By Joe Decker
Many of us work out to target a specific part of our body. We want six-pack abs, big biceps or a firmer backside. We all want to look good on the outside.
Unfortunately, many of us overlook what’s on the inside, forgetting our body’s most important muscle: the heart. It’s an incredible muscle and, unlike the […]

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The New York based Manhattan Institute think tank today released a report very critical of the Asbestos litigation business. Asbestos litigation is the “longest running mass tort in US history, and arguably the most unjust” the introduction tells us.
Asbestos litigation does seem to have become a sub-genre of the legal profession. And the facts and […]

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While most attorneys and most judges deal with a wide variety of unrelated matter that is not the case with attorney Brent Coon and Judge Donald Floyd in Texas. Both seem permanently engaged in a huge Asbestos law suit. This single subject seems to absorb the vast majority of the monthly court docket.
The suit was […]

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Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is an age-related and irreparable brain disorder that strikes slowly and causes memory loss, behavior and personality changes, and deterioration of mental capacities. These losses are brought about by the collapse of the links between nerve cells in the brain and the ultimate death of most of these cells. The natural course […]

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When menopause hits you will no longerjoke about how Krispy Kreme doughnuts go straight to your hips. That’s because they won’t. You’ll be storing fat like a man. Your body will have lost the estrogen supply it needs to direct fat to your hips and buttocks, and will instead store it in your midsection. It’s […]

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I love hospice, because I’m old enough to remember when dying patients ended up in hospitals, or we docs would try to make house calls and try to get neighbors to help give adequate care in their homes. But with hospice, nurses helped me care for my patients by checking them frequently at home, and […]

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As a doc, during the summer we would often have “stomach flu” outbreaks caused by viruses called “Enteroviruses” which merely means intestine virus. Usually it meant mild diarrhea, and it was worse in young kids. One enterovirus, however, caused only mild stomach upset, but caused lots of tiny canker sores in the mouth, and small […]

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A Calgary family is mourning the loss of their baby that may be the fault of using an internet telephone service.
Sandra Luck says it was due to a VOIP 911 call that went unanswered. She watched her 18 month old nephew, Elija fight for his life while they waited for emergency help to arrive. She […]

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According to the Lancet, (an esteemed British medical journal) the high blood pressure vaccine has just gone through stage II of it’s testing, and so far so good.
There were some sore arms and “flu like” symptoms after the shot, and a few people had problems that were listed as “adverse reactions” but probably were not […]

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I love conspiracy theories.
The stories often have a smidgen of truth in them, but are amplified until they become larger.
So we are now reading lots of news stories about the genitalia stealing witches in Africa and that mobs are going around killing the witches in Africa.
Actually, the problem, called Koro, is a world wide phenomenum.
Usually […]

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There are so many scams doing the rounds online that it is hard to keep abreast of them all. Based on my email traffic the one of the most prolific involves online pharmacies. For the longest time they contented themselves with selling knock off Viagra pills at hugely inflated prices, however there is a new […]

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This is the rather grim message being put out by British Columbia’s Building Trades Union. Most of us think of BC as the home of aging hippies with creative grow op’s. And the few aging hippies that don’t do Marijuana are out hunting mushrooms, some legal, expensive, and delicious, some illegal, foul tasting, and hallucinogenic.
t […]

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If one just read the headlines, one would think that this poor dying patient was given a death sentence because of those evil drug laws. It’s being spun all over the internet, in Salon and in the news.
You have the dramatic dying patient
face and arms are hauntingly skeletal, but the fluid building up in his […]

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New research, published in the proceedings of the Royal Society B, a British medical journal, suggests that what a woman eats before pregnancy influences the gender of her baby.
Eating a diet high in potassium-rich foods, like bananas and avocados, and eating breakfast appears to raise a woman’s chances of having a boy.
This research is the […]

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(London, UK) The UK based Autism Awareness Campaign has urged British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Chancellor of the Exchequer Alastair Darling to reach out to the vulnerable and help families with autism during what is now a time of crisis. According to campaigners, the credit crunch will hurt the poor, the most vulnerable sections […]

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Pregnant lady notices that she is leaking fluid, and promptly heads home to deliver her baby boy.
Except that she was in Texas at the time, and “home” is Anchorage, Alaska.
When asked why she chose to give birth at home, the father, who is best known for the Iron Dog race but who works along with […]

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A study in the Annals of Internal Medicine shows that using anti psychotic drugs in older people with dementia increases their risk of dying.
Most of the deaths were from the “older” anti psychotic medicines, and most of the increase in the death rate came within the first six months of starting treatment.
Another study, in […]

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A few weeks ago, Autism News at Blogger News Network appealed to the Presidential Candidates to respond to the first ever United Nations World Autism Awareness Day held on Wednesday 2nd April 2008. This was a historic day announced by the United Nations General Assembly, the resolution was backed by the State of Qatar. WAAD […]

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The usually staid Wall Street Journal has an AP article about how the Philippine government is planning to regulate a growing black market in buying kidneys from poor people in Manila. The headline reads:
Philippine Health Chief Orders Eradication of Kidney Black Market
Ah so. It’s already against the law, since it was made illegal by […]

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Last week, six planes coming in to land at Sydney airport have had green lasers pointed at their cockpits in what seems to be a coordinated attack, in which three or four different lasers were pointed at airplanes landing at that airport.
According to the Sydney Morning Herald, the attack was bad enough that they closed […]

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The NYTimes has a nice “summary” article on the heparin scare today.
They do a nice job, but they seem to assume that the episode is an accident, so the article it points to the FDA for failing to regulate the drug manufacturing process.
Dr. Roger L. Williams, chief executive of the United States Pharmacopeia, which […]

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Here in the Philippines, Ampalaya is a common vegetable for our meals, but it also has a long use in Chinese herbal medicine for diabetes. The problem is that nobody knows why it works, or if it works, but nevertheless it is one of the herbs sold over the counter here in the Philippines.
The Philippine […]

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The tainted heparin scandal widens.
An article posted on Medscape reveals:
The heparin-contamination saga is continuing, with the latest countries to recall products being France, Italy, and Denmark… the heparin medicinal products from Rotexmedica and the heparin API from Opocrin had all been manufactured using products sourced originally from China by four Chinese companies…
Meanwhile, another US heparin […]

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The silly season must be with us again, because two economists have done a study in Europe that correlates happiness with blood pressure. The higher the blood pressure, the less happy the people.
From a report on Medscape (registration required).
David G. Blanchflower, PhD (Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire) and Andrew J. Oswald, DPhil (University of Warwick, […]

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The United Nations General Assembly in New York has declared Wednesday 2nd April 2008 as the first ever World Autism Awareness Day. This is a historic occasion and the actual idea of having a World Autism Day came from the State of Qatar. Baroness Uddin recently congratulated Qatar in a major debate on autism in […]

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People have died, and the case, which started out as an accident inquiry, and then morphed into a industrial error, has now become a homicide investigation.
And the culprit is corporate corruption, and a culture of corruption that extends into the highest level of government.
But I”m getting ahead of my story.
The story started last November, when […]

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(London, UK) The first ever World Autism Awareness Day has been declared by the United Nations General Assembly in New York. The idea was promoted by the State of Qatar who worked hard to make World Autism Day a reality - this historic day will take place on Wednesday 2nd April 2008.
Autism campaigners around the […]

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In an ongoing campaign to hint that John McCain shouldn’t be president, the latest is a NYTimes article bringing up the “C” word:
On the Campaign Trail, Few Mentions of McCain’s Bout With Melanoma
The article then goes on to discuss McCain’s scars on his neck, his refusal to release more recent medical records, and hints that […]

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This is the last in the three part series on a worldwide probelm
By Gina Burgess
Originally published in the Picayune Item
Behavior that offends or harms someone is a broad definition of workplace bullying. Mary tells Sandra that Betty is sleeping with the boss, when in fact the rumor isn’t true. Spreading gossip or rumors is one […]

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Part 2 of a 3 part series
By Gina Burgess
Originally published in the Picayune Item
“For two years 13 year-old Johnny was a human plaything for some of his classmates. The teenagers badgered him for money, forced him to swallow weeds and drink milk laced with detergent, beat him up in the restroom, and tied a string […]

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