A new study published in The Journal of Pain reports that 39 million people in the United States or 19 percent have persistent pain, and the incidence varies according to age and gender. The Journal of Pain is the peer-reviewed publication of the American Pain Society.

Researchers at the Washington State University College of Nursing conducted the study. They defined persistent pain as frequent or constant pain lasting longer than three months. The intent of their research was:

- Identify groups at higher risk for persistent pain

- Identify body sites, chronic conditions and disabilities associated with persistent pain

- Assess the relationship between persistent pain and anxiety, depression and fatigue

- Describe the individual experience of persistent pain.

The study was performed using data from the 2010 Quality of Life Supplement of the National Heath Interview Survey (NHIS) to calculate the prevalence of persistent pain. Results of the analysis showed that approximately 19 percent of U.S. adults reported persistent pain in 2010, and older adults were more likely to experience persistent pain than younger adults. Women also had slightly higher risk than men.

Schizophrenia is usually treated with prescription antipsychotic drugs, many of which produce severe adverse effects ^(1-6); are linked to an incentive for monetary profit benefiting pharmaceutical corporations ^(7-13); lack sufficient evidence for safety and efficacy ^{(9, 14)}; and have been grossly misused ^(15-20). Orthomolecular (nutritional) medicine provides another approach to treating schizophrenia, which involves the optimal doses of vitamin B₃-also known as niacin, niacinamide, nicotinamide, or nicotinic acid-in conjunction with an individualized protocol of multiple vitamins. The orthomolecular approach involves treating "mental disease by the provision of the optimum molecular environment for the mind, especially the optimum concentrations of substances normally present in the human body" ⁽²¹⁾.

Evidence for the niacin treatment of schizophrenia

Vitamin B₃ as a treatment for schizophrenia is typically overlooked, which is disconcerting considering that historical evidence suggests it effectively reduces symptoms of schizophrenia, and has the added advantage, in contrast to pharmaceuticals, of mild to no adverse effects ^(22-35). After successful preliminary trials treating schizophrenia patients with niacin, pilot trials of larger samples commenced in 1952-reported in 1957 by Hoffer, Osmond, Callbeck, and Kahan. Dr. Abram Hoffer began an experiment involving 30 patients who had been diagnosed with acute schizophrenia. Participants were given a series of physiological and psychological tests to measure baseline status and were subsequently assigned randomly to treatment groups. Nine subjects received a placebo, 10 received nicotinic acid, and 11 received nicotinamide (the latter two are forms of vitamin B₃). All participants received treatment for 42 days, were in the same hospital, and received psychotherapy from the same group of clinicians. The two experimental groups were administered three grams of vitamin B₃ per day. Each of the three treatment groups improved, but the two vitamin B₃ groups improved more than the placebo group as compared to baseline measures. At one year follow up, 33% of patients in the placebo group remained well, and 88% of patients in the B₃ groups remained well. These results inspired many subsequent trials, and those that replicated the original method produced similarly positive results.

We've noted for some time that Ebola can be spread by aerosols to frontline healthcare workers.

The CDC is finally admitting this fact.

The CDC put out a new poster stating:

Droplet spread happens when germs traveling inside droplets that are coughed or sneezed from a sick person enter the eyes, nose, or mouth of another person. Droplets travel short distances, less than 3 feet (1 meter) from one person to another.

A person might also get infected by touching a surface or object that has germs on it and then touching their mouth or nose.

***

Clean and disinfect commonly touched surfaces like doorknobs, faucet handles, and toys, since the Ebola virus may live on surfaces for up to several hours.

In a remote area of Southeast Asia, drones are fighting a battle - not against terrorists or insurgents, but against infectious disease.

Researchers on the island of Borneo are using flying robots to map out areas affected by a type of malaria parasite (Plasmodium knowlesi), which most commonly infects macaque monkeys. In recent years, public health officials in the Malaysian state of Sabah have seen a rise in the number of cases of humans infected with this deadly parasite which is spread, via mosquitos, from macaques to people.

By mapping the communities where these cases occur, researchers hope to figure out why the parasite is spreading from monkeys to people with greater frequency, said Chris Drakeley, a professor of infection and immunity at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in the United Kingdom, and one of the researchers involved in the project.

Drakeley and his colleagues used a small, camera-carrying drone called a senseFly eBee to create maps and digital surface models of the land and vegetation surrounding communities where P. knowlesi has turned up in humans. The drone can fly for up to 50 minutes and carries a 16-megapixel digital camera.

"What we're doing is creating a detailed map, which we can then superimpose or overlay with the human and the macaque movement," Drakeley told Live Science. The movement patterns of both monkeys and humans were derived from GPS data. Locals were asked to carry around GPS tracking devices, while certain macaques were fitted with GPS collars.

The hope is that this GPS data will help the researchers pinpoint where humans and macaques are most likely to interact, and the drones will show the researchers what these areas look like and help them figure out why both species might be drawn to those areas.

In the 1940s, opioid-based narcotics like opium and heroin were popular drugs of abuse, which lead to strict controls being put into place to curb their use. Regulations existed to control who could prescribe opioids and at what doses; breaches to the regulations could lead to a loss of your medical license or criminal prosecution.

Many physicians feared the repercussions, and thus may have under-prescribed such medications, even in cases where they're called for, such as in late-stage cancer pain.¹

Decades later, in the 1990s, successful lobbying by pharmaceutical makers led to changes in the opioid regulations, such that doctors couldn't be penalized for prescribing them.

The loosened regulations paved the way for the aggressive treatment of pain, not only in cancer patients and those with terminal diseases, but in virtually anyone with chronic pain. We're now at the opposite end of the spectrum, where opioids are vastly overprescribed and doing far more harm than good.

Since when did a green magazine promote Ebola vaccines and publish articles by vaccine makers like Paul "Profit" Offit?

This might be the most difficult piece I ever write.

You see, the minute I hit enter and this article goes live, I can pretty much be assured I'll never write a piece for one of the biggest natural "green" health sites in the world: Mind Body Green aka MBG.

Mind Body Green

Haven't heard of them? Well they've got over 2.5 million fans on their Facebook page, which is more than any other health site I know in existence. Their Alexa traffic ranking is off the charts and climbing every day. Having monitored web traffic for a living (more exciting than it sounds), I can almost guarantee they'll surpass the top health sites out there fairly soon. Even the ones run by people very close to me and near and dear to my heart.

On October 14, Brian Hooker and Andrew Wakefield sent an official and detailed complaint to the CDC and the US Dept. of Health and Human Services.

The devastating and explosive complaint concerns scientific misconduct in a now-infamous 2004 CDC study, which gave the MMR vaccine a free pass and concluded the vaccine had no connection to autism.

CDC whistleblower William Thompson was a co-author on that study, and on August 27 he admitted he and his co-authors committed fraud and covered up the vaccine-autism connection.

(The full 34-page complaint can also be accessed via Age of Autism, here)

The complaint references a 5/24/14 phone call between whistleblower Thompson and Brian Hooker. The call was recorded.

For more than half a century, the conventional wisdom among nutritionists and public health officials was that fat is dietary enemy number one - the leading cause of obesity and heart disease.

It appears the wisdom was off.

And not just off. Almost entirely backward.

According to a new study from the National Institutes of Health, a diet that reduces carbohydrates in favor of fat - including the saturated fat in meat and butter - improves nearly every health measurement, from reducing our waistlines to keeping our arteries clear, more than the low-fat diets that have been recommended for generations.

"The medical establishment got it wrong," says cardiologist Dennis Goodman, director of Integrative Medicine at New York Medical Associates. "The belief system didn't pan out."

It's not the conclusion you would expect given the NIH study's parameters. Lead researcher Lydia Bazanno, of the Tulane University School of Public Health, pitted this high-fat, low-carb diet against a fat-restricted regimen prescribed by the National Cholesterol Education Program.

While harm from cell-phone rays has so far been lacking sufficient scientific proof, a US firm wants men to take no chances with radiation - at least when it comes to the most precious of male body parts.


Boxer shorts made with the use of thin silver textile "absorb radiation" will help "protect men's reproductive organs and maintain fertility health," according to their producer, Manhattan-based Belly Armor company.

It only launched its male underwear sales this week, but among the company's earlier products are radiation-proof blankets, belly bands and tops for pregnant women and nursing mothers.

The company claims the fabric its goods are made of provides the same level of radiation shielding as "a 1/4-inch thick sheet of aluminum."

The firm's spokeswoman, Katherine Niefeld, told the New York Post, men were simply unaware of the risks associated with cellphone use.

"If you're a guy, how are you going to know that putting your cellphone in your pocket will do things to your sperm," Niefeld said.

Illinois joined New York and New Jersey in imposing mandatory quarantines for people arriving with a risk of having contracted Ebola in West Africa, but the first person isolated under the new rules, a nurse returning from Sierra Leone, called her treatment a "frenzy of disorganization."

Kaci Hickox, who arrived at Newark airport in New Jersey on Friday, described hours of questioning by officials in protective gear and what she said was a mis-diagnosis of fever, followed by a transfer to a hospital isolation tent.

Not long after Hickox's criticisms were made public, it was announced that the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Samantha Power, is traveling to Guinea on Sunday. She will also visit Liberia and Sierra Leone, making the trip despite calls by some U.S. lawmakers for a travel ban on the three West African countries worst-affected by Ebola.

Power, a member of President Barack Obama's cabinet, left Washington on Saturday.

Obama has resisted Republican calls for a travel ban on advice from health officials who say such a measure would be counter-productive, in part because it would impede people going to help fight the epidemic. Concern over Ebola has become a political issue ahead of Nov. 4 congressional elections.