Health & WellnessS


Syringe

Britain's child victims of the chemical cosh

Brian Brady and Nina Lakhani
The Independent
Sun, 15 Jun 2008 17:08 UTC
Powerful anti-psychotic drugs designed for adults are being used to treat children, including those with learning difficulties.

Image
©REX
Many drugs have not been proved safe for use on children

The number of powerful psychiatric drugs prescribed to England's children has risen by more than half in four years, government figures have revealed.

GPs in England are handing out prescriptions for anti-psychotic drugs for children as young as seven at the rate of 250 a day, according to figures obtained by The Independent on Sunday.
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X

Flashback US: Lack Of Health Insurance Leads Many To Bankruptcy

Kristian Foden-Vencil
iContact Community
Wed, 03 Oct 2007 21:32 UTC
Portland, Oregon - With the never-ending rise of health care costs, comes a never-ending debate over how to pay for it.

In Oregon, voters will decide Measure 50 this fall, which raises tobacco taxes to pay for the Healthy Kids Program. And no matter how that measure is decided, it's clear that in Oregon, as elsewhere, the healthcare system as a whole is not well.
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Ambulance

Taiwan combats virus as death toll hits seven


Agence France-Presse
Sun, 15 Jun 2008 13:03 UTC
Taiwan has barred children aged under five from going to public play areas in a bid to contain the spread of a highly contagious virus that has killed seven so far this year, officials said Sunday.
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Stop

Egypt Passes Law Banning Female Circumcision


AHN
Mon, 09 Jun 2008 13:25 UTC
Egyptian members of Parliament passed a new law that bans female circumcision. The new bill also changed the legal minimum age for marriage to 18 years-old for both genders.

The laws passed on Sunday impose jail time and large fines if caught practicing female circumcision. A maximum jail term of two years or a fine between $200 and $1,000 can be handed down by a judge.

The only means allowed for the process is in cases of "medical necessity." International rights groups welcomed the decision, saying it is a step in the right direction for Egypt.
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Bulb

Students with a delayed school start time sleep longer, report less daytime sleepiness


American Academy of Sleep Medicine
Mon, 09 Jun 2008 13:05 UTC
High school students with a delayed school start time are more likely to take advantage of the extra time in bed, and less likely to report daytime sleepiness, according to a research abstract that will be presented on Monday at SLEEP 2008, the 22nd Annual Meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies (APSS).

The study, authored by Zaw W. Htwe, MD, of Norwalk Hospital's Sleep Disorders Center in Norwalk, Conn., focused on 259 high school students who completed the condensed School Sleep Habits Questionnaire. Prior to the delay, students reported sleeping a mean of 422 minutes (7.03 hours) per school night, with a mean bed-time of 10:52 p.m. and a mean wake-up time as 6:12 a.m.
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Ambulance

Cyprus has lowest suicide rate in Europe

Jean Christou
Cyprus Mail
Sun, 15 Jun 2008 08:17 UTC
Cyprus has the lowest suicide rate in Europe, where overall one EU citizen takes his or her own life every nine minutes.

Around 60,000 EU citizens take their own life each year. An EU citizen is ten times as likely to die by suicide than to die of HIV/AIDS.

In the EU, at least one child under 14 dies by suicide every 48 hours.

In 2006, approximately 20 young adults aged 15-29 committed suicide every day; among those aged 30-59, approximately 87 people died every day by suicide; and 56 people aged over 60 took their own lives every day.
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Syringe

Was Tim Russert Killed by Heart Medication?

Mike Adams
Natural News
Sun, 15 Jun 2008 07:03 UTC
NBC commentator Tim Russert was taking prescription medications when he suffered a heart attack and died yesterday at the age of 58. The mainstream media is reporting that Russert died from a "heart attack," but no press outlet has yet bothered to ask: "What caused the heart attack?"

Nearly 100,000 Americans are killed each year by FDA-approved pharmaceuticals, according to the American Medical Association. Virtually none of those deaths are accurately reported as being caused by pharmaceuticals. Instead, the media simply reports that the victim died of whatever biological malfunction was most noticeable at the time of death.

That's why Tim Russert was said to have died of a "heart attack" -- his failing heart was the most obvious and sudden organ failure, even though the biological tipping point that brought him to that moment of heart failure could have been caused by the very pharmaceuticals he was taking in an effort to "control" coronary artery disease.
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Sheeple

What's So Great About Beauty?

Shannon Rupp
The Tyee
Mon, 09 Jun 2008 00:06 UTC
I thought I had resigned myself to the relentless onslaught of porn infecting every aspect of life, from the skank-wear on the streets, to gratuitous nudity in advertising, to the sitcoms where gags about handcuffs, anal sex, and blow jobs make me want to, well, gag.

I used to think porn culture's driving ethos -- that women have no purpose but to titillate men -- would fade as the sexist old guys died out. In short, I was an optimist. Right until I was hit with Dove's cynical Campaign for Real Beauty and some American election commentary all in the same sick-making hour.
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Info

'Addicted' Cells Provide Early Cancer Diagnosis


Science Daily
Sat, 14 Jun 2008 18:41 UTC
Scientists at the Institute of Food Research have detected subtle changes that may make the bowel more vulnerable to the development of tumours.

With support from the Food Standards Agency and the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council they are investigating whether diet could control these changes and delay or reverse the onset of cancer.
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Info

Salmonella: Trickier Than We Imagined


Science Daily
Sat, 14 Jun 2008 18:30 UTC
Salmonella is serving up a surprise not only for tomato lovers around the country but also for scientists who study the rod-shaped bacterium that causes misery for millions of people.

Salmonella infantis bacteria
©Janice Carr
This scanning electron micrograph (SEM) depicts four highly magnified rod-shaped, motile, Gram-negative Salmonella infantis bacteria, which are attached.

In research published June 4 in the online journal PloS One, researchers say they've identified a molecular trick that may explain part of the bacteria's fierceness. A team from the University of Rochester Medical Center has identified a protein that allows the bacteria to maintain a low profile in the body, giving the bacteria crucial time to quietly gain a foothold in an organism before the immune system is roused to fight the invader.
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