Rare good news on destructive infections is emerging from Africa: Medical scientists, Good Samaritans, and public health officials are hailing the successes of powerful new therapies in treating a deadly and extremely drug-resistant strain of tuberculosis and Ebola, a killer viral hemorrhagic fever that spreads like wildfire. Americans may skip over dispatches about these “foreign”….
Continue ReadingArchives for August 2019
As NFL talks up lesser head harms, study shows repeated slams injure brains
Although commentators and pro football itself have argued that rule changes by the National Football League have notably reduced possible head harms, new evidence from college athletes shows that even knocks that aren’t severe enough to be deemed concussions may injure young brains. Those findings come from a University of Rochester study based on brain….
Continue ReadingSafety concerns more than skin deep with consumer products like sunscreens
It probably should not have come as such a shock. But consumers are learning the hard way — notably through lawsuits in the civil justice system — that substances they slather on their skin don’t just stay there. They can move deeper into the body, causing bad things to happen. Judges and juries have accepted….
Continue ReadingFor patients’ sake, U.S. must slap down Big Pharma chiseling on tests, trials
Big Pharma is testing crucial boundaries in the way that the nation determines the safety and effectiveness of prescription medications. And regulators, for patients’ sake, need to shove back — hard. The concerning incidents involve “pay to play” clinical trials and “manipulated” data submitted to the federal Food and Drug Administration by maker Novartis as….
Continue ReadingWould workers really be sad if health insurers didn’t grab a third of their pay?
With the 2020 presidential campaign obsessing early about health insurance rather than costly health care overall, voters may wish to reframe their thinking about coverage and candidates’ views on making it affordable. Their chief query may need to be this: Just how much of the vig should the bagman take? That may be a blunt….
Continue ReadingGun violence is a public health crisis. Research and treatment are needed now.
With back-to-back-to-back incidents of mass gun violence killing almost three dozen children, women, and men, can this nation muster the political courage to treat this lethal scourge as a public health menace? Can it, finally, green light and fund rigorous research that could inform public policies that both could protect Americans’ Second Amendment rights while….
Continue ReadingAnother abuse scandal may change ‘The Talk’ with college-bound students
It’s that time of year when parents send their kids off to schools and opportunities near or far away. While this should be a mostly welcome happening, sadly grownups may want to have The Talk with their young adults before they go to college or university. No, they won’t be discussing just the birds and….
Continue ReadingLoneliness, debilitation, and depression blamed for seniors’ rising suicides
The nation’s rising suicide crisis torments seniors, too, with just under one out of five such deaths in 2017 occurring with individuals 65 and older. Men 65-plus, experts say, face the highest suicide risk, while seniors 85 and older, men and women, rank No. 2 in groups most likely to die by taking their own….
Continue Reading$14k to treat iron-poor blood? That’s rich. As is politicians’ health care frenzy.
Iron poor blood? For many of a certain age, mere mention of that phrase conjures the major advertising campaigns of yore for a popular, over-the-counter nostrum called Geritol. The tonic is still around and sells for less than what a first-run movie ticket costs. Which leads to a different question that may burn many patients:….
Continue ReadingDefense bill may offer active service personnel a way to win back key rights
Although members of Congress have fled the nation’s capital for their annual August recess, there’s guarded optimism that lawmakers may be open to reversing a seven-decades-old U.S. Supreme Court ruling that bars active duty military personnel from their constitutional right to pursue in the civil justice system claims that they have suffered harms while seeking….
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