Clipmarks | wiccantexan's 'health' clips

Vote to Decide on Lethal Meds for Dying Patients

Sat, 11 Oct 2008 23:06:05 GMT

clipped by: wiccantexan

The emotionally charged battle over end-of-life decisions has taken to the airwaves as Washington state voters decide whether to allow doctors to prescribe lethal medication to terminally ill patients.

Recent TV and radio ads by opponents feature actor Martin Sheen, who calls the measure a "dangerous idea" that could be used by the most vulnerable in society. Supporters are on TV with an ad spotlighting a widow who says it lets those who are suffering have control over their final days.

The measure would allow physicians in Washington state to help terminally ill patients end their lives. Oregon, where voters first approved the idea in 1994, is the only state with such a law.

"It really is a matter of personal decisions and having the freedom to make your own decisions about end-of-life care," said Anne Martens, spokeswoman for Yes on I-1000.

The measure is strongly opposed by religious groups, and Catholic church officials said their opposition shouldn't surprise anyone.

Tags: suicide, death, health, terminal illness, medical, law, legal

Insurance pays for death, not life

Sat, 09 Aug 2008 02:45:51 GMT

clipped by: wiccantexan

Clip Source: abcnews.go.com

The news from Barbara Wagner's doctor was bad, but the rejection letter from her insurance company was crushing.

The 64-year-old Oregon woman, whose lung cancer had been in remission, learned the disease had returned and would likely kill her. Her last hope was a $4,000-a-month drug that her doctor prescribed for her, but the insurance company refused to pay.

What the Oregon Health Plan did agree to cover, however, were drugs for a physician-assisted death. Those drugs would cost about $50.

"It was horrible," Wagner told ABCNews.com. "I got a letter in the mail that basically said if you want to take the pills, we will help you get that from the doctor and we will stand there and watch you die. But we won't give you the medication to live."

Critics of Oregon's decade-old Death With Dignity Law -- the only one of its kind in the nation -- have been up in arms over the indignity of her unsigned rejection letter. Even those who support Oregon's liberal law were upset.

Tags: death, drugs, cancer, life, medical, health

Dozens blinded in India looking for Virgin Mary in the sun

Thu, 31 Jul 2008 03:47:42 GMT

clipped by: wiccantexan

Clip Source: www.telegraph.co.uk

At least 50 people have lost their sight after staring at the sun hoping to see an image of the Virgin Mary, according to reports.

Alarmed health authorities in India's Kottayam district have set up a sign dispelling rumours of a miraculous image in the sky and warning of the dangers of looking into direct sunlight.

Forty-eight cases of sight-loss, allegedly caused by photochemical burns on the retina, have been recorded at St Joseph's ENT and Eye hospital in the region since Friday.

Despite warnings, and the potentially harmful effects of their actions, believers are allegedly still flocking to a hotelier's house in Erumeli near where the divine image is said to have appeared.

The hotelier, who has since moved, had claimed that statues of the Virgin Mary in his house have been crying honey and bleeding oils and perfumes.

Tags: india, christian, health, sun, medical

World's oldest mom age now 72

Sun, 06 Jul 2008 18:21:15 GMT

clipped by: wiccantexan

Clip Source: abcnews.go.com

A 72-year-old woman who has two children and five grandchildren has given birth to twins, making her the world's oldest mother.

Omkari Panwar delivered twins, a boy and a girl, by Caesarean section last week.

Singh was reluctant to speak because he has received negative publicity for his wife's having children at such an advanced age.

"The desire for a male child has always been there, but God did not bless us with a male child," he said of the son who is a product of in vitro fertilization. "Now, we are very grateful to God, who has answered our prayers."

The septuagenarian couple spent their life savings and took out a loan from the bank for Panwar to undergo in vitro treatments. For the couple, the desire to have a son was most important because they wanted to carry on the family name. They know that their son may never be able to care for them in the traditional way because of the age gap.

Tags: children, elderly, pregnancy, old, woman, twins, medical, health

'I've fallen asleep and I can't get up!'

Wed, 02 Jul 2008 23:24:21 GMT

clipped by: wiccantexan

Clip Source: bodyodd.msnbc.msn.com

You’re lying in bed, just starting to wake up, when you realize you can’t move. Your chest is heavy — like somebody’s sitting on it — and you’re overwhelmed with a feeling of dread.

Suddenly, out of the corner of your eye, you see something move. It’s a spider. No, two spiders. No three, four, a dozen or more. They’re big as walnuts and slowly crawling up the bed posts of your bed and onto the blankets, scuttling ever closer towards your paralyzed body.

Sound like a cross between “Fear Factor” and “The Twilight Zone?”

It’s not. It’s the sort of thing people with sleep paralysis have experienced for centuries. Back in the day, the vivid hallucinations that sometimes occur with this disorder were often attributed to supernatural forces.

Unfortunately, some people — about 5 percent of the population, including singer Sheryl Crow (and her mom) — get stuck between the gears either going in or coming out of REM sleep. Their muscles remain paralyzed while their mind is awake.

Tags: sleep, disorder, dream, health, medical

Fighting pit bull now therapy dog

Wed, 18 Jun 2008 04:22:04 GMT

clipped by: wiccantexan

Clip Source: www.msnbc.msn.com

Pit bull rescued from famous dogfighting ring now helps cancer patients

Leo — rescued from heavy chains that confined him as one of the pit bulls in former NFL quarterback Michael Vick’s dogfighting ring — is a lover, not a fighter. He now happily frolics in a clown collar as he makes the rounds at the Camino Infusion Center, where he brings comfort to cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy.

Six months ago, Leo should have been dead.

When officers raided Vick’s Bad Newz Kennels in Smithfield, Va., last year, they found dogs, some injured and scarred, chained to buried car axles. Forensic experts discovered remains of dogs that had been shot with a .22-caliber pistol, electrocuted, drowned, hanged or slammed to the ground for lacking a desire to fight.

Animal advocates are divided over whether fighting dogs can be trusted to have new lives as pets or working dogs.

Tags: dog, health, cancer

Russian Spa Opens Monument To The Enema

Thu, 19 Jun 2008 23:46:34 GMT

clipped by: wiccantexan

Clip Source: www.cbsnews.com

A monument to the enema, a procedure many people would rather not think about, has been unveiled at a spa in the southern Russian city of Zheleznovodsk. The bronze syringe bulb, which weighs 800 pounds and is held by three angels, was unveiled at the Mashuk-Akva Term spa, the spa's director said Thursday.

"There is no kitsch or obscenity, it is a successful work of art," Alexander Kharchenko told The Associated Press. "An enema is almost a symbol of our region."

The Caucasus Mountains region is known for dozens of spas where enemas with water from mineral springs are routinely administered to treat digestive and other complaints.

Kharchenko, 50, said the monument cost $42,000 and was installed in a square in front of his spa on Wednesday. A banner declaring: "Let's beat constipation and sloppiness with enemas" _ an allusion to a line from "The Twelve Chairs," a famous Soviet film comedy _ was posted on one of the spa's walls.

Tags: medical, health, strange, art

Brain Implants May Let 'Locked-In' Patients Speak

Fri, 23 May 2008 04:51:31 GMT

clipped by: wiccantexan

Clip Source: www.foxnews.com

Imagine being trapped in your own body, aware of what's going on around you but unable to move or even speak.

Thanks to a modern technological innovation known as a neural interface — a direct link between the human brain and a computer — there may be hope for sufferers of what's commonly known as "locked-in syndrome."

As portrayed in the 2007 movie "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly," locked-in patients are conscious, but fully paralyzed except for their eyes.

A major breakthrough for these patients occurred in December 2004, when a neural interface consisting of a few thin electrodes was implanted in the brain of 24-year-old Erik Ramsey, who was "locked in" at age 16 when a car crash triggered a brain-stem stroke.

Dr. Frank Guenther and his team put the device, developed by Neural Signals Inc. near Atlanta, into Ramsey's speech-motor cortex, allowing him a chance to communicate for the first time in nine years.

Tags: medical, health, brain, technology

Bush Signs Genetics Anti-Discrimination Law

Sun, 25 May 2008 04:40:41 GMT

clipped by: wiccantexan

Clip Source: www.reuters.com

President George W. Bush on Wednesday signed a law that prohibits discrimination against anyone whose genetic information shows a predisposition to illnesses such as cancer or heart disease.

The Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act, passed by overwhelming majorities in the House of Representatives and the Senate, bans health insurers and employers from discriminating on the basis of genetic information.

As he signed the legislation in the Oval Office, Bush praised Sen. Edward Kennedy, who was instrumental in pushing the legislation through Congress. The Massachusetts Democrat was diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor this week.

The law bars health insurers from rejecting coverage or raising premiums for healthy people based on personal or familial genetic predisposition to develop a particular disease such as cancer, diabetes, heart ailments or others.

Tags: genetics, health, discrimination, medical

Odor tyrants: Those sensitive to scent fight back

Tue, 01 Apr 2008 03:39:03 GMT

clipped by: wiccantexan

Clip Source: www.msnbc.msn.com

Karen Kraig has been known to raise a stink about strong smells.

The Sept. 11 attacks caused the Manhattan financial consultant’s already acute sense of smell to go both ballistic and bronchial, leaving her wheezing whenever she encounters a whiff of perfume, laundry detergent, fabric softener or window cleaner.

As a result, Kraig instructs clients to show up for their appointments fragrance-free — or else.

Kraig is not alone in her sensitivity to strong smells. Fragrances were named “allergen of the year” for 2007 by the American Contact Dermatitis Society. And a 2003 study of more than 10,000 mothers and their infants in England found air fresheners, deodorants and aerosols were “significantly associated” with headaches in moms and earache, vomiting and diarrhea in their babies.

The problem is that what some consider ambient aromas, others perceive as a relentless chemical assault on their respiratory system.

Tags: medical, health, human, body, scent, smell, odor

The 16 worst places to stash your stuff

Sat, 29 Mar 2008 01:17:56 GMT

clipped by: wiccantexan
clipper's remarks: The worst place for your coffee: the refrigerator or freezer

The worst place for your TV: wherever you dine

Clip Source: www.msnbc.msn.com

Here, surprisingly bad locales for your health — and the best places to optimize it.

The worst place for your toothbrush: on the bathroom sink

The worst place to set your handbag: the kitchen counter

The worst place for your sneakers and flip-flops: in the bedroom closet

The worst place to try to fall asleep: under piles of blankets

The worst place to cool leftovers: in the refrigerator

The worst stall to pick in a public restroom: the one in the middle

The worst place for a workout reminder: stuck on your post-it laden fridge

The worst place to sit on an airplane: the rear

The worst place to pick up a prescription: the pharmacy drive-thru

Clip Source: www.msnbc.msn.com

The worst place to stand during your first few fitness classes: front and center

The worst place for a nighttime reading light: overhead

The worst place to keep medicine: the medicine cabinet

The worst place to set fruit before washing it: the kitchen sink

The worst place to use earbuds or headphones: on an airplane, train, or subway

Tags: stuff, study, health

Man tells off comatose wife, rouses her from coma

Sat, 23 Feb 2008 02:00:03 GMT

clipped by: wiccantexan

Clip Source: www.dailymail.co.uk

A mother who fell into a coma during labour came back from the brink of death after her husband gave her "a bloody good rollicking".

Yvonne Sullivan, 28, suffered blood poisoning and blacked out after being told her newborn son had died during a traumatic birth.

When doctors told him they might have to switch off her lifesupport machine, he sprang into action.

Holding his wife's hand, he told her: "You start fighting, don't you dare give up on me now. I've had enough, stop mucking around and start breathing. Come back to me."

Two hours later she started breathing on her own.

Within five days Mrs Sullivan's ventilator was switched off and she regained consciousness.

Yesterday she said she remembered her husband berating her.

"I can't remember exactly what he said but I never liked getting told off by Dom," she recalled.

"Something inside me just clicked and I began to fight again.

Tags: health, medical, marriage, death

Stranger donates kidney to 8-year-old girl

Sat, 23 Feb 2008 02:54:25 GMT

clipped by: wiccantexan

Clip Source: www.msnbc.msn.com

The picture of the smiling little girl on the flier was more than Laura Bolan could take.

The 8-year-old on the pamphlet needed a kidney transplant, and Bolan knew she could help. She did a quick Web search on the surgery and talked it over with her husband. Then she made a phone call to offer one of her kidneys to Sarah Dickman.

The suburban Atlanta girl was born with the genetic disease juvenile nephronophthisis, which slowly destroys the kidneys. Without treatment, it can kill a child before the age of 15.

Bolan, 34, had never met Sarah when she agreed to donate the organ.

Sarah’s parents, Lori and Joe Dickman, had added Sarah’s name to a national waiting list for transplant recipients after learning that neither parent was a match to donate a kidney. The flier was just a shot in the dark.

Tags: health, medical, child, kidney, transplant

Your Mood Can Impact Your Heart

Mon, 18 Feb 2008 20:26:16 GMT

clipped by: wiccantexan
clipper's remarks: "So, what can a person do to break this cycle?"

Clip Source: www.cbsnews.com

There's evidence of a link between how you feel emotionally and how healthy your heart is.

The moods in question, Marshall points out, are the ones that make us feel rotten, both emotionally and physically. For example, sudden bursts of anger or intense stress cause the brain to increase the production of cortisol and other "fight-or-flight" hormones. Cortisol can affect the lining of blood vessels over time, and make heart attack and stroke more likely. Long-term depression can also affect the heart in several ways. It can trigger the release of substances that can cause inflammation in blood vessels, which may be linked to heart disease. And the actual deficiency of serotonin (the "feel-good" hormone in our brains) that can trigger depression may also make our blood clot more easily, also promoting heart disease.

In addition, Marshall observes, moods can "absolutely" contribute to heart disease via an indirect route, by triggering behavior that can hurt our hearts.

Tags: health, medical, emotions, heart, disease

Medical Marijuana Takes a Hit

Tue, 29 Jan 2008 04:30:58 GMT

clipped by: wiccantexan

Clip Source: www.cbsnews.com

Employers can fire workers found to have used medical marijuana even if it was legally prescribed, the California Supreme Court ruled Thursday in another setback for California in its increasingly rancorous clash with federal law over medical pot use.

The high court upheld a Sacramento telecommunications company's firing of a man who flunked a company-ordered drug test. Gary Ross held a medical marijuana card authorizing him to legally use marijuana to treat a back injury sustained while serving in the Air Force.

The company, Ragingwire Inc., successfully argued it rightfully fired Ross because all marijuana use is illegal under federal law, which does not recognize the medical marijuana laws in California and 11 other states.

"No state law could completely legalize marijuana for medical purposes because the drug remains illegal under federal law," Justice Kathryn Werdegar wrote for the 5-2 majority.

Tags: medical, health, employment, legal, marijuana, federal