All Entries in the "Health" Category

Life & Happiness With Laura Rowley: How To Sleep Better (VIDEO)

As people age, it gets tougher to get a good night’s sleep, for a variety of reasons. Chronic sleep deprivation can be hazardous to your health. In this edition of Life & Happiness, Huff/Post50′s Laura Rowley offers tips to improve your slumber.

Full Story Here: Life & Happiness With Laura Rowley: How To Sleep Better (VIDEO).

Author Of ‘The End Of Illness,’ Offers Surprising Tips To Live Better, Longer

Dr. David Agus spoke with “CBS This Morning” about his new book “The End of Illness” and longevity. Watch the above video to see his key tip to living longer and why something as simple as wearing uncomfortable shoes can hurt you in the long run.

Full Story Here: Dr. David Agus, Author Of ‘The End Of Illness,’ Offers Surprising Tips To Live Better, Longer.

What Planned Parenthood actually does, in one chart

Judging from its unexpected jump into the most-read list, this graph showing the breakdown of care provided by Planned Parenthood’s health centers is proving useful to people. So here it is again, lifted from April. Note the light blue slice, which suggests that cancer screenings account for approximately one-sixth of Planned Parenthood’s activities.

With Planned Parenthood being either the major obstacle to a budget deal or one of the major obstacles to a budget deal, it’s worth taking a minute explaining what they do — and what they don’t do.

As you can see in the chart atop this post, abortion services account for about 3 percent of Planned Parenthood’s activities. That’s less than cancer screening and prevention (16 percent), STD testing for both men and women (35 percent), and contraception (also 35 percent). About 80 percent of Planned Parenthood’s users are over age 20, and 75 percent have incomes below 150 percent of the poverty line. Planned Parenthood itself estimates it prevents more than 620,000 unintended pregnancies each year, and 220,000 abortions. It’s also worth noting that federal law already forbids Planned Parenthood from using the funds it receives from the government for abortions.

Full Story Here: Repost: What Planned Parenthood actually does, in one chart – The Washington Post.

Rep. Speier Pulls Support From Breast Cancer Foundation Over Decision To Sever Ties With Planned Parenthood

Yesterday, America’s most well-known breast cancer organization Susan G. Komen succumbed to right-wing pressure and ended its partnership with Planned Parenthood, pulling around $600,000 in grants that allow the women’s health organization to provide breast cancer exams for low-income women. Today on the House floor, Rep. Jackie Speier (D-CA) — a “big booster” for the foundation and a participant in its iconic Race for the Cure event — announced that she would no longer support the organization over it’s decision.

Noting that the foundation based their decision to sever ties on anti-choice advocate Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-FL) “spurious congressional investigation” into Planned Parenthood, Speier blasted Komen for falling into the trap of a “political sandbox.” “A hearing has never been held,” she noted. “I guess it means that Susan G. Komen has become a 501(d)(4), because no longer do they want to be providing nonprofits, they want to become a political advocacy group,” she said.

Watch it:

Full Story Here: Rep. Speier Pulls Support From Breast Cancer Foundation Over Decision To Sever Ties With Planned Parenthood | ThinkProgress.

Why Are US Health Costs So High? Follow the Bills

Ralph Nader :-:

Looking at millions of individual bills that makeup the 2.7 trillion dollars of annual health care costs opens a gigantic window on the massive waste, redundancy, profiteering, fraud and sometimes criminal over-billing.

Here is a partial example of what I mean, in the words of Philip M. Boffey, the estimable science writer for the New York Times:

“Why does an appendectomy in Germany cost roughly a quarter what it costs in the United States? ($3,285 compared to $13,123). Or an MRI scan cost less than a third as much, on average, in Canada? ($304 compared to $1,009).”

“Americans continue to spend more on health care than patients anywhere else. In 2009, we spent $7,960 per person, twice as much as France, which is known for providing very good health services. And for all that spending, we get very mixed results–some superb, some average, some inferior–compared with other advanced nations.”

Moreover, France and Germany, Italy, England, Canada, Belgium, Sweden and all other western countries plus Japan and Taiwan cover almost all their citizens, unlike the U.S. where 50,000,000 people are uninsured.

Full Story Here: Why Are US Health Costs So High? Follow the Bills | Common Dreams.

Sickened and Still Waiting for Justice: 9/11 First Responders and Cold War Nuclear Weapons Workers Battle for Fair Compensation

The James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act (Zadroga Act) and the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act of 2000 (EEOICPA) represent two federal reparatory and remedial compensation programs designed to compensate sickened populations unwittingly exposed to toxins while serving the nation. Both programs are, in part, administered by the Department of Health and Human Services, specifically the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH). As a longtime advocate for sickened cold war-era nuclear weapons workers battling the complexities of the EEOICPA, I have come to realize that the burdensome evidentiary hurdles they have faced over the past ten years will similarly burden 9/11 first responders and survivors in their fight to have cancer compensated under the Zadroga Act. If the Zadroga Act becomes bogged down in the search for scientific certainty regarding which 9/11 heroes will be compensated and cared for, we will not only fail to honor these heroes, but NIOSH will be repeating the same mistakes that sickened nuclear weapons workers have endured for far too long under the EEOICPA.

Currently, NIOSH is still evaluating whether there exists sufficient scientific causality to justify compensating 9/11 first responders and survivors that have developed cancer. In fact, this past July, NIOSH Director John Howard issued a report explaining:

Full Story Here: Sickened and Still Waiting for Justice: 9/11 First Responders and Cold War Nuclear Weapons Workers Battle for Fair Compensation | Truthout.

Top 5 Regrets of the Dying

For many years I worked in palliative care. My patients were those who had gone home to die. Some incredibly special times were shared. I was with them for the last 3 to 12 weeks of their lives.

People grow a lot when they are faced with their own mortality. I learnt never to underestimate someone’s capacity for growth. Some changes were phenomenal. Each experienced a variety of emotions, as expected, denial, fear, anger, remorse, more denial and eventually acceptance. Every single patient found their peace before they departed though, every one of them.

When questioned about any regrets they had or anything they would do differently, common themes surfaced again and again. Here are the most common five:

1. I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.

Full Story Here: Bronnie Ware: Top 5 Regrets of the Dying.

The Right to Be Healthy: Supreme Court Weighs Sick Leave for State Workers

One day in August 2007, Daniel Coleman, an administrator in the Maryland court system, decided he should stay home to recover from an illness, as his doctor had ordered. But the day after he requested time off, he suddenly had more to worry about than his health; he was unemployed, too.

In many industrialized countries around the world, taking time off from work to deal with a medical issue isn’t just a benefit; it’s considered an entitlement, as much as an eight-hour day. But in the world’s richest nation, a worker who claims that right has had to appeal to the highest court in the land.

So the Supreme Court will now weigh the rights of public employees to seek justice under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA). The case, Coleman v. Maryland Court of Appeals, is based on Coleman’s lawsuit alleging that he was unfairly terminated following a dispute with his supervisor over leave time. Pitting Coleman, together with many civil rights advocates, against Maryland and 26 other states, the central question is whether a state can be held accountable under the law as a private employer would.

Full Story Here: The Right to Be Healthy: Supreme Court Weighs Sick Leave for State Workers – Working In These Times.

Scrooged: FDA gives up on antibiotic restrictions in livestock

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) pulled a Scrooge move just before Christmas. The agency published an entry in the Federal Register declaring that it will end its attempt at mandatory restrictions on the use of antibiotics in animal agriculture. The agency isn’t advertising the shift, though: This news would have remained a secret if not for Maryn McKenna’s Superbug blog over at Wired. McKenna, who specializes in writing about antibiotics and their link to pathogens, caught the Federal Register notice.

This is a sorry end to a process that began in 1977 (!), but McKenna created an excellent timeline that traces the history of the issue back to the 1950s. In 2009, the Obama administration breathed new life into a moribund process because the top two Obama appointees at the FDA, Commissioner Margaret Hamburg and her then-deputy Joshua Sharfstein, strongly supported restricting antibiotic use in agriculture.

But despite Hamburg and Sharfstein’s many supportive statements, the FDA has only produced a draft set of “voluntary” guidelines. And, with this latest announcement, it looks like that’s as far as they’re willing to go.

Full Story Here: Scrooged: FDA gives up on antibiotic restrictions in livestock | Grist.

Obama administration to make drug companies disclose money paid to doctors

The Obama administration plans to establish new rules requiring pharmaceutical companies to disclose the payments they make to doctors, according to the New York Times.

The new rules are being issued under the new health care law and will make pharmaceutical companies report money they have given to doctors for research, consulting, speaking, travel and entertainment. The payment data will be made available to the public online.

Companies that fail to comply with the new rule could be subject to a penalty up to $10,000 for each payment they fail to report.

Full Story Here: Obama administration to make drug companies disclose money paid to doctors | The Raw Story.

Obama administration to make drug companies disclose money paid to doctors

The Obama administration plans to establish new rules requiring pharmaceutical companies to disclose the payments they make to doctors, according to the New York Times.

The new rules are being issued under the new health care law and will make pharmaceutical companies report money they have given to doctors for research, consulting, speaking, travel and entertainment. The payment data will be made available to the public online.

Companies that fail to comply with the new rule could be subject to a penalty up to $10,000 for each payment they fail to report.

Full Story Here: Obama administration to make drug companies disclose money paid to doctors | The Raw Story.

Chamber Of Commerce Drops Call For Health Care Repeal From Annual Policy Address

Tom Donohue signaled that the powerful U.S. Chamber of Commerce may be softening its attacks against President Obama’s signature accomplishments like the Affordable Care Act and the creation of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Kevin Hall reports that Donohue is pledging a “wait-and-see approach” towards the new agency and has not decided if the organization will challenge the recess appointment of Richard Cordray as its director.

During his annual State of the Business address yesterday, Donohue also adopted a more moderate tone towards health care reform. “The health care law established 159 new agencies, panels, commissions, and regulatory bodies,” Donohue said, but did not echo his 2011 call for repealing the law in its entirety. Consider the contrast:

DONOHUE IN 2011: By mid-December, HHS had already granted 222 waivers to the law—a revealing acknowledgement that the law is unworkable. And, with key provisions under challenge in the courts by states and others, it’s time to go back to the drawing board.

Last year, while strongly advocating health care reform, the Chamber was a leader in the fight against this particular bill—and thus we support legislation in the House to repeal it. We see the upcoming House vote as an opportunity for everyone to take a fresh look at health care reform—and to replace unworkable approaches with more effective measures that will lower costs, expand access, and improve quality.

Full Story Here: Chamber Of Commerce Drops Call For Health Care Repeal From Annual Policy Address | ThinkProgress.

OPS: The Fascist Oligarchy is becoming frightened

The Science Of Sex: 5 Must-Know Facts About Your Brain And Desire

You’ll be hard-pressed to open a magazine or go to a news site without seeing headlines like these. Human relationships, desire, love and sex have been written about and rationalized since time immemorial, it’s no wonder that modern scientists continually try to dissect their mysteries. But what can our minds really tell us about matters of the heart?

That’s exactly what author Kayt Sukel, who has a background in neuroscience, set out to find out. The result was her new book, “Dirty Minds: How Our Brains Influence Love, Sex and Relationships.” Part of her exploratory journey even included being a lab rat for a study on female orgasms — a study which produced a pretty incredible video of a woman’s brain during climax. The experiment involved masturbating to orgasm … while strapped into an fMRI machine. It may not have been her sexiest moment, but Sukel says she didn’t let the circumstances affect her performance.

“My Type-A personality and refusal to accept failure probably helped me along,” she said, laughing. “It was kind of a ‘Little Engine That Could’ moment.”

Full Story Here: The Science Of Sex: 5 Must-Know Facts About Your Brain And Desire.

Marijuana And Lungs: Study Finds Drug Doesn’t Do Same Kind Of Damage As Tobacco

Smoking a joint once a week or a bit more apparently doesn’t harm the lungs, suggests a 20-year study that bolsters evidence that marijuana doesn’t do the kind of damage tobacco does.

The results, from one of the largest and longest studies on the health effects of marijuana, are hazier for heavy users – those who smoke two or more joints daily for several years. The data suggest that using marijuana that often might cause a decline in lung function, but there weren’t enough heavy users among the 5,000 young adults in the study to draw firm conclusions.

Still, the authors recommended “caution and moderation when marijuana use is considered.”

Marijuana is an illegal drug under federal law although some states allow its use for medical purposes.

The study by researchers at the University of California, San Francisco, and the University of Alabama at Birmingham was released Tuesday by the Journal of the American Medical Association

Full Story Here: Marijuana And Lungs: Study Finds Drug Doesn’t Do Same Kind Of Damage As Tobacco.

Despite FDA Antibiotic Ruling, Health Risks in Industrial Farming Persist

Two days ago the FDA announced a ban on unapproved uses of cephalosporins (antibiotics) in food animals, the effects of which have now been determined to cause the proliferation of resistant superbugs in human populations.

Today, however, In These Times’ Michelle Chen reports that the bans may have arrived too late, at least for farm workers and thier communities:

Steven Roach of the advocacy group Food Animal Concerns Trust, told In These Times that while the diseases can spread in many ways through the environment, “There’s a very clear connection between farmworkers and some of the resistant infections.” Due to workplace exposures, he added, “They’re at higher risk for getting resistant infections. And they also are a pathway for introducing resistant bacteria into the community. So a farm worker may just be carrying resistant bacteria if they visit somebody in the hospital, or they have children.”

Full Story Here: Despite FDA Antibiotic Ruling, Health Risks in Industrial Farming Persist | Common Dreams.

Adderall Shortage Shows Little Sign Of Easing As Demand Climbs

A shortage of Adderall, which is used to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, shows little sign of easing as manufacturers struggle to get enough active ingredient to make the drug and demand climbs.

Adderall, a stimulant, is a controlled substance, meaning it is addictive and has the potential to be abused. The Drug Enforcement Administration tightly regulates how much of the drug’s active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) can be distributed to manufacturers each year.

The system is designed to prevent the creation of stockpiles that could be diverted for inappropriate use. Adderall and other stimulants are popular with students who may not have ADHD but are seeking to improve their test scores.

Full Story Here: Adderall Shortage Shows Little Sign Of Easing As Demand Climbs.

WHO ‘deeply concerned’ by mutant bird flu

The World Health Organization (WHO) said it was “deeply concerned” about research into whether the H5N1 flu virus could be made more transmissible between humans after mutant strains were produced in labs.

Two separate research teams — one in the Netherlands and the other in the United States — have found ways to alter the H5N1 avian influenza so it could pass easily between mammals.

Two top scientific journals said on Tuesday they were mulling whether to publish full details on how Dutch scientists mutated the H5N1 flu virus in order for it to pass from one mammal to another.

Full Story Here: WHO ‘deeply concerned’ by mutant bird flu | The Raw Story.

Good Luck Foods For The New Year: 7 Foods To Eat On New Year’s Day

The new year is upon us! Can you believe it will be 2012? Where did the time go? New Year’s Eve is a time for partying and revelry, forgetting the old year that has passed. But New Year’s Day brings the promise of a better year, a more prosperous one. Many cultures believe that eating specific foods on the first day of the new year brings luck, wealth and prosperity. It’s a tradition that’s worth upholding even if you’re not a believer in luck.

From Europe to South America, people have been eating lucky foods for centuries. Browse our guide for the dishes you should be eating this New Year’s Day. You’ll find that eating fish and pork brings lots of luck, but chicken and lobster is to be avoided at all costs. And you might think it’s strange to stuff your face with twelve grapes on New Year’s Eve, but it might just work and bring you luck. What’s the harm in at least trying?

Full Story Here: Good Luck Foods For The New Year.

Baby Boomers Take Note: Medicare Is Headed For Big Changes

2012 Medicare Debate: Baby Boomers At Center Of Issue

Baby boomers take note: Medicare as your parents have known it is headed for big changes no matter who wins the White House in 2012. You may not like it, but you might have to accept it.

Dial down the partisan rhetoric and surprising similarities emerge from competing policy prescriptions by President Barack Obama and leading Republicans such as Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan.

Limit the overall growth of Medicare spending? It’s in both approaches.

Squeeze more money from upper-income retirees and some in the middle-class? Ditto.

Raise the eligibility age? That too, if the deal is right.

Full Story Here: 2012 Medicare Debate: Baby Boomers At Center Of Issue.

Daily Deals Sites Offering Cheaper Healthcare For Uninsured Americans

The last time Mark Stella went to the dentist he didn’t need an insurance card. Instead, he pulled out a Groupon.

Stella, a small business owner, canceled his health insurance plan more than three years ago when his premium rose to more than $400 a month. He considered himself healthy and decided that he was wasting money on something that he rarely used.

So when a deal popped up on daily deals site Groupon for a teeth cleaning, exam and an X-ray at a nearby dentist, Stella, 55, bought the deal – which the company calls a “Groupon” – for himself and another for his daughter. He paid $39 for each, $151 below what the dentist normally charges.

Full Story Here: Daily Deals Sites Offering Cheaper Healthcare For Uninsured Americans.

6 Recipes for Winter Wellness

Fight seasonal maladies the natural way.

Thyme Gargle

Thyme has a natural antiseptic called thymol, which is an active ingredient in some mouthwashes. It also soothes the throat. Thyme tea can also be used as a gargle for a sore throat, or drunk to ease stomach cramps.

Steep one tablespoon of dried thyme in one cup boiling water. Strain, let cool, and gargle or drink.—K.M.

Organic Lip Balm

Immune systems aren’t the only things that take a hit in winter; skin also shows the wear of those chilly months. Lips lose moisture more quickly than other parts of the face because they don’t have sweat or sebaceous glands. Gentle protection from homemade lip balm is an appealing alternative to using store-bought brands made from petroleum jelly.

For this version you’ll need 2 tbsp. coconut oil, 1 tbsp. grated cocoa butter, and 1/4 tsp. vitamin E oil (or the oil from 3 capsules). If you like scent and flavor, add a drop of rose, peppermint, vanilla, or sweet orange essential oil.

Melt the coconut oil in a stainless steel pot over low heat. Stir in cocoa butter until melted. Remove from heat, add vitamin E oil and stir. Pour the mixture into a container—empty baby food or cosmetic jars, or small tins from the beauty supply store or herbalist. Let set for three hours.—J.K.

Full Story Here: 6 Recipes for Winter Wellness by Jennifer Kaye and Kate Malongowski — YES! Magazine.

When Medicare Isn’t Medicare

Wendell Potter :-:

Let’s say you have a Ford and decide to replace everything under the hood with Hyundai parts, including the engine and transmission. Could you still honestly market your car as a Ford?

That question gets at the heart of the controversy over who is being more forthright about GOP Rep. Paul Ryan’s plan to “save” Medicare, Republicans or Democrats.

If you overhaul the Medicare system like you did your Ford and tell the public it’s still Medicare, are you doing so honestly?

As I noted last week, PolitiFact, the St. Petersburg Time’s fact checker, decided that the Democrats’ claim that Ryan’s plan would mean the end of Medicare was so blatantly untrue it merited designation as the 2011 “Lie of the Year.” Republicans, whose erroneous claims about health care reform garnered “Lie of the Year” prizes in 2009 and 2010, cheered. Democrats, as you might imagine, jeered — as did some journalists and pundits.

Full Story Here: When Medicare Isn’t Medicare | Common Dreams.

Springtime for Toxics

Paul Krugman :-:

Here’s what I wanted for Christmas: something that would make us both healthier and richer. And since I was just making a wish, why not ask that Americans get smarter, too?

Surprise: I got my wish, in the form of new Environmental Protection Agency standards on mercury and air toxics for power plants. These rules are long overdue: we were supposed to start regulating mercury more than 20 years ago. But the rules are finally here, and will deliver huge benefits at only modest cost.

So, naturally, Republicans are furious. But before I get to the politics, let’s talk about what a good thing the E.P.A. just did.

Full Story Here: Springtime for Toxics – NYTimes.com.

Heathcare: The Best of Times and the Worst of Times

Roger Bybee

With a raft of new Charles Dickens biographies hitting bookstores this fall, it is difficult not to quote the classic chronicler of the Victorian era’s polarities when describing the state of America’s healthcare system: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.”

The good times are concentrated among corporate executives. Healthcare, insurance and drug company CEOs have actually managed to displace bankers as the best-rewarded bosses in America. The Guardian archly reported recenty: “Pity Wall Street’s bankers. Once the highest-paid bosses in the land, they are now also-rans. The real money is in healthcare and drugs, according to the latest survey of executive pay.”

Among the big winners in healthcare listed by the UK-based newspaper:

John Hammergren, chief executive of McKesson Corporation, a pharmaceutical distribution corporation, took home a breathtaking $145,266,971 in 2010.

Joel Gemunder, outgoing president of Omnicare, a pharmacy company that dispenses drugs in nursing homes, benefited handsomely from s 2010 total pay package worth $98,283,242.

“CVS Caremark, which operates 7,000 pharmacies across the US, awarded chief executive Thomas Ryan $68,079,823 in 2010.

Ronald Williams, boss of health insurance giant Aetna, made $57,787,786 in 2010.

But for America’s healthcare consumers, the bad times got worse.

Full Story Here: The Best of Times and the Worst of Times, When It Comes to Heathcare – Working In These Times.

Taping Patient’s Mouth Shut: Utah Nurse Fired For Treatment Of Penny Artalejo

Two nurses in a Utah hospital’s intensive care unit were fired this week for taping a patient’s mouth shut and laughing about it, hospital officials said Friday.

Artalejo’s daughter, Brittany Bilson, told the television station that her mother’s teeth were chattering and she was moaning and shaking. Bilson said the nurses told her mother to shut up, taped her mouth closed and joked they would be fired if they were caught.

Penny Artalejo was admitted to Utah Valley Regional Medical Center in Provo on Dec. 17 with nausea and anxiety from taking medication for chronic neck pain, her daughters told Utah radio station KSL.com.

Full Story Here: Taping Patient’s Mouth Shut: Utah Nurse Fired For Treatment Of Penny Artalejo.

After 20 Years Of Poisoned Babies, EPA Will Finally Cut Coal Industry’s Toxic Mercury Pollution

Long-delayed rules to limit toxins like mercury and arsenic from coal-burning power plants will be approved today, after twenty years of delay that protected coal utility profits at the expense of American health. The Los Angeles Times reports that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will finalize its mercury rule today, marking the end of an era of deliberate pollution despite the scientific knowledge that pregnant women and small children were being poisoned:

The Environmental Protection Agency is expected to approve a tough new rule on Friday to limit emissions of mercury, arsenic and other toxins from the country’s power plants, according to people with knowledge of the new standard. Though mercury is a known neurotoxin profoundly harmful to children and pregnant women, the air toxins rule has been more than 20 years in the making, repeatedly stymied because of objections from coal-burning utilities about the cost of installing pollution control equipment.

Full Story Here: After 20 Years Of Poisoned Babies, EPA Will Finally Cut Coal Industry’s Toxic Mercury Pollution | ThinkProgress.

Some children’s cereals have too much sugar, a report says

Before you pour your child a heapin’ bowl of sugary cereal, read this: The Environmental Working Group has just come out with its list of the 10 worst children’s cereals. Your child’s favorite might be on it.

At No. 1 is Kellogg’s Honey Smacks, coming in at 55.6% sugar by weight, followed by Post Golden Crisp at 51.9% and Kellogg’s Froot Loops Marshmallow at 48.3%. The list also includes, in descending order of sugar, Quaker Oats Cap’n Crunch OOPS! All Berries (yes, that’s really the name), Quaker Oats Cap’n Crunch original, Quaker Oats Oh!s, Kellogg’s Smorz, Kellogg’s Apple Jacks and Quaker Oats Cap’n Crunch’s Crunch Berries. In last place, a somewhat dubious achievement, is Kellogg’s Froot Loops original at 41.4% sugar by weight.

How much sugar is that? The report found that a cup of Kellogg’s Honey Smacks, Post Golden Crisp or General Mills Wheaties Fuel has more sugar at 18.7 to 20 grams than does a Hostess Twinkie, which comes in at 17.5 grams.

Full Story Here: Some children’s cereals have too much sugar, a report says – latimes.com.

Seven Diseases Big Pharma Hopes You Get in 2012

It used to be joked that a consultant is someone who borrows your watch to tell you what time it is. These days, the opportunist is Big Pharma, which raises your insurance premiums and taxes while providing you “low-priced” drugs that you paid for.

How did Pharma get a good third of the United States taking antidepressants, statins, and Purple Pills, albeit at low prices? By selling the diseases of depression, high cholesterol, and gastroesophageal reflux disease, or GERD. Supply-driven marketing, also known as “Have Drug — Need Disease and Patients,” not only turns the nation into pill-popping hypochondriacs, it distracts from Pharma’s drought of real drugs for real medical problems.

Of course, not all diseases are Wall Street pleasers. To be a true blockbuster disease, a condition must (1) really exist but have huge diagnostic “wiggle room” and no clear-cut test, (2) be potentially serious with “silent symptoms” said to “only get worse” if untreated, (3) be “underrecognized,” “underreported” with “barriers” to treatment, (4) explain hitherto vague health problems a patient has had, (5) have a catchy name — ED, ADHD, RLS, Low T or IBS — and instant medical identity, and (6) need an expensive new drug that has no generic equivalent.

Full Story Here: Seven Diseases Big Pharma Hopes You Get in 2012 | | AlterNet.

ALEC Deems Kids Eating Rat Poison An ‘Acceptable Risk’

As ThinkProgress has been reporting for some time, the corporate front group American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) has been colluding with the billionaire Koch brothers to privatize government and eliminate environmental regulations that interfere with profits.

GOP legislators in many states have given ALEC free reign to write anti-health care reform and anti-environment legislation. Now, ALEC is fighting to kill Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rules limiting the sale of rat poisons that pose a serious health threat to children and the ecosystem.

A top representative for the ultra-conservative group said kids eating rat poison is an “acceptable risk” that does not justify government intervention:

Full Story Here: ALEC Deems Kids Eating Rat Poison An ‘Acceptable Risk’ | ThinkProgress.

FDA Weighs Putting Plan B Morning-After Pill On Drugstore Shelves

Shampoo, check. Garbages bags, check. Plan B, check.

If the federal government approves a request from Plan B’s manufacturer, the emergency contraception that prevents pregnancy up to 72 hours after sexual intercourse may soon be available to consumers over-the-counter.

Instead of having to ask a pharmacist for the product, Plan B will be placed on shelves alongside other contraceptives, such as condoms and spermicides. Even more significantly, there will be no age limit to buy the emergency contraception without a prescription.

Currently, you can only purchase Plan B without a prescription if you are at least 17 years old.

Despite claims to the contrary, Plan B and the “abortion pill” are not the same thing. Plan B works by preventing pregnancy. It cannot end a pregnancy.

Full Story Here: FDA Weighs Putting Plan B Morning-After Pill On Drugstore Shelves.

Cesium Found in Japanese Baby Formula

Traces of radioactive cesium thought to be from the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant were detected in Japanese baby formula on Tuesday as concerns about food safety continue almost nine months after the accident.

Meiji, the Tokyo company that makes the powdered formula, announced the recall of 400,000 cans of it as a precaution, but said the levels of cesium detected were well below the government’s safety limits. Tests found a combined 30.8 becquerels per kilogram of cesium 134 and cesium 137, the company said, compared with the government limit of 200, the company said. (A becquerel is a frequently used measurement of radiation.)

Babies could still “drink the formula every day without any effect on their health,” Meiji said in a statement.

Full Story Here: Cesium Found in Japanese Baby Formula – NYTimes.com.

Will Divorce Increase Your Chances of Dying?

Nearly 2 million people in the United States and many more in the world are impacted by divorce each year. There have been a variety of studies that have hinted that divorce may be linked to the increased chance of an early death, but overall the evidence has been mixed.

David Sbarra, Rita Law, and Robert Portley from the University of Arizona recently published a study to summarize the evidence on the link between divorce and early death. They gathered data from 32 studies involving more than 6.5 million people in 11 countries that included 755,000 divorces and 160,000 deaths.

In general, the researchers found that adults who were divorced were 23% more likely to die younger than their married counterparts. Men had almost twice as high a risk of early death compared to women. People younger than 65 years of age were more at risk following divorce than older people. This pattern was consistent regardless of what country people lived in.

Full Story Here: Robert Hughes, Jr.: Will Divorce Increase Your Chances of Dying?.

Cedars-Sinai refuses liver transplant to medical marijuana patient

Medical marijuana jeopardizes liver transplant

A cancer patient is removed from the transplant list at Cedars-Sinai for using medical marijuana and for failing to show up for a drug test. He is hoping the hospital will reconsider.

Norman Smith, who has liver cancer, was placed on the transplant list at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center last year.

But early this year, doctors removed him because he was using medical marijuana and failed to show up for a drug test.

To get back on the list, Smith, 63, has to spend six months avoiding medical marijuana, submitting to random drug tests and receiving counseling. He is still undergoing chemotherapy and radiation for the cancer, which recently returned after being in remission. Smith has aske

Full Story Here: Medical marijuana jeopardizes liver transplant – latimes.com.

The Bomb Buried In Obamacare Explodes Today-Hallelujah!

I have long argued that the impact of the Affordable Care Act is not nearly as big of a deal as opponents would have you believe. At the end of the day, the law is – in the main – little more than a successful effort to put an end to some of the more egregious health insurer abuses while creating an environment that should bring more Americans into programs that will give them at least some of the health care coverage they need.

There is, however, one notable exception – and it’s one that should have a long lasting and powerful impact on the future of health care in our country.

That would be the provision of the law, called the medical loss ratio, that requires health insurance companies to spend 80% of the consumers’ premium dollars they collect—85% for large group insurers—on actual medical care rather than overhead, marketing expenses and profit. Failure on the part of insurers to meet this requirement will result in the insurers having to send their customers a rebate check representing the amount in which they underspend on actual medical care.

Full Story Here: The Bomb Buried In Obamacare Explodes Today-Hallelujah! – Forbes.

States’ Health Care Hypocrisy Revealed

Federal officials announced Tuesday they are awarding more money to help states carry out President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul. So what’s the surprise?

Seven states that are suing to overturn the landmark law are also on the list for funding.

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said 13 states will split grants totaling nearly $220 million to help set up health insurance exchanges. Millions of uninsured Americans will be able to buy private coverage through these online supermarkets starting in 2014, with taxpayer-provided assistance to cover the cost of premiums.

“States are moving at their own pace to get their exchanges up and running,” said Sebelius. “This is a natural result of a process that gives states maximum flexibility.”

Full Story Here: Obama Health Care Law: States Suing To Overturn Law Collect Federal Funding.

Laptop WiFi May Damage Sperm, Study Suggests

Men, might want to consider keeping that laptop off your lap.

A new study in the journal Fertility and Sterility found that when exposing sperm taken from 29 men to electromagnetic radiation from laptop WiFi for four hours, the sperm had DNA damage and decreased motility.

Reuters reports that about 25 percent of the sperm had stopped moving after the four-hour laptop radiation exposure, while just 14 percent of the sperm had stopped moving when kept away from a computer. Nine percent of the radiation-exposed sperm had DNA damage, which was three times the damage of the non-radiation exposed sperm.

The researchers, from Nascentis Medicina Reproductiva in Argentina and the Eastern Virginia Medical School, wrote in the study that they “speculate that keeping a laptop connected wirelessly to the internet on the lap near the testes may result in decreased male fertility. Further in vitro and in vivo studies are needed to prove this contention.”

Full Story Here: Laptop WiFi May Damage Sperm, Study Suggests.

Virus So Deadly, Scientists Fighting To Keep It Secret

Bird Flu: Scientists Develop New Strain Of H5N1, Avian Influenza, That Could Kill Millions

It sounds like the setup for a Hollywood thriller: scientists in a lab create a virus as contagious as the flu that kills half of those infected. We’re safe as long as the virus remains locked up, but if it escapes or gets into the hands of bioterrorists, it has the potential to become a pandemic and kill millions around the world.

But this isn’t the latest summer blockbuster. According to New Scientist magazine, researchers in the Netherlands studying H5N1 — commonly referred to as the bird flu or avian influenza — have created a strain of the virus that’s easily passed between mammals, and it’s just as lethal as the original virus.

According to the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, the H5N1 virus has infected more than 500 people in more than a dozen countries and is known to kill around 60 percent of those that become infected.

Full Story Here: Bird Flu: Scientists Develop New Strain Of H5N1, Avian Influenza, That Could Kill Millions.

Does the U.S. Have the World’s Best Health Care System? Yes, If You’re Talking About the Third World

Wendell Potter :-:

A little more than a year ago, on the day after the GOP regained control of the House of Representatives, Speaker-to-be John Boehner said one of the first orders of business after he took charge would be the repeal of health care reform.

“I believe that the health care bill that was enacted by the current Congress will kill jobs in America, ruin the best health care system in the world, and bankrupt our country,” Boehner said at a press conference. “That means we have to do everything we can to try to repeal this bill and replace it with common sense reforms to bring down the cost of health care.”

Boehner is not the first nor the only Republican to try to make us believe that the U.S. has the world’s best health care system and that we’re bound to lose that distinction because of Obamacare. I’ve heard GOP candidates for president say the same thing in recent months, charging that we need to get rid of a President who clearly is trying to fix something that doesn’t need fixing, something that isn’t broken in the first place.

Full Story Here: Does the U.S. Have the World’s Best Health Care System? Yes, If You’re Talking About the Third World | Common Dreams.

Vt. to get $18 million for US health care reform

The Vermont Agency of Human Services will use an $18 million federal grant to help implement the next phase of the U.S. health care reform law.

That phase is taking place as the state moves toward implementation of the first-in-the-nation, single-payer health insurance system. The grant from the federal Department of Health and Human Services will be used so the state can continue the planning, development and design of its health benefits marketplace, or exchange, which eventually will help people buy private health insurance online.

The grant comes on top of a $1 million planning grant the state received last year, Vermont Health Care Reform Director Robin Lunge said.

Full Story Here: Vt. to get $18 million for US health care reform – Boston.com.

Americans Are 20 Pounds Heavier Today Than Two Decades Ago: Report

Americans are reporting that they weigh, on average, about 20 pounds more than they did 20 years ago, according to a new report from Gallup.

The findings, based on the annual Gallup Health and Healthcare Survey, show that men are reporting they weigh 196 pounds on average and women are reporting they weigh 160 pounds on average, up nearly 20 pounds from self-reported weights in 1990.

In addition, our “ideal weight” has also increased — for men, it is now 181 pounds (up from 177 pounds a decade ago), and for women, it is now 138 pounds (up from 137 a decade ago), according to the report.

Full Story Here: Americans Are 20 Pounds Heavier Today Than Two Decades Ago: Report.

Corporations Are Patenting Human Genes and Tissues — Here’s Why That’s Terrifying

A medical ethicist explains the dark implications of corporate medical patents and the nightmarish scenario of our medical-industrial complex.

Do you think that granting corporations the rights of people in the Citizens United case is disturbing? Then contemplate the fact that corporations have been patenting human genes and tissues at alarming rates — in the last 30 years, more than 40,000 patents have been granted on genes alone.

As the Occupy movement fights against the unmitigated influence of corporations on our lives, author and medical ethicist Harriet Washington’s new book, Deadly Monopolies: The Shocking Corporate Takeover of Life Itself–And the Consequences for Your Health and Our Medical Future, is a timely wakeup call to protect the very essence of human life from the medical-industrial complex.

In a recent phone interview with AlterNet, Washington discussed the dark implications of corporate medical patents, how we find ourselves in this nightmarish scenario and what needs to be done to stop medical research profits from trumping human health. Washington is also the author of Medical Apartheid, which received the National Book Critics Circle Award. She has been a fellow in medical ethics at Harvard Medical School, a senior research scholar at the National Center for Bioethics at Tuskegee University and a fellow at the Harvard School of Public Health.

Full Story Here: Corporations Are Patenting Human Genes and Tissues — Here’s Why That’s Terrifying | Personal Health | AlterNet.

This Farmer’s Perspective on GMOs

I am a member of an endangered species. I am an American Farmer. We farmers represent less than one percent of this nation’s population, yet our numbers continue to dwindle each year as agri-business giants like Monsanto, Cargill, and ADM devour us. I don’t understand why banks are too big to fail, but nothing is done to stem the alarming loss of healthy small farms, almost always family enterprises. Banks can fail; agriculture cannot. We do not eat or drink money.

These are difficult times, to be sure. The economic and social challenges facing our nation are worsened by the tragic disconnect between our government and the people. Who works for whom? As giant corporations and banks continue to have their cake and eat it too, 99 percent of the rest of us are expected to pay our taxes and to be satisfied with the crumbs. Worse still, the crumbs are genetically modified (GM). They are the illusion of crumbs.

Genetically-modified organisms (GMOs) run rampant like a plague, spreading poisonous genes into food and fiber crops, livestock, wildlife, insects, birds, the soil, and unsuspecting people. We are what we eat, and we are eating toxic unnatural food contrived in laboratories by billion-dollar chemical companies. Ninety percent of American corn, cotton, canola, soybeans, and sugar beets are genetically modified today. Eighty percent of all processed foods on our grocery shelves are made with GM ingredients. Livestock are fed primarily with genetically-modified feed in feed lots and factory farms, and those malnourished, sickened cattle, pigs, and chickens are the chief source of our protein.

I was impressed when the First Lady planted an organic garden near the White House, but I was stunned President Obama hired former Monsanto big wig, Michael Taylor, as this nation’s Food Czar. The former VP of Public Policy at Monsanto, the world’s largest supplier of GM products and the company that brought us DDT and Agent Orange, assures us his former employer’s fake food is safe to eat.  How comforting for all of us.

Full Story Here: This Farmer’s Perspective on GMOs — Son of A Farmer.

Drugged-Up Turkey: Antibiotic Use On Farms Linked To Rising Rates Of Drug-Resistant Infections

As families across America adorn their dinner tables with plump, juicy turkeys this Thursday, they’ve likely given little thought to what their future food previously consumed.

By the end of this year, an estimated 248 million turkeys will have been raised in the U.S., approximately 83 percent on farms that produce more than 60,000 turkeys each and most eating a diet that includes low doses of antibiotics. This common agricultural practice results not only in more meaty birds, according to experts, but also in greater risks to public health.

“Antibiotic use in animals comes back to haunt people,” said Stuart Levy, a Tufts University microbiology professor who focuses on antibiotic resistance. He recently co-authored a review of the evidence showing how animal antibiotics affect human health — via direct contact and indirectly via food, water, air and anywhere manure goes.

Full Story Here: Drugged-Up Turkey: Antibiotic Use On Farms Linked To Rising Rates Of Drug-Resistant Infections.

Conservative Groups Pressure Administration To Restrict Access To Contraception

In August, the Department of Health and Human Services accepted the recommendations of the Institute of Medicine and issued an interim final rule requiring health insurers to cover contraception and other women’s preventive services without additional cost sharing. The rule included a caveat that allowed religious institutions that offer health insurance to their employees to opt out of the coverage requirement, but now as HHS prepares to deliver the final regulation, conservative groups are pressuring the administration to significantly expand the exemption to include all religiously affiliated entities.

Organizations like the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops and Catholic Health Association insist that contraception encourages promiscuous behavior and that mandating coverage violates religious freedoms. As Sen. Pat Toomey (R-PA) wrote in a letter to HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, “this regulation requires that a Catholic institution either violate its fundamental beliefs by providing coverage that includes contraception and sterilization or, per the new requirements of PPACA, potentially pay a heavy financial penalty for failing to provide what PPACA deems adequate health coverage to their employees.”

But broadening the exemption would place religious beliefs ahead of women’s health and significantly restrict access to the birth control that most women rely on. More than 99 percent of all women ages 15 to 44 who have ever had sexual intercourse have used at least one contraceptive method and most people support expanding access to them. A national poll conducted in May, for instance, found that 88 percent of voters, including four in five Republicans, support women’s access to contraception. Most Americans even think that improving women’s access to contraception is a more effective way of reducing the number of abortions than enacting restrictive abortion laws.

Full Story Here: Conservative Groups Pressure Administration To Restrict Access To Contraception | ThinkProgress.

Republicans & Democrats, Making Pizza a Vegetable

Is pizza a vegetable? Maybe not in most homes, but in public school cafeterias it is.

School meals that are subsidized by the government are required to contain a certain minimum of vegetables under current rules, and a serving of pizza that contains at least two tablespoons of tomato sauce meets the veggie requirement. The Obama administration recently sought to change the rule so that only a half-cup of tomato paste or more could be counted as a vegetable — part of its efforts to cut back on the amount of pizza, French fries and other “unhealthy” foods showing up on school lunch trays.

But the food industry and some lawmakers are pushing back. On Monday, Congress released the final version of a spending bill that would block the new tomato paste rule, essentially keeping pizza in the vegetable category. The bill would also eliminate other changes the United States Department of Agriculture had proposed, like increasing whole grains in school meals and limiting the use of starchy vegetables to two servings a week, which would have cut back on the fries served daily at many schools.

Full Story Here: At Schools, Making Pizza a Vegetable – NYTimes.com.

OPS: More proof that Republicans are soulless sociopaths

Childhood Abuse May Increase Risk For Heart Attack, Stroke

Girls who experience severe sexual and physical abuse may have a higher risk of heart attack, heart disease and stroke, according to a recent study that researchers say is among the first to examine the correlation.

The research, presented Sunday at the American Heart Association’s 2011 scientific sessions, found that women who reported repeated episodes of forced sex in childhood or adolescence had a 62 percent higher risk of cardiovascular disease.

Severe physical abuse in childhood or adolescence was linked to a 45 percent higher risk of cardiovascular events.

“It’s almost hard to imagine stressors much greater than physical and sexual abuse,” Janet Rich-Edwards, lead author of the study and associate professor in the Department of Medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital told HuffPost. “When we think about stress and health, abuse is the elephant in the room.”

Full Story Here: Childhood Abuse May Increase Risk For Heart Attack, Stroke.

The GOP and health care reform

The new federal health reform law was born in a fiery battle — and it remains in one.

No Republican member of Congress voted for the Affordable Care Act that President Obama signed into law in March 2010. More than a year and a half later, conservatives and Republicans remain united in denouncing the act and in pushing the courts to strike it down as unconstitutional.

The shrill political rhetoric conveys a vivid impression of health reform as stalled or facing imminent decapitation.

Conservative activists have been cheered by the slew of constitutional challenges filed by state attorneys general, and by the decisions of Kansas and Oklahoma to return to Washington funding provided to help states implement the law.

Almost unnoticed in the rowdy fracas is the real, general pattern. Many aspects of the law (such as new regulations of insurers and expansion of insurance coverage to children up to 26) are already implemented or in the active planning stage in Washington and in the states, where much of the work is unfolding.

Full Story Here: The GOP and health care reform | StarTribune.com.

Aging Americans Stay Home with Aid of ‘Villages’

Weaver Shepperson has been blind for nearly 50 years. He’s lived alone since his wife died in 1999 and needs transportation several times a month to visit his doctors.

Yet he doesn’t plan to move out of the rowhouse in Washington’s historic Capitol Hill neighborhood where he’s lived since 1955.

The 80-year-old is part of a burgeoning movement among senior citizens determined to stay in their homes as long as possible. With the help of nonprofit groups known as “villages,” they’re enjoying many of the perks that residents of retirement or assisted-living communities receive, at a fraction of the cost.

Shepperson pays $530 annually for membership in Capitol Hill Village. It enables him to receive a ride to the doctor’s office from the village’s network of volunteers. The village also takes care of his grocery shopping. Without it, he says he might have had to move into assisted living.

Full Story Here: Aging Americans Stay Home with Aid of ‘Villages’ | Common Dreams.

Kawasaki Disease: Researchers Find Surprising Link To Wind Patterns

Dr. Jane C. Burns always takes her vacation in September and October. That’s when, she says, there is a “lull in the action.”

By action, she means the influx of children with Kawasaki disease that she has come to expect during summer and winter months. Similar seasonal patterns are seen in other parts of the world, but no one has been able to explain why.

Now Burns and her colleagues think they may have found an important clue — blowing in the wind. Despite 50 years of research, the underlying cause of Kawasaki, a rare condition that involves the inflammation of blood vessels, remains unknown.

Full Story Here: Kawasaki Disease: Researchers Find Surprising Link To Wind Patterns.

Imported Honey May Not Technically Be Honey

America’s lax food safety regulations are allowing many products to be labeled as something they are not. One of the most egregious violations comes in the form of imported honey. Calling the imports “honey” may be a misnomer, however, as approximately ¾ of all honey sold on U.S. shelves is not what is traditionally considered honey.

For a product to be considered honey by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), it must contain pollen. But the FDA does not check honey to see if it contains pollen. Checking for pollen is an important step because pollen can be used to trace the origin of the honey to make sure it comes from a safe, reputable source.

Chinese firms have been known to strip the pollen out of their honey using a process called ultra filtering. With the pollen stripped out, the honey can then be sold to the U.S. by funneling it through other countries, often India. This allows the Chinese firms to circumvent U.S. restrictions, to the detriment of the U.S. consumer.

Full Story Here: Imported Honey May Not Technically Be Honey | Economy In Crisis.

Smuggled Honey Makes It To American Stores Under Cover Of ‘Ultra-Filtration’

The next time you find yourself in the honey aisle of your grocery store, debating between a pricy premium, artisanal honey and the store-brand nectar contained in a plastic bear, you might want to think twice before choosing based on price.

That’s because a searing investigation of the honey market by Food Safety News found that 76% of all honey bought at grocery stores were treated with a process called “ultra-filtration,” which removes not only impurities like wax, but also all traces of pollen. And of the types of brands at grocery stores, the ones that were far-and-away the most likely to be ultra-filtered were generic brands.

There are issues with ultra-filtration in general — many believe that pollen, and other so-called “impurities,” are actually beneficial to human health, and make honey a better choice than rival sweeteners like sugar. And there doesn’t seem to be any serious benefit to the process; it’s expensive and doesn’t significantly improve shelf-life, even though some manufacturers claim it does.

Full Story Here: Smuggled Honey Makes It To American Stores Under Cover Of ‘Ultra-Filtration’.

Daylight Saving 2011: How Time Change Affects Our Health

At 2 a.m. Sunday morning, we finally recaptured that lost hour of sleep from last March as we marked the end of daylight saving time. And for the 47 million Americans who are sleep deprived, that extra hour is a chance to literally make up for lost time.

“This is one of those weekends we should really relish,” said HuffPost blogger Russell Rosenberg, Ph.D., CEO of the Atlanta School of Sleep Medicine and chairman of the board of the National Sleep Foundation. “The fact that Americans are so sleep deprived, it’s a nice reprieve from the busy lifestyles that we all lead.”

Rosenberg said this is the “good news story” of daylight saving time — the welcome counterpart to the hour of sleep we lose at the beginning of spring, which can take up to a week to adjust to and send those who are already sleep deprived over the threshold of “crashing and burning.” In fact, some studies have found a link between the spring-forward clock change and an increase in accidents and heart attacks.

Full Story Here: Daylight Saving 2011: How Time Change Affects Our Health.

Wisconsin GOP Senate Passes Abstinence-Only Bill That Prohibits Teachers From Teaching Contraception

Yesterday night, the Wisconsin Senate passed a bill that requires public school teachers “to promote abstinence and marriage over contraception in sex education classes.” Currently, sex education classes must include use of contraception in a comprehensive curriculum. Overturning the ban on abstinence-only classes passed last year, the bill will remove the contraception requirement and “instead mandate that schools teach that abstinence is the only reliable way to prevent pregnancy and disease. The benefits of marriage would also have to be taught.” The GOP bill passed 17-15 along party lines and now heads to the GOP-led Assembly. Republicans argue that they “are trying to back away from the bill passed last year that we feel mandated sex ed that was too nonjudgmental, too explicit and at too young an age.” State Sen. Jon Erpenbach (D), however, said simply that Wisconsin “was taking a step back to the Flintstone era.”

Full Story Here: Wisconsin GOP Senate Passes Abstinence-Only Bill That Prohibits Teachers From Teaching Contraception | ThinkProgress.

U.S. News Releases Ranking Of Best Diets For Healthy Eating

Not all diet plans are nutritious and safe. A new U.S. News ranking rates diets’ healthiness.

Weight lost doesn’t always equal health gained. That new diet that took inches off your waistline could be harming your health if it locks out or severely restricts entire food groups, like carbs, or relies on supplements with little scientific backing, or clamps down on calories to an extreme.

“People are so desperate to lose weight that it’s really weight loss at any cost,” says Madelyn Fernstrom, founding director of the UPMC-University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Weight Management Center and author of The Real You Diet. And when that desperation sets in, says Fernstrom, “normal thinking goes out the window.” Who cares if the forbidden-foods list is longer than War and Peace? Pounds are coming off. You’re happy. But your body might not be.

Full Story Here: U.S. News Releases Ranking Of Best Diets For Healthy Eating.

New Report Finds Vermont Could Save As Much As $1.8 Billion By 2020 From Shifting To Single Payer

Yesterday, the Vermont Legislative Joint Fiscal Office and the Department of Banking, Insurance, Securities and Health Care Administration released a new report estimating the savings the state could experience if it successfully enacts the single payer system it began designing earlier this year.

Using both a low and high estimate, the report concludes that the state would save between $553 million to $1.8 billion by the year 2020 by shifting to a single payer health care system and enacting other reforms along with it. The following chart from the report shows that these savings come from reductions in payer and provider administration, investments, clinical reforms, and fraud reduction:

Full Story Here: New Report Finds Vermont Could Save As Much As $1.8 Billion By 2020 From Shifting To Single Payer | ThinkProgress.

Johnson & Johnson Baby Shampoo Has Cancer-Causing Chemicals, Group Says

Two chemicals considered harmful to babies remain in Johnson & Johnson’s baby shampoo sold in the U.S., even though the company already makes versions without them, according to a coalition of health and environmental groups.

The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics has unsuccessfully been urging the world’s largest health care company for 2 1/2 years to remove the trace amounts of potentially cancer-causing chemicals – dioxane and a substance called quaternium-15 that releases formaldehyde – from Johnson’s Baby Shampoo, one of its signature products.

Johnson & Johnson said it is reducing or gradually phasing out the chemicals, but did not r

Full Story Here: Johnson & Johnson Baby Shampoo Has Cancer-Causing Chemicals, Group Says.

Personhood USA Confirms That Mississippi Abortion Ban Would Outlaw Birth Control Pills

Next Tuesday, Mississippians will go to the polls to decide on Initiative 26, a personhood amendment to the state constitution that defines a person as “every human being from the moment of fertilization, cloning, or the functional equivalent thereof.” Personhood amendments represent an extreme reach into a family’s privacy, essentially criminalizing abortion and potentially outlawing common forms of birth control.

Right-wing supporters of Mississippi’s personhood amendment, however, decry the fact that the bill will ban birth control as “scare tactics.” “It’s an outright lie that Initiative 26 would ban birth control pills,” said American Family Association Executive Director Brad Prewitt. “Stopping a pregnancy is not the issue; ending a pregnancy is.” Unfortunately for proponents, the Personhood movement spokesman Walter Hoye stated the opposite on NPR’s Diane Rehm Show. As the Florida Independent reports, when asked if there were any restrictions on birth control in the amendment, Hoye answered “no…well, yes,” adding, “any birth control that ends the life of a human being will be impacted by this measure,” including the pill:

Full Story Here: Personhood USA Confirms That Mississippi Abortion Ban Would Outlaw Birth Control Pills | ThinkProgress.

400% Rise in Anti-Depressant Pill Use: Americans Are Disempowered — Can the OWS Uprising Shake Us Out of Our Depression?

Is it time to repoliticize a great deal of our despair, and reconsider the old-fashioned antidepressant of political activism?

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently reported that antidepressant use in the United States has increased nearly 400 percent in the last two decades, making antidepressants the most frequently used class of medications by Americans ages 18-44. Among Americans 12 years and older, 11 percent were taking antidepressants by 2005-2008 (the most recently reported study period), and 23 percent of women ages 40–59 years were taking them.

Why has U.S. antidepressant use skyrocketed? Are the symptoms of what is commonly called depression—helplessness, hopelessness, and immobilization—always evidence of a medical condition? Or is it time to repoliticize a great deal of our despair, and reconsider the old-fashioned antidepressant of political activism?

Full Story Here: 400% Rise in Anti-Depressant Pill Use: Americans Are Disempowered — Can the OWS Uprising Shake Us Out of Our Depression? | Drugs | AlterNet.

Instead Of Unnecessary Cuts To Benefits, Democrats On Super Committee Should Modernize The System

News reports out today suggest that Democrats on the Super Committee are proposing $400 billion in cuts to Medicare—$200 billion in cuts to benefits, and $200 billion in cuts to providers. It’s unclear what this means, and whether it’s true, but one thing is certain: there is a better way.

Today the Center for American Progress is releasing a package of reforms to modernize the payment and delivery system. These reforms are a win-win: they will reduce costs and at the same time improve the quality of care and the efficiency of the health care system. Here’s what we propose:

– Immediately expand a Medicare program that bundles payments together for certain procedures nationwide. Then, completely replace fee-for-service with bundled payments for all procedures and primary care by 2016.

– Immediately implement competitive bidding for durable medical equipment, prosthetics, orthotics, and supplies nationwide, and expand the program to include laboratory tests.

– Require electronic eligibility, claims processing, and payment, as well as centralized physician credentialing.

– Do not pay extra for technologies that are more expensive but no more effective than other available technologies.

Full Story Here: Instead Of Unnecessary Cuts To Benefits, Democrats On Super Committee Should Modernize The System | ThinkProgress.

Coffee May Keep World’s Most Common Cancer At Bay, New Research Shows

First it was cutting the risk of depression, now skin cancer — when it comes to the health benefits of coffee, the good news keeps rolling in.

New research presented at an American Association for Cancer Research conference suggests daily joe consumption may help reduce the risk of basal cell carcinoma, the world’s most common cancer.

Women who drank more than three cups of caffeinated java daily saw a 20 percent reduction in risk, while men saw a 9 percent reduction, compared to people who had less than one cup per month. The researchers also tested for a possible connection between coffee consumption and decreased risk of melanoma and squamous cell carcinoma risk — two other skin cancer types — but found none.

Full Story Here: Coffee May Keep World’s Most Common Cancer At Bay, New Research Shows.

What Does the Recession Mean for Our Sex Lives?

As a new report predicts a rise in infidelity, we take a look at contradictory economy-related sexual predictions.

Our enduring recession is going to make men cheat more, if you believe the conclusions of a new study making the rounds this week. Omri Gillath, a social psychology professor at the University of Kansas, found that after exposing men to visuals meant to make them contemplate their own mortality, they were more responsive to sexual imagery. By superimposing mating strategies from our days on the savannah onto modern times, he concludes that as the economy continues to give us “signs that we have lower chances of survival,” we can expect men to be more inclined to stray. It’s a short-term mating strategy, Gillath says, that optimizes a man’s chance of successfully passing on his genes.

The study serves as a reminder not only of how overreaching evolutionary psychology can be, but also how many contradictory economic-related predictions have been made in recent years about our sexual behavior. It started in 2008 with reports that the popularity of sex-related items had gone up. At the start of the recession, sales of lubricants grew by 32 percent, Durex condoms reported 6 percent growth and sex toy retailer Babeland announced a 25 percent increase in business. Sex-related services also got a boost: Dating sites like Match.com reported a rise in traffic and hookup services like Manhunt saw membership boom. This caused business blogger Penelope Trunk to conclude, “So the deeper the recession, the more sex people are having.”

Full Story Here: What Does the Recession Mean for Our Sex Lives? | | AlterNet.

Penile Fracture: Study Links Broken Penises To Infidelity

Not only do affairs fracture relationships, they may also fracture penises, according to a recent study published in the Journal of Sexual Medicine.

Dr. Andrew Kramer, a urologist and assistant professor of surgery at the University of Maryland Medical Center, studied 16 cases of penile fracture between 2004 and 2011 that required surgery. Half the patients admitted to fracturing their penises during an extramarital affair.

According to the study, which was published last month, penile fracture occurs when the “tunica albuginea” — the fibrous membrane surrounding the tissue in the center of the penis — is torn during the bending or buckling of an erect penis. It can result in erectile dysfunction if not surgically repaired.

We talked to Dr. Kramer to learn more about his unusual findings.

(Warning: Graphic content ahead)

Full Story Here: Penile Fracture: Study Links Broken Penises To Infidelity.

Death Watch for Health Clinics

Community wellness centers used to have bipartisan support — that is, until they were included in the Affordable Care Act

The Mary Howard Health Center sits on the first floor of a ten-story, low-rise office building a few blocks from the heart of downtown Philadelphia. The center serves the city’s homeless residents, providing everything from wound care to mental-health services. Like all community health centers, Mary Howard provides health care without regard for income or insurance status.

“They’re doing a good job, giving me all the attention I need,” says James Brown (“like the soul singer”), a 71-year-old Mary Howard patient with a painful abscess on his back the size of a fist. “It’s just like a regular hospital.”

The center saw 1,760 patients last year, a capacity increased by funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act’s (ARRA) $2 billion earmark for community health centers. Most of the $636,000 ARRA grant Mary Howard received went to expanding the center’s capacity from four to ten patient rooms.

Without Mary Howard, Brown says, “I would have just gone to emergency care … but I trust [the health center] just as much as emergency care.”

Full Story Here: Death Watch for Health Clinics.

Why Do People Become Addicts?

Dr. Gabor Mate discusses with AlterNet the principles of harm reduction, the connections between ADD and addiction, and the work he’s done with drug addicts.

Gabor Mate M.D. has been for over ten years the staff physician at the Portland Hotel, North America’s only supervised safe-injection site in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, home to one of the world’s densest areas of drug users. Mate advocates for and practices a holistic view of reality, its challenges and potential solutions. Mate’s books include When the Body Says No: Understanding The Stress-Disease Connection; Scattered: How Attention Deficit Disorder Originates And What You Can Do About It, and his latest, In The Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters with Addiction.

McNally: Can you tell us a bit about your path to the work that you do today?

Mate: I’m a medical doctor. I’ve worked for 20 years in family practice in Vancouver, BC. For seven years I worked in palliative care looking after old people and for 12 years I’ve worked in the downtown eastside.

Full Story Here: Why Do People Become Addicts? | | AlterNet.

Finally Revealed: Processed Food Rebates Dominate School Cafeterias

When I first started writing about the food being served in my daughter’s elementary school cafeteria, I figured there had to be a reason children were being fed Apple Jacks cereal, strawberry milk, Pop-Tarts, Giant Goldfish Grahams and Otis Spunkmeyer muffins for breakfast.

I was right. The manufacturers of those sugar-laden products pay hefty rebates–some call them “kickbacks”–to giant food service companies as an inducement to purchase their highly processed goods. But I have now learned it’s not just the lousy food that’s fueled by rebates. Just about everything that goes into running a public school cafeteria comes with a rebate check that helps make sure the industrial version of food wins out.

In what may be the first ever detailed look into how industry rebates dominate school food service, documents I obtained under the Freedom of Information Act indicate that more than 100 companies paid rebates in recent years to the food service management company hired by D.C. Public Schools–Chartwells–for everything from breakfast cereal, hamburger patties and canned green beans to paper cups, armored car services and drug counseling for employees.

Full Story Here: Finally Revealed: Processed Food Rebates Dominate School Cafeterias | The Slow Cook.

How Medicare Fails the Elderly

HERE is the dirty little secret of health care in America for the elderly, the one group we all assume has universal coverage thanks to the 1965 Medicare law: what Medicare paid for then is no longer what recipients need or want today.

No one then envisioned the stunning advances in medicine that now keep people alive into advanced old age, often with unintended and unwelcome consequences. Indeed, scientific reports have showed the dangers, not merely the pointlessness and expense, of much of the care Medicare is providing.

Of course, some may actually want everything medical science has to offer. But overwhelmingly, I’ve concluded in a decade of studying America’s elderly, it is fee-for-service doctors and Big Pharma who stand to gain the most, and adult children, with too much emotion and too little information, driving those decisions.

Full Story Here: How Medicare Fails the Elderly – NYTimes.com.

Climate change poses immediate threat to health: experts

Climate change poses an immediate and serious threat to global health and stability, as floods and droughts destroy people’s homes and food supplies and increase mass migration, experts warned Monday.

In a statement issued at a meeting in London, they urged tougher action to reduce climate change including upping the EU target for cutting greenhouse gas emissions from 20 percent by 2020 to 30 percent from 1990 levels.

“It is not enough for politicians to deal with climate change as some abstract academic concept,” said a signatory, Hugh Montgomery, director of the University College London (UCL) Institute for Human Health and Performance.

Full Story Here: Climate change poses immediate threat to health: experts | The Raw Story.

Filthy Phones: 1 In 6 Cell Phones Have Traces Of E. Coli Bacteria

About one in six cellphones tested in the U.K. had traces of E. coli bacteria from fecal matter, a new study released for Global Handwashing Day suggests.

Researchers from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and Queen Mary, University of London travelled to 12 cities in Britain, took 390 samples from cellphones and hands and then analyzed the samples in the lab to record the type and number of germs.

The findings included:

- Although 95 per cent of people said they washed their hands with soap where possible, 92 per cent of phones and 82 per cent of hands had bacteria on them.

- 16 per cent of hands and 16 per cent of phones were found to harbour E. coli bacteria that are associated with stomach upsets.

Full Story Here: Filthy Phones: 1 In 6 Cell Phones Have Traces Of E. Coli Bacteria.

Doctors recommend evaluating children for ADHD at age four

The American Academy of Pediatrics this weekend expanded its guidelines for diagnosing and treating kids with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, recommending that doctors evaluate all patients aged four to 18 who show signs of the condition.

The new guidelines update decade-old recommendations that focused on diagnosing and managing ADHD in kids aged six to 12. But behavior problems, over-activity and trouble paying attention can show up earlier, researchers said, and ADHD often persists into adolescence or even adulthood.

Pediatricians should also look out for learning disabilities, anxiety and other issues that can go hand-in-hand with ADHD. And, they should tailor treatment with behavior therapy and medication based on kids’ age and severity of symptoms, says a statement published in Pediatrics.

Full Story Here: Doctors recommend evaluating children for ADHD at age four | The Raw Story.

Boss Told Me To Stop Giving Dying Co-Worker CP: Worker Dies

Last month, a Time Warner Cable customer service rep died at her desk. After any unexpected death, people searched for answers, explanations, someone to blame. But in this case, there may have actually been something foul afoot. A local news station reports that after a co-worker began giving CPR to 67-year-old Julia Nelson, a supervisor allegedly told her to stop and “get back on the phone and take care of customers.”

Nelson slumped at her desk at the Time Warner Call Center in Garfield Heights, Ohio, and wasn’t breathing by the time paramedics arrived. But before that happened, a co-worker rushed over and began administering CPR, the woman told WOIO, only to be asked to stop. Employees at the scene have confirmed this report.

The woman was also told later by another supervisor that she could be “held liable if something goes wrong.”

Full Story Here: Boss Told Me To Stop Giving Dying Co-Worker CPR, Says Service Rep – Careers Articles.

Bosses Four Times As Likely To Be ‘Psychopaths’: Survey Says

What’s the key to business success? Well, being a psychopath might actually give you an edge. While most workers would prefer not to have a crazy boss, their attitudes toward female bosses are changing. And it’s possible the high percentage of crazy bosses explains the average worker’s weight gain. (Or maybe it’s just the donuts in the break room). Here’s a closer look at some of the latest small-business surveys.

Crazy Talk

A study of more than 200 executives by researcher Paul Babiak found that almost 4 percent were considered psychopaths when ranked on the Psychopathy Checklist, a tool therapists use to assess this personality disorder. Babiak, whose findings were reported in his book Snakes in Suits: When Psychopaths Go to Work, found that in comparison, only 1 percent of the general population shows psychopathic tendencies.

In other words, those who are successful in business could be four times more likely to be psychopaths than the average person. What exactly does that mean? Psychopaths lack empathy and don’t feel remorse for their actions. That makes them great at manipulating their way to the top.

Full Story Here: Bosses Four Times As Likely To Be ‘Psychopaths’: Survey Says.

Women Over 50 Enjoying Healthy, Active Sex Lives: Study

A new study from the Women’s Health Initiative has found that, contrary to popular belief, older women are generally satisfied with their sex lives — and if they do have a problem, it’s because they’d like to be having more sex.

The study, released this month and featured in the Menopause journal, asked 27,347 women aged 50 to 79 a series of questions about how they perceive sexual activity and their own sex lives. Results from the study indicated sexual activity among 50 to 59-, 60 to 69-, and 70 to 79-year-old age groups to be 60.7 percent, 44.9 percent and 28.2 percent, respectively.

Most of the study’s participants were satisfied with their current sex lives (63.2 percent). Of those dissatisfied, 57 percent responded that they would like to be having more sex, not less. The most common reasons sited by participants who said they were not sexually active were poor health, depression and loss of a partner.

“This is the first study that indicates that [older] women would actually like to have more sex,” Gisele Wolf-Klein, MD, director of geriatric education at the North Shore-LIJ Health System in New Hyde Park, N.Y., told WebMD. Though she was not involved in the study, she went on to note, “We know sexual activity decreases with age, and we do attribute that to lack of a partner, but we thought that women were kind of happy with this. That it didn’t represent a major problem. Well, that does not seem to be the case.”

Full Story Here: Women Over 50 Enjoying Healthy, Active Sex Lives: Study.

The ‘Terrible 10′: The Worst Aspects Of America’s Food Scene

The first annual Food Day is October 24; it aims to bring Americans from all walks of life together to “push for healthy, affordable food produced in a sustainable, humane way,” according to the Food Day website. In anticipation of the day, the Center for Science in the Public Interest has released its “Terrible Ten,” a list of the 10 worst aspects of American’s food scene. Although the list is not necessarily a cohesive one — there’s no obvious connection between lobbyists and vending machines — it does highlight some of the biggest threats to a healthy food system.

Check out the “Terrible Ten” slideshow below.

Full Story Here: The ‘Terrible 10′: The Worst Aspects Of America’s Food Scene.

Obama Administration Cuts Major Part Of Health Care Reform Law: CLASS Long-Term Insurance Program Canceled

The Obama administration Friday pulled the plug on a major program in the president’s signature health overhaul law – a long-term care insurance plan dogged from the beginning by doubts over its financial solvency.

Targeted by congressional Republicans for repeal, the program became the first casualty in the political and policy wars over the health care law. It had been expected to launch in 2013.

“This is a victory for the American taxpayer and future generations,” said Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., spearheading opposition in the Senate. “The administration is finally admitting (the long-term care plan) is unsustainable and cannot be implemented.”

Full Story Here: Obama Administration Cuts Major Part Of Health Care Reform Law: CLASS Long-Term Insurance Program Canceled.

The Untimely Death of Long-Term Health Insurance

Robert Reich :-:

The Administration’s decision to pull the plug on long-term health insurance in the new healthcare law (so-called Community Living Assistance Services and Support or, as it was known by healthcare insiders, CLASS) offers an important lesson.

As written, the law had three incompatible parts.

First, it required beneficiaries to receive at least $50 a day if they had a long-term illness or disability (to pay a caregiver or provide other forms of maintenance). That $50 was an absolute minimum. No flexibility on the downside.

Second, insurance premiums had to fully cover these costs. In budget-speak, the program was to be self-financing. Given the minimum benefit, that meant fairly hefty premiums.

Full Story Here: Robert Reich (The Untimely Death of Long-Term Health Insurance).

Anti-Abortion Groups Push ‘Heartbeat’ Bills In All 50 States

Earlier this month, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) introduced The Heartbeat Informed Consent Act which would require all abortion providers to “make the heartbeat of the unborn child visible and audible to its mother as part of her informed consent.” Bachmann’s bill may be a shameless pander to evangelical voters, but abortion foes are already planning a much more ambitious campaign to propose Bachmann-style “heartbeat” bills in all 50 states:

A nationwide coalition of anti-abortion groups said Wednesday it is preparing to push legislation in all 50 states requiring that pregnant women see and hear the fetal heartbeat before having an abortion.

The effort follows the introduction of similar legislation at the federal level by Republican presidential candidate and U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota. [...]

Full Story Here: Anti-Abortion Groups Push ‘Heartbeat’ Bills In All 50 States | ThinkProgress.

House Passes Abortion Bill

The House passed a controversial abortion bill Thursday on a near party-line vote, reigniting the chamber’s political battle over women’s health.

The bill, which passed 251-172, would prevent coverage of abortion services by insurance plans on state exchanges that receive federal subsidies. It would also strengthen conscience protections for hospitals and medical providers. At least 15 Democrats voted in support of the bill.

It’s no surprise the bill from Rep. Joe Pitts, R-Pa., easily passed the House, but it isn’t likely to get much further in the Democratic-controlled Senate. Republicans in the upper chamber have not forced a floor vote on any abortion legislation passed by the House this year. President Obama also threatened on Wednesday to veto the legislation, saying that it “intrudes on women’s reproductive freedom and access to health care.”

That hasn’t dissuaded Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., who sponsored a bill earlier this year to make a federal ban on funding abortion permanent law.

Full Story Here: House Passes Abortion Bill – Meghan McCarthy – NationalJournal.com.

Protect Life Act: New Bill Would Allow Hospitals To Refuse To Perform Abortions

The House is scheduled to vote this week on a new bill that would allow federally-funded hospitals that oppose abortions to refuse to perform the procedure, even in cases where a woman would die without it.

Under current law, every hospital that receives Medicare or Medicaid money is legally required to provide emergency care to any patient in need, regardless of his or her financial situation. If a hospital is unable to provide what the patient needs — including a life-saving abortion — it has to transfer the patient to a hospital that can.

Under H.R. 358, dubbed the “Protect Life Act” and sponsored by Rep. Joe Pitts (R-Pa.), hospitals that don’t want to provide abortions could refuse to do so, even for a pregnant woman with a life-threatening complication that requires a doctor terminate her pregnancy. This provision would apply to the more than 600 Catholic hospitals governed by the Catholic Health Association, which are regulated by bishops and prohibited from performing abortions.

Full Story Here: Protect Life Act: New Bill Would Allow Hospitals To Refuse To Perform Abortions.

New Film Exposes Connection Between the Kochs and a Small Community Dying of Cancer

A new video from Brave New Foundation shows how people are paying the ultimate price for the Koch brothers’ politics and profiteering.

The many sins of the Koch brothers have been keeping Robert Greenwald and his crew at Brave New Foundation busy. Since January they’ve been working on their Koch Brothers Exposed video investigations, documenting the malfeasance of Koch Industries and the two-headed monster at the helm.

“What we’ve been doing with our ‘Koch Brothers Exposed’ project is connecting the dots: explaining the size and scope of what they’re doing, which is really nothing short of trying to buy democracy,” said Greenwald, the president of Brave New Foundation. (Full disclosure: Greenwald is on AlterNet’s board of directors.) ”What we’ve done with each of the Koch pieces is to use specific stories to depict people’s lives and show that ideology has consequences. What the Kochs are doing is not harmless, it is not victimless, and there are people who are paying a terrible price for the brothers’ politics and their profiteering.”

Full Story Here: New Film Exposes Connection Between the Kochs and a Small Community Dying of Cancer | Environment | AlterNet.

South Beach Diet Author On Four Reasons Why America Is Still Getting Fatter And Sicker – And What to Do About It

Americans are fatter, and sicker, than ever. And we don’t have to be.

We are eating horrendously, moving and exercising less, and not getting enough sleep. This has made us fatigued, depressed, irritable, achy, and generally miserable. And if feeling terrible isn’t bad enough, these habits are also making us ill–with diseases like diabetes, heart disease, and many forms of cancer, to name just a few.

What many of us don’t realize is that these poor lifestyle habits are causing the cells, tissues, and organs in our bodies to “rust,” or age before their time, as many of us walk around in a state of constant inflammation.

Full Story Here: Dr Arthur Agatston: South Beach Diet Author On Four Reasons Why America Is Still Getting Fatter And Sicker – And What to Do About It.

The GOP Can Kill Medicare This Year Without Even Casting a Vote. Here’s How

“Putting off reform of the SGR even for a year would result in implementation of a very significant decrease to Medicare physician fees in calendar year 2012, which would lead to reduced physician participation in Medicare, and therefore patients’ access to care.

Now, I know that the “sustainable growth rate” sounds really boring. So, how about we reframe this as “a life and death battle to save Medicare”. Is that more interesting?

You in the front row. You have a question? Why would anyone want to kill Medicare you ask?

Medicare is a thorn in the side of private health insurers. As long as Medicare exists, it would be pretty easy for the nation to expand the program to cover everyone. Instant socialized medicine. So, Medicare must die. In addition, most Medicare patients are not sick, and therefore privates would be more than happy to write them high cost policies with huge deductibles. The small percentage of Medicare recipients who actually cost the program money are poor (because of their massive health care costs) and they would be placed on Medicaid and would become the problem of state governments. In this way, the privates would suck up the Medicare premiums while dodging the financial risks.

Full Story Here: McCamy Taylor’s Journal – The GOP Can Kill Medicare This Year Without Even Casting a Vote. Here’s How.

House Republicans’ Labor Budget Cuts Rules That Protect Rooftop Workers From Falling, Coal Miners From Coal Dust

In addition to blocking President Obama’s health care law and slashing funding for job training, the budget plan presented by House Republicans for health and labor programs this week would scuttle several worker safety protections put forth by the Department of Labor.

Among other anti-regulatory measures, the budget would block the department from moving forward with its Injury and Illness Prevention Program, which would require employers to develop written plans to address workplace hazards and reduce worker injuries. Under the Republican plan, no Labor Department funding could be devoted toward the program.

The budget also takes aim at an obscure but notable Labor Department rule intended to reduce the death and maiming of construction workers who labor on rooftops. The department’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration had planned to ramp up the enforcement of harness rules for roofers working on residential construction sites, but the Republican plan forbids the agency from doing so, as noted by the public-health blog The Pump Handle.

Full Story Here: House Republicans’ Labor Budget Cuts Rules That Protect Rooftop Workers From Falling, Coal Miners From Coal Dust.

Cancer drug trial halted in UK for being too successful

THE trail of a new drug for prostate cancer was halted in the UK because the results were too good.

Doctors at the Royal Marsden Hospital in London concluded that it would have been unethical not to offer it to all 922 cancer patients on the trial after the drug was shown to ease pain and cause only minor side-effects, The (London) Sunday Telegraph said.

The drug – Radium-223 Chloride, known as Alpharadin TM – targets tumours with alpha radiation, reducing the damage to surrounding tissue.

Dr Chris Parker, lead researcher on the project, said, “It’s more damaging. It takes one, two, three hits to kill a cancer cell compared with thousands of hits for beta particles. They have such a tiny range, a few millionths of a meter. So we can be sure that the damage is being done where it should be.”

Full Story Here: Cancer drug trial halted in UK for being too successful | News.com.au.

Food Safety Still Lacking In U.S.

Food safety in the United States is not up to par. We are importing more and more of our food, but we do not have the resources to ensure that it is safe.

Americans now get 15 to 20 percent of all the food they consume from overseas. This includes two-thirds of our fruits and vegetables, and 80 percent of our shrimp and other seafood. Despite the nearly unavoidable nature of imported food, our government agencies lack the ability to properly inspect imported food for contaminants. We currently inspect only about 1 percent of all imported food, and Americans are getting sick as a result.

Our government has taken half-hearted measures to remedy this problem. Congress passed the Food Safety Modernization Act early this year, which was intended to help improve food safety standards in this country. The act included provisions for improving the safety of both domestic and imported food, including adding the ability of regulators to refuse food shipments from foreign facilities that do not allow U.S. inspections. The act also requires that importers verify the safety of the food they bring into the country.

Full Story Here: Food Safety Still Lacking In U.S. | Economy In Crisis.

There Is No Biological Reason to Eat Three Meals a Day — So Why Do We Do It?

For most of history, meals were very variable.

We grew up believing in three meals a day.

When we skip meals, eat extra meals or subvert paradigms — spaghetti breakfasts, pancake suppers — we feel naughty, edgy and criminal. “Three meals a day” resonates like a Bible phrase.

But it’s a cultural construct.

People around the world, even in the West, have not always eaten three squares. The three-meals model is a fairly recent convention, which is now being eclipsed as, like everything else, eating becomes a highly personalized matter of choice. What and when and how frequently we eat is driven less and less by the choices of our families, coworkers and others, and more and more by impulse, personal taste and favorite nutrition memes, and marketing schemes such as Taco Bell’s promotion of late-night eating known as “Fourthmeal: the Meal Between Dinner & Breakfast.” Selecting how and when we eat is like loading our iPods.

Full Story Here: There Is No Biological Reason to Eat Three Meals a Day — So Why Do We Do It? | Food | AlterNet.

Corporations Undermine UN Effort to Reduce Chronic Diseases

While much of the world’s attention focused on the UN debate about Palestinian statehood this week, the General Assembly took up another issue that garnered less media scrutiny, even though its outcome could prevent millions of premature deaths in coming decades. On September 19th and 20th, 30 heads of State and 100 other senior ministers and experts met at the UN General Assembly’s first high level summit on non-communicable diseases (NCDs) to discuss how to reduce the burdens of such conditions as diabetes, heart disease, cancer and chronic respiratory diseases.

These conditions cause about 35 million deaths a year, of which 80 percent occur in low and middle-income countries and one quarter among people younger than 60 years. By 2030, NCDs will cause more than three quarters of all deaths in the world. While the UN has previously recognized HIV, tuberculosis and malaria as threats to economic development and global security, this was the first time the UN acknowledged that non-communicable disease also jeopardized economic well-being.

The NCD summit was an important step in shaping a coordinated global response to these conditions but unlike infectious diseases, where few organizations profit directly from their spread, powerful industries depend on encouraging consumption of products like tobacco, alcohol, unhealthy food and automobiles that have fueled epidemics of non-communicable diseases. Thus, the summit previewed the great public health battle of this period. On one side are the public health professionals, advocacy organizations and local officials who have to cope with the rising tide of NCDs fueled by the growing consumption of tobacco, alcohol and unhealthy food. On the other are industries built on the model of profiting by promoting unhealthy lifestyles and products.

Full Story Here: Corporations Undermine UN Effort to Reduce Chronic Diseases | Common Dreams.

Hospital Drug Shortages Present Costly Crisis

A drug for dangerously high blood pressure, normally priced at $25.90 per dose, offered to hospitals for $1,200. Fifteen deaths in 15 months blamed on shortages of life-saving medications.

A growing crisis in the availability of drugs for chemotherapy, infections and other serious ailments is endangering patients and forcing hospitals to buy from secondary suppliers at huge markups because they can’t get the medications any other way.

An Associated Press review of industry reports and interviews with nearly two dozen experts found the shortages – mainly of injected generic drugs that ordinarily are cheap – have delayed surgeries and cancer treatments, left patients in unnecessary pain and caused hospitals to give less effective treatments. That’s resulted in complications and longer hospital stays.

Full Story Here: Hospital Drug Shortages Present Costly Crisis.

Scientists discover virus that kills all types of breast cancer ‘within seven days’

Scientists at the Penn State College of Medicine said this week they have discovered a virus that is capable of killing all types of breast cancer “within seven days” of first introduction in a laboratory setting.

The virus, known as adeno-associated virus type 2 (AAV2), is naturally occurring and carried by up to 80 percent of humans, but it does not cause any disease.

Researchers learned of its cancer-killing properties in 2005, after Penn State scientists observed it killing cervical cancer cells. They also found that women who carried the AAV2 virus and human papillomavirus (HPV), which causes cervical cancer, had a lower propensity to develop cervical cancer.

When combined in a lab recently, AAV2 eradicated all the breast cancer cells “within seven days,” according to researchers. Better still, it proved capable of wiping out cancer cells at multiple stages, negating the need for differing treatments used today.

Full Story Here: Scientists discover virus that kills all types of breast cancer ‘within seven days’ | The Raw Story.

Michele Bachmann Calls For End Of Food Safety Regulations To Create More Jobs

Remember those recent recalls of tainted peanuts, eggs, ground turkey, and other food products over the past two years? Well, Michele Bachmann wants us all to eat more tainted food.

During a visit to a meatpacking plant in Des Moines, Iowa, Bachmann called for an end to food safety regulations that keep food safe for human consumption. Bachmann told reporters that food regulations hurt job growth and that they’re “overkill.”⁠

“That’s part of the problem, the overkill, and when they make it complicated, they make it expensive and so then you can no longer stay in business.”

Full Story Here: Michele Bachmann Calls For End Of Food Safety Regulations To Create More Jobs | Addicting Info.

Obama Medicare Cuts Target Providers, Then Beneficiaries For Savings

President Obama wants to extract $320 billion in savings from the health care system in his push to trim the deficit, starting with cutting payments to Medicare and Medicaid providers and ending with making beneficiaries pay more.

The biggest savings — $135 billion over 10 years — would come from letting Medicare pay for drugs at the same rates as Medicaid, which enjoys much greater rebates on generic and brand-name drugs.

The next largest source of savings — $42 billion — would come from nursing homes, rehab centers and long-term care facilities, which the administration thinks can be encouraged to be much more efficient in providing care right after people get out of hospitals.

Full Story Here: Obama Medicare Cuts Target Providers, Then Beneficiaries For Savings.

2010 marks another year of decline for employer-sponsored health insurance coverage

According to a report released today by the U.S. Census Bureau, the number of uninsured Americans under age 65 rose from 48.3 million in 2009 to 49.1 million in 2010. When including those 65 and older, the number reached 49.9 million in 2010.

AUDIO: Listen to EPI’s press call about the 2010 report

While the Great Recession officially ended in the summer of 2009, the labor market continued to deteriorate into 2010. The unemployment rate increased from 9.3 percent in 2009 to 9.6 percent in 2010, and long-term unemployment (the unemployed without a job for 27 weeks or more) grew from 31.2 percent in 2009 to 43.3 percent in 2010. As most Americans, particularly those under age 65, rely on health insurance through the workplace, these unemployment trends make it no surprise that employer-sponsored health insurance continued to fall from 2009 to 2010. But the situation started deteriorating long before the Great Recession: Employment-based coverage for those under 65 eroded in nine of the past 10 years, including a 0.7 percentage point drop from 59.4 percent in 2009 to 58.6 percent in 2010.

Because all Americans age 65 and older have near-universal access to health insurance coverage through Medicare, this report focuses exclusively on coverage rates for the under-65 population. This report’s highlights are:

Full Story Here: 2010 marks another year of decline for employer-sponsored health insurance coverage | Economic Policy Institute.

6 Serious Health Benefits Of Apples

My favorite thing about fall in Vermont is rambling through a nearby orchard, picking crisp, juicy apples and crunching into one, fresh off the tree. Yet, apples are so commonplace that they’re almost overlooked and pushed aside by flashier superfruits, such as pomegranates and goji berries.

But as a registered dietitian and associate nutrition editor of EatingWell Magazine, I know that apples have surprising nutritional benefits that justify the “apple a day” adage. Here are some of apples’ nutritional boons:

Full Story Here: EatingWell: 6 Serious Health Benefits Of Apples.

Are Tattoos Toxic? New Research Shows Endocrine Disruptors, Metals and Carcinogens in Tattoo Ink

Research has turned up troubling findings about toxic chemicals in tattoo inks, including phthalates, metals, and hydrocarbons that are carcinogens and endocrine disruptors.

The End Is Near tattoo parlor in South Park Slope could pass for one of the neighborhood’s upscale boutiques.

Local artwork covers the light blue walls. Ornate body jewelry fills a glass showcase. A stuffed badger greets visitors. There’s just one thing that gives the parlor away – the unmistakable electric hum of a tattoo needle.

“We’re not the seedy underground that used to be,” said Trischa, the shop’s one-named manager, whose fair skin, revealed by a black tank top, is almost completely painted with ink.

As tattoo shops turn chic, ink’s allure has spread into the mainstream. Despite the well-known risks of infection, allergies and scarring, an estimated 45 million people in the United States – including 36 percent of adults in their late 20s – have at least one tattoo, according to estimates by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and a Harris Interactive Poll.

Full Story Here: Are Tattoos Toxic? New Research Shows Endocrine Disruptors, Metals and Carcinogens in Tattoo Ink | Personal Health | AlterNet.

Study concludes Gulf War syndrome involves real brain damage

For the last twenty years, veterans of the Persian Gulf War of 1991 have been complaining of a range of ailments, including pain, fatigue, and problems with memory and concentration. And for just as long, the causes have remained uncertain and there has been a tendency by the military to attribute the complaints to post-traumatic stress disorder.

Now a long-term study at the University of Texas in Dallas has used a new technique to measure blood flow in the brains of sufferers and has detected “marked abnormalities” in brain function that can probably be attributed to low levels of exposure to sarin nerve gas. This abnormal blood flow has persisted or even worsened over the eleven years of the study.

“The findings mark a significant advancement in our understanding of the syndrome, which was for years written off by the Defense Department and the Department of Veterans Affairs as a form of combat stress rather than an objectively diagnosable injury,” reports the Dallas Observer.

Full Story Here: Study concludes Gulf War syndrome involves real brain damage | The Raw Story.

Ron Paul’s Campaign Manager Died Sick and Uninsured, the Way ‘Freedom’ Allows

At the fifth GOP debate this week, moderator Wolf Blitzer asked Ron Paul, a doctor, whether someone who opts to not buy health insurance and then gets sick should be allowed to die. The crowd responded with startling shouts of “Yeah!” followed by applause, leaving even Rick Perry “taken aback.” Paul’s answer, while more gentle, was more or less the same. “That’s what freedom is all about: taking your own risks. This whole idea that you have to take care of everybody … ” said Paul, who was cut off by clapping from the audience. While you wouldn’t know it from his answer, Blizter’s hypothetical probably hit close to home for Paul, whose campaign manager Kent Snyder died young of pneumonia — without insurance — in 2008.

He was just 49 years old when he died of complications from the virus on June 26, two weeks after Paul dropped out of the race. Snyder’s mother was left with around $400,000 in medical costs. Paul supporters set up a donation fund to help with the debt.

Snyder was credited as “the driving force behind Ron Paul’s presidential bid” in the last election, having turned “his one-man operation into a national grass-roots phenomenon that now calls itself ‘The Freedom Movement.’”

Full Story Here: Ron Paul’s Campaign Manager Died Sick and Uninsured, the Way ‘Freedom’ Allows — Daily Intel.

Health-Care Reform Rules Would Restrict Public Reporting

It’s estimated that hundreds of thousands of patients die annually from preventable harm suffered while undergoing medical care. The infections, injuries and errors could rank as a leading cause of death in the United States.

Last year’s sweeping health-care reform law — the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act — promised to improve the problem by allowing outside groups to use Medicare billing records to analyze and publicly report on the quality of care. But proposed rules that would guide the release of the data are being criticized by consumer groups that say the rules would make independent accountability impossible.

Agencies typically adopt rules to administer laws like the health-care act. The rules being developed by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) propose restricting the release of Medicare billing data to “qualified entities.” To qualify, a group would have to:

Full Story Here: The Washington Current: Health-Care Reform Rules Would Restrict Public Reporting.

Cargill Turkey Recall: Salmonella Found In Batch Of Ground Turkey

Minnesota-based Cargill Inc. recalled more ground turkey products Sunday because a test showed salmonella in a sample from an Arkansas plant less than a month after production resumed following an earlier recall and shutdown.

Cargill recalled 36 million pounds of ground turkey last month after a salmonella outbreak that federal health officials said sickened 107 people in 31 states by Aug. 11. One person died.

Federal health officials linked the outbreak to ground turkey from Cargill’s plant in Springdale, Ark., and the company shutdown the plant when it announced the Aug. 3 recall. But Cargill spokesman Mike Martin said two weeks later that limited production had resumed after the U.S. Department of Agriculture approved additional anti-bacterial safety measures.

Full Story Here: Cargill Turkey Recall: Salmonella Found In Batch Of Ground Turkey.

Less Work, More Living

Working fewer hours could save our economy, save our sanity, and help save our planet.

Millions of Americans have lost control over the basic rhythm of their daily lives. They work too much, eat too quickly, socialize too little, drive and sit in traffic for too many hours, don’t get enough sleep, and feel harried too much of the time. It’s a way of life that undermines basic sources of wealth and well-being—such as strong family and community ties, a deep sense of meaning, and physical health.

Imagining a world in which jobs take up much less of our time may seem utopian, especially now, when a scarcity mentality dominates the economic conversation. People who are employed often find it difficult to scale back their jobs. Costs of medical care, education, and child care are rising. It may be hard to find new sources of income when U.S. companies have been laying people off at a dizzying rate.

But fewer work hours for people with jobs is a key step toward solving the unemployment crisis—while giving Americans healthier lives. Fewer hours means more jobs are available to people who need them. Living on less pay usually means consuming less, making more of the things one needs at home, and living lighter, whether by design or by accident.

Full Story Here: Less Work, More Living by Juliet Schor — YES! Magazine.

GM Feed Toxic, New Meta-Analysis Confirms

A meta-analysis on 19 studies confirms kidney and liver toxicity in rats and mice fed on GM soybean and maize, representing more than 80 percent of all commercially available GM food; it also exposes gross inadequacies of current risk assessment Dr Eva Sirinathsinghji

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A team of independent scientists led by Gilles-Eric Séralini at Caen University in France carried out a meta-analysis combining the results of 19 previous studies [1], and their report concluded: “From the regulatory tests performed today, it is unacceptable to submit 500 million Europeans and several billions of consumers worldwide to the new pesticide GM-derived foods or feed, this being done without more controls (if any) than the only 3-month-long toxicological tests and using only one mammalian species, especially since there is growing evidence of concern.”

Full Story Here: GM Feed Toxic, New Meta-Analysis Confirms.

Tick-borne parasite infecting blood supply: CDC

A tick-borne infection known as Babesiosis, which can cause severe disease and even death, is becoming a growing threat to the U.S. blood supply, government researchers said on Monday.

There are currently no diagnostic tests approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration that can detect the infection before people donate blood.

A 31-year study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention now suggests the parasitic infection may be increasing.

Babesia infections are marked by anemia, fever, chills and fatigue, but they can also cause organ failure and death.

Full Story Here: Tick-borne parasite infecting blood supply: CDC | Reuters.