Health & WellnessS


Health

China confirms new human death from bird flu

Beijing - A 22-year-old Chinese man from the central province of Hunan has died of the H5N1 strain of bird flu, the second death from the disease since late last year, the Health Ministry said on Monday.

Cow Skull

Damage control! Beef Industry Responds to Secret Video

DENVER - Despite a secretly taped video showing workers at a Southern California slaughterhouse abusing sick or crippled animals, nearly all cattle bound for American dinner tables are treated humanely, a cattle industry spokesman said Monday.

The undercover video taken at the Westland/Hallmark Meat Co. of Chino, Calif., by the Humane Society of the United States shows workers shocking, kicking and shoving debilitated cattle with forklifts, and has led to the largest recall of beef in U.S. history.

X

Anti-AIDS Gel Fails in Study

The first anti-AIDS vaginal gel to make it through late-stage testing failed to stop HIV infection in a study of 6,000 South African women, disappointed researchers announced Monday.

The study was marred by low use of the gel, which could have undermined results, they said. Women used it less than half the number of times they had sex, and only 10 percent said they used it every time as directed.

Bad Guys

Iraqi Medical System Wrecked by War

Baghdad - Already a troubled system, Iraqi medical care has fallen to the brink of collapse since the U.S.-led invasion five years ago. Scores of doctors have been slain, cancer patients have to hunt down their own drugs - even IV fluid is in short supply. On Tuesday, a former deputy health minister and the head of the ministry's security force will stand trial, a year after they were accused of letting Shiite death squads use ambulances and government hospitals to carry out kidnappings and killings.

Pistol

School Shootings The Result Of Crisis Of Masculinity, Gun Culture, Professor Argues

The recent fatal shooting rampage at Northern Illinois University, and similar attacks at a Missouri city hall and in a Los Angeles suburb, again raise questions about the eruption of mass violence in America in recent years. What is behind these acts and, more importantly, can anything be done to stop them?

Ambulance

Obesity 'requires climate plan'

Obesity needs to be tackled in the same way as climate change, a top nutritional scientist has said.

The chairman of the International Obesity Taskforce wants world leaders to agree a global pact to ensure that everyone is fed healthy food.

Health

Flashback Does Aspartame Cause Human Brain Cancer? (Hint: Yes!)

ABSTRACT: There has been a statistically significant increase of common primary malignant brain cancers since 1985, and perhaps as early as 1984, according to the National Cancer Institute SEER data. This phenomenon occurred within 1-2 years following licensing of the chemical aspartame for beverages in July 1983. Furthermore, the annual incidence rates of primary brain tumors appear to be increasing. The SEER data also reveal an increased incidence of primary brain lymphoma in 1982- 1984. Others have reported a tripling of the incidence of this condition, previously rare. Again, the licensing of aspartame for "dry" use in July 1981 is relevant. The significance of these associations is underscored by the high incidence of brain tumors in rats after the experimental administration of aspartame.

Health

Flashback Consumer group links NutraSweet to blindness

Ban artificial sweetener, FDA is urged
Date: Friday, October 17, 1986

WASHINGTON - Charging that aspartame - the widely used artificial sweetener marketed as NutraSweet - causes blindness, a consumer group yesterday petitioned the Food and Drug Administration to ban it.

The petition was another step in a long and so far fruitless campaign by the Washington based Community Nutrition Institute against aspartame, which also is sold in stores under the name Equal.

Three women who said their eyesight was seriously damaged or destroyed joined in the citizens' petition to the FDA, which they asked "to expeditiously remove [the] product from the market without an administrative hearing."

Ambulance

Flashback Dr. John Olney on Brain tumors and aspartame

RESEARCHERS CALL FOR FURTHER STUDIES AFTER IDENTIFYING A POSSIBLE LINK BETWEEN ASPARTAME AND BRAIN TUMORS

In the November 1996 issue of the Journal of Neuropathology and Experimental Neurology, John Olney, M.D. and his colleagues Nuri Farber, M.D., Edward Spitznagel, Ph.D. and Lee Robins, Ph.D, all from Washington University in St. Louis, report that brain tumor rates have risen in the United States over the past 17 years in two distinct phases.
"The first phase occurred in the mid l970's and might be explained primarily by improved diagnostic methods. The second phase occurred abruptly in the mid l980's, resulting in a 10 per cent higher rate of brain tumors which has persisted to the present. This increase also was associated with a shift from a lower to a higher grade of malignancy."

Evil Rays

Scientists Closely Examine FEMA Trailers

New Orleans - While the Federal Emergency Management Agency rushes to move thousands of Gulf Coast storm victims out of government-issued trailers, scientists are tearing the units apart to learn why many have exposed occupants to dangerous levels of formaldehyde fumes.