Health & Wellness
Many hospitals in the United States are tacitly participating in the illegal organ transplant industry by not scrutinizing potential donors too closely, experts worry.
The purchase or sale of organs is illegal in most countries, including the United States, but a chronic shortage of organs for transplant has led to a thriving international black market. Typically, poor donors (usually from Third World countries) are paid several thousand dollars for organs that are then resold for upwards of $100,000 to rich recipients, usually from the First World.
The arrests of 44 U.S. residents on organ trafficking charges in July marks the first documented case of the practice in the United States, and has raised concerns that hospitals here might be encouraging it.
Medicare and various other organizations require that hospitals performing organ transplants screen potential donors to make sure that no organs are being sold for the procedure. Many hospitals take this responsibility very seriously, requiring long waiting periods and separate donor and recipient interviews to make sure that the donation process is fully legal and consensual. Other hospitals do not.
The purchase or sale of organs is illegal in most countries, including the United States, but a chronic shortage of organs for transplant has led to a thriving international black market. Typically, poor donors (usually from Third World countries) are paid several thousand dollars for organs that are then resold for upwards of $100,000 to rich recipients, usually from the First World.
The arrests of 44 U.S. residents on organ trafficking charges in July marks the first documented case of the practice in the United States, and has raised concerns that hospitals here might be encouraging it.
Medicare and various other organizations require that hospitals performing organ transplants screen potential donors to make sure that no organs are being sold for the procedure. Many hospitals take this responsibility very seriously, requiring long waiting periods and separate donor and recipient interviews to make sure that the donation process is fully legal and consensual. Other hospitals do not.
Do I Look Fat in This Mirror? Why a Woman Sees Her Reflection as a Shorter, Wider Version of Reality
© Getty Images
'Distorted': A woman will see her reflection as shorter and fatter, the study suggests.
'Distorted': A woman will see her reflection as shorter and fatter, the study suggests.
The research, which could explain why some slim people look in the mirror and see themselves as fat, may help to further understanding eating disorders, such as anorexia.
Scientists at University College London made the 'hall of mirrors' discovery while carrying out an experiment on people's hands.
Researchers asked volunteers to place their left hand under a board and guess the positions of the knuckles and fingertips, pointing them out with a baton.
The results, reported today in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, were used to assess mental models of finger length and hand width.
In general, participants estimated their hands to be about two-thirds wider and a third shorter than actual measurements showed they were.
© NaturalNews
Statin drugs, in other words, harm far more people than they help.
Julia Hippisley-Cox and Carol Coupland led the study which examined data from over two million patients, including over 225,000 patients who were new statin drug users.
They found that for every 10,000 women being treated with statins, there were only 271 fewer cases of heart disease.
And yet, at the same time, the statin drugs caused 74 cases of liver damage, 23 cases of acute kidney failure, 39 cases of extreme muscle weakness and 307 cases of cataracts.
We are too heavy, and I don't mean overweight. We're heavy with metals, not fat. Nearly 40 percent of us have toxic levels of lead in our bodies. And we don't even know it. But that doesn't mean we don't have symptoms...
You may have headaches, insomnia, irritability, a low sex drive or tremors. You may have mood problems, nausea, depression, memory difficulties, trouble concentrating, poor coordination or even constipation. Yet most of us attribute these symptoms to other problems. We don't recognize that they may be caused by lead poisoning.
You may have headaches, insomnia, irritability, a low sex drive or tremors. You may have mood problems, nausea, depression, memory difficulties, trouble concentrating, poor coordination or even constipation. Yet most of us attribute these symptoms to other problems. We don't recognize that they may be caused by lead poisoning.
© Alamy
Research, carried out by polling group YouGov, shows a country more 'atomised' than ever
Research, carried out by polling group YouGov, shows a country more 'atomised' than ever
The research, which examined social attitudes today compared to those of the early 1980s shows a country more 'atomised' than ever.
It also contained a warning for couples that parenthood will reduce their circle of friends.
Despite many people having hundreds of friends on Facebook and similar internet sites, true friendships can be counted on the fingers of one hand, the study found.
We are also more likely to consider our neighbours as pests and less likely to know them well speak often or lend a hand.
Common complaints include noise, anti-social behaviour, nuisance children and pets and unkempt trees and bushes.
The study, carried out by polling group YouGov, imitated many of the questions asked by a similar poll three decades ago.
Now three out of four of us are prepared to admit to feeling lonely, compared to less than one in three then.
Lowell, MA - Eating about a handful of pecans each day may play a role in protecting the nervous system, according to a new animal study published in the current issue of Current Topics in Nutraceutical Research. The study, conducted at the Center for Cellular Neurobiology at the University of Massachusetts Lowell, suggests adding pecans to your diet may delay the progression of age-related motor neuron degeneration. This may include diseases like amyotropic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig's Disease.
You may think there is enough disease in the world already, and that no one would want to add to the diseases that we humans must deal with. But there is a powerful industry in our society that is working overtime to invent illnesses and to convince us we are suffering from them.
This effort is known as "disease mongering," a term introduced by health-science writer Lynn Payer in her 1992 book Disease-Mongers: How Doctors, Drug Companies, and Insurers Are Making You Feel Sick. Payer defined disease mongering as "trying to convince essentially well people that they are sick, or slightly sick people that they are very ill." This strategy has also been called "the corporate construction of disease" by Ray Moynihan, Iona Heath, and David Henry in the British Medical Journal. "There's a lot of money to be made from telling healthy people they're sick," they say.
"Pharmaceutical companies are actively involved in sponsoring the definition of diseases and promoting them to both prescribers and consumers."
This effort is known as "disease mongering," a term introduced by health-science writer Lynn Payer in her 1992 book Disease-Mongers: How Doctors, Drug Companies, and Insurers Are Making You Feel Sick. Payer defined disease mongering as "trying to convince essentially well people that they are sick, or slightly sick people that they are very ill." This strategy has also been called "the corporate construction of disease" by Ray Moynihan, Iona Heath, and David Henry in the British Medical Journal. "There's a lot of money to be made from telling healthy people they're sick," they say.
"Pharmaceutical companies are actively involved in sponsoring the definition of diseases and promoting them to both prescribers and consumers."
Washington D.C. - More medical care won't necessarily make you healthier - it may make you sicker. It's an idea that technology-loving Americans find hard to believe.
Anywhere from one-fifth to nearly one-third of the tests and treatments we get are estimated to be unnecessary, and avoidable care is costly in more ways than the bill: It may lead to dangerous side effects.
It can start during birth, as some of the nation's increasing C-sections are triggered by controversial fetal monitors that signal a baby is in trouble when really everything's fine.
It extends to often-futile intensive care at the end of the life.
Anywhere from one-fifth to nearly one-third of the tests and treatments we get are estimated to be unnecessary, and avoidable care is costly in more ways than the bill: It may lead to dangerous side effects.
It can start during birth, as some of the nation's increasing C-sections are triggered by controversial fetal monitors that signal a baby is in trouble when really everything's fine.
It extends to often-futile intensive care at the end of the life.
