Yay, puppies!

Had a shockingly good time listening to the news break on WXRT this morning, at 6:30.

Mary Dixon is enjoyable, do not get me wrong.  the shocking part is that all the news made me smile.

It was a banner news day in the medical / science field.

1.   One of the huge pharma companies is vowing to change how their reps are compensated.  No longer will they be given bonuses based on how many prescriptions their client doctors write.    Additionally, it sounds like the pharma company is drastically scaling back perks for physicians, junkets and trips and such.  This drastic change in direction has nothing at all to do with some huge legal issue they're having in China right now, we are assured.   Just a coincidence.

2.  The FDA is finally getting around to questioning the validity of anti-bacterial soap.   Seems perhaps the claims of the soap makers have never really been supported by research / science.    "Prove it" is the edict coming from the FDA.   Show proof that the anti-bacterial agents in the soap are providing benefit, without harm.  
A few days ago, they finally started voicing concern about gross overuse of antibiotics in factory beef and poultry farms.  Yay, FDA.   Glad to see you... still exist.

3.  Puppies.     A Study was done to show the effects of puppy hair and dander in the onset of asthma in  babies and toddlers.    Turns out - helpful!    Granted it was mice (no babies were harmed in completion of this study....), but the group subjected to puppies, hair and dander, had lower occurrence by far of asthma than did the group NOT exposed to... puppies.

Yay, puppies!

Yeah, I could spend a lot of time hunting down links to each of these stories for you, the reader.   But I' not gonna.  Google it if you want to learn more.  


So, pharma is on record as saying that they'll stop paying doctors to crank out prescriptions; the FDA is showing that they still... exist; and puppies make babies and toddlers healthier.

That, my friends, is a good news cycle.  

Tomorrow's another day.....