Health & Wellness
The government has taken one step closer to realizing its dream of forcing people to get flu shots. Whereas the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices used to "recommend" that children from 6 months to five years get flu shots, it now recommends that all "children" from ages 6 months to 18 years old get them. In short time, this will become mandatory, as will all other medicinal "recommendations" of the State. The states are already doing this.
Henna adorns Indian women's hands, rose oil is massaged into the skin of Moroccan ladies, and we American chicks swear by dousing our hair in vinegar to keep it shiny. As an American living in Paris for the past five years, I had grown acutely aware of my attachment to my own homespun beauty rituals, but I didn't realize just how profoundly they influenced my worldview until recently, while watching a film.
Ready to sand and refinish wood floors in your mid-20th century house? Do you assume your old house is "safe" from toxic chemicals because they've had time to "gas out"? Confident your old hard wood floors are ecologically sound and couldn't possibly pose a health risk? Think again.
A new study published in the journal Environmental Health reveals older wood floor finishes in some homes from the l950s and l960s may be an overlooked source of exposure to the cancer-causing environmental pollutants known as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs).
A new study published in the journal Environmental Health reveals older wood floor finishes in some homes from the l950s and l960s may be an overlooked source of exposure to the cancer-causing environmental pollutants known as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs).
After the stock market bubble burst, the New York Times asked: "Where were the analysts? Why didn't they warn us?"
To be perfectly honest, this was a somewhat disingenuous question. As experienced financial journalists understood all too well, the analysts plugging the high-flying issues of the 1990s were employed by Wall Street firms raking in billions as investors bet their nest eggs on one hot stock after another. It really wasn't in their employers' interest for analysts to tell us that their products were wildly over-priced. When a small investor wades into the financial world, there are two words he needs to keep in mind: "caveat emptor."
But physicians, I firmly believe, are different from the folks employed by Merrill Lynch. (I don't mean to knock people who work at ML. I am simply saying that they have a very different job description.) When consulting with your doctor, you should not have to be wary. You are not a customer; you are a patient. And your physician is a professional who has pledged to put your interests ahead of his or her own.
This brings me to the question I ask in my headline: during the many years of the Cholesterol Con - where were the doctors? When everyone from the makers of Mazola Corn Oil to the Popes of Cardiology assured us that virtually anyone could ward off heart disease by lowering their cholesterol, why didn't more of our doctors raise an eyebrow and warn us : "Actually, that's not what the research shows"?
To be perfectly honest, this was a somewhat disingenuous question. As experienced financial journalists understood all too well, the analysts plugging the high-flying issues of the 1990s were employed by Wall Street firms raking in billions as investors bet their nest eggs on one hot stock after another. It really wasn't in their employers' interest for analysts to tell us that their products were wildly over-priced. When a small investor wades into the financial world, there are two words he needs to keep in mind: "caveat emptor."
But physicians, I firmly believe, are different from the folks employed by Merrill Lynch. (I don't mean to knock people who work at ML. I am simply saying that they have a very different job description.) When consulting with your doctor, you should not have to be wary. You are not a customer; you are a patient. And your physician is a professional who has pledged to put your interests ahead of his or her own.
This brings me to the question I ask in my headline: during the many years of the Cholesterol Con - where were the doctors? When everyone from the makers of Mazola Corn Oil to the Popes of Cardiology assured us that virtually anyone could ward off heart disease by lowering their cholesterol, why didn't more of our doctors raise an eyebrow and warn us : "Actually, that's not what the research shows"?
Vietnam is bracing for a nationwide avian influenza outbreak in March, after the virus has spread to seven provinces and killed three people, health officials said Wednesday. "If the anti-bird flu measures are not taken seriously, the human infection situation could become as bad as in 2005 and the outbreak in poultry could expand nationwide in March," said Deputy Agriculture Minister Bui Ba Bong.
Bias in drug studies may mask the mind's role in overcoming depression.
While millions of people swear by Prozac, Zoloft, and other antidepressants, do they work any better than a placebo or no treatment at all?
Answering that question would be much easier if: (1) the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) revealed all drug study findings without requiring a Freedom of Information Act request, (2) drug studies with negative results were routinely published in medical journals, (3) the FDA did not rely on drug company studies employing biased research designs, (4) FDA advisory panels did not include advisers financially connected to drug companies and (5) the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) did not fund drug studies by researchers who have financial relationships with drug companies.
While millions of people swear by Prozac, Zoloft, and other antidepressants, do they work any better than a placebo or no treatment at all?
Answering that question would be much easier if: (1) the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) revealed all drug study findings without requiring a Freedom of Information Act request, (2) drug studies with negative results were routinely published in medical journals, (3) the FDA did not rely on drug company studies employing biased research designs, (4) FDA advisory panels did not include advisers financially connected to drug companies and (5) the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) did not fund drug studies by researchers who have financial relationships with drug companies.
ProQuad Vaccine Linked to More Convulsions; CDC Panel Amends Preference for Combo
Children suffered higher rates of fever-related convulsions when they got a Merck & Co. combination vaccine instead of two separate shots, according to a new study presented Wednesday.
The results prompted a federal advisory panel on vaccines to water down their preference for the combo vaccine ProQuad, which protects against measles, mumps and rubella as well as chickenpox.
Children suffered higher rates of fever-related convulsions when they got a Merck & Co. combination vaccine instead of two separate shots, according to a new study presented Wednesday.
The results prompted a federal advisory panel on vaccines to water down their preference for the combo vaccine ProQuad, which protects against measles, mumps and rubella as well as chickenpox.
Children who under-achieve at school may just have poor working memory rather than low intelligence according to researchers who have produced the world's first tool to assess memory capacity in the classroom.
The researchers from Durham University, who surveyed over three thousand children, found that ten per cent of school children across all age ranges suffer from poor working memory seriously affecting their learning. Nationally, this equates to almost half a million children in primary education alone being affected.
However, the researchers identified that poor working memory is rarely identified by teachers, who often describe children with this problem as inattentive or as having lower levels of intelligence.
The researchers from Durham University, who surveyed over three thousand children, found that ten per cent of school children across all age ranges suffer from poor working memory seriously affecting their learning. Nationally, this equates to almost half a million children in primary education alone being affected.
However, the researchers identified that poor working memory is rarely identified by teachers, who often describe children with this problem as inattentive or as having lower levels of intelligence.
ASUNCION - UNICEF supplied two million anti-yellow fever vaccinations in response to an emergency declared by the Government of Paraguay following an outbreak of yellow fever cases. Approximately 750,000 people have been immunized so far.
Atlanta, Georgia - All children - not just those under 5 - should get vaccinated against the flu, a federal advisory panel said Wednesday. The panel voted to expand annual flu shots to virtually all children except infants younger than 6 months and those with serious egg allergies.
