Health & WellnessS


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What fracking can do to your health

Tim McDonnell
Grist
Wed, 16 Apr 2014 15:33 UTC
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© Daniel Foster | Shutterstock | Tim McDonnell
If you know one thing about fracking, it might be that the wells have been linked to explosive tap water. Of course, a tendency toward combustion isn't the biggest problem with gas-infused water; it's what could happen to you when you drink it.

Although the natural gas industry is notoriously tight-lipped about the ingredients of the chemical cocktails that get pumped down into wells, by now it's widely known that the list often includes some pretty scary, dangerous stuff, including hydrochloric acid and ethylene glycol (a.k.a. antifreeze). It's also no secret that well sites release hazardous gases like methane and benzene (a carcinogen) into the atmosphere.
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People 2

One-third of vegetative patients may be misdiagnosed and are in a minimally conscious state


The Washington Free Beacon
Thu, 17 Apr 2014 09:01 UTC
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© Wikimedia Commons
A new study published in the Lancet shows that as many as one-third of vegetative patients are misdiagnosed.

Researchers used brain-imaging techniques and found minimal consciousness in 13 of 42 patients it studied.

The study revealed that those patients with minimal consciousness have emotions and may feel pain.

This could have major legal and medical consequences, Maclean's reports.

Comment: A number of recent studies have confirmed that many patients who have lost signs of conscious awareness might still be able to learn and can respond to loved ones:
Conditional Consciousness: Patients in Vegetative States Can Learn, Predicting Recovery
Trace of Thought Is Found in 'Vegetative' Patient
Do patients in a vegetative state recognize loved ones?

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Pills

Your psych meds can kill you sez 100,000-person study

Richard Tate
PsychCentral.com
Tue, 01 Apr 2014 21:05 UTC
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© WND
Sleep aids are a more than $2 billion per year industry. Forecasts predict that global prescriptions for anti-anxiety medicines will reach $5.9 billion per year by 2017. But are these drugs safe? Studies show how easy it is to get hooked and a new study just published in the British Medical Journal shows that anti-anxiety and sleep drugs can kill you.

Using data from the prescription records of primary care doctors, the study compared 34,727 patients prescribed anxiolytic (anti-anxiety) or hypnotic (sleep) drugs to 69,418 people not prescribed these drugs. Over 90 percent of the prescribed drugs were benzodiazepines or Z-drugs, which you might know by brand names like Xanax, Valium, Lunesta, Ambien and many more.
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Health

Twenty in Middle East infected with MERS corona virus; spread to Southeast Asia

Adam Schreck
The Seattle Times
Thu, 17 Apr 2014 22:25 UTC
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© Press TVThe Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (MERS-CoV) seen under an electron microscope.
Deadly disease spreads to Southeast Asia via infected passenger flew from Saudi Arabia, and there are fears it could be a SARS-like event

A recent spate of infections from a frequently deadly Middle East virus is raising new worries about efforts to contain the illness, with infectious disease experts urging greater vigilance in combatting its spread.

More than 20 people, many of them health-care workers, have been reported infected with the Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus in two distinct clusters - one in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates - likely involving human-to-human transmission since early last week.

The disease, originally identified in 2012 in the Middle East, has also for the first time spread to the Far East, which grappled with an outbreak of the related SARS virus last decade.

"The last two weeks have put us into uncharted territory," said Michael Osterholm, an infectious disease expert at the University of Minnesota.

Comment:
U.S. says deadly MERS (coronavirus) could affect national security
More MERS-CoV (coronavirus) deaths reported as clusters are profiled

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Alarm Clock

Each one of us is a toxic superfund site

The Daily Take, The Thom Hartmann Program
Truthout
Thu, 17 Apr 2014 14:37 UTC
dna-molecule
© via Shutterstock

We are all lab rats in one giant, toxic, and deadly experiment.

The Environmental Defense Fund has released a new report, titled Toxics Across America, which looks at the billions of pounds of toxic and potentially deadly chemicals that are currently in the American marketplace.

The report looks at 120 chemicals that have been identified by state, federal and international officials as hazardous to our health.

It also looks at which of those chemicals are currently distributed in the U.S, what amounts they are being produced in, where they are being manufactured, and which companies are responsible for them.

The report's key findings include that at least 81 of the chemicals studied are produced in or imported to the U.S. each year in amounts of 1 million pounds or more.

Also, 14 of the chemicals studied come in at quantities of 1 billion pounds or more per year, including known carcinogens, or cancer-causing chemicals, like formaldehyde and benzene.

And, at least 90 of the chemicals that the EDF studied are commonly found in consumer and commercial products, including 8 used in children's products.

With billions of pounds of toxic chemicals being produced and used in the United States each year, you'd think that our government would have strict regulations in place to monitor those chemicals, and to keep Americans safe from them.
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Attention

New strain of Ebola virus found in Guinea

Saliou Samb
Reuters
Thu, 17 Apr 2014 11:29 UTC
ébola
© Fuse/Thinkstockphotos
* Outbreak blamed for 122 deaths in Guinea, 13 in Liberia

* Researchers find virus not brought in from outside region

* Raises risk of future outbreaks in West Africa

An Ebola outbreak blamed for 135 deaths in West Africa in the past month was not imported from Central Africa but caused by a new strain of the disease, a study in a U.S. medical journal said, raising the spectre of further regional epidemics.

The spread of Ebola from a remote corner of Guinea to the capital and into neighbouring Liberia, the first deadly outbreak reported in West Africa, has caused panic across a region struggling with weak healthcare systems and porous borders.

Ebola is endemic to Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda, South Sudan and Gabon, and scientists initially believed that Central Africa's Zaire strain of the virus was responsible for the outbreak.
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Syringe

Johns Hopkins scientist slams flu vaccine

Sylvia Booth Hubbard
NewsMax Health.com
Tue, 16 Apr 2013 18:38 UTC
A Johns Hopkins scientist has issued a blistering report on influenza vaccines in the British Medical Journal (BMJ). Peter Doshi, Ph.D., charges that although the vaccines are being pushed on the public in unprecedented numbers, they are less effective and cause more side effects than alleged by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Further, says Doshi, the studies that underlie the CDC's policy of encouraging most people to get a yearly flu shot are often low quality studies that do not substantiate the official claims.

Promoting influenza vaccines is one of the most visible and aggressive public health policies in the United States, says Doshi of the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. Drug companies and public officials press for widespread vaccination each fall, offering vaccinations in drugstores and supermarkets. The results have been phenomenal. Only 20 years ago, 32 million doses of influenza vaccine were available in the United States on an annual basis. Today, the total has skyrocketed to 135 million doses.

Comment: Comment: Once again, the huge push for people of all ages to have the flu vaccine is in the words of Dr Russell Blaylock, ALL ABOUT MONEY. Nothing to do with your health, everything to do with pharmaceutical company profits.

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Syringe

Ohio mumps outbreak increases to 212 cases


Fox News
Tue, 15 Apr 2014 06:08 UTC
The number of cases of mumps in central Ohio in a rare outbreak has jumped to 212, from 116 early this month, mostly affecting students and others connected to The Ohio State University, public health officials said on Monday.
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At least 132 cases of the contagious disease, which causes painful swelling of the salivary glands, have been linked to the university outbreak to date, Columbus Public Health said on Monday. The number of people hospitalized was not immediately known.

The outbreak had initially been limited to the university and those connected to it, but health officials said in late March it had spread to other parts of the Columbus, Ohio, area.

Mumps is considered rare in the United States. Franklin County, which includes Columbus, typically sees one reported mumps case a year.

Comment: As VaxChoiceNH wrote:
Mumps is circulating again, except it no longer circulates among children where it would be the least troublesome. It is now circulating among college students, FULLY VACCINATED college students.
It is not the first time:

- More than 1,000 get mumps in New York, New Jersey since August - 77 percent were vaccinated
- Vaccine Failure: Over 1000 Got Mumps in New York in Last Six Months
- Vaccines designed to fail, say Merck virologists
- Scientists Sue Merck: Allege Fraud for MMR Vaccine

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Health

12 Million misdiagnoses occur yearly in US, study finds

Rachael Rettner
Live Science
Thu, 17 Apr 2014 17:55 UTC
Misdiagnoses
© Kurhan/Dreamstime

At least one in 20 U.S. adults, or 12 million people yearly, may be misdiagnosed when they go to see their doctors, a new study suggests.

What's more, researchers estimated that about half of these diagnosis errors could lead to serious harm, such as when doctors fail to follow up on "red flags" for cancer in patients who are ultimately diagnosed with the condition.

The findings "should provide a foundation for policymakers, health care organizations and researchers to strengthen efforts to measure and reduce diagnostic errors," the researchers wrote in their study.

Many previous studies on patient safety have focused on issues in hospitals, such as hospital-related infections and medication errors, the researchers said. Estimating the number of misdiagnoses in patients who are not admitted to the hospital has been difficult. In part, that's because these cases are challenging to detect since they can involve multiple visits to a doctor. Some studies have used malpractice claims, but these do not represent the population as a whole, the researchers said.

In the new study, the researchers used information from a sample of doctors' clinic visits (people who were not hospitalized), and reviewed hundreds of medical records to determine whether patients were misdiagnosed.
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Attention

Infants 'unable to use toy building blocks' due to use of touchscreen technology

Graeme Paton
The Telegraph
Tue, 15 Apr 2014 00:00 UTC
Child with touchscreen technology
© Alamy
Rising numbers of infants lack the motor skills needed to play with building blocks because of an "addiction" to tablet computers and smartphones, according to teachers.

Many children aged just three or four can "swipe a screen" but have little or no dexterity in their fingers after spending hours glued to iPads, it was claimed.

Members of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers also warned how some older children were unable to complete traditional pen and paper exams because their memory had been eroded by overexposure to screen-based technology.
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