As the opioid abuse and drug overdose crisis rages, experts — after decades now of experience with powerful painkillers — continue to struggle with their proper handling and prescribing. The federal Centers for Disease Control, on the one hand, has softened its earlier tough guidelines on the medications, while a top government commission assailed the….
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Civil justice system works, as tribes show in major opioid settlements
No matter how wrong-headed critics may assail the civil justice system, Native Americans have clear evidence that liability lawsuits really do work. For hundreds of tribes and their members, the pursuit of justice in the courts soon will help remedy the disproportionate damage they suffered at Big Pharma’s hands in the still-raging opioid abuse and….
Continue ReadingWith a ‘Zoom boom’ still going, cautions rise on cosmetic surgery
While the coronavirus pandemic has forced patients, doctors, and hospitals to curtail crucial tests, procedures and treatments in worrisome fashion, a trend with one kind of medical practice apparently continues apace: The so-called “Zoom boom” in plastic and cosmetic surgeries is still going strong. Patients, though, soon will get a tough reality TV warning about….
Continue ReadingU.S. sets high bar in strategy to battle surging road deaths and injuries
The federal government will counterattack a grim, recent surge in road crashes and deaths with a strategy that emphasizes increased safety by and for motorists, bicyclists, and pedestrians, as well as in the design, development, and equipping of vehicles, streets and highways. The U.S. battle against road fatalities also will include campaigns to slash speeding….
Continue ReadingBrain damage in football players is still a big story, and head trauma for surfers is becoming one too
What do big wave surfing and the National Football League playoffs and upcoming Super Bowl have in common? They share the challenges of confronting the significant health harms that can occur with head trauma, especially repeated impacts and outright concussions. The rich, powerful, and influential NFL also may be illustrating how preventable damage to athletes,….
Continue ReadingBone and joint surgery? Consider other options too
Even as patients in a giant and rapidly graying generation throng orthopedic surgeons’ offices seeking relief from aging’s pain and discomfort, the evidence for these pricey and invasive medical interventions is slim at best and too often is simply unpersuasive. Those are the findings of an expansive, rigorous “meta examination” of major medical databases and….
Continue ReadingAs life expectancy falls, work is needed in 2022 on substance abuse and road safety
The government statistics paint a persistently grim picture of the nation’s health, notably as it is measured in a fundamental way — our plummeting, average life expectancy. But who wants to be another tragic bit of mortality data? Can we resolve to stay healthier in the year ahead — especially by slashing the skyrocketing numbers….
Continue ReadingBig Pharma slapped back in two separate tries at buck-raking
Fortunately for desperate regular folks, Big Pharma doesn’t always carry the day with its rapacious schemes. Just look at how a federal judge has upended a plutocratic family’s ploy to shield themselves from a wave of lawsuits over their company’s deceitful inundating of the country with powerful painkiller, or how public furor has pummeled a….
Continue ReadingOhio jurors fault big pharmacy chains for role in opioid drug crisis
The regular folks who make up juries may give more heed than judges and justices do to the how and why of patients’ push for justice in the civil system, as has been shown in yet another bellwether decision involving major drug store chains and claims they contributed to the nation’s worsening opioid abuse and….
Continue ReadingWith 100,000 deaths, 2021 shatters grim record in opioid crisis
Federal officials have confirmed that 2021 will go in the record books as a calamitous time in the battle against the opioid painkiller abuse and overdose crisis, with more than 100,000 U.S. lives lost this year alone to a long-running public health nightmare. In case anyone might suffer “compassion fatigue” or fail to see how….
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