As a former president used to say with finger pointed and head cocked: Well, there they go again. That same angry but resigned tone should be applied to the National Football League, and its dissembling use of data. The NFL keeps damaging its own reputation as it seeks to persuade the public that it recognizes….
Continue ReadingBrain Injury
What imperils both pro wrestlers and synchronized swimmers? Head trauma
Two sports that could not be more extreme to each other─balletic synchronized swimming and bombastic professional wrestling─share an ugly health peril: dangerous head injuries. Interest groups in both are taking steps to better protect athletes, including through litigation in the civil justice system. Although many fans long may have winked about whether shenanigans in the….
Continue ReadingLessons learned from ‘The Greatest’
As the world mourns the death of Muhammad Ali, this remarkable public and sporting figure left two more key lessons as part of his legacy: George Skelton, the Pulitzer Prize-winning state government columnist of the Los Angeles Times, left his usual topics to argue that Ali’s boxing-related Parkinson’s should serve as a reminder of the dangers….
Continue ReadingDid NFL adopt Big Tobacco’s smokescreen ploy to deny concussion harms?
The National Football League may have taken a page from Big Tobacco’s playbook, and played fast and loose with data used in “scientific studies” to downplay players’ risks from concussions, a New York Times investigation finds. The Times scrutinized the underlying information the league and its top officials provided to researchers on five years of….
Continue ReadingTwo life stories offer warnings about health dangers
Although experts may muster masses of data and point to reams of research, simple human stories sometimes persuade us best about dangers to our health. It’s tough not to ask why football holds such veneration as America’s favorite sport, for example, when one of its skilled players gets candid about his damaged post-professional life. And….
Continue ReadingSkepticism is wise about “brain” toys & games for kids, seniors
Yes, the ancient adage caveat emptor still rules in the high-tech age. It may have sounded so simple, nice, and sweet to plunk grandma and grandpa in front of a computer screen to let them run a program to play games touted to help them prevent the cognitive ravages of age. It may seem wonderful, easy,….
Continue ReadingMosquito-borne virus blamed for birth defects in Brazil
Health officials and parents in Brazil are grappling with a surge of birth defects traced to mosquitoes. In the last year, more than 2,700 infants have been born with microcephaly, tiny heads and brains that leave children permanently disabled. That rate is about 20 times higher than recent years. The culprit receiving tentative blame is Zika,….
Continue ReadingNation’s capital ends the year with a big, needed funding boost for health care
Before they headed off to their holidays, Congress and President Obama wrapped up what many hope will be a helpful fiscal package to benefit Americans’ health: The 2016 omnibus budget bill, which got so much attention, also provided some of the strongest health care funding in more than a dozen years, news reports say. This….
Continue ReadingLawsuit leads to another head’s up about sports, concussion risks for kids
Americans may be thick-headed about many things. But slowly, it seems, our collective consciousness is rising about the risks our favorite pastimes pose to our health. A spate of indicators suggest that, finally, even die-hard fans and resistant organizations are recognizing the brutal havoc that sports like football and even soccer can wreak on the….
Continue ReadingMRI Contrast Drugs Might Harm Your Brain
Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a body scan that provides detailed images particularly good for viewing soft tissue (versus a traditional X-ray that’s better for seeing bone). Sometimes, drugs are injected before you have an MRI to add contrast, making the images sharper. But some of the drugs in those agents might be toxic. We….
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