How immigrants, poor people, minorities and children are modern-day guinea pigs for Big Pharma (part one)
"The concentration camps were used as a huge laboratory for human experimentation," says Wolfgang Eckhart, professor of Historical Medicine at the University of Heidelberg in Germany. During the Holocaust, Bayer, Hoechst, BASF and other German pharmaceutical and chemical companies combined into a powerful cartel known as Interessengemeinschaft Farbenindustrie Aktiengesellschaft (IG Farben). As well as manufacturing everything from the deadly gas used to kill Holocaust victims, the gasoline used to move war vehicles and the explosives used to bomb enemies and conquer Europe, IG Farben was also trying its best to put a large number of highly profitable new drugs on the market and used concentration camp prisoners as human guinea pigs to do so.
Now, over 60 years after the Holocaust, we'd all like to think that society is above such cruelty, but in reality, human experimentation is still a common practice in modern medicine. Big Pharma operates by many of the same rules and motives as IG Farben did, and the test subjects are still the most vulnerable members of society -- the poor, immigrants, minority groups and children.
Health & Wellness
Disabling strokes could one day be treated by replacing damaged brain tissue with stem cells, scientists have shown.
Researchers used a new technique to insert therapeutic stem cells into the brains of rats with pinpoint accuracy.
Once implanted the cells began to form new brain tissue and nerve connections.
The work is at an early stage and does not yet prove that stroke symptoms such as paralysis can be reversed.
But it demonstrates that lost brain tissue can be replaced with stem cells targeted at sites of damage.
Researchers used a new technique to insert therapeutic stem cells into the brains of rats with pinpoint accuracy.
Once implanted the cells began to form new brain tissue and nerve connections.
The work is at an early stage and does not yet prove that stroke symptoms such as paralysis can be reversed.
But it demonstrates that lost brain tissue can be replaced with stem cells targeted at sites of damage.
© unknown
Eric Holder
Eric Holder
Under the Bush administration, the Drug Enforcement Agency raided dispensaries across the country. Such seizures were especially common in California, which in 1996 became the first state to legalize marijuana sales to people with doctor's prescriptions -- in opposition to federal laws banning any use of the drug.
The attorney general signaled recently that states will be able to set their own medical-marijuana laws, which President Barack Obama said during his campaign that he supported. What Mr. Obama said then "is now American policy," Mr. Holder said.
"We may be seeing the end of an era," said Rob MacCoun, a law professor who studies drug policy at the University of California, Berkeley. "It's not likely to be a priority for the Obama administration."
Planting a vegetable garden in the White House will inspire millions of Americans to save money and their health by growing their own food.
In Jerzy Kosinski's novel and award-winning screenplay, Being There, the U.S. president turns to a plain-spoken gardener named Chance for wisdom at a time of economic crisis. The insight Chance offers is as simple as it is reassuring: Growth has its seasons and, as long as the roots of growth are not severed, all will be well.
In Jerzy Kosinski's novel and award-winning screenplay, Being There, the U.S. president turns to a plain-spoken gardener named Chance for wisdom at a time of economic crisis. The insight Chance offers is as simple as it is reassuring: Growth has its seasons and, as long as the roots of growth are not severed, all will be well.
When a marriage is rocky, it can make both partners feel depressed.
But only middle-aged women -- not men -- seem to have health problems associated with marital strife, such as high blood pressure, excess belly fat, and other factors that boost risks for heart attack and diabetes, according to a study being presented Thursday at the American Psychosomatic Society meeting in Chicago.
"I think we've got to get used to the fact that a toxic relationship is toxic to your whole health," said Dr. Nieca Goldberg, a cardiologist and medical director of New York University's Women's Heart Program.
But only middle-aged women -- not men -- seem to have health problems associated with marital strife, such as high blood pressure, excess belly fat, and other factors that boost risks for heart attack and diabetes, according to a study being presented Thursday at the American Psychosomatic Society meeting in Chicago.
"I think we've got to get used to the fact that a toxic relationship is toxic to your whole health," said Dr. Nieca Goldberg, a cardiologist and medical director of New York University's Women's Heart Program.
Study Shows Older People Less Likely to Realize How Alcohol Is Affecting Them
Social drinking seems to impair older people more than their younger drinking buddies. Also, older people are less likely to realize how the alcohol is affecting them, according to a new study.
Social drinking seems to impair older people more than their younger drinking buddies. Also, older people are less likely to realize how the alcohol is affecting them, according to a new study.
A virus with symptoms like those of the common cold may be a trigger for diabetes, especially in children, according to two UK studies that suggest doctors may one day be able to vaccinate against the disease.
A pathogen called enterovirus was present in 44 of 72 pancreases tested from young people who died less than a year after being diagnosed with diabetes, researchers from Peninsula Medical School, the University of Brighton and Glasgow Royal Infirmary wrote in the medical journal Diabetologia.
The findings confirm a link long suspected between the virus and type 1 diabetes, estimated to affect about 460,000 children around the world, the researchers wrote.
A pathogen called enterovirus was present in 44 of 72 pancreases tested from young people who died less than a year after being diagnosed with diabetes, researchers from Peninsula Medical School, the University of Brighton and Glasgow Royal Infirmary wrote in the medical journal Diabetologia.
The findings confirm a link long suspected between the virus and type 1 diabetes, estimated to affect about 460,000 children around the world, the researchers wrote.
Doctors Find Link Between Optimism and Lower Risk for Heart Disease, Early Death
If a chipper person in your life is annoying you, maybe you should brace yourself for that person outliving you in the long haul, according to findings of a new study.
A study of 100,000 women presented at the American Psychosomatic Society's annual meeting Thursday found a strong correlation between optimism and a person's risk for cancer-related death, heart disease and early death.
Researchers surveyed the personality traits of middle-age women in 1994 as part of the Women's Health Initiative study run by the National Institutes of Health.
Eight years later, researchers found that the self-reported optimistic women were less likely to have died for any reason and had a 30 percent lower death rate from heart disease.
If a chipper person in your life is annoying you, maybe you should brace yourself for that person outliving you in the long haul, according to findings of a new study.
A study of 100,000 women presented at the American Psychosomatic Society's annual meeting Thursday found a strong correlation between optimism and a person's risk for cancer-related death, heart disease and early death.
Researchers surveyed the personality traits of middle-age women in 1994 as part of the Women's Health Initiative study run by the National Institutes of Health.
Eight years later, researchers found that the self-reported optimistic women were less likely to have died for any reason and had a 30 percent lower death rate from heart disease.
The top six makers of baby bottles in the U.S. have agreed to stop using the polycarbonate plastic chemical bisphenol A (BPA) in their bottles. Connecticut's Attorney General Richard Blumenthal announced that news yesterday.
The six bottle makers who agreed to stop using BPA are Avent, Disney First Years, Gerber, Dr. Brown, Playtex, and Evenflo.
In a news release, Blumenthal says he and the attorneys general of Delaware and New Jersey wrote to those companies last October to ask that they stop using BPA in baby bottles because of concerns about possible health risks.
The six bottle makers who agreed to stop using BPA are Avent, Disney First Years, Gerber, Dr. Brown, Playtex, and Evenflo.
In a news release, Blumenthal says he and the attorneys general of Delaware and New Jersey wrote to those companies last October to ask that they stop using BPA in baby bottles because of concerns about possible health risks.
© Image: Gustoimages / SPL
Exact replicas of a man's thumb bones have been made for the first time using a printer that uses natural materials for ink
Exact replicas of a man's thumb bones have been made for the first time using a printer that uses natural materials for ink
"In theory, you could do any bone," says Christian Weinand of the Insel Hospital in Berne, Switzerland, head of the team that copied his thumb bones. "Now I can put spares in my pocket if I want," he says.
Weinand "grew" his replacement bones on the backs of laboratory mice, in the same way that Jay Vacanti of Massachusetts General Hospital famously grew a human ear from human cartilage cells back in 1997.
However, a surrogate mouse would normally be unnecessary, says Weinand. For example, if someone had lost a thumb, the replacement bones could be grown in situ. For now, the only options are to replace the thumb with the patient's own toe, or with bone fragments from elsewhere.
There are several steps in the new process. Firstly, you need a 3D image of the bone you want to copy. If the bone has been lost or destroyed, you can make a mirror image of its surviving twin.
This image is then fed into a 3D inkjet printer, which deposits thin layers of a pre-selected material on top of one another until a 3D object materialises.
