Wednesday - July 12, 2006

Zombie Dogs… Your dog wants brains…

U.S. scientists have apparently discovered a way to reanimate dogs that have been clinically dead for three hours, a process intended for future human trials.

I don’t know which is scarier… zombie dogs or zombie humans.

A new scientific approach tested at the Safar Centre for Resuscitation Research, based in Pittsburgh, drains some of the animal’s blood and replaces it with an ice-cold salt solution. The dog--considered technically dead without a heartbeat or brain waves--is then revived with a blood transfusion and electric shock up to three hours later. The process, called “suspended animation with delayed resuscitation,” is ultimately designed to help suspend and revive emergency victims, such as casualties of war or car accidents, who have experienced an otherwise lethal hemorrhage.

Predictably, animal-rights whackos weighed in…

But the animal rights community must have had a hemorrhage over the Safar Centre’s tests. Last week, it issued a statement clarifying its research tactics and outlining its compliance with standards for the ethical treatment of animals.

Human trials? Are these voluntary? Yikes! If voluntary, when do you volunteer? After they revive you? Then you get the bill and have a heart attack…

Posted by Christopher     on 07/12/2006 at 07:10 PM   
Filed Under: • Animals • Health-Medicine • Odd-Strange •  
• Comments (4) • Trackbacks (0) • Permalink •  

   Thursday - June 29, 2006

A Serious Problem

Good advice: “steer clear of smokers and any of their drifting fumes.” Yes, those damned hippy Liberals burning the American flag do tend to stink up the place pretty bad. So by all means, keep your distance. There does appear to be “overwhelming evidence” that contact with these individuals and their burning and smoking habits can lead to many serious illnesses including voting for Democrats and believing Michael Moore.

_{Steve Kelley - New Orleans Times-Picayune}

Surgeon General: No Safe Level Of Secondhand Smoke
_{Tuesday, June 27, 2006 11:10 p.m. EDT (03:10 GMT)}

WASHINGTON (AP)—Steer clear of smokers and any of their drifting fumes. That’s the advice of the surgeon general, who on Tuesday declared the debate about the dangers of secondhand smoke over. “The science is clear: Secondhand smoke is not a mere annoyance but a serious health hazard,” said Richard Carmona.

There is no safe level of secondhand smoke—even a few minutes inhaling someone else’s smoke harms nonsmokers, he found. And separate smoking sections, even the best ventilated ones, don’t protect enough. Carmona called for completely smoke-free buildings and public places to lessen what he termed “involuntary smoking.”

More than 126 million nonsmoking Americans are regularly exposed to someone else’s tobacco smoke, and tens of thousands die each year as a result, concludes the 670-page study. It cites “overwhelming scientific evidence” that secondhand smoke causes heart disease, lung cancer and a list of other illnesses.

The report is sure to fuel efforts by states and cities to ban smoking in workplaces and other public spaces. Seventeen states and more than 400 towns, cities and counties have passed strong no-smoking laws.

- More on the story at CNN ...

Posted by The Skipper     on 06/29/2006 at 04:40 AM   
Filed Under: • Health-Medicine • Liberals •  
• Comments (2) • Trackbacks (0) • Permalink •  

   Wednesday - April 05, 2006

Getting Sick In Massachusetts

Uh-oh, here we go again. Massachusetts is going to require health insurance just like they require automobile insurance. Its’ a good idea but is it feasible. Nowadays, if you’re not in the upper-middle class or above, you can’t afford insurance. We have the best medical system in the world today but at a terrible price thanks to ambulance chasing lawyers, million-dollar lawsuits and greedy hospital administrators and drug companies. Where does it end? What is Massachusetts going to do when someone shows up at an emergency room with no insurance? This bodes ill for all of us ...

Massachusetts Bill Requires Health Coverage
State Set to Use Auto Insurance As a Model
_{Wednesday, April 5, 2006}

BOSTON (WASHINGTON POST)—The Massachusetts legislature approved a bill Tuesday that would require all residents to purchase health insurance or face legal penalties, which would make this the first state to tackle the problem of incomplete medical coverage by treating patients the same way it does cars.

Gov. Mitt Romney (R) supports the proposal, which would require all uninsured adults in the state to purchase some kind of insurance policy by July 1, 2007, or face a fine. Their choices would be expanded to include a range of new and inexpensive policies—ranging from about $250 per month to nearly free—from private insurers subsidized by the state.

Romney said the bill, modeled on the state’s policy of requiring auto insurance, is intended to end an era in which 550,000 people go without insurance and their hospital and doctor visits are paid for in part with public funds. “We insist that everybody who drives a car has insurance,” Romney said in an interview. “And cars are a lot less expensive than people.”

Tuesday’s votes approving the bill—154 to 2 in the House and 37 to 0 in the Senate—were the culmination of two years of politicking and several months of backroom negotiations, as rival health-care plans from Romney and the two Democrat-led chambers were hammered into one.

What resulted is a proposal that health-care experts say is unlike any other in the country. What to do about the 45 million Americans without health insurance has flummoxed both the Bush administration, whose proposal for “health savings accounts” fizzled, and that of Bill Clinton, whose broad plan for health-care changes fell flat.

On the state level, Hawaii and Maine have programs that seek to offer near-universal access to health insurance, and Illinois last year approved a subsidy plan that will widely increase coverage for needy children.

But no state, experts say, has taken the step of making health insurance coverage a legal requirement. The idea was applauded by Uwe E. Reinhardt, a professor of economics and public affairs at Princeton University, who said that he has long believed that the American system of allowing uninsured patients to receive care at the government’s expense was nothing more than “freedom to mooch.”

- More medical requirements here ...

Posted by The Skipper     on 04/05/2006 at 10:38 AM   
Filed Under: • Health-Medicine •  
• Comments (29) • Trackbacks (0) • Permalink •  

   Sunday - March 26, 2006

Up In Smoke

Before anyone gets the wrong idea let me state up front: (1) I do not use marijuana nor do I condone its use, (2) I do not believe it is within the powers granted to the US government by the people to criminalize the cultivation or possession of marijuana. The stupidest argument I have ever heard is from the US attorney below.

Mankind has a fundamental right to grow crops and every plant has its uses. Even the poppy plant can contribute to mankind’s suffering by providing morphine in addition to the bad things it can be made into like heroin. Even the miserable coca plant has its uses in producing a pleasant soft drink and we all know things go better with Coke.

So why do we have these Draconian drug laws? All they do is fill our prisons with people who just wanted a little mental relief from the stress of everyday life. Is there a medical downside to marijuana use? Probably, as it is inhaled smoke just like a cigarette which has well documented dangers. But do marijuana smokers light up one after the other like cigarette smokers do? I doubt it.

Based on my one experience with marijuana in the late 60’s, we would toke a joint until we were mellow then it was a fight over the twinkies and chips as the “munchies” set in. I don’t recall anyone in the campus “drug culture” that toked more than two or three joints a day, at most. I guess that’s what I hate about the current drug laws. The government is robbing us of personal choice in a matter that involves no one but the individual.

I believe the government has some right to protect us from ourselves by prohibiting murder, robbery and other acts that impact society as a whole but where do we draw the line and say to the government, “back off!” We tried this once before by prohibiting alcohol. All that produced was a nation of criminals and an entire crime industry.

Today alcohol is legal and societal rules manage its consumption. The same needs to happen to marijuana. Think about it: (1) alcohol is taxed and produces millions of dollars in revenue for government, (2) penalties are provided for criminal use of alcohol such as drunk driving, (3) alcohol is prohibited to underage minors who simply cannot handle it in a mature manner, (4) employers and other institutions you interact with on a daily basis have rules in place punishing you for alcohol use where it is inappropriate like the workplace.

Do you notice a pattern in all the above. Use of alcohol is punished - but only if it is misused. Government and society rely on you to make good personal choices. Why is marijuana use different? That is a question I have never heard a reasonable answer to yet. Someone enlighten me. What say you?

Medical Marijuana Issue Returns to Court
_{March 26, 2006, 11:46 AM EST}

SAN FRANCISCO (AP)—Each time the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled on medical marijuana, the justices have come down against allowing the sick and dying to use the drug to ease their symptoms and possibly prolong life.

However, the door has never been fully closed, and now a federal appeals court is set to hear arguments in the latest round of legal wrangling over the issue. The case to be argued Monday before the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco narrows the matter to the so-called right to life theory: that marijuana should be allowed if it is the only viable option to keep a patient alive or free of excruciating pain.

It would apply only to the sickest patients and their suppliers, regardless of whether they live in one of the 11 mostly Western states that allow medical marijuana. “A victory would affect people who are very seriously ill, facing death or great physical suffering,” said Randy Barnett, a Boston University law school professor working on the case.

The case was brought by Angel Raich, a 40-year-old mother of two from Oakland who suffers from scoliosis, a brain tumor, chronic nausea and other ailments. She uses marijuana every couple of hours to ease her pain and bolster her appetite. “She’d probably be dead without marijuana,” said her doctor, Frank Lucido, who has recommended marijuana for some 3,000 patients. “Nothing else works.”

The Bush administration says the lawsuit is without merit. ”There is no fundamental right to distribute, cultivate or possess marijuana,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Mark Quinlivan, the government’s lead medical marijuana attorney, wrote to the appeals court.

- More government legislation insanity here ...

Posted by The Skipper     on 03/26/2006 at 05:20 PM   
Filed Under: • Health-Medicine • Judges-Courts •  
• Comments (17) • Trackbacks (0) • Permalink •  

   Friday - March 24, 2006

One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest

The title of this post says it all. The Gaza Strip is nothing less than a “Cuckoo’s Nest”. The Imams there have been saying the bird flu was sent by Allah to destroy the Jews. Unfortunately, the bird flu has now been found in Gaza ... which is the most heavily populated area on earth with about 2.3 people per square foot (by my best estimate, based on latest figures from the CIA Factbook - 1.3 million people in an area 40 miles long and 4 miles wide).

Unfortunately for the entire civilized world, the Israelis are trying to help the Paleosimians contain the virus. It would be better if they would just let the idjits rot in their pig sty. I know that’s an inhumane thought on my part but is it any worse than the way the Paleswinians feel about Americans and Isralis? Maybe God does have a hand in this after all. Someone contact Pat Robertson and see if he’s heard anything from The Almighty lately ...

Gaza Bird Flu Fears Spread, Fowl To Be Destroyed
_{24 Mar 2006 15:16:02 GMT}

GAZA (Reuters)

Palestinian authorities will begin destroying chickens on Saturday at a farm near the border with Israel in a bid to contain an outbreak of the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus, Palestinian medics said on Friday. The culling of hundreds of chickens at the farm near the southern Gaza city of Rafah will be the first in Gaza. Tests were under way at another chicken farm in central Gaza where authorities suspect the virus may have spread.

Many worried Palestinians have reacted to the outbreak by buying more fish and beef, sending prices in Gaza markets soaring. Chicken and egg prices have sharply dropped over fears by Gazans that they could be infected. Health officials say it is safe to eat chicken and eggs that are properly cooked.

Israel plans to give Palestinian authorities enough poison to eliminate birds suspected of being infected, Israel Radio reported. Israel has for months been testing dead fowl found in the West Bank and Gaza Strip on behalf of the Palestinian Authority. Palestinian medics said they have received protective gear from Israel to help them deal with the virus. There have been no confirmed cases of the virus infecting humans in Gaza or the West Bank.

Many Gazans fear the Palestinian Ministry of Health is ill equipped to deal with an outbreak and will be quickly be overwhelmed if the virus spreads. Israel is likewise concerned. Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni has asked U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan and the World Bank’s president for assistance in containing the outbreak in Gaza.

- More on the bird scare here ...

Posted by The Skipper     on 03/24/2006 at 11:43 AM   
Filed Under: • Health-Medicine • Paleswine •  
• Comments (5) • Trackbacks (0) • Permalink •  

   Friday - March 17, 2006

Are Our Kids Pacified Enough?

Is your child hyperactive? Drug him up. Is your little daughter too energetic? Drug her up. Are our children acting too much like ... children? If so, drug the little buggers up. Medicate ‘em. Get ‘em hooked. Keep pushing pills at them until they just lay around all day and night watching purple dinosaurs on TV. Then when they get older and in high school don’t forget to have that talk with them about drugs.

Feel better now? If not, take a pill yourself ....

More Kids Are Getting Anti-Psychotic Drugs
_{March 17, 2006, 9:16 AM EST}

CHICAGO (AP)

Soaring numbers of American children are being prescribed anti-psychotic drugs—in many cases, for attention deficit disorder or other behavioral problems for which these medications have not been proven to work, a study found. The annual number of children prescribed anti-psychotic drugs jumped fivefold between 1995 and 2002, to an estimated 2.5 million, the study said. That is an increase from 8.6 out of every 1,000 children in the mid-1990s to nearly 40 out of 1,000.

But more than half of the prescriptions were for attention deficit and other non-psychotic conditions, the researchers said. The findings are worrisome “because it looks like these medications are being used for large numbers of children in a setting where we don’t know if they work,” said lead author Dr. William Cooper, a pediatrician at Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital.

The increasing use of anti-psychotics since the mid-1990s corresponds with the introduction of costly and heavily marketed medications such as Zyprexa and Risperdal. The packaging information for both says their safety and effectiveness in children have not been established. Anti-psychotics are intended for use against schizophrenia and other psychotic illnesses.

However, attention deficit disorder is sometimes accompanied by temper outbursts and other disruptive behavior. As a result, some doctors prescribe anti-psychotics to these children to calm them down—a strategy some doctors and parents say works. The drugs, which typically cost several dollars per pill, are considered safer than older anti-psychotics—at least in adults—but they still can have serious side effects, including weight gain, elevated cholesterol and diabetes.

Anecdotal evidence suggests similar side effects occur in children, but large-scale studies of youngsters are needed, Cooper said. The researchers analyzed data on youngsters age 13 on average who were involved in annual national health surveys. The surveys involved prescriptions given during 119,752 doctor visits. The researchers used that data to come up with national estimates.

Cooper said some of the increases might reflect repeat prescriptions given to the same child, but he said that is unlikely and noted that his findings echo results from smaller studies. The study appears in the March-April edition of the journal Ambulatory Pediatrics.

Heavy marketing by drug companies probably contributed to the increase in the use of anti-psychotic drugs among children, said Dr. Daniel Safer, a psychiatrist affiliated with Johns Hopkins University, who called the potential side effects a concern.

Safer said a few of his child patients with behavior problems are on the drugs after they were prescribed by other doctors. Safer said he has let these children continue on the drugs, but at low doses, and he also does periodic tests for high cholesterol or warning signs of diabetes.

Dr. David Fassler, a University of Vermont psychiatry professor, said more research is needed before anti-psychotics should be considered standard treatment for attention deficit disorders in children. “Given the frequency with which these medications are being used, there’s no question that we need additional studies on both safety and efficacy in pediatric populations,” Fassler said.

Posted by The Skipper     on 03/17/2006 at 11:46 AM   
Filed Under: • Health-Medicine •  
• Comments (22) • Trackbacks (0) • Permalink •  

   Wednesday - March 15, 2006

You Must Remember This

We’re all about to be in a lot of trouble. As the baby boomers grow old, we (yes, we!) are all beginning to develop memory problems. This is going to be especially troublesome for the Liberals who never stopped smoking marijuana after the 1960’s.

I admit, I indulged in the late 60’s while I was in college (yes, I inhaled) but haven’t had a need for it since. I see no reason for it to be illegal though. Other than the fact that there are going to be a lot of lost former hippies wandering around with their gray hair tied in ponytails, trying to remember what their name is. Sort of a “Night Of The Living Stoner” type thing, if you know what I mean. Now if I can only remember where I left the car keys ....

Marijuana Tied To Memory Problems
_{Mon Mar 13, 5:51 PM ET}

NEW YORK (Reuters Health)

People who regularly smoke marijuana may find their memories growing hazy over time, a study published Monday suggests. In a study of long-term and shorter-term marijuana users, researchers in Greece found that both groups performed more poorly on tests of memory, attention and other cognitive abilities than a comparison group who’d only occasionally used the drug.

Long-term users - who’d smoked four or more joints per week for at least 10 years - showed the greatest deficits. The findings, published in the journal Neurology, add to the conflicting body of research on the effects of marijuana on the brain. While many studies have suggested that long-time pot smoking dulls memory, attention span and mental acuity, some have found no large differences in these skills between marijuana users and non-users.

One recent analysis of 15 studies found only minor effects on memory among long-time pot users, and no clear effect on attention, language, reasoning and a number of other cognitive functions. One problem is that it’s difficult for studies such as the current one to establish a definite cause-and-effect relationship between marijuana and intellectual deficits, Dr. Lambros Messinis, the study’s lead author, told Reuters Health.

Though the researchers accounted for a number of variables—like education, use of other drugs and the presence of clinical depression—it’s tough to control for all the factors that could make heavy marijuana users different from other people, according to Messinis. Still, he and his colleagues say, their findings are in line with certain past studies linking heavy, long-term pot smoking to “subtle” deficits in intellectual abilities.

- Read the rest and try to remember your way back here ...

Posted by The Skipper     on 03/15/2006 at 05:34 AM   
Filed Under: • Health-Medicine •  
• Comments (12) • Trackbacks (0) • Permalink •  

   Tuesday - March 14, 2006

Another Bad Idea

_{Henry Payne—The Detroit News}

Posted by The Skipper     on 03/14/2006 at 02:29 AM   
Filed Under: • Health-Medicine • Humor •  
• Comments (4) • Trackbacks (0) • Permalink •  

   Sunday - January 15, 2006

Food For Thought

Quick! Put down that Big Mac and go eat some broccoli. Scientists have determined that our current diets that are high in saturated fats and low in veggies can cause people to become retards. They say our bad diet can lead to schizophrenia, depression, ADHD and Alzheimer’s.

I think I’m beginning to understand now what happened to all those Democrats and Leftists. It’s all coming clear. The red states have all the farmland where good stuff grows and the blue states have nothing but MacDonalds, Burger King, KFC and Pizza Hut. So keep eating your asparagus and green beans, kids. In a few years all the Liberals will be in institutions and we will rule the world. Bwah-hah-ha-ha-ha-ha ....

Mental Health Link To Diet Change
(BBC)

Changes to diets over the last 50 years may be playing a key role in the rise of mental illness, a study says. Food campaigners Sustain and the Mental Health Foundation said the way food was now produced had altered the balance of key nutrients people consume. The period has also seen the UK population eating less fresh food and more saturated fats and sugars.

They said this is leading to depression and memory problems, but food experts said the research was not conclusive. Dr Andrew McCulloch, chief executive of the Mental Health Foundation, said: “We are well aware of the effect of diet upon our physical health. “But we are only just beginning to understand how the brain as an organ is influenced by the nutrients it derives from the foods we eat and how diets have an impact on our mental health.”

And he added that addressing mental health problems with changes in diet was showing better results in some cases than using drugs or counselling. The report, Feeding Minds, pointed out the delicate balance of minerals, vitamins and essential fats consumed had changed in the past five decades. Researchers said the proliferation of industrialised farming had introduced pesticides and altered the body fat composition of animals due to the diet they are now fed.

For example, the report said chickens reach their slaughter weight twice as fast as they did 30 years ago, increasing the fat content from 2% to 22%. The diet has also altered the balance of vital fatty acids omega-3 and omega-6 in chickens which the brain needs to ensure it functions properly. In contrast, saturated fats, consumption of which has been increasing with the boom in ready meals, act to slow down the brain’s working process.

The report said people were eating 34% less vegetables and two-thirds less fish - the main source of omega-3 fatty acids - than they were 50 years ago. Such changes, the study said, could be linked to depression, schizophrenia, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and Alzheimer’s disease.

Posted by The Skipper     on 01/15/2006 at 11:15 PM   
Filed Under: • Health-Medicine •  
• Comments (5) • Trackbacks (0) • Permalink •  

Wally World Wars

Well, there goes the cheap goods at Wal-Mart. What is it about Wally World that just ticks off Liberals and Democrats so badly? Every Leftist group in the country is going after Wally, including the NY Times, which has been on a jihad for years. I just don’t get it. I shop at Wal-Mart regularly and the employees I meet are all friendly and helpful. I rarely see a frowning face. If Wal-Mart is mistreating these people so badly then why are they so freaking happy?

The answer is Wal-Mart provides jobs for elderly retirees and young teenagers. The pay is minimal but it isn’t always about money (unless you’re a Liberal fascist). If these groups and states succeed in this holy war against Wally, expect to see either higher prices or fewer employees who are overworked and grumpy—or both. In other words, just like K-Mart ...

Maryland Forces Wal-Mart to Pay
More for Employees’ Health Care
January 13, 2006
(CNSNews.com)

Maryland on Thursday passed a law requiring large, private companies doing business in the state to spend at least eight percent of their payroll on employee health benefits. The Fair Share Health Care law is aimed at Wal-Mart. Although the state’s Republican governor vetoed the bill earlier this year, the state House and Senate overrode that veto on Thursday, to the delight of labor unions and Wal-Mart foes.

“The vote expands health care for workers, stops large, profitable companies from shifting their health care costs onto taxpayers, and makes sure all large, profitable employers pay their fair share for health care,” said Paul Blank of WakeUpWalMart.com, a union-affiliated group that says it wants to change the way Wal-Mart does business. Blank said Maryland lawmakers have “set a trailblazing example that other states will follow.” WakeUpWalMart.com said it plans to introduce Fair Share Health Care legislation in at least 30 states this year.

Under the legislation, companies with more than 10,000 employees in Maryland that don’t spend at least 8 percent of their payroll on health care will be required to pay into the state’s Medicaid fund. Maryland Gov. Robert Ehrlich Jr. has called the bill irresponsible - and warned it will directly threaten jobs and economic development in Maryland, if large companies move out of Maryland. Some Republican lawmakers warned that while Wal-Mart is targeted today, smaller companies eventually may be forced to pick up more of their employees’ health care tab.

The Washington Post quoted Wal-Mart spokesman Nate Hurst as saying the bill passed because of partisan politics. “This vote was never about health care,” the newspaper quoted Hurst as saying. “In allowing a bad bill to become a bad law, the General Assembly took a giant step backward and placed the special interests of Washington, D.C., union leaders ahead of the well-being of the people they serve. And that’s wrong.”

WakeupWalMart.com accuses Wal-Mart of “exploiting” its workers. “This vote proves, if Wal-Mart won’t choose to do the right thing on its own, the American people and their lawmakers will hold them accountable,” Paul Blank said. Wal-Mart, which advertises low prices, rejects labor unions for its employees. Earlier this year, several congressional Democrats—Sens. Edward Kennedy (Mass.) Jon Corzine (N.J.) and Rep Anthony Weiner (N.Y.)—introduced a bill called the Health Care Accountability Act, which would require states to name companies that have 50 or more employees receiving tax-funded health care.

Democrats said the bill would show how much taxpayer money is “subsidizing the health care costs of large, profitable corporations like Wal-Mart.” Kennedy charged that Wal-Mart “doesn’t want to pay their fair share for health insurance for their employees,” who then must receive health coverage through taxpayer-funded plans like Medicaid.

Posted by The Skipper     on 01/15/2006 at 05:41 AM   
Filed Under: • Democrats • Health-Medicine • Politics •  
• Comments (14) • Trackbacks (0) • Permalink •  

   Thursday - November 24, 2005

No Surgery For Fat People

In case you ever wondered what lies down the dark road of national health care, look no further than our friends in the UK. Now they’re refusing surgery for obese people, or at least those with a body mass index (BMI) over 30 (which rules me out fer sure). This means that if you lived in the UK and fractured a hip, you would not be operated on until your BMI had been checked and approved. Do any of you recall who tried to ram national health care and socialized medicine down our throats back in the early 1990’s? I can’t seem to recall her name but I think it was “HIL” something or other ....

Obese Patients Denied Operations
SUFFOLK, UK (BBC)

Obese people are to be denied some surgical procedures in a bid to cut costs in the NHS. Three Suffolk primary care trusts have ruled patients with a body mass index (BMI) over 30 will not get operations like hip and knee replacements. A person of average weight would have an BMI of between 18.5 and 24.9.

Dr Brian Keeble, a director of Ipswich PCT said: “We cannot pretend that this work wasn’t stimulated by pressing financial problems.” Under new guidelines surgery will not be performed unless “the patient has a body mass index below 30 and conservative means have failed to alleviate the patient’s pain and disability”.

“Pain and disability should be sufficiently significant to interfere with the patient’s daily life and/or ability to sleep.” Hospital consultants and GPs in East Suffolk came up with a list of 10 conditions for which there must be a threshold in order for surgery to be performed. Included in the procedures for which there are conditions are such things as varicose veins and grommets for glue ear in children.

Dr Keeble said: “Our work on clinical thresholds has been a key part of this process. “We started from the idea that operating on some conditions, either at an early stage or before other treatments have been tried, could actually be detrimental to the patient because of the risk of side effects from the procedure.”

But he admitted financial pressures were a factor in the decision. “I believe that these thresholds will produce some clear benefits in that both patients and their GPs will know when these procedures will be performed,” he added. The clinical director of the National Obesity Forum, GP Dr David Haslam, said that he was alarmed by the level being set at a body mass index (BMI) of 30.

“This level condemns a quarter of the population to misery - there’s a huge number of people with a BMI of over 30. “The argument that the life of joints is reduced because people are overweight is more relevant to those with a BMI of above 40.

- Read more about socialized medicine here ...

Posted by The Skipper     on 11/24/2005 at 05:07 AM   
Filed Under: • Health-Medicine • Hildabeast •  
• Comments (11) • Trackbacks (0) • Permalink •  

   Thursday - October 13, 2005

OUTRAGEOUS!

Ordinarily, I don’t condone drug use but this is an exception. I also don’t condone treating veterans this way ... by Canadians or Americans ...

Lawyer: Ailing Vet Deported From Canada
SEATTLE (AP)

An Army veteran who fled to Canada to avoid prosecution for growing marijuana to treat his chronic pain was yanked from a hospital by Canadian authorities, driven to the border with a catheter still attached, and turned over to U.S. officials, his lawyer says. He then went five days with no medical treatment and only ibuprofen for the pain, attorney Douglas Hiatt said. Steven W. Tuck, 38, was still fitted with the urinary catheter when he shuffled into federal court for a detention hearing Wednesday, Hiatt said.

“This is totally inhumane. He’s been tortured for days for no reason,” Hiatt said. U.S. Magistrate Judge James P. Donohue ordered Tuck temporarily released so he could be taken to a hospital for treatment. However, Tuck’s release hit a snag later Wednesday when King County Jail officials received a detainment request from authorities in Humboldt County, Calif., Hiatt said. Hiatt negotiated into the night with jail officials.

Tuck suffered debilitating injuries in the 1980s when his parachute failed to open during a jump, and those injuries were exacerbated by a car crash in 1990, Hiatt said. He said Tuck was using marijuana to treat his chronic pain. In 2001, while he was living in McKinleyville, Calif., his marijuana operation was raided for the second time. He fled to British Columbia to avoid prosecution but asylum was denied. Last Friday, he checked himself into a Vancouver hospital for prostate problems, and it was there that he was arrested.

Richard Cowan, a friend who runs the Web site marijuananews.com, said in a telephone interview from Canada that he was with Tuck at the hospital when Canadian authorities arrested him. “I would not believe it unless I had seen it,” Cowan said. “They sent people in to arrest him while he was on a gurney. They took him out of the hospital in handcuffs, put him in an SUV, and drove him to the border.” He was turned over to Whatcom County Jail officials, who called federal marshals. The marshals took him to the King County Jail in Seattle.

Though Tuck has taken morphine - as prescribed by doctors - for about 16 years to help with his pain, he was given no painkiller or treatment at the jail other than ibuprofen, Hiatt said. Tuck appeared emaciated in court, and Hiatt said he had been sick from morphine withdrawal. A message left with representatives of the King County Jail was not immediately returned Wednesday. A spokesman with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in Vancouver said he could not immediately comment on the case.

Tuck is charged federally with unlawful flight to avoid prosecution. Donohue agreed to release him on the condition that he face the charge in the Northern District of California upon his release from the hospital. The Supreme Court ruled in June that people who smoke marijuana because their doctors recommend it to ease pain can be prosecuted for violating federal drug laws, even in states like California that have laws permitting medical marijuana use.

Posted by The Skipper     on 10/13/2005 at 07:00 AM   
Filed Under: • Health-Medicine • Military •  
• Comments (8) • Trackbacks (0) • Permalink •  

   Sunday - October 02, 2005

Diseased Protestors

This news story sure explains a lot. It seems the anti-war protestors in Washington last week were carrying “rabbit fever” ....

US Finds Fever Bacteria During War Protest Weekend
WASHINGTON (AP)

Small amounts of a bacteria that causes “rabbit fever” were found on Washington’s National Mall last weekend as thousands of protesters marched against the Iraq War, U.S. health authorities said on Saturday. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said several government environmental air monitors in the Mall area detected low levels of Francisella tularensis bacteria that cause Tularemia, commonly known as rabbit fever, on September 24-25.

Public health agencies had no reports of any related human or animal illnesses caused by the bacteria. The CDC said it issued an alert on Friday night as a precaution so medical personnel were aware of the situation and could report any suspected cases. Rabbit fever can not be passed from person to person and can be effectively treated with readily available medicines, the CDC said. Symptoms usually appear 3 to 5 days after exposure, but in rare cases can take up to two weeks.

Symptoms of the disease, which an infected person would have begun experiencing no earlier than on Monday, include: sudden fever, chills, headaches, conjunctivitis, diarrhea, muscle aches, joint pain, dry cough and progressive weakness.District of Columbia health officials told local radio station WTOP on Saturday the detected bacteria was not harmful and probably occurred naturally. The CDC waited a week to notify city officials of the detected bacteria because it took that long to test the samples at labs and confirm its presence, the radio station reported.

According to the CDC’s Web site, people can get rabbit fever by:

* Being bitten by a infected tick, deerfly or other insect

* Handling infected animal carcasses

* Eating or drinking contaminated food or water

* Breathing in the bacteria

The CDC also said the bacteria can be used as a weapon if made into an aerosol that could be inhaled. “The bacteria that cause Tularemia occur widely in nature and could be isolated and grown in quantity in a laboratory, although manufacturing an effective aerosol weapon would require considerable sophistication,” the CDC said.

The Washington Post said the germ that causes tularemia is considered a biohazard because it is highly infectious and was tested in the 1960s by the United States as a biological weapon. One of many security measures adopted in the wake of the September 11, 2001, attacks, the air monitors are part of the nationwide “Biowatch” system installed to sample the air in major metropolitan areas daily for pathogens that could be used in a biological attack on the United States.

Posted by The Skipper     on 10/02/2005 at 07:48 PM   
Filed Under: • Health-Medicine • Stoopid-People •  
• Comments (8) • Trackbacks (0) • Permalink •  

   Thursday - September 29, 2005

Bat Plague?

Commie Chinese bats? Plague virus? What’s next .... Moonbats carrying deadly brain-rot disease? Sorry, too late. We have already verified that story to be true. Dan Rather, Howard Dean and Michael Moore confirmed carriers. Film at 11:00 ....

More Evidence Links SARS to Bats
WASHINGTON (Reuters)

Many species of bats found across China are infected with viruses similar to the SARS virus, an international team of researchers reported on Thursday. Zhengli Shi of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing and colleagues sampled more than 400 bats of various species across China and found up to 70 percent of some species showed evidence of infection with SARS-like viruses.

This would support the idea that bats are the reservoir—the natural host—of the virus. Animals that act as reservoirs carry and spread a virus without themselves becoming ill. Severe acute respiratory syndrome or SARS first emerged in China in 2002 and in 2003 spread around the world via jet, killing more than 700 people and infecting about 8,000. Strict quarantines and other measures stopped its spread.

It is caused by a new virus called SARS coronavirus. Coronaviruses are common in people and animals and usually cause nothing more serious than a cold. Animals such as palm civets were found to be infected but study showed they were not the true reservoir of the SARS virus. Earlier this month a team of Hong Kong researchers reported that bats found in Hong Kong carried a virus very similar to the SARS virus.

They said the horseshoe bats, used both as food and in Chinese medicine, should be handled with great care. Shi, Wendong Li and colleagues studied other bats found in four different parts of China. They found that anywhere between 28 percent and 71 percent of the bats, depending on the species and location, had evidence of infection with a SARS-like coronavirus. Theirs was different from the virus found by the Hong Kong researchers, they said.

“A plausible mechanism for emergence from a natural bat reservoir can be readily envisaged,” they wrote in their report, published in the journal Science. They said an infected bat could have been kept in a cage next to a civet in a market with the civet becoming infected and passing the virus to humans. Bats are hosts of several other new viruses, including Hendra and Nipah viruses, and rarely become ill.

Posted by The Skipper     on 09/29/2005 at 09:25 PM   
Filed Under: • Health-Medicine •  
• Comments (4) • Trackbacks (0) • Permalink •  

DISCLAIMER

THE SERVICES AND MATERIALS ON THIS WEBSITE ARE PROVIDED "AS IS" AND THE HOSTS OF THIS SITE EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMS ANY AND ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF SATISFACTORY QUALITY, MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, WITH RESPECT TO THE SERVICE OR ANY MATERIALS.

Not that very many people ever read this far down, but this blog was the creation of Allan Kelly and his friend Vilmar. Vilmar moved on to his own blog some time ago, and Allan ran this place alone until his sudden and unexpected death partway through 2006. We all miss him. A lot. Even though he is gone this site will always still be more than a little bit his. We who are left to carry on the BMEWS tradition owe him a great debt of gratitude, and we hope to be able to pay that back by following his last advice to us all:

1. Keep a firm grasp of Right and Wrong
2. Stay involved with government on every level and don't let those bastards get away with a thing
3. Use every legal means to defend yourself in the event of real internal trouble, and, most importantly:
4. Keep talking to each other, whether here or elsewhere

It's been a long strange trip without you Skipper, but thanks for pointing us in the right direction and giving us a swift kick in the behind to get us going. Keep lookin' down on us, will ya? Thanks.

THE INFORMATION AND OTHER CONTENTS OF THIS WEBSITE ARE DESIGNED TO COMPLY WITH THE LAWS OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. THIS WEBSITE SHALL BE GOVERNED BY AND CONSTRUED IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE LAWS OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA AND ALL PARTIES IRREVOCABLY SUBMIT TO THE JURISDICTION OF THE AMERICAN COURTS. IF ANYTHING ON THIS WEBSITE IS CONSTRUED AS BEING CONTRARY TO THE LAWS APPLICABLE IN ANY OTHER COUNTRY, THEN THIS WEBSITE IS NOT INTENDED TO BE ACCESSED BY PERSONS FROM THAT COUNTRY AND ANY PERSONS WHO ARE SUBJECT TO SUCH LAWS SHALL NOT BE ENTITLED TO USE OUR SERVICES UNLESS THEY CAN SATISFY US THAT SUCH USE WOULD BE LAWFUL.

Copyright © 2004-2008 Domain Owner