Health & WellnessS


Syringe

Government Concedes Vaccine Injury Case

Government health officials have conceded that childhood vaccines worsened a rare, underlying disorder that ultimately led to autism-like symptoms in a Georgia girl, and that she should be paid from a federal vaccine-injury fund.

Medical and legal experts say the narrow wording and circumstances probably make the case an exception - not a precedent for thousands of other pending claims.

Cow

'Frankenfoods' Giant Monsanto Plays Bully Over Consumer Labeling

Monsanto doesn't want consumers to know the truth about the milk they're drinking. The corporation's monopoly is at stake.
"There are some corporations that clearly are operating at a level that are disastrous for the general public ... And in fact I suppose one could argue that in many respects a corporation of that sort is the prototypical psychopath, at the corporate level instead of the individual level."

--Dr. Robert Hare, The Corporation

Cow

Flashback Fox News Continues Persecution of Reporters Who Exposed Network Lies on Monsanto's rBGH

A Florida judge has denied a Fox Television motion that would have forced its former investigative reporters Jane Akre and Steve Wilson to pay nearly $2 million in legal fees and court costs the broadcaster spent to defend itself at trial in the landmark whistleblower suit brought by the journalists.

Syringe

Vegas Clinic May Have Sickened Thousands

Las Vegas, Nevada - Nearly 40,000 people learned this week that a trip to the doctor may have made them sick. In a type of scandal more often associated with Third World countries, a Las Vegas clinic was found to be reusing syringes and vials of medication for nearly four years. The shoddy practices may have led to an outbreak of the potentially fatal hepatitis C virus and exposed patients to HIV, too.

Wolf

Healthcare insurance probe grows

L.A. city attorney asks Blue Cross to substantiate claims that it has revised its rescission practices.

The Los Angeles city attorney's office has expanded its probe of patient cancellations to the state's largest for-profit insurer, Blue Cross of California.

Attention

Mental health crisis plagues New Orleans



New Orleans mental health
©Tim J. Mueller for USA TODAY
Sam Scaffidi of the New Orleans Police Homeless Assistance Unit checks in on a homeless encampment Feb. 14 under the Interstate 10 overpass.

Since Hurricane Katrina ravaged the city 2½ years ago, the number of public mental health facilities and community outreach centers has decreased dramatically, leaving the mentally ill without medication and monitoring.

Eye 1

Awkward! New Study Examines our Gazes During Potentially Offensive Behavior

It's happened to all of us: While sitting at the conference table or at dinner party, a friend or colleague unleashes a questionable remark that could offend at least one person amongst the group. A hush falls and, if you're like most people, your eyes will dart towards the person most likely to take offense to the faux pas. It's a doubly unpleasant experience for the offended: Not only have you been insulted, but you have also suddenly become the center of unwelcome attention.

Bulb

When it comes to emotions, Eastern and Western cultures see things very differently: Study

A team of researchers from Canada and Japan have uncovered some remarkable results on how eastern and western cultures assess situations very differently.

Across two studies, participants viewed images, each of which consisted of one centre model and four background models in each image. The researchers manipulated the facial emotion (happy, angry, sad) in the centre or background models and asked the participants to determine the dominant emotion of the centre figure.

Bulb

Go with your gut - intuition is more than just a hunch, says Leeds research

Most of us experience 'gut feelings' we can't explain, such as instantly loving - or hating - a new property when we're househunting or the snap judgements we make on meeting new people. Now researchers at Leeds say these feelings - or intuitions - are real and we should take our hunches seriously.

According to a team led by Professor Gerard Hodgkinson of the Centre for Organisational Strategy, Learning and Change at Leeds University Business School, intuition is the result of the way our brains store, process and retrieve information on a subconscious level and so is a real psychological phenomenon which needs further study to help us harness its potential.

People

Mother-daughter conflict, low serotonin level may be deadly combination

A combination of negative mother-daughter relationships and low blood levels of serotonin, an important brain chemical for mood stability, may be lethal for adolescent girls, leaving them vulnerable to engage in self-harming behaviors such as cutting themselves.

New University of Washington research indicates that these two factors in combination account for 64 percent of the difference among adolescents, primarily girls, who engage in self-harming behaviors and those who do not.

"Girls who engage in self harm are at high risk for attempting suicide, and some of them are dying," said Theodore Beauchaine, a UW associate professor of psychology and co-author of a new study. "There is no better predictor of suicide than previous suicide attempts."

The paper, co-authored by Sheila Crowell, one of his doctoral students, appears in the current issue of the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology.