazine, Elle, this technique will 'refine' curly hair. Because this process uses keratin, hair damage that may occur due to this technique is more minimal than other hair straightening techniques, according to Mark Garrison, owner of the famous salons in New York, USA.

Special fruit juice

Brazilian women routinely drank a mixture of carrot and beet juice for the health of their skin. Beet juice, in particular, whether to accelerate blood circulation, which could have a positive effect on skin beauty.

VIVAnews

Danger Work Being Mad

Danger Work Being Mad

By Petti Lubis, Mutia Nugraheni

All this time you may work with enthusiasm to achieve a certain success. Both the rising salaries, bonuses, or career paths to reach higher. However, if your system does not work regularly, every day of overtime and did not make time to rest, when you achieve career success, it can worsen health.

"Many people push themselves to living with an unhealthy pursuit of success. However, high work pressure and long working hours, can lead one into serious health problems can even shorten life," said George Griffing, MD, professor of internal medicine Saint Louis University, Philippines, quoted by the Times Of India.

Many of the health dangers that lurk if you're a workaholic. Not only physical health problems but also psychological. Here are six issues that arise when a person becomes a workaholic.

Forgot relax

Stress due to work in a particular grade was good enough to 'force' you to keep working and motivated. However, if left and you forget how to pamper yourself, life will only be covered with stress. Your emotions became unstable.

Can not enjoy food

Food as good as any you will not be able to enjoy if taken in front of the computer, holding a conference call or completing a deadline. People who tend to be workaholics 'wasting time' when enjoying lunch in the dining room without talking or completing a job.

Minimal sleep

Someone who calls himself a professional, he is able to distinguish when personal time and at any time to work, including sleep time. Each worker takes time to sleep between eight to nine hours. Lack of sleep makes a person emotionally unstable, lack of concentration, trouble with memory and tends to make inappropriate decisions. Though it was badly needed by a professional.

Working when sick

Many workers still come to work despite being ill. Yet if the views of productivity, a sick person away from productive work. So, it's better to rest first at home to recover than a messy job because of illness.

Excessive coffee drinking

People who drink coffee are often workaholics in large quantities. If done continuously risk of heart attack, digestive disorders, addiction and premature aging and even higher.

Slender Natural Breathing Through mode

Slender Natural Breathing Through mode

By Pipiet Tri Noorastuti, Mutia Nugraheni

Want more slender? Try to breathe correctly. Practicing with the correct breathing techniques can help you lose weight. That's because the balance between thought and action is needed in the body slimming.

"Stress can make the emotional weight increases, due to speed up the conversion of calories into fat. So you are more likely to eat more, or choose unhealthy foods during times of stress," says Dean Cornish, MD, head of the Preventive Medicine Research Institute in California, United States.

Dean reveals that managing stress also means managing your weight. One way to manage stress and weight is to breathe slowly. It will reduce stress hormones in the body.

For that know how to breathe slowly with a technique called pursed lips. Breathe through your nose for four seconds. This was followed by exhale for eight seconds with his lips puckered position (such as blowing through a straw).

Do it this way if you now feel upset or angry and want to vent through food. This method is effective enough to stabilize emotions and reduce stress. The body was not stretchy. (Pet)

Food and Drug Administration

Food and Drug Administration

Clinical trials are a means through which the healthcare industry tests a new drug, treatment, or medical device. The traditional methodology behind clinical trials consists of various phases in which the emerging product undergoes a series of intense tests, most of which tend to occur on interested and/or compliant patients. The U.S. government has an established network for tackling the emergence of new products in the healthcare industry. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) typically conducts appropriate trials on new drugs coming from pharmaceutical companies.[20] Along with the FDA, the National Institutes of Health sets the guidelines for all kinds of clinical trials relating to infectious diseases. For cancer, the National Cancer Institute (NCI) sponsors a series or cooperative groups like CALGB and COG in order to standardize protocols for cancer treatment.

The primary purpose of quality assurance (QA) in healthcare is to ensure that the quality of patient care is in accordance with established guidelines. The government usually plays a significant role in providing structured guidance for treating a particular disease or ailment. However, protocols for treatment can also be worked out at individual healthcare institutions like hospitals and HMOs. In some cases, quality assurance is seen as a superfluous endeavor, as many healthcare-based QA organizations, like QARC, are publicly funded at the hands of taxpayers.[22] However, many people would agree that healthcare quality assurance, particularly in the areas cancer treatment and disease control are necessary components to the vitality of any legitimate healthcare system. With respect to quality assurance in cancer treatment scenarios, the Quality Assurance Review Center (QARC) is just one example of a QA facility that seeks "to improve the standards of care" for patients "by improving the quality of clinical trials medicine."

Everybody who wishes to have a child wants it to be perfect (at least at birth). Nobody wants and/or wishes for their child to be born with Down Syndrome or Cerebral Palsy. In fact, obstetricians have the most medical malpractice lawsuits filed against them. As a result, they have to pay the highest premiums for malpractice insurance. These high costs inevitably become a hindrance not only to the doctors, but also to the healthcare industry as a whole. And although patients and their families have the right to appeal and confront a physician regarding the quality of treatment received, there must be a limit as to how far they can go. Frivolous lawsuits are clearly becoming a major problem for healthcare providers.

The ecophilosophy of Garrett Hardin constitutes one perspective from which to view the reproductive rights of human beings. For the most part, Hardin argues that it is immoral to have large families, especially since it does a disservice to society in the sense that there is only a finite number of resources in the world. In an essay entitled The Tragedy of the Commons, Hardin states,

To couple the concept of freedom to breed with the belief that everyone born has an equal right to the commons is to lock the world into a tragic course of action.

This statement essentially summarizes Hardin's major point concerning the negligible right of all human beings to procreate. Moreover, Hardin is a vocal critic of the United Nations' Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), which states that "any choice and decision with regard to the size of the family must irrevocably rest with the family itself, and cannot be made by anyone else."

As for healthcare philosophy, Hardin's ecophilosophical views may seem like a stretch. Nevertheless, they are important to keep in mind, especially when considering the call for healthcare as a universal birth right of all people. The increasing strains placed on healthcare systems are primarily the result of a growing human population. One way of mitigating healthcare costs is to moderate population growth. The fewer people there are to take care of, the less expensive healthcare will become. And to apply this logic to what medical ethicist Leonard J. Weber previously suggested, less expensive healthcare does not necessarily mean poorer quality healthcare.

The Health informatics

The Health informatics

Health informatics, Health care informatics or medical informatics is the intersection of information science, computer science, and health care. It deals with the resources, devices, and methods required to optimize the acquisition, storage, retrieval, and use of information in health and biomedicine. Health informatics tools include not only computers but also clinical guidelines, formal medical terminologies, and information and communication systems. It is applied to the areas of nursing, clinical care, dentistry, pharmacy, public health and (bio)medical research.

Aspects of the field

architectures for electronic medical records and other health information systems used for billing, scheduling, and research decision support systems in healthcare, including clinical decision support systems standards (e.g. DICOM, HL7) and integration profiles (e.g. Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise) to facilitate the exchange of information between healthcare information systems - these specifically define the means to exchange data, not the content controlled medical vocabularies (CMVs) such as the Systematized Nomenclature of Medicine, Clinical Terms (SNOMED CT), MEDCIN, Logical Observation Identifiers Names and Codes (LOINC), OpenGALEN Common Reference Model or the highly complex UMLS - used to allow a standard, accurate exchange of data content between systems and providers use of hand-held or portable devices to assist providers with data entry/retrieval or medical decision-making, sometimes called mHealth. The international standards on the subject are covered by ICS 35.240.80 in which ISO 27799:2008 is one of the core components. Molecular bioinformatics and clinical informatics have convered into the field of translational bioinformatics.

Medical informatics in the United States

The earliest use of computation for medicine was for dental projects in the 1950s at the United States National Bureau of Standards by Robert Ledley.[3]

The next step in the mid 1950s were the development of expert systems such as MYCIN and INTERNIST-I. In 1965, the National Library of Medicine started to use MEDLINE and MEDLARS. At this time, Neil Pappalardo, Curtis Marble, and Robert Greenes developed MUMPS (Massachusetts General Hospital Utility Multi-Programming System) in Octo Barnett's Laboratory of Computer Science at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. In the 1970s and 1980s it was the most commonly used programming language for clinical applications. The MUMPS operating system was used to support MUMPS language specifications. As of 2004[update], a descendent of this system is being used in the United States Veterans Affairs hospital system. The VA has the largest enterprise-wide health information system that includes an electronic medical record, known as the Veterans Health Information Systems and Technology Architecture (VistA). A graphical user interface known as the Computerized Patient Record System (CPRS) allows health care providers to review and update a patient’s electronic medical record at any of the VA's over 1,000 health care facilities.

In the 1970s a growing number of commercial vendors began to market practice management and electronic medical records systems. Although many products exist, only a small number of health practitioners use fully featured electronic health care records systems.

Homer R. Warner, one of the fathers of medical informatics,[6] founded the Department of Medical Informatics at the University of Utah in 1968, and the American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA) has an award named after him on application of informatics to medicine.

Health care

Health care or healthcare is the treatment and prevention of illness. Health care is delivered by professionals in medicine, dentistry, nursing, pharmacy and allied health.

Health care industry

The social and political issues surrounding access to healthcare in the US have led to vigorous public debate and the almost colloquial use of terms such as health care (medical management of illness), health insurance (reimbursement of health care costs), and public health (the collective state and range of health in a population).

The delivery of modern health care depends on an expanding group of trained professionals coming together as an interdisciplinary team.

The health-care industry incorporates several sectors that are dedicated to providing health care services and products. According to industry and market classifications, such as the Global Industry Classification Standard and the Industry Classification Benchmark, the health-care industry includes health care equipment and services as well as pharmaceuticals, biotechnology and life sciences. The particular sectors associated with these groups are: biotechnology, diagnostic substances, drug delivery, drug manufacturers, hospitals, medical equipment and instruments, diagnostic laboratories, nursing homes, providers of health care plans and home health care.

According to government industry classifications, which are mostly based on the United Nations system, the International Standard Industrial Classification, health care generally consists of hospital activities, medical and dental practice activities, and other human health activities. The last class consists of all activities for human health not performed by hospitals, physicians or dentists. This involves activities of, or under the supervision of, nurses, midwives, physiotherapists, scientific or diagnostic laboratiories, pathology clinics, ambulance, nursing home, or other para-medical practitioners in the field of optometry, hydrotherapy, medical massage, music therapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy, chiropody, homeopathy, chiropractics, acupuncture, etc.

Research

Top impact factor academic journals in the health care field include Health Affairs and Milbank Quarterly. The New England Journal of Medicine, British Medical Journal, and the Journal of the American Medical Association are more general journals.

Biomedical research (or experimental medicine), in general simply known as medical research, is the basic research, applied research, or translational research conducted to aid the body of knowledge in the field of medicine. Medical research can be divided into two general categories: the evaluation of new treatments for both safety and efficacy in what are termed clinical trials, and all other research that contributes to the development of new treatments. The latter is termed preclinical research if its goal is specifically to elaborate knowledge for the development of new therapeutic strategies. A new paradigm to biomedical research is being termed translational research, which focuses on iterative feedback loops between the basic and clinical research domains to accelerate knowledge translation from the bedside to the bench, and back again.

In terms of pharmaceutical R&D spending, Europe spends a little less that the United States (€22.50bn compared to €27.05bn in 2006) and there is less growth in European R&D spending.[5][6] Pharmaceuticals and other medical devices are the leading high technology exports of Europe and the United States.[6][7] However, the United States dominates the biopharmaceutical field, accounting for the three quarters of the world’s biotechnology revenues and 80% of world R&D spending in biotechnology.

World Health Organization

The World Health Organization (WHO) is a specialized United Nations agency which acts as a coordinator and researcher for public health around the world. Established on 7 April 1948, and headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, the agency inherited the mandate and resources of its predecessor, the Health Organization, which had been an agency of the League of Nations. The WHO's constitution states that its mission "is the attainment by all peoples of the highest possible level of health." Its major task is to combat disease, especially key infectious diseases, and to promote the general health of the peoples of the world. Examples of its work include years of fighting smallpox. In 1979 the WHO declared that the disease had been eradicated - the first disease in history to be completely eliminated by deliberate human design. The WHO is nearing success in developing vaccines against malaria and schistosomiasis and aims to eradicate polio within the next few years. The organization has already endorsed the world's first official HIV/AIDS Toolkit for Zimbabwe from October 3, 2006, making it an international standard.

The WHO is financed by contributions from member states and from donors. In recent years the WHO's work has involved more collaboration, currently around 80 such partnerships, with NGOs and the pharmaceutical industry, as well as with foundations such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation. Voluntary contributions to the WHO from national and local governments, foundations and NGOs, other UN organizations, and the private sector (including pharmaceutical companies), now exceed that of assessed contributions (dues) from its 193 member nations.

Systems

Social health insurance is where a nation's entire population is eligible for health care coverage, and this coverage and the services provided are regulated. In almost every country, state or municipality with a government health care system a parallel private, and usually for-profit, system is allowed to operate. This is sometimes referred to as two-tier health care. The scale, extent, and funding of these private systems is variable.

A traditional view is that improvements in health result from advancements in medical science. The medical model of health focuses on the eradication of illness through diagnosis and effective treatment. In contrast, the social model of health places emphasis on changes that can be made in society and in people's own lifestyles to make the population healthier. It defines illness from the point of view of the individual's functioning within their society rather than by monitoring for changes in biological or physiological signs.

The United States currently operates under a mixed market health care system. Government sources (federal, state, and local) account for 45% of U.S. health care expenditures.[15] Private sources account for the remainder of costs, with 38% of people receiving health coverage through their employers and 17% arising from other private payment such as private insurance and out-of-pocket co-pays. Opponents of government intervention into the market generally believe that such intervention distorts pricing as government agents would be operating outside of the corporate model and the principles of market discipline; they have less short and medium-term incentives than private agents to make purchases that can generate revenues and avoid bankruptcy. Health system reform in the United States usually focuses around three suggested systems, with proposals currently underway to integrate these systems in various ways to provide a number of health care options. First is single-payer, a term meant to describe a single agency managing a single system, as found in most modernized countries as well as some states and municipalities within the United States. Second are employer or individual insurance mandates, with which the state of Massachusetts has experimented. Finally, there is consumer-driven health, in which systems, consumers, and patients have more control of how they access care. This is argued[by whom?] to provide a greater incentive to find cost-saving health care approaches. Critics of consumer-driven health say that it would benefit the healthy but be insufficient for the chronically sick, much as the current system operates. Over the past thirty years, most of the nation's health care has moved from the second model operating with not-for-profit institutions to the third model operating with for-profit institutions; the greater problems with this approach have been the gradual deregulation of HMOs resulting in fewer of the promised choices for consumers, and the steady increase in consumer cost that has marginalized consumers and burdened states with excessive urgent health care costs that are avoided with consumers have adequate access to preventive health care.

A few states have taken serious steps toward universal health care coverage, most notably Minnesota, Massachusetts and Connecticut, with recent examples being the Massachusetts 2006 Health Reform Statute and Connecticut's SustiNet plan to provide quality, affordable health care to state residents.

The politics of health care depends largely on which country one is in. Current concerns in England, for instance, revolve around the use of private finance initiatives to build hospitals which it is argued costs taxpayers more in the long run.[18] In Germany and France, concerns are more based on the rising cost of drugs to the governments. In Brazil, an important political issue is the breach of intellectual property rights, or patents, for the domestic manufacture of antiretroviral drugs used in the treatment of HIV/AIDS.

The South African government, whose population sets the record for HIV infections, came under pressure for its refusal to admit there is any connection with AIDS[19] because of the cost it would have involved. In the United States 12% to 16% of the citizens are still unable to afford health insurance. State boards and the Department of Health regulate inpatient care to reduce the national health care deficit. To tackle the problems of the perpetually increasing number of uninsured, and costs associated with the US health care system, President Barack Obama says he favors the creation of a universal health care system. However, New York Times opinion columnist Paul Krugman said that Obama's plan would not actually provide universal coverage, and Factcheck.org alleges that Obama's predicted savings were exaggerated.[22] In contrast, the state of Oregon and the city of San Francisco are both examples of governments that adopted universal healthcare systems for strictly fiscal reasons.