Prometheus 6 - Health

Not if the N.R.A. has anything to say about it

Prometheus 6 — Tue, 10 Oct 2006 06:17:55 -0400

You'd think police objections would count for something

Prometheus 6 — Mon, 09 Oct 2006 12:02:41 -0400

[W]hen it comes to gun legislation, the experts are ignored as the gun lobby scores victory after victory. Consider that President Bush signed a law that permits the destruction of gun check records within 24 hours (despite criticism from a Government Accountability Office report); let the federal assault weapons ban expire (despite evidence that it lowered the rate at which assault weapons were used in crime); is backing bills that prevent law enforcement from putting corrupt gun dealers out of business (over the objection of police groups); and restricted the ability of police to use crime gun trace data (again despite police objections).

Time to Talk Guns
A summit on school violence must look at the role of weapons.
Monday, October 9, 2006; A16

THE SLAUGHTER of five girls in a Pennsylvania classroom, closely following school shootings in Colorado and Wisconsin, has prompted President Bush to call a national summit on school violence. It is right that the nation not just mourn the heartbreak of last week's shootings but that its leaders and other citizens talk about how to prevent such tragedies. How useful tomorrow's conversation will be, however, depends on the administration's willingness to have all voices heard. And that must include those calling for a more rational approach to gun control.

Yes, it is tagged "Culture wars." No, it was not an accident.

Prometheus 6 — Sun, 08 Oct 2006 18:53:56 -0400

According to psychiatrist Jennifer Harris, quoted in the January/February issue of Psychotherapy Networker, "Many clinicians find it easier to tell parents their child has a brain-based disorder than to suggest parenting changes."...What was once a somber, heart-wrenching decision for a parent and something children often resisted -- medicating a child's mind -- has now become a widely used technique in parenting a belligerent child.

A Rush to Medicate Young Minds
By Elizabeth J. Roberts
Sunday, October 8, 2006; B07

I have been treating, educating and caring for children for more than 30 years, half of that time as a child psychiatrist, and the changes I have seen in the practice of child psychiatry are shocking. Psychiatrists are now misdiagnosing and overmedicating children for ordinary defiance and misbehavior. The temper tantrums of belligerent children are increasingly being characterized as psychiatric illnesses.

Finding the memory you lost as a teen

Prometheus 6 — Fri, 06 Oct 2006 10:01:03 -0400

Marijuana is looking a lot like asperin nowadays...they keep finding more utility in its chemistry.

Marijuana may stave off Alzheimer's
Fri Oct 6, 2006 8:34 AM ET
By Andy Sullivan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Good news for aging hippies: smoking pot may stave off Alzheimer's disease.

New research shows that the active ingredient in marijuana may prevent the progression of the disease by preserving levels of an important neurotransmitter that allows the brain to function.

Researchers at the Scripps Research Institute in California found that marijuana's active ingredient, delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, can prevent the neurotransmitter acetylcholine from breaking down more effectively than commercially marketed drugs.

Okay, this is what you should do

Prometheus 6 — Tue, 26 Sep 2006 09:23:01 -0400

Just buy out the whole tobacco industry and divert the whole profit into the various state govenments that depend on these settlements to balance thei budgets.

Tobacco Makers Lose Key Ruling on Latest Suits
By DAVID CAY JOHNSTON and MELANIE WARNER

In a legal blow to the tobacco industry, a federal judge in Brooklyn ruled yesterday that people who smoked light cigarettes that were often promoted as a safer alternative to regular cigarettes can press their fraud claim as a class-action suit.

Judge Jack B. Weinstein of Federal District Court in Brooklyn found “substantial evidence” that the manufacturers knew that light cigarettes were at least as dangerous as regular cigarettes.

I'm sorry but that's just nasty

Prometheus 6 — Sat, 23 Sep 2006 12:55:21 -0400

Slime-riding strategy developed for intestinal robot
18:43 22 September 2006
NewScientist.com news service
Tom Simonite

A snail-inspired robot could ride gut mucus (Image: Dimitra Dodou)AdvertisementA robot that glides along a layer of mucus inside the human intestine could make medical examinations like colonoscopies less painful for patients, say Dutch scientists. They are working on a snail-inspired robot that should be far gentler on the gut's delicate lining.

Several research groups around the world are working on robots that can remotely explore the intestine but most of these use using tiny legs to pull themselves along (see Worm-inspired robot crawls through intestines).

What do you mean, broken? We're making PLENTY of money!

Prometheus 6 — Sat, 23 Sep 2006 10:16:56 -0400

Here's the report. You can read it online or order a printed copy or pdf.

The panel called for a moratorium on consumer advertising of newly approved classes of drugs until they have been on the market long enough for unrecognized side effects and risks to emerge. Packaging for new types of medications should also carry a special symbol, such as the black triangle required in Britain, to alert patients that the drug's safety profile would not be fully known until it had been more widely studied, the report said.
The FDA should reevaluate safety and effectiveness data of such new drugs within five years after initial approval, the panel added, and the agency needs new powers to impose fines and requirements on drugmakers. In addition, the report called for the agency to have authority to place a wider range of restrictions on drugs it deems risky.

FDA Told U.S. Drug System Is Broken
Expert Panel Calls For Major Changes
By Shankar Vedantam
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, September 23, 2006; A01

The federal system for approving and regulating drugs is in serious disrepair, and a host of dramatic changes are needed to fix the problem, a blue-ribbon panel of government advisers concluded yesterday in a long-awaited report.

The analysis by the Institute of Medicine shined an unsparing spotlight on the erosion of public confidence in the Food and Drug Administration, an agency that holds sway over a quarter of the U.S. economy. The report, requested by the FDA itself, found that Congress, agency officials and the pharmaceutical industry share responsibility for the problems -- and bear the burden for implementing solutions.

I think this is a bit more immediate than bird flu

Prometheus 6 — Sun, 17 Sep 2006 09:25:45 -0400

How Ready-to-Eat Spinach Is Only Part of the E. Coli Problem
A food safety expert says it likely came from processing the produce right in the fields, a practice that's become much more common
By ALICE PARK

When the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a warning to consumers on Thursday about E coli contamination in bagged spinach, it didn't come as a surprise to Michael Doyle. So far, 50 people have fallen ill and one death has been connected to the dangerous E coli 0157:H7 bacterial infection, and the director of food safety at the University of Georgia says that outbreaks like this one will only continue if produce manufacturers don't change their practices.

I DO like good news once in a while

Prometheus 6 — Fri, 15 Sep 2006 10:31:56 -0400

Infant Mortality Is Decreasing in Puerto Ricans and Blacks
By RICHARD PÉREZ-PEÑA

Gains among blacks and Puerto Ricans drove infant mortality rates to a record low in New York City last year, and narrowed a persistent disparity between those groups and whites, city officials reported yesterday.

In 2005, 6 out of every 1,000 babies born in the city died before reaching their first birthdays, according to the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. The most recent national figure available, for 2004, was 6.8 per 1,000; New York City has had lower infant mortality than the nation as a whole for several years.

Collard greens are better anyway

Prometheus 6 — Thu, 14 Sep 2006 22:29:54 -0400

E. Coli Cases Traced to Bagged Spinach
By ANDREW BRIDGES
Associated Press Writer
7:17 PM PDT, September 14, 2006

WASHINGTON — An outbreak of E. coli in eight states has left at least one person dead and 50 others sick, federal health officials said Thursday in warning consumers nationwide not to eat bagged fresh spinach.

The death occurred in Wisconsin, where 20 others were also sickened, said Dr. David Acheson of the Food and Drug Administration's Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition. The outbreak has sickened others -- eight of them seriously -- in Connecticut, Idaho, Indiana, Michigan, New Mexico, Oregon and Utah.