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Health News

Drugs, disease, healthcare, government and lifestyle: health news beyond the plate.

Disease

Diabetes Epidemic Expected to Double

Researchers project US diabetes cases will nearly double from 23.7 million to 44.1 million by 2034, with annual treatment costs almost tripling from $113 billion to $336 billion. The estimates assume obesity levels plateau and then decline.

Lifestyle

How You Can Normalize Your Blood Pressure Without Drugs

Dr. Mercola argues that high-grain, low-fat diets are the wrong combination for hypertension, and points to 1998 research in Diabetes reporting that nearly two-thirds of insulin-resistant subjects also had high blood pressure.

Dec 15, 2009

Miscellaneous

Overlooked 150 Year Old Household Cleaner a Remedy for Swine Flu?

Dr. Mercola reprints a 1924 Arm & Hammer booklet in which Dr. Volney Cheney reported that people thoroughly alkalinized with bicarbonate of soda rarely caught the 1918-19 flu, along with the company's 1925 dosing schedule for colds and influenza.

Dec 15, 2009

Drug

Some basics about radiation and cancer

A primer on radiation risk: ionizing radiation from X-rays and CT scans is a recognised carcinogen, damage accumulates over the years, and no dose is definitively safe, though exposure does not mean cancer will follow. One chest X-ray delivers 30 to 50 MREM, background about 300 a year.

Dec 14, 2009

Drug

CT scans cause cancer - studies

Two Archives of Internal Medicine studies estimate the cancer cost of CT radiation. One puts the risk at one in 270 women scanned by heart CT at age 40; the other models roughly 29,000 future cancers from scans done in 2007, about 14,000 from abdomen and pelvis scans.

Dec 14, 2009

Miscellaneous

The Sex Scandal No One Wants To Talk About

Martha Rosenberg writes that Andrew Crawford's conviction for 11 murders and nine rapes brings little relief to Chicago's New City and Englewood, where police charged several other men with killing women in the same blocks during the 1990s.

Dec 14, 2009

Drug

Chemo plus herceptin boost breast cancer survival

Mayo Clinic's Edith Perez reported the full results of the N9831 trial in about 2,000 women with HER2-positive breast cancer. Five-year disease-free survival reached 72 percent with chemotherapy alone and 80 percent when herceptin followed chemotherapy.

Dec 13, 2009

Drug

H1N1 vaccine available to all Illinoisans Dec 15

Illinois will open H1N1 vaccination to all residents from December 15, with retail pharmacies, local health departments and physicians offering it no later than December 21. Priority groups are urged to go first. Pharmacies may charge $12 to $22; health departments vaccinate the uninsured free.

Dec 13, 2009

Drug

New drug shrinks breast cancer

At the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium, researchers reported the antibody drug T-DM1 shrank tumors by 30 percent or more in 40 percent of women with HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer resistant to standard therapy, with median time to progression of 7.3 months and no survival comparison.

Dec 13, 2009

Drug

Combo treatment better for patients with HER2-positive breast cancer

In a phase III trial of 296 patients with metastatic HER2-positive breast cancer, average overall survival reached 60.7 weeks on lapatinib plus trastuzumab against 41.4 weeks on lapatinib alone. Neither regimen stopped the cancer spreading.

Dec 13, 2009

Miscellaneous

Hoosier lottery winning numbers for Saturday, Dec 12

Lists the Hoosier Lotto numbers drawn on 12 December 2009, with no winner of the $2.5 million jackpot, alongside other Indiana game results, instructions for playing and the odds for each prize tier.

Dec 13, 2009

Miscellaneous

Genius Invents Mind-blowing Technology Sure to Revolutionize the Way You Live

A posting of Pranav Mistry's demonstration of tools that let the physical world interact with data, including his SixthSense device and a paper laptop.

Dec 12, 2009

Miscellaneous

Could Tiger Woods carry an infidelity gene?

The writer speculates openly, stressing there is no report that Tiger Woods carries any such gene. He cites Hasse Walum's 2008 PNAS work: men with two copies of the vasopressin receptor variant known as the 334 allele were twice as likely to report marital problems including infidelity.

Dec 12, 2009

Miscellaneous

Tiger Woods infidelity

Tiger Woods apologized on his website on Dec. 11 for the hurt his infidelity caused his wife and children, and said he would take an indefinite break from professional golf. Sponsors have cut ties, and a New York Times columnist argued the apology did not go far enough.

Dec 12, 2009

Miscellaneous

WHO Denies Link Between Swine Flu Vaccine and Illnesses, Deaths

WHO's Marie-Paule Kieny said completed investigations ruled out the pandemic vaccine as the cause in 41 deaths under review, attributing two Chinese deaths to underlying conditions. Dr. Mercola counters with GlaxoSmithKline's Canadian recall of Arepanrix and U.S. side-effect reports.

Dec 12, 2009

Miscellaneous

What are some of the Bill of Rights amendments?

A civics explainer: ten amendments were added to the Constitution to guarantee freedoms including religion, assembly, speech, the press, the right to keep and bear arms, and protections for people accused of crimes. The original paper copy is held at the National Archives.

Dec 11, 2009

Miscellaneous

Chanukah, Hanukkah blessings and Hanukkah foods

A description of Chanukah, the eight-day Jewish festival marking the rededication of the Temple in Jerusalem, with the candle-lighting blessings given in Hebrew, transliteration and English translation.

Dec 11, 2009

Lifestyle

Casual sex does not cause emotional problems

University of Minnesota researchers surveyed 737 women and 574 men averaging 20.5 years old and found psychological well-being no different among those whose last sexual partner was casual and those in committed relationships. Men reported casual encounters twice as often as women.

Dec 11, 2009

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