Calendar
CME Program: Spine Update 2006
March 15, 2006, 5:45-8:30 pm, Martha Jefferson Education Center
William Sukovich, MD, Spine Medicine & Surgery
Chris Lander, MD, Pain Management
When conservative treatments of low back pain fails to provide satisfactory pain reduction and improvement of the quality of life, more interventional techniques can be employed with varying degrees of invasiveness. A stepwise approach may reduce the burden with optimal use of the less invasive treatments. In this review, we will discuss the treatment algorithm with special attention to interventional pain management techniques and newer surgical technologies, including minimally invasive spinal surgery and spinal arthroplasty. For more information and to register, call (434) 982-8255 or email
PostCall
February 7, 2006, 6-8 p.m. , Martha Jefferson Hospital
Join us for PostCall, a casual after hours social where you can wind down, enjoy spirited refreshments and visit with colleagues. Hosted by physicians from Martha Jefferson's Cancer Care Center and Pathology & Laboratory Medicine, the social will be held in the Cardwell Center and will include wine, soft drinks and Hors d'oeuvres. Physicians, healthcare providers and office staff are welcome to attend. Feel free to bring a guest along as well.
For more information and to register, call (434) 982-7009 or toll free 1-888-652-6663.
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Grinding the Numbers: A Bit of Trivia
Australian researchers using medical resonance imaging technology recently discovered that caffeine stimulates the part of the brain responsible for short-term memory. Their findings were reported at the Radiological Society of North America meeting in Chicago last month. Functional magnetic resonance imaging, or fMRI, was used to measure brain function in 15 healthy volunteers before and after consuming coffee. Volunteers who consumed 100 milligrams of caffeine (about two cups of coffee) were found to have increased activity in the frontal lobe, where working memory is centered, and the anterior cingulum, which controls attention. These areas showed no increased activity when the subjects drank the same fluid without caffeine. Given that Americans consume caffeine at a rate three times higher than the rest of the world, it would seem that at least short term memories in the US should not be lacking. Here are a few more facts worth a short stay in the frontal lobe.
- The United States is the worldÌs largest consumer of coffee, importing 16 to 20
million bags annually (2.5 million pounds), representing one-third of all coffee exported. More than half of the United States population consumes coffee. The typical coffee drinker has 3.4 cups of coffee per day. That translates into more than 450,000,000 cups of coffee daily.
- 60 percent of coffee is consumed at breakfast.
- Hawaii is the only U.S. state that produces coffee.
- The largest coffee importer center in the U.S. is located in the city of New Orleans, LA.
- ALL coffee is grown within one thousand miles of our EarthÌs equator between the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn.
- The coffee tree produces its first full crop when it is about 5 years old. Thereafter it produces consistently for 15 or 20 years.
- A mature coffee tree will produce ONE POUND of coffee per growing season.
- ONE POUND of ground beans makes about 50 cups of java.
- It takes 2,000 hand-picked Arabica coffee cherries to make ONE roasted pound of coffee - or approximately 4,000 beans.
- Coffee grows in more than 50 countries and is the second largest export in the world after oil (in dollar value). Over 25 million people are employed in the coffee business world-wide.
- Brazil, the worldÌs largest producer, grows approximately 35% of the worldÌs coffee.
- Colombia is the worldÌs second largest Arabica coffee producer.
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