Health & WellnessS


Health

Doctors Told to Stop Giving Antibiotics for Colds


Mercola.com
Tue, 29 Jan 2008 00:00 UTC
Doctors in Britain will soon be told to stop prescribing antibiotics for coughs, colds and sore throats. Overuse of the drugs is fuelling the spread of deadly antibiotic-resistant super bugs. A new government program aims to diminish the use of the drugs.

Most colds, coughs and flu are caused by viruses, which cannot be treated with antibiotics since antibiotics only work on bacteria.

Overuse of antibiotics has been blamed for the rise of drug-resistant tuberculosis. If antibiotic use is not curbed, doctors could run out of effective treatment for some diseases.
Sources:

* The Telegraph January 9, 2008

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Health

Scientists discover way to reverse loss of memory

Jeremy Laurance
The Independent
Tue, 29 Jan 2008 19:40 UTC
Scientists performing experimental brain surgery on a man aged 50 have stumbled across a mechanism that could unlock how memory works.

The accidental breakthrough came during an experiment originally intended to suppress the obese man's appetite, using the increasingly successful technique of deep-brain stimulation. Electrodes were pushed into the man's brain and stimulated with an electric current. Instead of losing appetite, the patient instead had an intense experience of déjà vu. He recalled, in intricate detail, a scene from 30 years earlier. More tests showed his ability to learn was dramatically improved when the current was switched on and his brain stimulated.
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Syringe

Pro-Vaccine Propaganda Continues: "Under the tongue is best place for vaccines"

Roger Highfield
Telegraph UK
Tue, 29 Jan 2008 18:07 UTC
A needle free way to help lick the forthcoming influenza pandemic has been proposed: "under tongue" vaccination.

We could all be sticking out our tongues at doctors in a few years: as well as helping to appease needle phobic patients, the "sublingual" route could used to protect against a wide range of infections and, as a bonus, generates wider protection in the body.

Joo-Hye Song of the Mucosal Immunology Section, International Vaccine Institute, IVI, Seoul, and colleagues report tests of the method today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

A solution of the vaccine is applied to the floor of the mouth and, thanks to the the high density of blood vessels in the mucous membranes there, immune system cells capture the vaccine and migrate quickly through the body, without the vaccine being degraded, as in the stomach.


Comment: In light of the Signs Supplement: The Flu Vaccine Threat, the reader might not find this such an appealing idea.


©Unknown
Sublingual bio-warfare? No thanks.
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Wolf

Flashback The Predator's Gaze: Scientists explore the frightening world of psychopaths

Bruce Bower
Science News
Sat, 09 Dec 2006 17:55 UTC
Derry Mainwaring-Knight holds a special place in the annals of con artistry. Fresh out of an English prison in 1984 after serving time for a rape conviction, Mainwaring-Knight convinced a church rector to enlist in his battle against the spread of devil worshippers. The articulate, ingratiating ex-convict offered to start an organization that would purchase and destroy artifacts linked to satanism and black magic.

Within a few months, the dazzled rector had emptied his own pockets and obtained money for Mainwaring-Knight's campaign from many devout church members, including prominent politicians and businesspeople. Mainwaring-Knight collected nearly $400,000 as well as a Rolls-Royce automobile. He spent the money on himself and his girlfriends.
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Ambulance

H5N1 Flu Spread to additional species in Calcutta Suburbs


Recombinomics
Tue, 29 Jan 2008 08:56 UTC
In the affected district of Howrah, avian flu spread to Panchla in addition to Sankrail. Reports from the district said a fox and other birds like falcon were found dead there.
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Attention

CDC Suppressed Toxic Trailer Warnings


CBS News
Tue, 29 Jan 2008 05:52 UTC
As CBS News first reported last spring, FEMA has been under heavy fire for failing to acknowledge then adequately address health problems like respiratory illness associated with the toxic chemical formaldehyde found in travel trailers that became home for hundreds of thousands of survivors of Hurricane Katrina. More than 143,000 families have lived in the toxic trailers, and more than 40,000 still do.

Now, CBS News has learned, the public health fiasco reaches beyond FEMA - into the one of the nation's most respected agencies.
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Syringe

Indonesia bird flu deaths hit 100


BBC
Mon, 28 Jan 2008 15:50 UTC
The human death toll from bird flu in Indonesia has risen to 100 - almost half of the total worldwide fatalities.

Two Indonesians from the outskirts of Jakarta succumbed to the H5N1 strain of the disease over the weekend, said Joko Suyono of the National Bird Flu Centre.

Indonesia is the nation worst affected by bird flu and has struggled to contain the virus.

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Cut

Don't treat the old and unhealthy, say UK doctors

Laura Donnelly
The Telegraph
Mon, 28 Jan 2008 19:01 UTC
Doctors are calling for NHS treatment to be withheld from patients who are too old or who lead unhealthy lives.

Smokers, heavy drinkers, the obese and the elderly should be barred from receiving some operations, according to doctors, with most saying the health service cannot afford to provide free care to everyone.
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Evil Rays

Deaf boy's cotton wool bud 'cure'


BBC News
Mon, 28 Jan 2008 16:15 UTC
A boy who has been partially deaf for nine years was suddenly cured - when a cotton wool bud popped out of his ear.
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Cow

Fighting cancer with filth - New Scientist's Illogical Policies

Jessica Marshall
New Scientist + Sott
Mon, 28 Jan 2008 11:38 UTC
Enjoy these first two paragraphs, that's all you get of the entire NS article, by NS Press Department decree!

It would be wrong to call dairy farming a shit job. But workers on dairy farms do have to deal with vast quantities of manure. In fact, they inevitably end up breathing in a lot of dust consisting largely of dried manure, along with all the bacteria that grew in it. That sounds unhealthy, and in some ways it is, but it does have one benefit: dairy farmers are as much as five times less likely to develop lung cancer.
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