Free Republic

Three tribes lead the best practice initiative treating the epidemic of painkiller addiction in Native America, Oklahoma, the nation's leader in painkiller addiction. Treating all adults, Medicaid. Last month the Center for Disease Control called prescription painkiller addiction an epidemic in the country, identifying Oklahoma as leading the nation in both the addiction and related deaths. It is only fitting that the battle against such addiction in "Native America" be led by three tribal owned clinics, Absentee Shawnee Counseling Services, OKC; Keetoowah Cherokee Treatment Services, Tulsa; and Quapaw Counseling Services, Miami. Generally speaking, prescription painkillers are opiates. There are 14...

Patients with terminal cancer should not be given life-extending drugs, doctors said yesterday. The treatments give false hope and are too costly for the public purse, they warned. The group of 37 cancer experts, including British specialist Karol Sikora, claimed a 'culture of excess' had led doctors to 'overtreat, overdiagnose and overpromise'. Campaigners dismissed the report, saying it was wrong to write off cancer victims. 'I would hardly call this type of treatment futile,' said Rose Woodward, of the James Whale Fund for Kidney Cancer.

A study of pensioners who suffered appalling treatment at the hands of doctors and nurses says that half were not given enough to eat or drink. One family member said the maltreatment amounted to “euthanasia”. Some were left unwashed or in soiled clothes, while others were forgotten after being sent home or given the wrong medication. In several cases considered by the Health Service Ombudsman, patients died without loved ones by their sides because of the “casual indifference” of staff and their “bewildering disregard” for people’s needs.

My daughter's 11 month old Red Standard Poodle has been diagnosed with "mega esophagous" which means that his esophagous is nearly twice as large as it ought to be, and the food has a hard time making into the stomach and just sits in the esophagous. He regurgitates much of his dinner daily. This is a worrisome, messy, smelly condition, but not fatal. Her vet says she should learn to manage it by keeping him calm & upright for a half hour after he eats and offering smaller meals. Obviously he's getting some nutrition because he's 49 lbs, although he's...

A little girl who has been blind since birth has seen her mother and father for the first time - at the age of four. Izabelle Evans can now see up to three feet in front of her after groundbreaking stem cell treatment in China costing £50,000. Parents James Evans and Hollie McHugh said nothing could beat the feeling of the first time their daughter looked into their eyes and said: 'mummy' and 'daddy'.

Which do you think is less expensive, not to mention preferable: a cure for cancer, Alzheimer's disease and diabetes, or caring for people with these diseases? Wouldn't it be better medical and public policy to direct more resources toward finding a cure for diseases that cost a lot to treat than to rely on a government insurance program, such as Obamacare, which seeks mainly to help pay the bills for people after they become ill? Isn't the answer obvious? Apparently not to many politicians trapped in an old paradigm that focuses too much on hospitals, doctors and medicines and too...

Medicare officials are debating whether the agency should cover a new prostate-cancer treatment that costs $93,000 per patient, sparking criticism from Dendreon Corp. investors and patient advocacy groups who earlier pushed the Food and Drug Administration to approve the novel therapy. A Medicare advisory panel is set to meet Wednesday to discuss Dendreon's Provenge treatment, following criticism from shareholders and some patient advocacy groups that the government might be trying to ration high-priced care. Medicare usually covers FDA-approved medicines without much debate, but in June the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services said it would undertake a national review...

Since last April, 19 cancer patients whose liver tumors hadn’t responded to chemotherapy have taken an experimental drug. Within weeks of the first dose, it appeared to work, by preventing tumors from making proteins they need to survive. The results are preliminary yet encouraging. With a slight redesign, the drug might work for hundreds of diseases, fulfilling the promise that wonder cures like stem cells and gene therapy have failed to deliver. The biotech company Alnylam announced in June that its drug ALN-VSP cut off blood flow to 62 percent of liver-cancer tumors in those 19 patients, by triggering a...

SIERRA VISTA — The Cochise Area Network of Therapeutic Equestrian Resources, or CANTER, recently received a $3,280 grant from the Cochise Community Foundation. CANTER provides a variety of equine therapies and assisted activities designed to promote the independence of individuals with disabilities and improve their physical, mental and social well-being. The grant will be used to support CANTER’s Helping America’s National Defenders program, which provides equine therapies to active duty and retired military and their families as a way to assist combat veterans who are challenged with brain injuries or post-traumatic stress disorder. Through the program, injured veterans regain strength,...

The state trial of former Agriprocessors executive Sholom Rubashkin will move forward, a judge said, despite concerns from defense attorneys about the local jail not meeting their client’s religious needs. Black Hawk County District Associate Judge Nathan Callahan also denied a defense motion Tuesday to delay Rubashkin’s trial on 83 misdemeanor child labor charges until July because of pre-trial publicity and new evidence presented to the defense.

COS KALSU – U.S. Civil Affairs Soldiers and Iraqi leaders here recently inspected the renovation of the Hashimiyah Water Treatment Facility, which now provides half-a-million Iraqis with fresh, disease-free water. The project, led by 1st Lt. Gerardo Aquino, a member of the 1411th CA Company from Edison, N.J., currently attached to the 3rd Heavy Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, has improved both efficiency and water quality for all served by the facility. "Before the improvements, there was an outbreak of cholera in the area due to the poor quality of water," Aquino said. "The old system was operating at...

Under a dusty hospital tent where doctors yell over the roar of jet engines, Dr. John York studied an electronic image of a blood vessel in the neck of a soldier wounded by an improvised bomb. It looked like a balloon ready to pop. Too delicate to operate on directly. Dr. York would have to try a procedure that had rarely been attempted so close to a battlefield. Using a sophisticated X-ray machine, he snaked a tube from an artery in the soldier's leg until it reached his neck. Dr. York threaded in a feathery device that popped open and...

The most salient part of Vice President Biden's speech in Tel Aviv came toward the end of his address -- after he spoke about the "unbreakable bond" between the U.S. and Israel, after he assured his audience that the administration has an "ironclad commitment to Israel's security," and after he reassured skeptical Israelis that America "stands shoulder to shoulder" with the Jewish state. Once these nice pieties were out of the way, Biden got to the real, unbalanced U.S. position vis-à-vis Israel and the Palestinians -- again "condemning" Israel for moving ahead with plans for more housing units in East...

LANTANA, Fla. – It started with a cough, an autumn hack that refused to go away. Then came the fevers. They bathed and chilled the skinny frame of Oswaldo Juarez, a 19-year-old Peruvian visiting to study English. His lungs clattered, his chest tightened and he ached with every gasp. During a wheezing fit at 4 a.m., Juarez felt a warm knot rise from his throat. He ran to the bathroom sink and spewed a mouthful of blood. I'm dying, he told himself, "because when you cough blood, it's something really bad." It was really bad, and not just for him....

IT WAS just after midnight. Brian Westberry and a woman friend sat frozen in his bedroom, hoping the persistent pounding on the front door of his Northeast Philly home would stop. It didn't. Westberry, 24, slipped his licensed .38-caliber revolver into his pants pocket and crept downstairs to open the door. There stood Gregory Cujdik, 32, who demanded to see "Jen," his girlfriend. Westberry told him "Jen" didn't want to see him, and repeatedly ordered Cujdik to leave. When Cujdik refused, Westberry threatened to call police. " 'Do it. My family are cops,' " Cujdik said, according to Westberry.

Enhancing specific chemical signaling in the brain could help treat the disorder. By Emily Singer Drugs that boost the chemical messenger norepinephrine in the brain have been shown to alleviate cognitive problems in mice engineered to mirror Down syndrome. The findings, published today in the journal Science Translational Medicine, suggest a new approach to treating the disorder. Several existing drugs can boost the chemical or mimic its effects, though none have yet been tested in patients with Down syndrome. The research also reflects a growing understanding of the brain systems that underlie the cognitive problems in people with Down syndrome,...

Only half of the people in the United States who most need immediate treatment for H1N1 swine flu are actually seeking it, even as the virus spreads at unprecedented speed, U.S. health officials said on Friday. The latest count shows 114 children have been killed by the virus in the United States since April, during a time when there is usually virtually no influenza, said U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Thomas Frieden. H1N1 is widespread, he said, and case counts continue to rise in most states. "One of the things that we have been surprised to...

I learned a lot about the cost of health care when I had a hybrid general surgery practice in California 's rural San Joaquin Valley. My practice consisted of uninsured women with breast cancer combined with a smaller percentage of cosmetic patients whose cash payments for "vanity care" subsidized the treatment of women unable to pay for needed medical treatment. Although patients seeking cosmetic services tend to be healthy, I evaluated them like any other patient. I asked about medical history, allergies, medications and genetic disorders. Upon questioning Sherry S., a pretty 46-year-old seeking wrinkle relief, I learned that four...

While the people die, Minister of Health is working in the campaign of continuity Although you may not believe in public hospitals the first requirement for treatment is not sick. And the first question asked him is: "do you agree with the fourth ballot box?". Those who claim to be against President Zelaya and continuity of a dictatorship in Honduras, inevitably have to turn around and go home or seek care at a private clinic. This was the sad experience he had Saris Elda Herrera, who came to the hospital in Tela, Atlantida, to seek medical services for an intestinal...

An unlicensed intravenous form of the antiviral drug Relenza saved the life of a woman with a severe illness resulting from infection by the pandemic H1N1 influenza virus, British doctors reported today in the journal Lancet. Dr. Michael Kidd and Dr. Mervyn Singer of the University College London Hospitals were treating the virus, commonly known as swine flu, in a 22-year-old woman who had contracted it after undergoing chemotherapy for Hodgkin's disease. The woman had increasing shortness of breath, build-up of fluid in both lungs and was progressively deteriorating. Physicians had given her Tamiflu and Relenza, which is normally given...

President Barack Obama said he would be okay with illegal immigrants being treated in emergency rooms in some situations under his health care plan.

NEW YORK – The American Psychological Association declared Wednesday that mental health professionals should not tell gay clients they can become straight through therapy or other treatments. Instead, the APA urged therapists to consider multiple options — that could range from celibacy to switching churches — for helping clients whose sexual orientation and religious faith conflict. In a resolution adopted on a 125-to-4 vote by the APA's governing council, and in a comprehensive report based on two years of research, the 150,000-member association put itself firmly on record in opposition of so-called "reparative therapy" which seeks to change sexual orientation....

WASHINGTON, July 29, 2009 – Renovations have begun on a water treatment plant near the villages of Hitaween and Adamiyah, Iraq. Army Lt. Col. Mark Solomons, commander of the 1st Infantry Division’s 2nd Battalion, 8th Cavalry Regiment, 2nd Heavy Brigade Combat Team, receives a tour of the Hitaween, Iraq, water treatment plant, July 27, 2009. Coalition forces are funding some renovations to the facility, which will be carried out by Iraqi contractors. U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Joshua Risner  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. The sparsely populated, rural patch of land west of Baghdad relies heavily on the facility...

Both cancer and obesity kill hundreds of thousands of patients each year, but they have more than the Grim Reaper in common. Tumors and excess fat are both unhealthy accumulations of tissue that require elaborate networks of blood vessels to feed them. Now Zafgen, a biopharmaceutical startup based in Cambridge, MA, is attacking obesity the way that cancer researchers have been attacking tumors for decades: using drugs that interfere with its blood supply. "It's a very interesting and exciting concept," says Rakesh Jain, director of the Edwin L. Steele Laboratory for Tumor Biology, at Massachusetts General Hospital, who has no...

New approach offers more pleasant light of traditional bulbs without the energy guilt Thanks to a bit of ingenuity, Chunlei Guo, associate professor of optics at the University of Rochester, and his assistant Anatoliy Vorobyev have been able to squeeze out fluorescent-like energy performance from an incandescent light bulb. The breakthrough boils down to a laser treatment of the bulb's tungsten filament, a processing step which could one day become a standard in the light bulb industry.

CAMP BUCCA, Iraq, May 28, 2009 – Air Force Airman 1st Class Alberto Lopez knew the guy was hiding something. An airman with 887th Expeditionary Security Forces Squadron searches a detainee before a visit with his family at the theater internment facility’s visitation center at Camp Bucca, Iraq, May 12, 2009. U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Thomas J. Doscher   (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. He could feel it. The detainee was giving off "the vibe" that three months of working the visitation center at the theater internment facility here had taught the airman to detect....

Health and Human Service Undersecretary Mortimer Graves cited figures on iatrogenic morbidity and mortality in rebuttal of criticism that national health care would increase delays in treatment. “While, in theory, the extra caution and review that will accompany the President’s reform of health care could cause additional deaths and suffering, the fact is, doctor error killed nearly 100,000 people last year,” Graves said. “It seems to me that when it comes to medicine, haste makes waste. If government intervention impedes access to physicians by elongating the process, less damage will be done.” Graves also contended that “in 90% of cases,...

BAGHDAD — A joint inspection conducted by the Iraqi Ministry of Defense’s Human Rights Directorate, Ministry of Defense Advisory Team from the Multi-National Security Transition Command - Iraq, and the Multi-National Corp - Iraq’s Provost Marshal Office concluded that 19 detainees are being held in satisfactory conditions at the Iraqi Army 17th Division Headquarter based in Mahmudiyah. The team visited one detention facility run by the division’s headquarter and another facility operated by the division’s brigade during the inspection. Living conditions were commendable at both facilities and detainees had access to an outside exercise area, decent latrines and showers, and...

Covertly slipped into GL Obama’s faux “stimulus bill” last weekend—by leftist Democrats—was the Socialist Universal Healthcare program. Contained within the bill is the provision that doctors will now be forced to report any and all of their patient treatments to the federal government for approval to treat. Also contained within this portion of Obama’s non-stimulus bill is the rationing of healthcare services to senior US citizens and the withholding of potentially life-saving measures. As Democrat Tom Daschle wrote in his book “Critical: What We Can Do About the Health-Care Crisis” senior citizens “should be more accepting of the conditions that...

WASHINGTON, Dec. 17, 2008 – Defense officials will take action if an upcoming congressional report on the treatment of detainees in U.S. custody yields new information, a Pentagon spokesman said. "We'll look at the report in detail. If there is any new information in there that we feel we need to address, we will certainly act upon it," Bryan Whitman told reporters last week. The Senate Armed Services Committee report culminates a two-year investigation that included hundreds of hours of interviews with current and former Defense Department personnel and a review of almost 200,000 pages of documents provided by the...

I wrote an article that pretty much summed up my feelings with the Obama-Democrat victory on Tuesday: Obama Wins! God Damn America! Two comments represent two very different points of view: You people are rediculous [sic]. Take a minute and think about what you’re saying. You cannot continue to spew lies and deciet [sic] and expect us to come together peacfully [sic] as a country. And: Let’s give Obama the same chance his followers gave Bush in 2000. None. I have to laugh at the first comment. Did liberal individual expressing this opinion feel a similar righteous indignation for the...

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Countrywide Financial, the largest mortgage lender at the center of the US housing crisis, regularly gave loans on favorable terms to prominent lawmakers and former cabinet members, according to US media. The preferential treatment for senators including Democrat Chris Dodd, chairman of the Senate Banking Committee and a recent presidential candidate, was approved by Angelo Mozilo, chief executive of Countrywide Financial, the Washington Post reported on Saturday. CondeNast Portfolio magazine first broke the story on Wednesday, saying the recipients of the favorable terms were known as "Friends of Angelo" in internal company documents and e-mails. "Make an...

KABUL, Afghanistan, April 3, 2008 – The Afghan National Police Central Training Center graduated 24 police officers today from the first course for trauma-assistance personnel taught by U.S. Navy hospital corpsmen. Students with the Afghan National Police Trauma Assistance Personnel course treat a fellow policeman’s simulated wounds during the inaugural course at the ANP Central Training Center in Kabul, Afghanistan. Combined Security Transition Command Afghanistan photo  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Three Combined Security Transition Command Afghanistan Navy corpsmen from the ANP Medical Embedded Training Team here taught the eight-week course, which gives the ANP its first personnel...

FALLUJAH, Iraq, April 3, 2008 – The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Gulf Region Division is directing an $85 million central wastewater treatment facility for Fallujah’s estimated 200,000 residents. Workers weld a hatch beside the sludge-drying beds of the sewage treatment facility under construction in Fallujah, Iraq. U.S. Army photo  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Started in May, the project is the largest in Anbar province and is 45 percent complete, officials said. The facility is projected to be sufficient for all of Fallujah’s wastewater treatment needs when the city integrates its own collection systems later and through...

WASHINGTON, Feb. 15, 2008 – The Army has made huge improvements in the way it cares for combat-wounded troops during the year since news reports brought problems at Walter Reed Army Medical Center to light, the Army surgeon general told Congress today. Army Lt. Gen. (Dr.) Eric Schoomaker, who also commands U.S. Army Medical Command, told the House Armed Service Committee’s Military Personnel Subcommittee the Army’s medical action plan “is continuing to move forward” and making steady progress in improving care for wounded warriors. “We as an Army are committed to getting this right and providing a level of care...

Lt. Col. Timothy Monahan, battalion surgeon for Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 3rd Battalion, 7th Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, listens to an Iraqi girl’s heart pace during a coordinated medical engagement Jan. 28 in Khidr, Iraq. Photo by Pfc. Amanda McBride. FORWARD OPERATING BASE KALSU — Working side-by-side, surgeons and medics from 4th Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division and the Iraqi Army came together in a coordinated medical engagement Jan. 28 in Khidr, Iraq. “By us coming out here and doing this with the Iraqi Army, the families know that we are serious and want...

By Audrey Hudson - The Oakland International Airport did not break any laws or regulations when it denied 200 Marines and soldiers access to the passenger terminal during a layover last year from Iraq to the troops' home base in Hawaii, the Transportation Department says. Calvin L. Scovell III, the department's inspector general, blamed the mix-up on security concerns and a communication failure between the Defense Department and the Homeland Security Department. The contract to allow military layovers at the California airport "did not require that military personnel have access to the airport terminal; it only required that military personnel...

WASHINGTON, Jan. 16, 2008 – When Army Sgt. Nicholas Paupore puts a mirror between his legs and looks down, he’s whole again. The right leg that was destroyed when an explosively formed penetrator ripped through his Humvee just south of Kirkuk, Iraq, suddenly reappears before his eyes, reflecting the left leg that remains. Navy Cmdr. (Dr.) Jack Tsao, associate professor of neurology at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, in Bethesda, Md., encouraged Army Sgt. Nicholas Paupore, an outpatient at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, in Washington, D.C., to try mirror therapy to treat phantom pain in...

Go ahead and tell your mother she was wrong. Your health is a laughing matter. http://www.healthmad.com/Alternative/Why-Your-Health-is-a-Laughing-Matter.55379

Anyone who has ever owned a pet can will you that it has made their lives happier. Now, recent studies are showing that pet owners are not only happier, but healthier as well. http://www.gomestic.com/Pets/Five-Reasons-Why-Pet-Ownership-is-Good-for-Your-Health.54027

SYRACUSE - The water looks clear, but the label on the bottle tells a different story. "Ingredients," notes the back side of the bottle's label: "Water, fecal matter, toilet paper, hair, lint, rancid grease, stomach acid and trace amounts of Pepto Bismol, chocolate, urine, body oils, dead skin, industrial chemicals (aluminum, copper, zinc, lead, chromium, nickel, molybdenum, selenium, silver arsenic, mercury,) ammonia, ... soil, laundry soap, bath soap, shaving cream, sweat, saliva, salt, sugar. No artificial colors or preservatives. Some variations in taste and/or color may occur due to holidays, predominant cuisine preference, infiltration/inflow, or sewer cross-connections." The specially labeled...

BAGHDAD — As Capt. Nicole Vild, the commander of Delta Forward Support Company, 4th Squadron, 9th Cavalry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, made preparations for her company’s upcoming medical assistance mission, she realized that one crucial piece was missing. She had a container full of enough medical supplies to assist hundreds of people. She had already contacted all the necessary medical personnel, and a location for the mission had also been chosen. Everything seemed to be in place, but she still had one problem. “Most of the (medical missions) that we have been doing have been inside...

Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, the leader of the largest and most powerful Shiite party in Iraq, is in the United States for urgent medical attention, according to U.S. officials and his organization. His party, the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq, refused to discuss Hakim's diagnosis, but U.S. officials said the cleric, 57, has been found to have lung cancer and is in the United States for further tests and to develop a treatment plan. In a reflection of Hakim's stature, President Bush authorized immediate transportation to get Hakim from Iraq to the United States, an administration source said yesterday. Vice President...

MEXICO CITY - Mexico's head of migration on Tuesday pledged to improve the agency's detention centers in response to criticism that Mexico fails to give Central American immigrants the same respect it demands for its own citizens in the United States. Cecilia Romero Castillo, who said many of Mexico's 48 detention centers lack adequate personnel, supplies, medical care and social services, announced a plan to install doctor's offices in 16 centers, upgrade facilities and improve staff training. Romero also said the agency will no longer use jails as detention centers and will fire any supervisor found violating the rules. The...

An Iraqi laborer works to prepare for the installation of a chain link fence to protect the storage tanks at the Umm Qasr water treatment facility. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers photo by A. Al Bahrani Army Engineers Help Build Potable Water Treatment Plant Two new wells, each 20 to 30 meters deep, provide reliable source of water. By A. Al Bahrani Gulf Region South BASRAH, Iraq, Feb. 12, 2007 -- The Umm Qasr water treatment plant, one of the six largest infrastructure projects in southern Iraq, provides potable water for Umm Qasr port facilities and the town of...

Niacin expected to grow as heart treatment CLEVELAND, Jan. 23 (UPI) -- A Cleveland doctor says use of niacin as a cholesterol drug is likely to increase following the failure of a drug that was found to increase heart problems. Dr. Steven Nissen, a cardiologist at the famed Cleveland Clinic and president of the American College of Cardiology, said niacin, a B vitamin that raises HDL, commonly known as good cholesterol, is likely to increase in prominence after trials of the Pfizer Inc. cholesterol drug torcetrapib failed, The New York Times reported Tuesday. Raising HDL levels in patients helps to...

ORLANDO, Fla. -- A homeless man tried to set himself on fire to protest the city's treatment of the homeless population, but was thwarted by bystanders before he could go through with it, police said. The man was taken by ambulance to a nearby hospital and placed in protective custody under the state's Baker Act, which allows authorities to commit people for up to 36 hours for psychological evaluations if they appear to be a danger to themselves or others. The suicide attempt Friday happened during Project Homeless Connect, an event that provided food, health care and other social services...

A contractor representative talks with U.S. Army Corps of Engineers officers about training requirements to operate and maintain the equipment on one of five skimmer tanks at the Nasiriyah Water Treatment Plant. [ARMY PHOTO BY JAMES BULLINGER ] NASIRIYAH — Construction of a new multi-million dollar water treatment plant here means fresh water for more than 500,000 residents. It also means a variety of new jobs, ranging from laborers to skilled engineers.The plant serves the Dhi Qar communities of Nasiriyah, Suq Ash Sheuk, al-Diwaya, al-Shatra and al-Gharraf., and is a “world-class facility and the largest water treatment facility in Iraq,”...

Dogs have long been used for medical research, usually to the dismay of animal-rights activists. But now pet owners are enrolling their dogs in medical trials meant to benefit humans and animals alike... Most of the trials, often sponsored by drug companies or medical device makers, involve pets with cancer — a leading natural cause of death in older dogs — in which the animals receive groundbreaking drugs or other treatments that are eventually meant for people... ...Treating dogs gives researchers an idea of whether and how the treatment will work in people, while at the same time possibly helping...

It's minus 120 degrees and all I'm wearing is a hat and socks. Cryotherapy is the latest treatment for a range of illnesses including arthritis, osteoporosis, and even MS. New Age madness or a genuine medical breakthrough? The airlock door to the cryo-chamber slides open before me. A powerful whoosh of cold air escapes and a few curls of frozen smoke snake out around my legs. It’s like standing in front of a giant refrigerator, but instead of taking out a pint of cold milk I’m about to step inside. The temperature is minus 120 degrees and all I’m wearing...