OK, so the electric eel squicks me out, but stem cell and DNA technologies to cure male pattern baldness,* I find that cool and hopeful.
*That is a really old pic on the right hand side of the blog.
Category: medical
And In the Department of the Bloody Obvious
meIt turns out that if surgical residents work less than 80 hours a week, then there are fewer complications from the surguries that they perform.
Hoocoodanoed??
Bush Still Pushing to Have Your Daughter Carry Her Rapist’s Baby
As I mentioned in an earlier post, see my earlier post, All Your Uterus Are Belong to Us, Bush and His Evil Minions&trade are determined to make sure that Abortion will be unavailable, even if it is legal.
So, they are pushing ahead with a modified plan now, and they have changed the definition, so that contraception is no longer abortion, but it still allow a doctor to refuse to give birth control information to a woman, for example.
These folks are more like the Mullahs in Iran than they admit.
Poverty Now Driving Women to Egg Donations
They can get $5-10K for donations, and the economy is driving a surge in donations.
Poor women selling a part of their body out of financial need. How long until it’s kidneys like in India?
NYC Hospitals Cut Deal With Grenada Med School
To be honest, the only reason that I’m covering this is that in the 1970s, I went to Grenada with my family a number of times.
I don’t recall ever being in St. George’s medical school, though I believe I drove by it once.
These folks were the med students that Reagan used as an excuse to invade.
In any case, that’s why I read the article about the exclusive contract between the school and the New York City Health and Hospital Corp. to provide clerkships to medical students.
The deal may not be dishonest, but it certainly has a funny smell.
Head of Unscom Bio Weapons Said, Ivins Couldn’t Have Done It
Richard Spertzel, head of the biological-weapons section of Unscom from 1994-99, nd a member of the Iraq Survey Group, wrote an Op/Ed in the Wall Street Journal that I highly recommend.
Basically, he says that Bruce Ivins, and everyone at the lab, worked on the bacteria in growth media, and did not have the equipment to make the weaponized form, which is powdered and given coatings to create a static charge to further spread the powder:
From what we know so far, Bruce Ivins, although potentially a brilliant scientist, was not that man. The multiple disciplines and technologies required to make the anthrax in this case do not exist at Army’s Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases. Inhalation studies are conducted at the institute, but they are done using liquid preparations, not powdered products.
(emphasis mine)
FBI Looking to Close Anthrax Case, but the Evidence Seems Thinner Than it Should Be
It turns out that the evidence pointing toward Bruce Ivins was circumstantial, which does not mean invalid, but is not necessarily definitive.
At least 10 people had access to the flask that is now believed to be the source of the letters, and there is nothing tying Ivins to the postbox from which the Anthrax was mailed.
The envelopes came from post offices in Frederick, but it’s clear that the Anthrax came from Detrick, and it’s clear from the article that the FBI has been a bunch of keystone Cops on this.
What’s more, we now have a report that the White House was pressuring the FBI to finger al Queida on the Anthrax mailings.
Additionally, Glenn Greenwald has a rundown on the person who requested a restraining order against Bruce Ivins, and notes that the order is only 2 weeks old, and the application makes reference to the FBI investigation, which is odd, so I’m wondering if the FBI told her that the guy was under investigation as the Anthrax mailer, or that Ivins, who she was counseling, told her that he was under investigation, and she freaked.
I’m not saying that there is a conspiracy out there, just that the FBI really wants to close this case, and that they might still operating at a Keystone Cops level competence.
All Your Uterus Are Belong to Us
It appears that with only 6 months to go, Bush and His Evil Minions™ are doing their level best to make birth control unavailable a significannt portion of the US population.
First, they have now defined abortion as “anything that results in the termination of the life of a human being in utero between conception and natural birth, whether before or after implantation.”
This would be many birth control pills, emergency contraception following a rape, and the IUD, in addition to a number of medications not normally used for contraception, but for which are likely to cause a failure to implant, or a spontaneous abortion.
What’s more, any medical provider receiving money for a Health and Human Services Department program would have to, “sign written certifications”, certifying that the would not, “will not refuse to hire nurses and other providers who object to abortion and even certain types of birth control.” (see also here)
What’s amazing is that Mr. “I don’t listen to polls” HHS is using a poll, as opposed to the American Medical Association’s definition of “abortion”.
If you think that you can compromise with abortion-criminalization terrorists, you are wrong.
Their ultimate goal is to make all forms of birth control illegal in the United States of America.
Image courtesy of Feministing.
American Psychiatric Association Major Recipient of Pharma Money
Interesting how what is supposed to be a independent non-profit organization is the recipient of large amounts of money from groups that have a fiduciary interest in one form of treatment.
Obviously, this is a legitimate reason to doubt the independence of the organization on issues related to the use of psychiatric drugs.
Ted Kennedy Returns To Senate For First Time Since Brain Tumor
He was there to break the filibuster on the Medicare bill.
It turned out it was not necessary. The Republicans caved after a few days of tha AMA running ads saying that they were favoring HMOs over patients.
The AMA: Part of the Problem, Not Part of the Solution
Yes, the American Medical Association just voted to lobby to outlaw home births, because midwives are taking too much of OB/GYN’s business.
I would never have used a midwife or done home delivery with my wife, and if she had wanted it, I would have done everything in my power to make her go to a hospital instead, because she is a poster child for major birthing complications.
But that’s our choice. It’s not a profit center for doctors.
Just in Case You Were Wondering
yes, Virginia, the drug companies do have a policy of secret payoffs to researchers.
A world-renowned Harvard child psychiatrist whose work has helped fuel an explosion in the use of powerful antipsychotic medicines in children earned at least $1.6 million in consulting fees from drug makers from 2000 to 2007 but for years did not report much of this income to university officials, according to information given Congressional investigators.
At some point, we need to start throwing both the people who took, and the people who made, the payments in jail.
CSPI Calls For Banning 8 Foos Dyes
The dyes that the Center for Science in the Public Interest wants banned are, “Yellow 5, Red 40, Blue 1, Blue 2, Green 3, Orange B, Red 3, and Yellow 6.”
The CSPI is claiming that they have a link to ADHD and behavioral problems in children, though I think the science is pretty thin.
Normally, this is something I wouldn’t notice, but Yellow 5 is an asthma trigger for a lot of people, including Sharon,*, so I’m constantly looking for it when shopping.
*Love of my life, light of the cosmos, she who must be obeyed, my wife.
House Dems Looking to Short Circuit the Preemption Doctrine
Over the past few years, an obscure legal concept called the preemption doctrine, has gained increasing currency in the Federal courts.
Basically, the concept is that if a medical product gets FDA approval, that this strips the consumer of any right to sue should it prove defective, even if deliberate wrong doing or a cover-up can be shown (think Viiox).
There has been a big push for this by Bush and His Evil Minions™, because they believe that poor people should not be able to inconvenience large companies.
In fact, the FDA supported consumer lawsuits as a way to help keep medical companies on their toes until 2002.
It now appears that Henry Waxman, chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, is looking at eliminating this argument legislatively. He has started to hold hearings.
Point man for the Republicans is Connecticut’s 2nd most prominent prostitute*, Christopher Shays, who vehemently argued the administration’s position, “juries of laymen shouldn’t be usurping the rigorous decision-making process of federal scientists.”
Seeing as how politically appointed laymen are, “usurping the rigorous decision-making process of federal scientists”, throughout the Bush administration, this seems to me to be awfully weak tea.
In any case, I would expect legislation some time in 2009.
*Number 1 is Joe Lieberman….Come on, get with the program.
John McCain, Not So Cancer Free
Though the title of the story, McCain appears cancer-free, healthy, would imply otherwise.
McCain’s most recent exams show a range of health issues common in aging: He frequently has precancerous skin lesions removed, and in February had an early stage squamous cell carcinoma, an easily cured skin cancer, removed. He had benign colon growths called polyps taken out during a routine colonoscopy in March.
There’s a campaign slogan: John McCain: Cancer Free Since February.
The Best Headline Ever
Writing for The Hill, Markos Moulitsas, founder and proprietor of Daily Kos pens, “GOP’s flesh-eating zombie candidate.”
It’s a great title, and it is largely factually accurate, and this guy is contributing to the suffering of severe burn victims all over the country.
Go read it.
Does McCain Know Anything About Anything????
Yep, now we have McCain saying that Thimerisol causes autism.
It’s not true. It’s never been true, and there is no evidence of this.
Any evidence presented to indicate this has proven to be false, and there has been no change in the trajectory in conditions on the Autism spectrum since Thimerisol was phased out in the 1990s.
My wife recognized that my son might be on the spectrum at birth, though it was clearer at 3-4 weeks, well before any inoculations.
Antidepressants Ineffective?
A study has been released showing that Prozac, does not work better than a placebo for most people.
You can find the whole paper here.
The pattern they saw from the trial results of fluoxetine (Prozac), paroxetine (Seroxat), venlafaxine (Effexor) and nefazodone (Serzone) was consistent. “Using complete data sets (including unpublished data) and a substantially larger data set of this type than has been previously reported, we find the overall effect of new-generation antidepressant medication is below recommended criteria for clinical significance,” they write.
Two more frequently prescribed antidepressants were omitted from the study because scientists were unable to obtain all the data.
Embryonic Stem Cells Cure Paralysis
Geron is going to the FDA to get approval to test its stem cell spinal treatment of paralysis, following successful tests in rats.
Needless to say, the Bush Administration anti-science blockhead political appointees in the FDA won’t approve it, but we have only 100 months to wait for them to be swept clean.
Cat Ownership Reduces Heart Attack and Stroke Risk
A University of Minnesota study indicates that cat owners are less likely to die from heart attacks or strokes.
Non-cat owners, including people who kept dogs as pets, were 30-40% more likely to die of these conditions.
I, for one, appreciate the benefits of my feline overlords.
