Daily Rounds; Preventing Alzheimer's; Health Law Repeal Encore; Breastfeeding Cuts Obesity; Loosening The Gift Ban

In Preventing Alzheimer's, Mutation Aid Drug Quest (The New York Times) — "A study of a rare gene mutation that protects people against Alzheimer’s disease provides the strongest evidence yet that excessive levels of a normal brain substance, beta amyloid, are a driving force in the disease — bolstering hopes that anti-amyloid drugs already under development might alter the disease’s course or even prevent it."

House Votes To Repeal health Care Law (NPR) — "With a vote of 244 to 185, the Republican-controlled House of Representatives just voted to repeal the Affordable Care Act, President Obama's signature domestic legislation known colloquially as "Obamacare." Of course, the vote doesn't matter, because the measure has a very slim chance of being adopted by the Senate. The AP reports that this is the "33rd time in 18 months that the tea party-infused GOP majority has tried to scrap, defund or scale back the law since grabbing the majority."

Breast-Feeding May Help Women Fight Obesity Decades Later (Bloomberg) — "Breast-feeding may help mothers reduce the risk of obesity later in life, according to a study of 740,000 post-menopausal women in the U.K. For every six months women breast-fed, their body mass index was 0.22, or 1 percent, lower, even decades after giving birth, according to the research, which was published today in the International Journal of Obesity. The observation was made across socioeconomic groups and regardless of the number of children the women had."

Mass. Gift Ban Loosened "Significantly" (JD Supra press release) — The new rules permit "pharmaceutical and medical device companies to pay for "modest meals and refreshments" for health care practitioners, in connection with non-CME educational presentations made for the purpose of educating and informing health care practitioners about the benefits, risks, and appropriate uses of prescription drugs or medical devices, disease states, or other scientific information...This significantly eases the Gift Ban's previous meal and refreshment provision restriction (i.e., only allowing meals within a health care practitioner's office or in a hospital setting), and now permits meals and refreshments in other venues, such as restaurants."